International Expansion Playbook

Chapter 1 - The Planning Phase Chapter 2 - Market Entry Chapter 3 - Market Expansion Chapter 4 - Market Dominance

The Authors

Caroline Brand

Portfolio Analytics

Christine Edmonds

General Partner & Head of Analytics

Resources from this report:

International Expansion Readiness Checklist

Download Checklist

Contributors¹

Executive Summary

Since our founding in 2013, ICONIQ Growth has had the privilege of watching many of our portfolio companies evolve from nascent startups into global enterprises. One of the most complex and pivotal stages of this journey is the transition to becoming a truly “global” company. While there is no shortage of advice on scaling across growth stages, the process of expanding internationally and successfully commercializing in new markets remains somewhat elusive for many. In this playbook, we aim to shed light on this critical transition, offering insights to help U.S.-based companies navigate the intricacies of going global.

This playbook is designed for U.S.-based companies looking to expand internationally (though many of these strategies are applicable to non-U.S.-based companies as well). It focuses on topline-driven global expansion—seeking revenue growth in new geographies—rather than bottom line-driven strategies, such as opening offices in lower-cost regions to capture savings. Additionally, it focuses on sales-led expansions as opposed to organic, product-led growth.

Before diving into the planning process, it’s essential for companies to assess whether international expansion is the right growth strategy at this stage in their journey. While this may seem obvious, many organizations pursue expansion for the wrong reasons or at the wrong time, ultimately decamping after wasting significant resources. In short, your thesis for “why international expansion?” should be crystal clear, data-driven, and thoroughly considered alongside other growth levers. For example, if expanding your Total Addressable Market (TAM) is the primary goal, it may be more effective to first build out a specialized sales team focused on a new vertical within your existing domestic market, rather than taking on the complexities of international expansion right away. Given the substantial operational lift required for international growth, as well as the capital requirements, it’s worth evaluating whether other strategies might deliver higher returns or more efficient results.

A successful international expansion generally unfolds in four phases: Planning, Market Entry, Market Expansion, and Market Dominance. Companies that undertake this haphazardly may waste valuable capital and derail domestic growth with the distraction, while those that adeptly navigate across each of the four stages may successfully realize new revenue streams and strong long-term growth.

Chapters in this Report

Chapter 1

The Planning Phase

Lay the Groundwork for Global Success
Before you go international, get intentional. This section helps you pressure-test your timing, choose the right market, align leadership, and prep cross-functional teams—from GTM to HR—for a strategic, optimized launch. True international success demands operational readiness at every level.

Chapter 2

Market Entry

Build the Right Team and Establish GTM Momentum
Your first hires set the tone for your market presence and long-term success. Learn how you can structure a high-impact landing team, localize your sales motion, and build early customer credibility. This section is all about generating signal, building trust, and setting your international team up to win from day one.

Chapter 3

Market Expansion

Translate Early Wins into Systems
Early wins are just the beginning. To build a repeatable international motion, we believe you need to obsess over the data, understand where deals stall, and refine your GTM strategy on the ground. We’ll discuss how to strengthen your foothold in your first market—and help you decide when you’re ready to expand to a second.

Chapter 4

Market Dominance

Create a Global Growth Engine
With multiple markets in play, operational rigor can become the difference between global presence and global performance. This chapter introduces a strategic market tiering framework, explores how to balance direct and indirect sales across regions, and outlines how to can structure international leadership for long-term success.

Table of Contents

Choosing Your Market Preparing Your Team: Readiness Considerations for Expanding Internationally

Chapter 2 - Market Entry Chapter 3 - Market Expansion Chapter 4 - Market Dominance

The Planning Phase

We believe successful commercialization in new markets requires a solid foundation. Companies preparing to go global should typically have the following in place:

A predictable and repeatable go-to-market strategy that consistently delivers against plan each quarter
A capable Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) or Head of Sales who can take direct ownership of the expansion while overseeing the U.S. sales organization from a strategic distance
A committed leadership team, aligned in their vision and prepared to allocate resources across all functions to support the initiative
A willingness to pursue long-term revenue growth, understanding that international expansion often delivers returns on a 2-3 year horizon with limited short-term payoff
‍

Scale-wise, companies typically expand internationally around $10-25M ARR or beyond. Prior to reaching this scale, companies typically do not have the go-to-market maturity that is a prerequisite to global expansion (read more about building a mature GTM function here).

Scale at time of first internationalization, based on data from the ICONIQ Growth portfolio (n=34)

Based on an analysis of 34 ICONIQ Growth private Enterprise SaaS portfolio companies based in the U.S., for which data was available. Data generally reflects deliberate international expansion as opposed to organic international revenue growth.

