Pricing, fully opened up

Every fee, what it buys, what it does not, and what the same job costs elsewhere.

The bands below are indicative and set from a costed media plan, not a rate card. Your quote comes out of the pricing basis we build with you in the first two weeks.

Build my quote Back to pricing overview

How we price

Six rules that decide every number

If a fee cannot be traced back to these, it is not our fee.

The fee is built from a media plan, not a rate card

Every number starts from the revenue target for the phase and works backwards: deals, opportunities, leads, clicks, impressions, then the cost of buying them. Add social and content, automation net of the hours it removes, and operator days. The fee is that cost plus a stated margin. You see the stack, not a day rate.

Retainer covers the work, success fee covers the result

The retainer funds the team and the plan. The success fee only pays out on money you have actually collected from opportunities registered before we started working them. No collection, no success fee.

Stage gates cap your exposure

Each phase ends at a gate with evidence attached. You can stop at any gate. Nobody has to commit to a twelve-month country plan to find out whether the first city works.

The success fee rate falls as revenue grows

Early phases carry a higher percentage on a small base. As the base grows the rate steps down, and caps are available. Our upside should come from volume, not from a rate that punishes success.

Media and tooling are passed through at cost

Paid media, licences and third-party data are billed at cost, with management stated separately. The portal shows planned versus spent on every line.

Everything is reported on the value it created

Quarterly value ledger: spend in, revenue collected out, attributed line by line. If the ledger does not defend the fee, the fee gets renegotiated.

Tier by tier

The four engagement tiers, in full

Fee shape, indicative band, success fee, inclusions, exclusions, and what you have to bring for the phase to work.

0→1

India Diagnostic

One fixed fee, one invoice, no success fee.

Fee band (INR): Rs 1.5L - 4L
Fee band (USD): $1,700 - $4,500
Success fee: None. A diagnostic that is paid on outcomes would not stay honest.
To start: 100% of the fee up front, credited in full against the next phase if you continue.

Why this tier exists

Most India failures are decided before anyone sells anything: wrong buyer, wrong price metric, wrong procurement path. Four to six weeks of paid research is cheaper than a year of a local hire discovering it for you.

How the work runs

Category and demand research on named accounts, not market-size slides
Fifteen to twenty-five live buyer and channel conversations
Price metric, landed cost and procurement path tested against real quotes
Compliance and certification triage for your product class
A costed 0 to 1 plan with the gate you would have to clear

Included

Written India thesis with a go / no-go recommendation
Named target account list with buying-centre map
Price and packaging options for India, with the metric that survives procurement
Compliance, certification and duty triage
Board-ready readout session

Not included

Selling, outbound or lead generation
Paid media (a small awareness test can be added)
Entity setup, tax registration and statutory filing
Legal opinion or certification filings themselves

You provide

Product and pricing documentation
Access to two or three global reference customers
One decision-maker for a weekly 45-minute review

How you know it worked

A decision made in weeks, at roughly 2-5% of a Big Four or MBB India entry study
Fee credited against the next phase, so the research is not sunk cost

0→1

First Revenue

Fixed phase fee plus a modest success fee on collected revenue.

Fee band (INR): Rs 12L - 30L per phase
Fee band (USD): $14,000 - $34,000 per phase
Success fee: 6-10% of attributable collected revenue from registered opportunities, for 12 months from first invoice.
To start: 25% of the phase fee, invoiced against the first month of work.

Why this tier exists

First revenue is an execution problem, not a strategy problem. Someone has to run outbound, sit in the procurement meeting and get the invoice paid. You are buying that motion for a quarter instead of hiring a country manager on a two-year bet.

