Expanding into the European market is a pivotal moment for tech companies, heralding both great opportunities and challenges. Among these challenges, one crucial decision lies at the heart of successful market penetration: lead generation. Should you outsource lead generation or build an internal sales team? Both avenues offer distinct advantages and drawbacks, each carrying its own implications for tech companies eyeing European expansion. In this guide, we’ll review pros and cons of internal vs outsourced lead generation across six themes: scaling, guidance, new markets, new territories, growing sales pipelines and recruitment.
Outsourcing lead generation facilitates effective scaling by tapping into the expertise and resources of specialized firms who are talking to and qualifying local tech leads every day. When you have the flexibility to choose a lead generation partner, it can be highly beneficial as a way to test out new markets, and as a way to gather feedback and validate localized messaging. As you grow, your lead generation needs will likely change too, and you might look to target different verticals in that foreign market. But with this growth, external providers can swiftly adapt their strategies to accommodate new localized messaging, increasing sales volumes and evolving market dynamics. And if something isn’t working in a local market, a single contract with outsourcing partners makes you more agile in shifting targets. An outsourced sales partner can help you get your sales reps in front of qualified leads faster — in a matter of weeks versus months with more traditional approaches.
On the other hand, building an internal sales team may give you a greater sense of direct control and oversight. With proper infrastructure and support, internal teams can grow in tandem with your existing business, implying seamless scalability. However, it takes significantly longer to establish a business entity, a bank account and a local office in a new country. Add to this, recruitment of an experienced BDR can take months and then you are beholden to stricter E.U. employment contracts. On top of that, you need a local sales manager or European business development director to manage and coach your in-country BDR team — which you may not have the time, budget or local network to recruit. This time may redirect focus away from other critical business operations and result in supplementary expenses. All the white your competition beats you to that market.
Partnering with specialized lead generation and sales outsourcing firms provides access to expert guidance and insights into European markets. These firms are adept at navigating local nuances, cultural intricacies, and regulatory landscapes, enabling swift market entry and rapid lead generation. They’ll also be able to provide you with unbiased feedback, so you’ll know what’s working for you, and what’s not, in each new market. For example, some more Southern European countries are looking to cut costs, while Northern ones typically are looking at efficiency as a tech buying motivation — local sales teams know better how to approach local markets. When looking to expand into Europe, you have the added requirement to have local BDRs talking to leads in their native language — you can’t call into most countries presuming people want to talk about their wants and needs in English. Make sure the company you choose to partner with also has in-depth knowledge of your chosen market/s, including GDPR, data compliance, rules and regulations and knowledge of business law there. This is key when expanding into Europe, as UK GDPR and EU GDPR must be adhered to, as well as other rules surrounding lead generation strategies such as cold calling.
Establishing an internal sales team empowers companies to develop in-house expertise and insights tailored to their unique culture. With dedicated training and development programs, internal teams can become adept at navigating European markets and driving successful lead generation efforts — but that is really difficult to do coming in from the outside to approach each distinct European market. Setting up a local internal sales team is better once you’re established in a new market and gained proven traction — then you can feel more confident in committing to permanent staff and an office in a foreign country.
When it comes to testing new markets, lead generation enables companies to explore expansion opportunities with minimal risk. External providers offer the experience and local context you may not have internally, allowing for strategic experimentation and informed decision-making in entering new markets or sectors. In lieu of dealing with permanent employment contracts before you’ve proven a market, with an outsourced lead gen team, you could even test out a few markets by having a few half-time BDRs calling into a couple test markets for a few months. Then, with the flexibility and power of a single contract, you can easily move your budget to invest further in proven European markets.
As your business grows within a European country, you may want to set up a local headquarters in a major city like London, Paris, Amsterdam or Berlin. But not when you’re just getting started. As you test out new markets and sectors, you need to be able to swiftly expand or contract your lead generation in response to each country, which you can’t do easily with strict European employment contracts. There’s a time and a place for both internal and external lead generation sales models when approaching each European market, and both can be effective for a sustainable expansion. An internal sales team — and local technical support — is best once you’ve gained traction in a new market.