However, it is important to note that while many companies internationalize during the $10-25M ARR range, timing should be driven by individual company circumstances rather than a rule of thumb. When looking across the ICONIQ Growth portfolio, we see the balance shift to primarily international only among companies that are >$50M ARR.

Current ICONIQ Growth portfolio by internationalization status (n = 71)

Based on an analysis of 71 private ICONIQ Growth Enterprise SaaS portfolio companies based in the U.S., for which data was available.

Preparing Your Team: Readiness Considerations for Expanding Internationally

Once your leadership team is aligned on the location for your first international market, your organization should begin working through a comprehensive Readiness Checklist that spans across Go-To Market (GTM), Finance, HR, Legal, Engineering, and Product. This Readiness Checklist will be highly country-specific, which is why selecting a specific market is a prerequisite for completing this step. This process will be repeated for each new market you enter.

Each function should staff team members on this initiative, all of whom should convene as a working group on a weekly basis. While these individuals do not necessarily need to be solely dedicated to international expansion, it should be understood that this project is a priority and will require a substantial portion of their working hours in the months leading up to the launch. While this is a true cross-functional team effort, the CEO should also be clear as to who specifically is directly responsible for the international expansion (typically this is the CRO).

Choosing Your Market

Once you’re confident in your timing, the first step in the planning phase is to select one market to enter first. While it may be possible to simultaneously expand into several markets later on, we believe it’s essential to first master the complexities of international growth in one market before scaling to others. Focusing on a single market for your first international expansion allows for a more targeted and manageable approach, increasing the chances of successful market penetration and long-term growth.

For some companies, choosing which international market to enter first may be an overwhelmingly obvious decision, based on unwavering inbound demand. Our portfolio company FloQast, for example, was “pulled in” to Western Europe as they received inbound requests from customers despite never proactively selling in the region.²If this is the case for your organization, you may be able to skip over the process of creating a shortlist of potential markets, and instead dive right into the Readiness process for your chosen market.

Companies with less decisive inbound demand should create a shortlist of potential markets. This necessitates a clear understanding of your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and where it is most concentrated. In order to ensure this exercise is not purely theoretical, it is critical to have at least some international Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) as they deliver real market data. With this foundation, the next step is to conduct a TAM analysis for each market on the shortlist, weighing the opportunity size against operational complexities. At this stage, focus on high-level disqualification—eliminating markets from your shortlist that are too complex or competitive. While this analysis shouldn’t dive too deep into specifics—that will come later with an in-depth Readiness Checklist—the goal is to ensure your market sizing process also considers potential logistical challenges and operational hurdles that may arise. It is at this stage that some organizations choose to deprioritize non-English-speaking countries, simplifying their first initial international launch by avoiding language barriers.

One final consideration in the country selection process is thinking ahead to potential second and third target markets. While you will only be launching in one market at a time, clustering your first several markets within the same region creates synergies. A logical order might be London first, a city in the Benelux region second, and a city in the Nordics third, given the geographic proximity and high levels of English language proficiency. Companies whose first several markets are too spread out may find it inefficient to manage a high degree of dispersion.

Q&A

Laying the Groundwork for Global Growth with Dennis Lyandres

Readiness Considerations: Product and Engineering

First, Product teams should collaborate with GTM teams to determine which product(s) they will be selling in the new market. Not all products may be relevant to every region, so it’s essential to prioritize and tailor your offering. In some cases, entry into a new market may involve positioning a more basic version of the product(s) initially, introducing more advanced features as the company gains traction.

Additionally, the Product team will collaborate with the CRO and CMO to determine how to price and package the product in the new market. While this may require some iteration once your sellers are on the ground, Product can run research and testing in the meantime. Price adjustments are not always synonymous with discounts, as “premium products” (indicated by higher prices) may attract more customers in certain markets. Prices–if displayed–should always be in the local currency. Depending on how customers typically pay for your product, your organization may also need to evaluate your payments infrastructure and ability to accept payments in other currencies.

The Product organization should also lead the process of researching and implementing localization requirements, and ensuring the product is tailored for the new target audience. Some organizations choose to designate one Product Manager as the “International PM” in order to have a dedicated pointperson for tracking and managing these complexities. One such consideration is translating the product into a new language (or adapting it for regional language variations, such as British vs. American English spelling differences). Also consider how dates, times, phone numbers, and addresses are reflected in your new location. Localization applies not only to your core product experience, but also to marketing collateral, customer support interactions, invoices, and all other touchpoints between end users and your company.

