3 Key Factors to Consider When Building an International Sales Team

Ready to start selling abroad? Here’s what you’ll need for your team.

You already know what to look for when hiring talent that meets your domestic sales needs. But if you’re expanding your sales team to reach global markets, there are other factors you need to consider, based on both your short- and long-term business goals.

Each industry, company and market has its own unique needs—too many to account for in a short blog post. However, you can still benefit from these three general tips based on my own experience building international sales teams:

#1: Support Target Markets Step-by-Step

It’s unnecessary—and ineffectual—to support every market at once. Start out with markets and languages that you can already easily support, and initially stick to markets that do business in the language of your flagship market.

In our case, we began with European markets that mostly conduct business in English, like the Nordic countries, the Netherlands and the UK. As we built up structure and traction, we’ve expanded and hired to support new markets in new languages.

The key to smooth international expansion is to avoid biting off more than you can chew. Make sure you have everything in place to support the full sales cycle, from sales to post-sales, including implementation, project management and customer success.

#2: Hire for the Present—and the Future

The best practice we follow is to hire salespeople fluent in English, as well as native proficiency in one or two additional languages. English is still the lingua franca of business in many countries, but for the best results, it’s ideal to speak with prospects in their native languages. It’s also important that international hires have experience living and doing business in our target markets. Fluency in cultural nuances and business practices is just as important as linguistic fluency.

We've found that prospects in various EU countries are accustomed to a very different style of selling than we were used to in the UK. An understanding of—and willingness to abide by—these differences has been met with warmer receptions and more fruitful engagement.

Hire talent that represents the markets you aim to serve now, and plan to serve in the future. Many companies are international now; it’s not unusual to target, for example, a prospect in the UK, and find out later that you need to engage a French- or German-speaking decision-maker who will appreciate doing business in their language. You never know when someone’s skills will come in handy.

#3: Location, Location, Location

For companies deciding the location of their international HQ, here are some things to consider:

Ease and efficiency of travel: Are there direct flights to and from your primary HQ city?

Cost of business and cost of living: What will it cost to rent or purchase office space? What will it cost employees to live nearby?

Access to local talent: Are there universities or other institutions that could be pools of future talent?

Attractiveness: Is it a pleasant place to work and live, and does it have global appeal to attract international talent?

The Takeaway

When you’re building an international sales team, you will likely find many similarities to your domestic hiring process, but you need to be prepared to handle the complexities. Take it slow, plan carefully and hire for present and future business goals.

Jake Rothstein is the Director of Global Sales Development at MotionPoint, a U.S.-based technology firm that helps large enterprises launch, operate and optimize their multilingual websites to serve their global customers.