Similarly to testing new markets, outsourcing lead generation streamlines the process of expanding into new territories by leveraging the expertise and networks of external providers established across the continent. These BDR firms can identify and nurture leads effectively — not to mention a wider pool of qualified tech buyer contacts accrued in a way GDPR-compliant — which then paves the way for successful outbound activity and expansion. They’ll also have access to leading marketing tools and platforms, which you may not have in your internal sales team yet. It all becomes a recipe for faster foreign revenue.
With direct oversight and control, internal teams can appear to better tailor their approach to each new territory, ideally ensuring a seamless transition and sustainable growth. But like the rest of this list, this comes with already having the local staff to adapt this lead generation strategy for your target market, and then having European sales leadership on the ground to guide them.
Outsourcing lead generation accelerates the growth of your sales pipeline by leveraging the resources and expertise of external providers. These firms can identify and qualify leads efficiently, ensuring a steady influx of opportunities for your local sales teams to pursue. Business Development and Scale Coach Huw Jones notes it's important to remember, however, that sharing customer data and business information with a third-party could carry a possible risk to data security and confidentiality. Therefore, if you are going down the outsourcing route, it is crucial you thoroughly vet the agency’s privacy policy and ensure that it shows a deep understanding of GDPR. Also make sure you talk about it ahead to make sure you feel you can trust the BDR outsourcing company. Another concern to consider when working with an outsourced lead gen team is how efficiently they can integrate with your current CRM and marketing automation systems, so it's important to consider this when doing your research — it’s best to work with a team like ours that can adapt to your existing sales processes and tooling.
With an internal sales and lead gen team, you can feel you have greater control over the growth of your sales pipeline. But it’s proven that external teams can be faster to focus on nurturing relationships and maximizing opportunities in new markets, resulting in the same personalized and strategic approach to sales pipeline management — when they have the proper coaching and sales management structure in place. Be sure to ask any potential outsourced partner about their BDR coaching plan. Both internal and external sales partnerships rely on proper onboarding around company culture and transparent tooling and metrics.
Outsourcing lead generation simplifies recruitment by relieving companies of the burden of hiring and training sales professionals and BDRs. External providers offer a pool of skilled, local talent, allowing companies to quickly scale their operations per European market and access specialized expertise. If you need more, they can provide it. If you need less, you can scale down, making a single agency contract a flexible option when kicking off your European B2B lead generation strategy. Working with external lead gen partners mitigates your long-term risk when entering new — and thus uncertain — markets.
Establishing an internal sales team simplifies recruitment by allowing companies to cultivate a talent pipeline and company culture aligned with their values and objectives — once you have the local and legal infrastructure in place. With dedicated training and development programs, companies can attract and retain top sales professionals, ensuring continuity and stability in their operations. But, if you find the right business development outsourcing partners, you should be able to clarify your values so that they are brought into the top of the funnel — and certainly the objectives and measures should be very clear from Day One.
In the realm of lead generation for European expansion, the choice between outsourcing and building an internal sales team hinges on factors such as scaling effectively, receiving expert guidance, testing new markets, expanding territory, growing the sales pipeline, and simplifying recruitment.
There’s likely a time and a place for both. Each approach offers unique advantages, and it may be that your most successful lead generation strategy involves a hybrid approach, leveraging the strengths of both outsourcing and internal teams to maximize lead generation effectiveness and drive sustainable growth in the European market. Most often, tech companies find success by starting out for a year or two testing out one and then two or three markets — usually the U.K. and Germany in the first year and then Italy, Spain, France, the Nordics and/or BeNeLux in year two — with external lead gen partners.
Then, once you’ve proven a market or two, you may want to hire a European business development director to set up local headquarters and staff. In the meantime, our BDR experts know what to measure, how to strategically expand to new markets, and adapt your B2B lead generation strategy for maximum impact. Our data-driven approach ensures that your European lead gen strategy evolves to meet the dynamic demands of the market. So, whatever you choose, ensure you research what’s best for you, and contact us if you’d like to discuss outsourcing your European lead generation.