Engineering Considerations for Scalability and Regional Compliance

From an Engineering standpoint, this involves ensuring the platform is capable of handling a wide range of character sets, text encoding (including Unicode), and localization-specific nuances such as right-to-left text rendering or bi-directional support for languages like Arabic and Hebrew (assuming your market is large enough to merit this investment). Additionally, the team should build or integrate a localization framework that allows for efficient management of translated content across all user-facing strings, including UI elements, documentation, and error messages. This framework must support dynamic updates and seamless integration with translation management systems (TMS) to ensure consistency and accuracy across the product. The degree to which localization is fully realized for each market will depend on the size of the opportunity. For your first several international markets (which are presumably your largest immediate revenue opportunities), localization may be more comprehensive relative to the long tail of subsequent markets. However, advances in AI are making localization easier than ever. DeepL, for example, is rapidly transforming consumers, prosumers, and particularly enterprises’ ability to write, translate, and communicate in dozens of languages with its advanced language AI platform.

Beyond what is visible to the end user, the engineering team will need to adapt the underlying platform architecture to meet region-specific requirements for data storage, data processing, and security. This includes ensuring compliance with data privacy regulations like GDPR or local data residency laws (check out Drata!), which may dictate that customer data be stored within the country’s borders. Implementing geo-redundant storage solutions and ensuring local data center integrations are critical considerations for meeting data sovereignty requirements. We believe that compliance with regional data processing agreements (DPAs) and any legal or regulatory frameworks related to data security and privacy must be embedded into the system design from the outset to avoid costly rework and compliance issues later in the process.

Engineering teams should also focus on refining the platform’s scalability and resilience to handle varying levels of traffic and regional usage patterns. This may involve optimizing load balancing, CDNs, and API gateways to accommodate regional differences in traffic volume, latency requirements, and peak usage times.

Readiness Considerations: Go-To-Market

First, Sales and Marketing teams should collaborate to develop a nuanced understanding of the competitive landscape. This includes mapping both U.S.-based competitors who have entered your international market and the hyperlocal competitors. Product Marketing should crystalize your organization's specific value proposition and partner with Enablement to refine existing sales messaging (including assets like battlecards and objection-handling scripts) for this specific market context. While this will be an iterative process once Account Executives (AEs) are on the ground, having a strong grasp of the competitive environment and how your sales playbook will differ internationally should be considered a gating requirement.

Marketing should also partner with Legal to understand whether there are any limitations around marketing tactics (for example, head-to-head comparisons against competitors). Additionally, Sales should partner with Legal to understand any limitations around sales tactics–for example, whether it is allowable to cold call, cold text, and cold email prospects. Local AEs, once onboard, can also help educate the team around cultural norms during sales processes.

Key Considerations: Sales Compensation

Sales should also evaluate whether existing data providers will have high-fidelity, reliable data in the new market, or whether alternative tools should be explored. Many data tools (e.g., lead lists, firmographic data feeds) that work well in domestic markets may struggle to deliver accurate, up-to-date contact information or reliable company insights abroad due to differences in data sources, coverage, or regional focus. The landing team will need workable data to be productive, so ensure your CRM is preloaded with a robust target accounts list, complete with relevant contact information.

Another crucial workstream that we think should not be overlooked is sales compensation, which requires close collaboration between Sales and Finance. This is one area where a “lift and shift” approach from the U.S. business is especially nonstrategic.Sales cycles in the new market are likely to be longer than anticipated, and differences in buying behavior, pricing, and packaging will require adjustments to domestic compensation plans before they can be effectively applied internationally. One key change might include offering Account Executives a guaranteed base pay for an initial period (e.g., six months) in the form of a non-recoverable draw, helping to mitigate the risks of initial market uncertainty. International expansion is also an ideal use case for MBO (Management by Objectives)-based incentive plans, especially in the early stages when revenue is highly unpredictable. Instead of relying solely on traditional quota-based compensation, MBOs reward reps for achieving predetermined early-market milestones such as pipeline generation or securing customer testimonials. This approach helps sales teams remain motivated as initial market traction is built.

Beyond ensuring your people and processes are ready for internationalization, confirm that your sales tech stack will work globally as well. For example, confirm that any communication tools like calling software can support international dialing.

Finally, Sales should also consider whether channel partnerships will play a role in their international market. Many companies prioritize developing a direct sales motion in their first (and largest) international markets, reserving channel sales for more complex or smaller subsequent markets down the line.

Readiness Considerations: HR, Finance, and Legal

It is easy to assume that your employees will be fault-tolerant, but in reality, it is important to get ahead of the major HR considerations to ensure a positive employee experience from the start. Begin by mapping out every step of your employee lifecycle, starting with a candidate’s first touchpoint with your organization. Who will be responsible for recruiting in your new market? Some companies choose to leverage their existing (domestic) recruiters while others work with local agencies. How will your recruiters sell the opportunity, especially to an audience who may have little or no familiarity with your brand? Once candidates are engaged, what will your hiring process look like? The Market Entry section will explore how your initial team might be structured, but prior to going to market for any talent, the interview process should be decided, with candidate experience at the center.