How the work runs

One narrow beachhead: one segment, one or two cities, one offer
Outbound, referral and design-partner motion run by our operators
Localised offer, proof assets and objection handling built as we sell
Procurement, invoicing and collection path unblocked deal by deal
Every opportunity registered before work starts, so attribution is not argued later

Included

Named-account outbound across email, LinkedIn and phone
Paid capture media managed inside the phase budget
Localised collateral, pricing sheet and proof pack
CRM, sequencing and enrichment stack set up and run
Weekly pipeline review with published metrics
Evidence pack for the 1 to 2 gate

Not included

Entity incorporation, payroll and statutory compliance
Warehousing, logistics and import clearance
Product localisation engineering
Legal drafting and IP registration
Media budget beyond the agreed phase plan

You provide

A named executive sponsor who can approve pricing inside a week
Technical or application support for demos
A signable India price list and contract template

How you know it worked

First attributable collected revenue, reported against the registered opportunity list
Cost per qualified opportunity and CAC published every month
A phase fee comparable to two to four months of one outsourced SDR seat in the US, with an India operating team behind it

1→2

Repeatability Engine

Monthly retainer plus success fee, rolling six-month phases.

Fee band (INR): Rs 6L - 12L per month
Fee band (USD): $7,000 - $14,000 per month
Success fee: 4-6% of collected revenue, or 8-12% of contribution margin for physical products.
To start: One month of retainer, held against the final month.

Why this tier exists

First wins usually come from founder heroics and one lucky channel. Repeatability means a defined stage model, a win rate you can forecast on, and partners who sell without being carried. That takes an operating cadence, not another strategy deck.

How the work runs

Stage definitions, exit criteria and instrumentation across the funnel
Two or three region rollout with a scored partner shortlist
Pricing and discount discipline enforced deal by deal
Service, support and renewal motion designed and staffed
Automation carrying the cadence so headcount does not scale linearly

Included

Full-funnel demand programme: capture, awareness and content
Partner recruitment, tiering and enablement
Sales operating cadence with a published weekly metric set
Automation build: CRM, routing, sequencing, reporting, agent workflows
Quarterly value ledger tying spend to collected revenue
Client portal with live media plan and spend tracking

Not included

Permanent employment of the India team on your payroll
Statutory audit, tax and secretarial work
Trade show stand construction and travel costs
Third-party data and tool licences held in your name

You provide

Forecast commitment and a global sales leader in the cadence
Product roadmap visibility one to two quarters out
Approved discount floor and partner margin policy

How you know it worked

Pipeline coverage, win rate, cycle time and contribution margin, published monthly
Partner-sourced share of pipeline moving toward the target mix
Retainer band sits below a loaded India sales leader plus demand team, with no severance risk

2→x

Pan-India Scale Partner

Premium retainer plus a lower-percentage success fee, twelve months or more.

Fee band (INR): Rs 15L - 35L per month
Fee band (USD): $17,000 - $40,000 per month
Success fee: 2-4% of collected revenue, stepping down as the base grows. Caps available.
To start: One month of retainer, plus the first quarter's media plan committed in advance.

Why this tier exists

Past the 1 to 2 gate the question is no longer whether India works. It is how fast you can add regions, channels and people without losing unit economics. You are buying a country operating unit with a P&L, and an exit path to owning it.

How the work runs

Multi-region rollout with local coverage models per tier
Partner network build, tiering, margin design and enablement
Category building: demand programmes, analyst and media presence
Forecast governance, pipeline hygiene and quarterly business reviews
A documented handover plan for when you take the team in-house

Included

India GM level ownership plus the operating bench
Pan-India demand and category programme including tier 2 and tier 3
Government and PSU pursuit support where relevant
Country P&L reporting and forecast governance
Quarterly attribution, value ledger and fee review
Transition plan and hiring support for your own India entity

Not included

Statutory entity, payroll and compliance operation
Capital expenditure, inventory and working capital
Distributor credit risk and receivables financing
Manufacturing or localisation capex

You provide

Board mandate and a multi-year India budget
Global exec sponsor in the quarterly review
Committed supply, lead times and support SLAs for India

How you know it worked

Country P&L visibility with contribution margin by region and channel
Success fee percentage falling as revenue grows, so our upside comes from volume not rate
Named India leadership in place, or hired into your entity, by the end of the term

Add-ons

Priced separately, only when you need them

Nothing here is bundled into a retainer to inflate it. Each one is quoted on its own and shows up as its own line in the portal.

