A field guide. Not a course. Not a cohort.
The US market isn’t a bigger version of home. It’s a different sport.
International founders underestimate the culture, not the size. They wait for the sale to emerge from the relationship. American buyers know they’re being sold to. They expect you to ask. If you don’t, they assume you’re not serious.
Sales in America is the playbook for the founder or first sales lead who needs a system before they spend the next dollar on US sales.
PDF, ~140 pages. No sales call to buy. 7-day “not your market” refund.
It’s not a deal until the money is in the bank.
Opportunity is taken, not given.
The author (no name)
The person who wrote this built US sales inside early-stage, venture-backed startups — including companies that exited for nine figures. Hired the first reps. Sat in the room when the number had to be real.
Unnamed on purpose. No headshot. No LinkedIn. The playbook is the product.
Who this is for
You built something real in Berlin, São Paulo, Lagos, Seoul, Tel Aviv — somewhere that isn’t here. You have paying customers at home. You’re looking at America and you can feel the gap between “they liked the meeting” and cash in the bank.
You’re either:
- the founder still doing every US call, or
- the first sales lead hired into that motion.
You need the motion written down: how Americans buy, how to build the first pipeline, how to hire the first US salesperson, which metrics actually matter, and which mistakes kill companies.
Who this is not for
- No paying customers in your home market. The problems follow you across the Atlantic. They get more expensive. Read that again, then come back.
- You want a guru, a pep talk, or a Zoom that sells you a $10k cohort. There is no cohort. There is a book.
- You want someone else to run sales for you. This is a field guide you run.
The problem, named
A founder comes out of a meeting and says, “It went great. They really liked the product.”
Did you ask for the next step? Did you propose a timeline? Did you ask them to buy?
In a lot of markets, the sale is never quite named. It emerges from the relationship. That does not work here.
Then you hire the wrong first US rep — junior, hungry, cheap — and manage them from six time zones away with a process that still lives in your head. Then you call a nod a deal. Then runway burns.
The ones who make it treat America as a new skill, not a new zip code.
What’s inside
Thirteen chapters. ~140 pages, 6×9. Field guide, not a textbook. Roughly 70 percent stories, 20 percent data, 10 percent frameworks. Written the way you’d get talked to across a conference table.
No author résumé. The work is in the chapters.
Part I — Understanding the US Sales Landscape
1. The American Sales Culture
Why selling here is unlike anywhere else. The tenacity gap. Conviction vs. hedging. East Coast / Midwest / South. The first lesson: it’s not a deal until the money is in the bank.
2. The US Buyer’s Mindset
The soft yes. “Show me you know me.” Self-preservation. Sniffing out fakers. What buyers actually rank: time-to-value, risk, competitive advantage, individual impact, simplicity.
3. Market Entry Strategy
“Tell me about your company.” Home-market litmus test. Beachhead. Geography without overthinking it. Go direct, not channel. The pricing trap. Boots on the ground.
Part II — Building the US Sales Motion
4. Assembling Your Sales Team
The first US hire cannot be junior. Two mistakes that keep repeating. Comp that shocks international founders. Remote vs. on-ground. Do the job yourself first.
5. The US Sales Process
Discovery as research, not a stretched elevator pitch. Demo as minimum effective dose. POC. Qualification. From founder-led chaos to a motion someone else can run.
6. Prospecting and Outreach
Single-channel cold email is dying. Multi-channel. Three levels of personalization. Strategic cold calling. Referrals. The 90-day pipeline playbook from zero.
7. Closing Deals in America
Committees. The champion test. Legal and procurement. Discounting. Soft yes vs. real commitment. Pipeline while legal runs. It’s a process you manage, not a moment you force.
Part III — Scaling Your US Operation
8. Sales Tools & Technology
A spreadsheet will carry you until it almost breaks you. Process before stack. Data diet. What you need on day one vs. the graveyard of tools you pay for and ignore. Tools don’t close deals. People do.
9. Managing Your US Sales Team
Monday kickoff. Friday debrief. Inspect what you expect. Cut at 90 days. Coach like you mean it. Distance doesn’t get a pass.
10. Revenue Operations & Metrics
Pipeline math run backwards from ARR. The metrics that actually matter. Forecast discipline. When to hire RevOps. If most of the team is missing quota, the quota is usually the lie.
Part IV — The Final Stretch
11. Common Pitfalls & Mistakes
Transplanting the home-market team. Feature-dumping. Keeping the wrong hire. Underpricing. Timing. Doing everything at once. The tenacity gap, again. You’ve been warned. Go avoid them.