Compensation and Potential Regional Challenges

The HR team should also have a point of view around compensation bands for the different roles that will comprise your landing team. This involves not only understanding what competitive cash compensation looks like, but also what benefits are standard or expected within the market. In many countries, particularly across Latin America, employers are legally required to provide an additional paycheck in December (often referred to as a “13th salary³”). There may also be legal or tax-related issues with issuing equity–HR and Legal should partner to understand what hurdles may apply, and whether higher base salaries need to be awarded to compensate for equity challenges. Particularly in Europe, the equity landscape is rapidly evolvig⁴, so ensure that any benchmarks or tax advice is up to date.

Understanding Local Labor Laws

Aside from standard compensation, equity, and benefits packages, HR and Legal should partner to understand local labor laws, including notice periods (how long before your new hires can start?), non-competes (are there any restrictions around where you can recruit from?), and documentation requirements (how do you verify someone’s right to work?). There may be regulations around leaves of absence or mandatory vacation time, and federal holidays will differ between markets. If your U.S. employees have unlimited PTO, you may need to reconfigure your policy for your new market.

It is also important to understand the laws around terminating an employee in case things don’t work out with someone you hire. Some countries require longer notice periods before you can part ways with someone, and some may mandate severance pay. It is important to be well-versed in both probation periods and termination timelines, which can differ from country to country.

Finally, it is prudent to iron out your mobility policy–if you will be relocating anyone from HQ, ensure your relocation package is in-line with the market and well-established.

I’ve seen companies make several mistakes when it comes to hiring talent in a new market–one of the worst being failing to set up payroll such that employees didn’t get paid for weeks after joining! Another company was late to the game in terms of setting up standard benefits, like a car allowance (which all of their competitors were doing). Your employer brand can quickly go sideways, and oftentimes the best SaaS operators within a market will know each other (especially at the senior levels) and word will travel fast.

– CRO, Late-Stage SaaS Company

Your Legal team (or outside counsel) should advise on whether your organization will immediately need to set up an entity in your new country, and what tax implications may result. Some companies may choose to use an Employer of Record (EOR) to handle employment and compliance requirements without establishing a formal entity, which can help reduce upfront costs and simplify the hiring process. However, depending on the country, an EOR may not be worthwhile as you could quickly reach the threshold for establishing a local entity.

Too many companies tackle too many countries too quickly. They lack operational readiness across G&A, Product, GTM, and Operations. Their understanding of their target markets–and how to win in them–lacks nuance. For example, Frankfurt, Munich, and Cologne are like three completely different worlds (forget talking in terms of “Europe” or even “Germany” – you need to know how to operate and sell in hyper-specific areas). It is so critical for companies to slow down initially in order to speed up later. After all, you only get one chance to enter a new market.

– Sasha Anderson, Global Head of Customer Success, Canva and Former Head of GTM Strategy & Operations, Procore

While the Planning Phase can feel prolonged, it is critical to minimizing operational debt and potentially tarnishing your brand with a disorganized launch. We believe that in order to successfully attract and retain your first employees and customers, it is important to enter the market only once your organization is truly ready across all functions–from pricing to payroll.

Back to Executive Summary

Next Chapter - Market Entry

Table of Contents

Building the Landing Team Starting to Sell

Chapter 2 - Market Entry

Chapter 3 - Market Expansion Chapter 4 - Market Dominance

Market Entry

After your readiness process is complete–but prior to officially launching in the new market and beginning to sell–domestic marketing teams should be generating brand awareness and drumming up interest. A common pitfall is skipping over this crucial step and expecting Account Executives to sell to a completely new audience that lacks awareness of your product. In some cases, this may also involve educating the market on your space or industry more broadly, in addition to marketing your specific product. These marketing efforts can take different forms, ranging from splashy, agency-led advertising campaigns to targeted account-based marketing motions. Companies with existing users in a given market (who predate an official presence in the market) should leverage this headstart to help bridge their entry into the international market, for example by providing region-specific testimonials and brand credibility that will resonate with the local audience. Across various tactics, the overarching goal is to prime the market for your entry, allowing your initial sales team to hit the ground running.

Q&A

Launching in a New Market: Insights from Abe Smith on Zoom’s Global Expansion

Building the Landing Team

In parallel with these initial marketing activities, the CRO should begin hiring the landing team. Team is the operative term–another common pitfall is underestimating the number of hires needed to make a new market successful.

Before diving in, read our primer on, read our primer on building a go-to-market team.

