Are you ready to expand your tech business? International expansion is all about getting you to European markets fast. B2B lead generation is your essential first step. We have already looked closely at why it may be better to outsource lead generation for your B2B tech business. Making that decision will save you on time-to-market as well as curbing or paring down your expenses.
Saving the pain of hiring in-house is also one of the biggest reasons to opt for the outsourcing route, especially if that route is expansion in Europe. A lack of the right resources — trained staff, budget and of course, time — will always be your biggest stumbling block to B2B lead generation in Europe.
Additionally, there will always be other challenges setting up your B2B lead generation in Europe, including the very first step of finding your target audience, connecting and communicating with them, and sourcing a predictable — and repeatable — number of sales qualified leads (SQLs) through your customer engagement strategy. Remember that the needs of your target audience are always liable to change and develop, so consistently — and constantly — measure your results in order to keep up with those changes. Because if you don’t measure it you can never improve it.
Bearing all of these challenges in mind, let’s now take a look at how to outsource B2B lead generation in Europe.
If you cannot find the best people to overcome all of the above mentioned challenges when setting up your B2B lead generation in Europe, then you’re never going to succeed and generate those all-important leads. Get out there and see who has their finger on the pulse of B2B lead generation in the country where you want to make waves. Find the right partner. Talk to people. See who they recommend. Use your first connections on LinkedIn and ask other successful B2B tech companies who they would be likely to partner up with. Make sure the outsourced sales agencies that you consider have all of the relevant experience and can easily overcome all of the challenges. It sounds simple, but they must have European experience, and they must be proficient in your particular tech niche.
Unless you are already a well-established international brand, you will need the assistance of an outsourced sales agency to create a multi-channel lead generation strategy that is translated for the local audience, in the local language, communicating for the local culture.
Once you have whittled down a selection (and there are many sales outsourcing companies of course, good and bad, suitable and not) then take a look at their satisfied customers. If they are not successful in their own niche of outsourcing then how do they bring success to your table? There’s nothing like a real experience referral to give you the best indication of what yours is likely to be.
"Following a successful Series D funding round, we engaged Sales Force Europe to support our aggressive European growth plans by providing local language lead generation into 14 new markets. They were able to quickly provide native French, German, English and Spanish speakers to support us. Onboarding was fast and their team was almost immediately seen internally as just another department. One of the key benefits for us has been the direct access to their BDRs as well as the input strategically from the account manager allocated to us — I believe this has helped us significantly over-achieve our European lead gen targets with SFE. We are looking forward to a long-term partnership as we continue to grow across Europe," said Theresa Woodiel, director of account-based and integrated marketing at Deep Instinct.
Business has been going well for you, but probably up to this moment in time, in just one country and in one language. Expansion into Europe is quite different, and you will need to consider how lead generation services for the European market are different to the rest of the world.
Europe is shared by fifty different countries all with their own language, laws and culture. That’s a lot to navigate, so one of the first things you will tackle is finding an outsourcing sales agency that can handle all of that seamlessly for you.
Initially, you may head to the UK, where you won’t have to take the language difference into consideration, but of course that’s also a saturated market with plenty of competition. Or that might be your first move and seem easy, so you’re filled with confidence to head further into Europe.
Selling successfully to your new market depends largely on your ability to give them what they want, but, most importantly in their own language and in their own way of doing business, to cover:
You might decide to choose from:
But to really know how to outsource B2B lead generation in Europe, you must ensure that not only are you communicating in the right language, but that you message has the right tone and that you respect the nuances of those countries, as advised by our CEO Rick Pizzoli on the Predictable Revenue Podcast with Collin Stewart.
Local laws need serious consideration too, so ensure that when outsourcing B2B lead generation in Europe, that you are compliant and kept that way for as long as you partner up. GDPR, for example, can be difficult to negotiate, easy to slip up on, and the fines can be devastating to an expanding business’s tight budget. Overcome the complications and difficulties of opening abroad by allowing your outsourcing partner to handle the legal jargon, the labor laws and the headaches. For example, according to our international partner Globalization Partners, Germany requires €24,000 of capital to open a branch and companies often have to wait months to start operating. You likely don’t have time for that.
Culturally, it’s about more than just speaking another language, although, our France country manager Yves de Beauregard makes some valid points on just how important that is too: “Language is one difference including accents. For instance, a foreign accent or awkward expressions reveal a foreign contact center call and most people would hang up. Likewise with background noises and upfront silence.”
An experienced outsourced sales agency will, of course, provide you with lead generation trained staff who will be flawless, well-trained professionals.
Armed with the right outsourced B2B lead generation team – and perhaps also outsource SDR, inside sales and field sales agents, and you will roll out your brand and product or service with local, knowledgeable professionals. Outsource SDR to complement your high-performing lead generation and marketing, and you will have a specialized team that will accelerate growth, generating quality pipeline leads and ultimately revenue. And local teams should lead the way, using their experience and contacts to further your business in new territory.
Outsourcing B2B lead generation in Europe works but shouldn’t stop at the content marketeers. Also consider whether you should outsource SDR — specialized inside sales and sales development to round off your whole process — bringing your business success from qualified leads to signed deals. Outsource SDR and you will have people who already sell SaaS all day long and are proven great at what they do.
They will nurture your leads along the journey — an important step as not all generated leads have an immediate buying intention, a characteristic of the beast that is B2B. Some of these journeys can be quite complex and convoluted as shown by research from Gartner where 77% of buyers state that their journey was hard.
Consider the number of decision-makers that must be considered when buying a complex B2B solution and the dynamics of pulling it all together — particularly when the competition is waiting to put a foot in the door. Close attention must be paid to each decision-maker and every step. Hands must be held to see results and navigate your buyer through to the closed deal and beyond.
By choosing to, and learning how to outsource B2B lead generation in Europe, you will leverage local and experienced people (outsource SDR, B2B lead generation and marketing, sales agents and inside sales) that are a good cultural fit for your business, for you, for your brand and for your European expansion.