12. The Path Forward
Monday morning: the first five things. The twelve-month movie — One-Man Band → Founder + Shadow → Founder Steps Back → CEO, not closer. Good-enough at $500K, $1M, $2M.
13. Your Diagnostic & Action Plan
Five pillars. Red, yellow, green. The questions actually asked when a founder sits down. A heatmap: fix these three things in the next 90 days or the ARR target is at risk.
Start here: the free diagnostic
Before you buy anything, score yourself.
Five pillars, from Chapter 13:
- Sales Leadership & Strategy — Who owns revenue? Is there a living US go-to-market plan, or is it a slide deck from the last pitch?
- Process & Pipeline — Can you walk the last closed-won from first touch to cash, and could a new rep run that sequence tomorrow without you?
- Team & Resources — If you hired an AE or SDR today, what’s on the table on day one — playbook, objection library, recorded calls — or is the package still you?
- Tech & Tools — Is the CRM the source of truth, or is half the pipeline in email, spreadsheets, and heads?
- Market & Customer Understanding — Can you run the backwards pipeline math for the next ARR milestone, and are those activities actually happening?
Green: documented, backed by data, you could show an investor tomorrow.
Yellow: something, but incomplete, outdated, or inconsistent.
Red: blank, vague, “it’s in my head,” or “we haven’t done that yet.”
Three or more red or yellow: double down on sales leadership before you burn more runway. Ignore them and you just hire faster into the same broken motion.
The long form of the diagnostic is Chapter 13. The rest of the motion is the book.
The book
$97PDF playbook. Thirteen chapters. You run it.
No sales call required to buy. No cohort. No application.
What you get
- Sales in America (PDF, ~140 pages, 6×9)
- The five-pillar diagnostic (free; also in Chapter 13)
- A pipeline math model, a hiring sequence, and a twelve-month roadmap from “interesting product from overseas” to a US revenue operation that doesn’t need the founder in every room
What you do not get
- Coaching
- A live cohort (parked)
- Someone to close your deals
Launch gift — first 50 buyers
The first 50 people who buy the book get 15 minutes with the author.
That’s a launch gift. It is not the product. The product is the $97 playbook. After 50, the gift closes and the FAQ is the support. Price stays $97 either way.
The author is unnamed. You get the time, not a brand.
How it works when this is live: buy the book → you get a scheduling link while slots remain → 15 minutes, one call, no pitch for a $10k program. If you want coaching, this is the wrong page.
Guarantee — 7 days, “not your market”
Read it. If you finish (or get far enough to know) and America is not the move for you right now, email within 7 days of purchase and you get the $97 back.
This is not “if you don’t hit quota.” This is not a coaching guarantee. This is: the book told you you weren’t ready, or this isn’t your market, and you shouldn’t be stuck with it.
No drama. Not your market → refund.
FAQ
Who wrote this?
Someone who has been the sales and GTM lead inside multiple early-stage, venture-backed US companies that exited for nine figures, and who has sat with more than thirty-six international companies trying to crack this market. Unnamed on this page and on the cover on purpose. No headshot. The playbook is the product.
Is this coaching?
No. $97 PDF. You run the system.
Is there a live cohort / mastermind / Slack?
No. Parked. If that ever exists, it will be a different product at a different price. This page does not sell it.
What’s the 15-minute call?
A launch gift for the first 50 book buyers. After 50, it goes away. The call is not required to use the book. Do not buy this for the call.
Can I just buy the book?
Yes. That’s the point.
I have no customers at home. Should I buy?
No. If you don’t have customers at home, you are not going to do much better in America. Full stop. Take the diagnostic, read the home-market test in Chapter 3 when you have customers, then come back.
Is this legal, tax, or immigration advice?
No. Field guide from the work. If you need those, hire someone licensed. If you need to sell in America, read the book.
Do you take a cut of my pipeline / want equity / need a discovery call to buy?
No.
Refund?
7 days. Not your market → $97 back. See above.
Will you run ads at me?
Not first. Soft launch to a network. Ads only after sales, under a hard spend ceiling, and only if someone taps yes. This page is copy, not a campaign.
Close
Close this page. Open the diagnostic. Score the five pillars honestly.
If three or more come back red or yellow, don’t hire into the leak. Get the playbook. Run the math. Book the first awkward US discovery call.
It’s not a deal until the money is in the bank.
Go take that shit.