To us, an ideal landing team is comprised of the following roles:

Account Executives (2): Two AEs, each with “hunter” (as opposed to “farmer”) orientation. Hiring multiple AEs—rather than just one—ensures continuous coverage in case of vacations or departures. It also provides more reliable market feedback relative to relying on the performance of a single individual.
Pre-Sales: One Sales Engineer to support the two AEs
Business Development Representative: One BDR to help drum up demand and fill the top of the funnel.
Marketing: One local marketing coordinator who can support local marketing efforts, from events to hyperlocal campaigns.
Rev Ops & Market Strategy: One versatile mid-level leader (Director-level, plus or minus) who can simultaneously focus on sales enablement and implementing a data-driven sales process (rev ops). This individual must be comfortable interfacing with customers and immediately refining the sales process based on insights from these conversations. While this is not a Product Marketing role, someone with this type of background could be a good fit given the skillset adjacencies.

Additional roles to consider include:

Post-Sales: Your ASPs will dictate whether or not you need to immediately hire Customer Success and Customer Support in-region. Companies with smaller ASPs are oftentimes able to service customers with U.S.-based teams, whereas those landing five-figure-plus Enterprise deals may need to hire CS in-region to help build trust with customers and signal the conviction with which they are entering the market. Additionally, if you are launching in a non-English-speaking country, local Customer Support may be necessary (though companies like DeepL are changing this dynamic).
Partnerships: If your U.S. business is heavily partner-dependent, you may also need to hire a local partner liaison in-region. We will discuss the role and timing of partnerships in international expansion in our Market Expansion section.

Should your organization choose to test the waters before building out a team of this size, a leaner international market entry team could comprise a local marketing coordinator and a BDR who hand off qualified leads to U.S.-based AEs located in the most overlapping timezone. This short-term strategy can be a jumping off point until your organization sees sustained conversion rates that merit further investment in the market. However, a tepid market entry can preclude success. If you are truly being “pulled in” to a market or responding to strong inbound demand, it is ideal to have a full-stack GTM team on the ground from the outset.

“Your market entry team needs to be larger than you might think. Simply hiring a few AEs in a new market is a low-yield play – expecting reps to do all of the prospecting themselves will result in low conversion rates. Instead, build out a proper sales pod so that AEs can focus on the middle of the funnel and below – rather than filling the top of it. This helps drive a culture of winning early on as reps are enabled to be productive.”

–Luca Lazzaron, Former CRO, Sprinklr

Recruiting Local Talent and Leadership

As you construct your initial team in preparation for going to market, don’t overrotate on relocating individuals from HQ. While you may find several team members at HQ eager to make an exciting international move, we believe the ideal landing team should skew toward local talent. The BDR and Rev Ops roles are good candidates for relocation and can help carry your company’s culture to new offices, whereas AEs should always be local hires (many companies report better traction when customers feel they are being sold to by locals). Local sales norms vary widely—even within regions. In Japan, for example, trust-building is paramount and relationship-based selling appears to dominate, which can prolong the sales cycle. In France and Germany, we’ve heard that customers often won’t move forward without local-language collateral. Local AEs with an intuitive understanding of nuanced market dynamics can help accelerate success.

A strong team also requires a strong leader, who will report directly to the CRO. Many companies choose to hire a local leader first, allowing them to lead the hiring process and build out the rest of the landing team. One advantage of this approach is that the local leader can leverage their network extensively, making recruitment significantly easier than it otherwise would be for a foreign company. Their participation in the recruitment of their team also helps drive ownership and accountability for those under them. Other companies prefer to build the team from the bottom up, delaying their investment in this relatively expensive hire until AEs are on the ground and sales activity is underway–but similar to a tepid market entry, this “wait and see” approach can hinder success. Alternatively, some companies take a more flexible approach by opening all reqs simultaneously, allowing the hiring process to unfold organically without strictly following a “top-down” or “bottom-up” strategy.

Hiring a Sales Leader

Regardless of their sequencing, your local leader should be a sales leader first and foremost. It may be tempting to hire someone from a megatech company with universal brand recognition, but we believe hiring a “builder” from a growth-stage private company is typically a better bet. Sales experience matters more than sector-specific experience, so look for talent beyond your direct competitors and other companies in the exact same space. In addition to a track record of strong sales performance, this person also needs to be a natural people leader who can manage the full landing team–not just AEs.

The ideal outcome for your local sales leader is to have a far-reaching impact across your entire global sales organization—not just within the borders of the country they are based in. One leader we spoke to shared how they joined a company with ASPs under $10,000. While the company was growing quickly, it struggled to win enterprise customers, even within its core U.S. market. Within a few months, the London-based EMEA lead helped land a $32,000 deal with a multinational company that later expanded into a $3 million contract. The EMEA team then went on to close the largest deal in the company's history. Working closely with the CRO, this individual helped shape the global playbook for enterprise sales, helping the entire GTM organization move upmarket and contributing well beyond the confines of their European mandate. When evaluating candidates, consider whether you could envision them becoming a global CRO one day–this thought exercise will help orient your search toward a “mini CRO” rather than a “GM.”

