Commercial and international recruitment
The right commercial person, in the right market, at the right time.
Evans Sales Consultancy recruits commercial and technical people against the result they have to deliver, not against a job description. That work covers manufacturers, engineering businesses, building-product companies and specialist B2B organisations appointing Country Managers, Sales Directors, Heads of Sales, Commercial Managers, Business Development Managers, Sales Engineers and technical commercial people — whether the task is entering a new market, developing a territory, or growing an established UK sales operation.
Commercial and technical recruitment for businesses entering new markets, expanding territories or strengthening their sales capability in the UK, Europe and North America.
Why recruitment sits alongside commercial growth and market entry
Evans Sales Consultancy recruits senior sales, business development and technical commercial roles for two kinds of employer: businesses entering or expanding into a new market, and established UK businesses strengthening their commercial capability at home. In an international context, a company should recruit local salespeople once the market has been assessed, a route to market decided, and the business is ready to commit to a permanent presence rather than test the market through a distributor or agent. Before that point, market-entry work — assessing the opportunity and building the first pipeline — is usually the better investment. Once the case is clear, Evans Sales Consultancy identifies, assesses and helps appoint the Country Manager, Sales Director, Business Development Manager or technical sales role the market needs, working in both directions: overseas businesses hiring into the UK, and UK businesses hiring in Europe or North America.
Every commercial plan eventually reaches the same point. Somebody has to be in the territory or in the business: talking to specifiers, managing distributors, chasing projects, leading a team, holding the relationships and carrying the number. Until that person exists, the plan is still a plan. That is as true of a UK manufacturer whose founder still runs sales as it is of a business opening its first overseas market.
That hire is unusually difficult. The person needs the technical understanding to be credible with engineers and specifiers, the commercial discipline to build or rebuild a pipeline, and enough autonomy to operate without close supervision. A conventional recruitment process often tests none of those things properly.
Evans Sales Consultancy approaches the hire commercially first. Before anyone is approached, we work out what the role actually has to achieve in its first two years, what customers and route to market it must operate through, what technical complexity it carries, what seniority the task genuinely requires and what internal support will exist. Only then is the role defined. The method is identical whether the appointment establishes a new international territory or strengthens an existing UK sales operation.
What this is, in four lines
We work with employers hiring commercial people. We are not a candidate job board and we do not run vacancy advertising.
Who it is for
Manufacturers, engineering and industrial businesses, building-product and construction-supply companies, technical B2B and export-led organisations — appointing commercial people either in a market they are entering or establishing, or in an established UK business that needs to grow.
What we do
Commercial and international sales recruitment: Country Managers, Sales Directors, Heads of Sales, Commercial Managers, Business Development Managers, International and Export Sales Managers, specification, technical and regional sales roles and Sales Engineers — direct, targeted search rather than a database circulation.
Why it is different
We do not start with the vacancy. We start with the commercial task: the market or territory, the route to market, the objective and what the appointment must achieve in its first two years — then define the role that can deliver it.
What you get
A defined commercial role, a targeted shortlist assessed against the commercial plan rather than against a job description, and an honest view on whether a permanent hire is the right answer yet — including where fractional leadership would serve you better first.
What do you need to hire?
Evans recruits across three distinct propositions. The difference is not the title on the advert — it is the commercial situation the appointment has to solve.
Senior executive leadership
Board-level and senior functional leadership — permanent, interim and fractional: CEO, Managing Director, CRO, Sales Director, Commercial Director, CFO, COO and Technical Director roles.
Executive RecruitmentA sales or commercial professional
Permanent sales and commercial appointments for established businesses — the people who build pipeline, win customers, manage territories and run national sales teams.
Sales & Commercial RecruitmentSomeone to build or lead a new international market
Commercial and technical recruitment connected to market entry, territory development and overseas expansion — first hires in a new market, in either direction.
International RecruitmentTen dedicated commercial roles
Each of these appointments carries a different commercial task. Choose the closest to your situation, or discuss the market first if the right role is not yet obvious.
Country Manager recruitment
Country Manager recruitment means appointing the person accountable for establishing and running a business in a specific national market — its strategy, route to market, customers, revenue and eventually its local team.
Sales Director recruitment
Sales Director recruitment means appointing senior commercial leadership accountable for sales strategy, structure, pipeline and team performance across a business or a territory.
Head of Sales recruitment
Head of Sales recruitment means appointing the person who leads an existing sales team operationally — pipeline, forecasting, coaching, process and conversion — and is accountable for the number the team delivers.
Commercial Manager recruitment
Commercial Manager recruitment means appointing the person accountable for the commercial terms a business sells on — pricing, margin, contracts, channel agreements and commercial risk — rather than for the sales team itself.
Business Development Manager recruitment
Business Development Manager recruitment means appointing the person who generates new customers and new opportunities in a territory or sector, usually from a standing start.
International Sales Manager recruitment
International Sales Manager recruitment — often called Export Sales Manager recruitment — means appointing the person accountable for revenue growth across multiple overseas territories, usually through partners rather than through a local subsidiary.
Regional Sales Manager recruitment
Regional Sales Manager recruitment means appointing the person accountable for customers, distribution and revenue growth within a defined geographic territory.
Technical Sales Manager recruitment
Technical Sales Manager recruitment means appointing a salesperson able to understand an engineered product and its application well enough to sell it credibly to a technical buyer.
Sales Engineer recruitment
Sales Engineer recruitment — also described as Technical Sales Engineer recruitment — means appointing a technically qualified, customer-facing salesperson who sells engineered products by understanding the application as well as the commercial opportunity.
