From Local to Global: Building Sales Leads for International Expansion

Business is going well in your start-up country and you’re considering expanding abroad, which can be a logical and lucrative next step. You’ve done extensive market research and created a robust business model that can be adapted to an international customer base, but that’s just the start.  

In foreign markets, the cost of failure can be bigger than in home territories, so before you commit funds and resources, you need to gauge demand and have an effective system in place to generate those all-important business leads and convert them into paying customers. 

In this blog, we’ll be taking a look at some of the approaches businesses often take to lead generation when expanding overseas. Discussing the potential challenges that come with expansion overseas, we’ll also offer up actionable advice on how best to prepare your business for new markets abroad and build rapport with potential customers in a territory where you have no existing brand presence or leads.  

How to approach lead generation in new territories

Once you’ve established that your product or service is transferrable to different markets, the next stage is to consider how you’re going to generate new business and start conversations with your ideal customers in your new territory.  

There are different ways to approach sales generation in a foreign market, with varying levels of risk tolerance:

Option 1: “Wing it”

Expanding your operations to other countries requires a great deal of planning and research, but the “build it and they will come” approach is more common than you think.  

Businesses flush with success in their home market often make rash decisions, assuming their offering and business model will resonate around the globe with very little preparation or hard evidence to back this up.  

However, the reality is that to establish a healthy sales pipeline, you can’t just wing it, guessing supply and demand. That’s not to say there aren´t businesses that have been lucky and had success abroad with very little pre-planning. But the large majority will face issues and find themselves footing a large bill in the process. 

Taking the time to plan a clear strategy for lead generation and lead qualification just makes sense. Also, you’ll need to establish a process for lead nurturing to ensure potential prospects stay warm while you’re establishing a solid delivery capability in the new territory. This will help you to go into an unfamiliar marketplace in a much better position to seize those opportunities.

Option 2: Employ locally

For many businesses, a logical step is to source a team of lead generation specialists in their target market who know the local language and culture. On paper this makes sense and is definitely preferable to the “wing it” option, but it can still lead to problems.  

First and foremost, how and where do you source the specialists you need overseas? Without in-depth knowledge of the culture, language, customs and recruitment process, you’ll find it challenging. 

In addition, recruiting a trustworthy team abroad can take lots of time and resources to establish, as you’ll need to conduct interviews and training. You may also need to factor in finding in-country workspaces, benefit programmes and more, which come with additional fiscal and legal implications, making the expansion more complex. You also need to contend with the employment legislation that applies.

Option 3: Outsource to a global specialist

The other approach is to outsource to a third party who have a global presence in your target locations.  

Working with a strategic partner with a global reach will remove the cultural and language barriers, while still giving you access to local talent.  

For example, at TCB, we’re a UK business with a team of business developers based all over the world, speaking the local languages and working in the local time zones. We cover 20 languages, and work across all continents so we can engage potential customers and start to build relationships for you. This gives you the best of both worlds: you can speak to us in English and we’ll translate your offering and create a strategy based on your target territory, then we leave native speakers to actually run the campaigns.  

Overcoming cultural and language limitations isn’t the only perk for outsourcing to multilingual lead qualification specialists. Outsourcing your lead management in new markets can be more cost effective as it offers greater resource flexibility to scale your support up and down to suit your needs and budget.

Why work with TCB?

To give your overseas expansion the best chance of success, it makes sense to work with experts who have the right skills, languages and local knowledge to maximise lead engagement and conversions.  

Remember, different cultures offer different buying signals – so what in one language may seem like a definite “yes” may, in reality, be a polite “no” in another tongue. Native speakers will naturally overcome these problems, and if briefed and managed correctly by international lead qualification specialists, they will represent your business in the best way, generating viable business leads and laying a solid foundation for your overseas business. 

At TCB, our global team doesn’t just speak over 20 languages, they also have decades of experience in global lead management and business development, making sure they optimise every opportunity to deliver a return on investment for our clients.  

To take your business to the next level through successful global expansion, get in touch with TCB today.

Andi Catt