Illustrative International Expansion Landing Team

Starting to Sell

Once your team is onboard, the focus should be on three main priorities. Many of the principles discussed in our Scaling SaaS from $1 to $20M report are also relevant in this context.

New Logos > ARR Targets

We believe the first priority should be landing new logos, even if the deals are small and the contribution to your Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) targets is minimal. The more local customers you have, the greater your credibility will be. Avoid the temptation to “whale hunt” and instead focus on smaller lands (which hopefully can expand with time). ACVs may be lower than in your domestic market.

In order to incentivize this behavior, the team should initially be metricked against the number of new logos they bring in, as opposed to ARR targets. However, velocity should be balanced against quality–selling within your ICP will help guard against churn later on.

In pursuit of local credibility, you may need to heavily discount your product for your first several customers. Additionally, some companies award higher commission rates to AEs for the first several deals they close in the new market. Together, these dynamics will make your initial deals seem unprofitable. However, we believe that each new logo–and in particular, each referencable new logo–provides outsized value to your organization at this stage as you work to gain a toehold. In many international markets, testimonials from familiar local companies are imperative to winning customers. With referenceability from multiple customers as your primary goal, ensure your organization is doing everything possible to set your customers up for success and help them find value in your product immediately.

Sales Enablement

In addition to generating as many referencable new logos as possible, we believe the other key priority is building a strong enablement muscle. In practice, this means “franchising” your U.S. sales motion internationally. This requires striking a delicate balance between relaying institutional sales knowledge from the U.S. team while developing a nuanced understanding of your new customers. Teams often overrotate in one direction–either reinventing the wheel or overleveraging U.S. sales methodologies without sufficiently adapting them for the local context. Constant collaboration between the two geographic teams tends to be the answer.

While international travel can be costly, many leaders report that there is no substitute for flying customer-facing members of the landing team to HQ to learn from seasoned reps early on. Similarly, key members of your domestic team, including both executives and those with deep institutional knowledge or customer-specific expertise, should be regularly deployed to the new market. When bringing international team members to the U.S., be mindful of jetlag and language barriers. Tailor training sessions accordingly–for example, do not fly the Japan team to the U.S. and expect them to sit through nine hours of sessions without translation support or cultural adaptation.

Even when geographically separated, don’t let time zone differences limit collaboration. Virtual Lunch-and-Learns (or Breakfasts-and-Learns) can provide real-time market insights and allow for immediate problem-solving, eliminating the need to wait for the next in-person visit to collaborate across geographic teams.

On the ground in your new market, your Rev Ops hire will play a major role in listening to customers and adapting sales methodologies and sales assets accordingly, creating a real-time feedback loop. This role may be slightly less data-oriented and slightly more customer-facing than it would be in the U.S. They will endeavor to actively listen to both the voice of the customer and the voice of the market, for example, by listening in on sales calls. This individual acts as the bridge between market realities and your internal processes, ensuring that customer insights directly influence sales tactics and product positioning as you refine your approach.

Aligning global incentives

The third leg of the stool is aligning global incentives to drive customer-first behavior. Especially when selling to global customers (think Fortune 500 companies), the CRO should own the overarching strategy and be updated in real time as the international team makes inroads with these accounts. One scenario that may arise is an international team breaking into a global company that the U.S. team previously struggled to land. For example, your London team may land a small deal with the UK branch of a global bank headquartered in the U.S., presenting an entry point into a new customer via a regional team or use case. While this is an exciting opportunity for your organization as a whole, commissions can quickly become contentious if not properly managed. Clear rules should be set in order to determine who will receive credit in different scenarios. This includes setting guidelines for cross-territory collaboration and ensuring that compensation plans are designed to promote the best interests of the customer and the company.

Many are surprised both by the length of sales cycles and the time it takes to achieve meaningful progress in a new market. Typically, your first year will not generate meaningful revenue nor be ROI positive. Years two and three may begin to show glimmers of traction, but many report it takes at least three years for a market to become a true growth lever for a company. During these initial years, along with building referenceability among your initial customers, focus on building referenceability among your early employees. If you win the hearts and minds of local customers and employees, your Market Entry phase can be considered a success.

Previous Chapter - The Planning Phase

Next Chapter - Market Expansion

Table of Contents

Chapter 3 - Market Expansion

Chapter 2 - Market Entry

Feedback Loops Fuel Growth Layering in Channel Sales: Whether, When, and How Measuring Progress and Expanding into Subsequent Markets

Chapter 4 - Market Dominance

Market Expansion

With your landing team on the ground and initial sales activity underway, the Market Expansion phase involves both growing your presence in your first international market and then potentially expanding into a second market. In this section, we will explore how to harness early traction in your initial market and how to determine timing for entering subsequent markets.

