5 strategies for successfully building an international sales team

International expansion is one of the most rewarding and complex growth levers a company can pull. It requires more than just ambition; it requires sequencing, localisation, enablement, and systems that provide visibility across borders and languages.

However, it’s not for the fainthearted. Done right, global expansion compounds revenue. Done wrong, it drains resources and morale.

After 26 years building and leading commercial teams across the globe for companies like Dell, LinkedIn, Asana, and now for Gong, I’ve learned that expanding into international markets isn’t just a matter of launching a sales pod and hoping for the best.

At Gong, we’ve built out high-performing international teams across the UK, Germany, France, and beyond. While there’s no perfect playbook, there is a disciplined way to scale internationally that limits risk, prioritises revenue, and builds long-term growth.

When companies think about European expansion, they often default to a well-trodden sequence: UK, then France, then Germany. But territory sequencing should reflect your own deal and pipeline data, not just the traditional path.

At Gong, we used a combination of internal metrics (inbound leads) and external data (total addressable market, market maturity, competitor presence) to prioritise where to expand first. For us, the data didn’t point to France right after the UK — it pointed to Germany. We followed the signal, not the instinct.

This type of sequencing gives you clarity, especially when you’re balancing multiple high-potential regions. Prioritisation based on facts, not comfort zones, sets the stage for success.

You don’t need 10 people on day one to prove traction in a new region. In fact, you shouldn’t start that way. Nor is scaling internationally a “set-it-and-forget-it” exercise. It’s a rolling plan: Pilot, learn, expand, repeat.

We started with small, focused commercial teams — beginning with a minimum of two reps in a country as a best practice. Then, we expanded to customer success and, eventually, local leadership. Once we saw momentum and early wins, we invested further in that country.

This phased approach ensures you’re scaling into opportunity, not just ambition. It also helps avoid the trap of hiring ahead of product readiness, demand, or cultural fit.

Also, don’t forget: International markets can often trail your home market by 12 to 18 months in maturity. Set your expectations (and headcount plans) accordingly.

In international markets, you’re often a challenger brand. That means you need to understand the regional appetite for your product, and marketing is how you build inroads thoughtfully. 

For Gong EMEA, that meant partnering early with marketing to understand key marketing metrics (e.g., web trends and organic lead gen). We then tested our messaging through local market research.

Plus, we focus on tailored regional programming and believe face-to-face engagement is as important as ever. In Q2 of 2025 alone, we hosted 10 in-person events across eight cities and seven countries that fostered meaningful customer relationships.

It paid off. You’re not only getting to understand market opportunities in real time, but you’re also establishing meaningful rapport and trust that eventually transforms into pipeline. 

Scaling global growth is only manageable when you can scale insights and knowledge-sharing at the same pace. That’s why AI agents are an absolute must for my entire team.

We need to be able to coach reps, discover best practices, and share key learnings across languages, in context, in real time. That’s how we elevate onboarding, shorten sales cycles, and strengthen execution.

Gong Agents help us bring contextual, regional insights into a global operation, and we all get better because of it. Whether it’s using AI Trackers to pick up on regional trends (GDPR, labour laws) or local competitor mentions, or AI Ask Anything to ask questions in any language and get clear, context-rich answers about calls, deals, accounts, and contacts, in that same language.

Also coming soon, AI Translator will help teams access insight in any language by providing on-demand, automatic AI-generated content in your team’s preferred language.

The age-old saying goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Scaling an international sales team can’t be done in a vacuum. Rely on marketing, lead with data, scale in phases, prioritise language and culture, and use AI-powered insights to stay close to your revenue reality — no matter the region.

When broadening your horizons internationally, growth is about more than just translation of the language. It’s about instant, thorough, and accurate context on pipeline, deals, and more.

If you apply these strategies to your growth, international expansion doesn’t slow you down — it makes you unstoppable.