Add-on	Indicative price	What it covers	When to take it
Compliance and certification runway	Rs 2L - 8L, fixed	BIS, EMC / safety, telecom or sector-specific certification mapped, applications filed with a partner lab and tracked to grant.	Hardware, medical, telecom and industrial products that cannot invoice without a mark.
Entity, tax and payroll setup	Rs 3L - 9L, fixed, via partner firms	Company or branch incorporation, GST and PAN registration, payroll and statutory filing set up in your name.	Once revenue justifies invoicing locally instead of exporting.
Awareness and category burst	Media at cost plus 12% management	A time-boxed awareness programme: video, display, trade media and events, planned inside your media plan and tracked in the portal.	You are creating a category rather than capturing existing search demand.
Automation and AI build	Rs 3L - 12L build, plus tooling at cost	CRM, routing, enrichment, sequencing and agent workflows built for your motion, with the manual hours removed stated up front.	You want the cadence to hold without adding headcount for every increment.
Distributor and channel search	Rs 4L - 10L per region	Longlist, scoring, reference checks, commercial term design and signed agreement for tiered partners.	Physical products and any motion where coverage beats direct selling.
Embedded operator (dedicated)	Rs 3.5L - 6L per month per person	A named full-time operator working only on your account: AE, application engineer or channel manager.	The motion is proven and the constraint is capacity, not design.
Tender and PSU desk	Rs 1.5L per month plus 1% of awarded value	GeM and tender monitoring, bid preparation, documentation and compliance handling.	Government and public sector buying is a real part of your addressable market.
Value ledger audit	Rs 1L per quarter	An independent reconciliation of attributed revenue against invoices collected, signed off by both sides.	Success fees are material and finance wants a clean audit trail.

Market benchmarks

What the same job costs in other markets

Public list prices and published cost studies from comparable firms, so you can place our fee rather than take it on trust.

Big Four / MBB market entry study

Global firms selling into India entry

$100,000 - $200,000 per study

Three to six months, analytical depth, no execution and no revenue accountability.

Source: Tensor Advisory, boutique vs MBB comparison

Fixed-fee entry boutique

Europe and US advisory firms

$15,000 starter report to $75,000 scale engagement

Fixed fee, scoped up front, report and plan led. Execution is usually out of scope.

Source: Foremark Global published pricing

Do-it-yourself India entry, year one

European SMEs

EUR 80,000 - 700,000 in year one

Entity setup EUR 15-25k, office EUR 12-36k a year, local team EUR 60-120k a year, before any demand spend.

Source: Tensor Advisory India entry cost breakdown

Outsourced SDR / pipeline seat

US and nearshore providers

$3,000 - $15,000 per month per seat

Onshore loaded cost runs $80k-120k a year per rep; nearshore $29k-46k. Buys outreach, not market creation.

Source: Published 2026 SDR outsourcing cost guides

Channel and reseller economics

Global SaaS channel programmes

10-15% of first-year ARR referral, 20-30% reseller

Plus 5-8% renewal share. Sets the ceiling for what any revenue-linked fee can reasonably be.

Source: SaaS reseller commission structures, 2026

Asia entry as a service

Japan, China, Southeast Asia specialists

Retainer plus commission on booked sales

Commonly a monthly retainer with a distributor-style commission, so the provider carries little revenue risk.

Source: Business Bridge Asia entry pricing guide

Read together: a study from a global firm costs more than our entire 0 to 1 phase and carries no revenue accountability, while a do-it-yourself India entry commits six figures before anyone knows whether the first city buys. Channel economics of 10 to 30 percent of revenue set the ceiling for any revenue-linked fee, which is why our success fee sits well under it and steps down as the base grows.

Want your own number instead of a band?

Tell us the product, the segment and the revenue you want in India. We come back with the costed plan behind the fee: funnel targets, media, social, automation and operator days, and the gate that ends the phase.

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