Feedback Loops Can Fuel Growth

As your organization gains traction in your first new market, we believe it is crucial to closely monitor your sales funnel and promptly address any emerging issues. This should be led by your in-region Rev Ops hire in collaboration with your local sales leader. For a quick refresher on the SaaS sales funnel, check out our Go-to-Market Reporting Guide.

“Your data may be sparse at the beginning, but you need to get into the habit of using it, applying it, and running a structured business [in your new region] very early on. Constant pipeline reviews are key. I’ve found that everyone wants to focus on the glamorous deals that comprise the top 25% of the pipeline, but going after the biggest deals creates risk and does not lend itself to creating a balanced portfolio of customers. Instead, work to build a playbook that is repeatable–which starts with obsessing over the data.”

– Dave Wyatt, GP, Celero Ventures, Former VP EMEA at Mulesoft, Former SVP & GM EMEA at Databricks

The process of running pipeline diagnostics (analyzing where customers are falling off) is likely familiar to your organization. However, there will be market-specific nuances that require careful consideration and tailored solutions.

Top-of-Funnel Challenges

If you’re struggling to generate leads or fill the top of the funnel, potential causes may include:

Ineffective high-level messaging that fails to resonate with the local audience
Limited brand awareness leading to a lack of inbound interest and lack of resonance when leads are outbounded
Misalignment between your perceived ICP and the region’s actual buyer personas resulting in difficulty generating demand
An underdeveloped partner ecosystem that limits access to key entry points into the market (more on this below)

Mid- and Bottom-of-Funnel Drop-Offs

If leads are entering the funnel but failing to progress—or falling off near closing—this may indicate challenges such as:

Flawed competitive positioning, such that prospects perceive stronger alternatives in the market
Sales process friction, especially if adjustments have not been made to adapt to regional buying behaviors
Perceived risk stemming from a lack of localized case studies or testimonials, making it harder to build trust or beat competitors
Critical product gaps, such as missing features that impact regulatory compliance, potentially exposing customers to noncompliance risks
Pricing misalignment, leading to strong product interest or demand that fails to convert to closed deals

While this is not an exhaustive list, it is intended to illustrate the importance of running tight feedback loops and relentlessly seeking customer feedback. When building a new market, we think understanding why you lost a certain deal can be more valuable than understanding why you won another. Generally problems at the mid-funnel and below (conversion issues) are easier to fix than top-of-funnel issues as the latter may reflect a lack of Product Region Fit while the former reflects process, product, or tactical issues that are typically solvable once diagnosed. Your Rev Ops hire should pinpoint what, specifically, is driving any conversion issues and then immediately implement changes.

When it comes to addressing product-related feedback, some companies choose to temporarily relocate a Product Manager from HQ for a three-to-six month period. The goal is to understand market-specific feedback (both from customers and prospects) and develop a process for relaying this back to the Product org and determining prioritization on the roadmap.

“Many companies venture into a new market, reach the 18-month mark, feel like they’re not gaining enough momentum, and decide to pull back. However, they often can’t pinpoint the exact reason for their lack of traction. Without clearly identifying the issue, it’s impossible to solve it. On the other hand, some companies may experience early success but assume that since the growth doesn’t match their domestic market, it’s not worth the effort. That’s a mistake! In hindsight, you'll realize this is exactly how a global business is built.”

– Former Chief Revenue Officer, Vertical SaaS Company

Layering in Channel Sales: Whether, When, and How

Regardless of whether channel sales are a meaningful part of your domestic go-to-market strategy, an indirect sales motion can be a powerful strategic lever for international expansion. For a primer on channel sales, read our blog post.

While indirect sales can be an important accelerant for growth once initial traction is established, in our view it’s typically not the first strategy deployed when entering your first several international markets. We believe establishing a direct sales motion is crucial in your largest markets, where firsthand market insights and control over early sales efforts are essential. There are several reasons why indirect sales may not be the first tool you reach for in your toolkit when launching in a primary market:

It is beneficial to have a baseline understanding of product resonance and directly “own” initial feedback from the market before ceding this visibility outside of your organization.
It is difficult to train international partners if your organization has not yet mastered the art of training and enabling international reps.
Partner-led sales can be a multi-year investment with delayed ROI, so an initial gauge of market traction and fit is helpful before layering this sales motion into the mix.

While companies typically introduce channel sales after initial sales activity is underway in their primary markets, a channel-first approach may be accretive–if not imperative–from the get-go when expanding into the longtail of subsequent markets, such as APAC or Latin America. We will explore this flavor of channel sales in our Market Dominance[hyperlink] section. While these are general principles of sequencing channel sales, we also note that the necessity of this motion will also depend on your sector and buyer persona. For example, cybersecurity companies may need a more robust channel motion earlier on, relative to a martech application.

