Chapter I: Introduction

Who is this book for?

It takes roughly 3-4 years of time to get a bachelor’s degree in any technology field in Nepal.

In this academic period, a majority of students spend their free time learning technical hard skills (programming, designing, writing, editing, etc.) to prepare themselves for the real world in order to earn a good living. These students are backed by the idea of being the best in their respective fields and are on the path to becoming great employees.

However, there are a handful of students who spend their free time acquiring business skills alongside their technical education. These students are cross-dimensionally curious people who like to tinker with ideas they think are worth exploring.

Irrespective of which category of tech student you are or were, this book will serve as a guide for you and provide you insights to carry out your impulsive efforts of running a global tech service business from Nepal successfully.

But am I qualified enough to provide you with these insights?

Just like you, I too spent four years of my life pursuing a degree in technology (specifically, computer engineering) and worked on several tech-related projects as an employee/freelancer before starting my own tech company in my final year of college.

And this act of starting a company soon made me aware of the gaps in my execution method as a CEO.

Although my team developed a freelancing platform that connected Nepalese developers to international clients (similar to Upwork, Fiverr, etc.), I had a hard time marketing the platform internationally and getting foreign clients on board.

After that rocky start, I transitioned the product company into a service company focusing solely on selling data science consulting services. This transition was made with the hope of niching down on a single vertical to increase my chances of selling to high-value foreign clients.

This is also where I made it my personal mission to understand the strategies behind international sales.

The general advice on international sales works, but it isn’t fulfilling!

To learn the steps behind getting foreign clients for my business, I took the most direct route and met with the founders of leading tech service businesses and the directors of top business schools in Nepal. All I was looking for was a step-by-step roadmap to follow in order to get consistent results for my service business.

However, I still felt lost hearing the same advice from multiple people: get whatever client you can get, do a good job, ask for referrals, and grow the business one day at a time. 

I wanted to build a business that felt exciting and fulfilling to me. Praying and hoping for referrals wasn’t it.

Reflecting on these one-on-one conversations, although I couldn’t find anyone to paint me the entire picture, I was able to acquire snippets of insights from each new person I met. And when these snippets were further combined with my own sales education and experience, I was able to form a mental compass to lead my business in any direction I wanted.

Since forming my mental compass in sales, 

• I’ve sold my tech services to foreign clients as old as 60+ and to people as young as 20. 
• I’ve closed overseas deals at less than USD $1000/month and I’ve also closed overseas deals at greater than USD $10,000/month.
• I’ve served multiple small to large-sized enterprises in my relatively short yet accelerated entrepreneurship career. (Click this text to view my LinkedIn profile and get more details)
• I’ve worked with foreign clients in various domains spanning finance, asset management, real estate, trucking, health, etc.

Thus, after spending more than 10,000 hours immersing myself in international sales, I present you with this book as a definitive guide to making your first international sale.

For some readers, this book will serve as a gift of sight, and for others, it will serve as a gift of clear vision—all to fix your blurry eyesight when looking at international sales.

Over the upcoming chapters, you will gain not only the mindset but also the strategies and frameworks I followed to sell my tech services globally. More precisely, I will be addressing:

• How do you reach, connect and sell to foreign clients?
• How do you get not one but multiple foreign clients to work with you?
• How do you get high-value clients while working from your home/office in Nepal?

If you’re excited to see what unfolds in this book, I am excited for you.