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The first 180 days of selling automation in North America

For manufacturers from Asia-Pacific and Europe: what to build, who to hire, and which early mistakes cost you a year.

Jovan Bjelobrk
October 2026 · 7 min read

The product is rarely the problem. I’ve watched manufacturers arrive with equipment that’s genuinely better than what US buyers have, and still spend two years without a meaningful order. The gap is almost never engineering. It’s everything around the engineering that an American buyer quietly expects before they’ll take the risk.

Here’s how I’d spend the first six months if you hired me tomorrow.

Month one: decide who you’re selling to

“North America” isn’t a market. It’s a dozen of them. A goods-to-person system that wins in e-commerce fulfillment will run into a completely different buying process at a pharmaceutical distributor or a tier-1 automotive supplier. Pick two verticals where your references at home are strongest and your product’s advantage is easy to explain. Say no to the rest for now, even when an interesting lead shows up.

Then decide how you’ll sell. Direct sales give you control and margin, but every deal needs your engineers. Integrators give you reach, but they’ll only put your product in a bid once they trust you’ll stand behind it. Most manufacturers need both, in sequence: a few direct projects to prove the product here, then a channel to scale it.

Months two and three: earn an integrator’s trust

A US integrator puts its own reputation on the line when it bids your equipment. Before that happens, they’ll want to know a few things. Who answers the phone at 2 a.m. when your controller faults? Where are the spare parts, and how fast can they get to Ohio? What does your warranty actually cover, and who pays for the technician’s flight? Can their controls team get documentation in English that’s good enough to integrate against?

If you can’t answer those clearly, no partner agreement or margin structure will fix it. Answer them first. Then recruit three or four integrators, not twenty. Pick firms that already serve your target verticals, give them real training and a demo they can bring customers to, and support their first bid like it’s your own deal. Because it is.

Months three and four: get ready for the questions buyers ask late

US deals tend to stall in the final weeks over things nobody raised at the start. Electrical and safety standards for panels and machinery. Seismic design, engineering stamps and building permits for rack-supported structures. Fire protection inside dense storage. Insurance, including product liability coverage and certificates naming the customer.

And now there are two more. Tariffs on imported steel and equipment have made landed cost a moving target, so buyers want to know who carries that risk. And since July 2026, foreign-produced mobile robots face the FCC’s Covered List rules, which I covered in a separate piece. If your product moves on its own, have a clear, written answer about its authorization status before a buyer’s lawyer asks.

None of this is exotic. But each one can add sixty days to a deal if it’s discovered late, and a buyer who’s nervous about a new supplier will use the delay to go back to someone familiar.

Months four and five: land the right first customer

Your first US reference is worth more than its revenue. Choose it for what it’ll prove. It should be in one of your target verticals, close enough to an airport that prospects can visit, and run by people who’ll take a reference call. A project that’s slightly smaller but showable beats a bigger one behind a nondisclosure agreement and a guard shack.

Price it to win, but don’t give it away. Buyers talk, and the first price becomes the anchor. It’s usually better to add scope, like extra commissioning support or an extended warranty, than to cut the number.

Month six: build the machine that keeps it going

By now you need the boring things that make growth repeatable. A CRM that people actually use. A monthly pipeline review where forecasts get challenged. Clear roles for the US team, and a plan for who to hire next as revenue justifies it. Marketing that speaks the buyer’s language, with case studies, application notes and a website that answers real questions instead of repeating the brochure.

This is where a lot of manufacturers try to hire a full-time US country manager. Sometimes that’s right. But a senior hire without a working playbook often spends a year building one at full cost. A fractional commercial leader who’s done it before can build the playbook first, then hand it to the right full-time hire. That’s the model I use for market entry work.

The mistake I see most

Treating the US like a bigger version of home. The product travels fine. The assumptions don’t. Buyers here expect local service, clear accountability and contracts that say exactly what happens when something goes wrong. Give them that, and a good product from anywhere can win.