Channel Sales in Initial Markets

When building out a channel motion in your first few international markets, we have seen that referral partners tend to be the natural place to start. This is because relatively little infrastructure is required, and companies can realize quick time to value with this “one-to-many” sales approach. While not a substitute for direct sales, referral partners can serve as an effective force multiplier by introducing your product to warm prospects, leveraging their existing relationships and credibility in the market. These partners—such as industry consultants, systems integrators, or complementary technology providers—can help bridge initial trust gaps with local buyers, especially in markets where your brand recognition is nascent. Unlike resellers, referral partners do not handle transactions or implementation, instead passing qualified leads to your sales team in exchange for a commission. This allows your organization to maintain full control over the sales process, pricing, positioning, and customer experience, while still benefiting from an extended network.

As traction grows, a successful referral network can also serve as a bridge to deeper channel relationships. High-performing referral partners may evolve into resellers or strategic alliance partners, further embedding your product within the local ecosystem. However, to maximize effectiveness, it’s essential to establish clear expectations, a structured commission framework, and a streamlined process for lead registration and tracking.

Beyond referral partners, other types of channel sales can help drive further growth, particularly as your presence matures in a given market:

Resellers and value-added resellers (VARs) take a more active role in the sales cycle by not only selling your product but often bundling it with complementary solutions, providing localized support, or handling implementation.
- Engaging with resellers requires investment in partner enablement, training, and co-marketing to ensure alignment on messaging, pricing, and customer‍
Global and regional system integrators (SIs) and managed service providers (MSPs) can also be valuable partners, particularly for products with complex implementations, given the added complexity that language and cultural nuances bring to deployments.

Partners–regardless of type–can introduce significant complexity, making it essential to hire a local Partnerships lead if this will be a meaningful go-to-market motion within a given international market. Training, enablement, defining ownership across each part of the sales funnel (e.g., who manages renewals), partner infrastructure and tooling (e.g., creating a partner portal, managing tripartite contracts), and sharing data back and forth (e.g., product usage data, customer support data) are a few of the numerous considerations that arise. Despite the complexity, a well-structured go-to-market strategy that balances direct and indirect sales can significantly accelerate international growth and market penetration.

Measuring Progress and Expanding into Subsequent Markets Growth

As sales activity picks up, resist the urge to benchmark against your mature U.S. business—doing so can lead to misinterpretations of progress. Instead, compare international performance to how your U.S. business performed in its earlier stages, recognizing that new markets take time to build momentum. Evaluating progress across multiple dimensions, rather than focusing solely on topline revenue and quarter-over-quarter growth, provides a more comprehensive understanding of market performance.

A “Balanced Scorecard” approach ensures you are measuring success across multiple key vectors, allowing you to assess market health holistically. This tool will also create a framework for benchmarking international markets against one another over time. Critical dimensions we believe you should track on a quarterly basis include:

Customer Satisfaction Metrics: Customer Satisfaction, NPS, number of referenceable customers and/or testimonials
Customer Engagement Metrics: Product usage, product and feature adoption, customer support tickets–all of which can be leading indicators of churn and serve as a proxy for revenue quality
Employee Health Metrics: Employee engagement, employee NPS scores, voluntary and involuntary attrition
Sales Efficiency Metrics: New logo velocity, gross dollar retention (which tends to be more relevant in new markets than net dollar retention), magic number

When to Consider a Second Market

Generally your organization should demonstrate a motion to expand (not simply launch) in your first international market before considering a second market. Simply put, your first international market should be both stable and growing before expanding further. Subsequent market entries can then be undertaken two at a time. Having markets at varying stages of maturity—rather than multiple markets all in nascent or pre-revenue phases—creates a portfolio effect, allowing more established markets to offset the risks and inefficiencies of newer ones.

Incontrovertibly, each potential new market should be tested via team members within your existing market(s). For example, the London team should speak to multiple French customers–and begin building pipeline there–before you officially enter France. Some markets will have a much longer lead time than others, so as your first market begins to grow, begin planning both subsequent target countries and regions.

International expansion isn’t just a go-to-market play — it’s a long-range company-building strategy. The most successful expansions aren’t reactive; they’re architected years in advance. At Procore, we treated each new market as a 5-10 year investment, with clear gating criteria across product readiness, regulatory nuance, capital allocation, and local talent. Once the first international market gains traction, it becomes the CRO’s job to set the strategic blueprint for which markets come next, in what order, and why — and to make sure the rest of the organization is operationally ready to follow.

– Dennis Lyandres, Former CRO, Procore

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