Specification Manager recruitment
Specification Manager recruitment means appointing the person who influences architects, engineers, consultants and other specifiers so that a manufacturer's products are written into projects before tender.
International hiring insights
Country Manager or Sales Director?
Employer-focused thinking on the first commercial hire into a new market: which role fits, how to recruit it and what to build around it.
The international commercial system
Building a team in a new market?
Most businesses use only the stages they need. The route varies by product, market and the evidence gathered so far.
International Expansion
Test, build and run commercial expansion into a new market — prove the market before building the full cost base.
Explore →Build My Market Entry Plan
A personalised initial plan for your company and target market.
Explore →Distributor & Partner Search
Where distribution is the right route: finding, qualifying and introducing credible partners.
Explore →Fractional Commercial Leadership
Evans provides the senior commercial leadership itself, before you commit to a permanent local appointment.
Explore →Market Entry Digital Infrastructure
Local credibility, market-specific positioning and enquiry routes — without a full local operation.
Explore →Further reading
International commercial hiring, explained
Written for companies weighing up a first hire in a new market — in either direction. Each piece answers one decision rather than describing a service.
Guide
The International Commercial Hiring Guide 2027
A practitioner's guide to deciding whether, when and how to recruit commercial leadership and sales people for international market entry and expansion.
Strategy and sequencing
- International Sales Recruitment: What It Involves and Why It Differs from Domestic Hiring
- Recruiting Commercial Leadership for International Expansion
- How to Build an In-Country Sales Team
- How to Recruit Your First Employee in a New Market
- When Should You Hire a Country Manager?
- How to Recruit Commercial Managers for International Growth
- Recruiting Technical Salespeople Internationally
- Recruiting Specification Salespeople Internationally
- How to Hire a Business Development Manager in a New Market
Decisions and comparisons
- Country Manager vs Distributor: An Honest Comparison
- Country Manager vs Sales Agent: Which Is Right for a New Market?
- Country Manager vs Sales Director: What Is the Difference?
- Country Manager vs Business Development Manager: Which Role Does a New Market Need?
- Local Hire vs Expatriate Hire: Who Should Run Your New Market?
- Sales Agent vs Employee for International Expansion: Which Should You Choose?
- Recruitment vs Fractional Sales Leadership: Which Should Come First?
- Hiring Local Salespeople vs Managing a Market from the UK
UK outbound and inbound
- How UK Companies Can Recruit Salespeople Overseas
- How UK Manufacturers Can Recruit Commercial Teams Abroad
- Recruiting Your First European Salesperson as a UK Company
- Building a European Sales Team from the UK
- Hiring Your First UK Salesperson as an Overseas Company
- Recruiting a UK Country Manager: What Overseas Companies Get Wrong
- Recruiting a UK Sales Director for an Overseas Company
- Building a UK Sales Team for an International Company
- Recruiting Technical Salespeople in the UK for Market Entry
Playbooks & frameworks
Hiring as part of a market entry?
The International Market Entry Playbook covers when recruitment is genuinely the right next investment — after external validation, pipeline evidence and first customers — and what has to be in place before a first local hire. Free to read.
Explore the International Expansion PlaybookStart here
Not sure which commercial role you actually need?
Start with the Commercial Growth Sprint — a fixed-fee commercial review that establishes whether recruitment is the answer, which role comes first and what that person should own. If you already know the hire you need, go straight to the role pages.
- Whether a permanent hire is genuinely required
- Which role first, and with what remit
- Whether fractional leadership should come first
- What outcomes the hire should own
Two routes into this work
Most enquiries arrive from one of two situations. Both are core work, and both are approached the same way: define the commercial task first, then the role.
1. Entering or expanding into a new market
Overseas businesses entering the UK, UK businesses expanding into Europe or North America, European businesses moving between European markets, and any company opening a new territory or making its first in-country commercial appointment. We help decide whether the market needs a Country Manager, a Sales Director, a Business Development Manager, an International or Export Sales Manager, a Regional Sales Manager, a Technical Sales Manager, a Specification Manager, a Sales Engineer, a Commercial Manager — or, sometimes, no permanent appointment yet at all.
2. Growing an established UK business
UK manufacturers, engineering businesses, building-product companies and specialist B2B organisations that need stronger commercial capability at home. Typically: sales have plateaued, the founder still leads sales personally, the team has no senior leadership, a Sales Director or Head of Sales is needed, new UK territories or sectors are being opened, technical sales capability is thin, business development has stalled, specification selling is missing, or margin and pricing discipline needs strengthening as the business scales. A company does not need to be entering another country to use Evans recruitment.
Senior commercial leadership
Appointments that set or carry the commercial direction of a business, a territory or a market.
Country Manager
The person accountable for establishing and running a market: strategy, route to market, customers, revenue and, in time, a local team.
Sales Director
Senior, often board-level commercial leadership — strategy, structure, pricing posture, pipeline discipline and team performance.
Head of Sales
Hands-on operational leadership of an existing sales team: pipeline, forecasting, coaching, process and conversion.
Commercial Manager
Pricing, margin, contracts, channel terms and the commercial mechanics that keep growth profitable rather than simply busy.
Market and business development
Appointments that open customers, territories and channels — at home and abroad.
Business Development Manager
The person who opens the market from a standing start: target accounts, first customers, early pipeline and momentum.
International / Export Sales Manager
Revenue across several overseas territories through distributors, agents and international key accounts, without a Country Manager in every market.
Regional Sales Manager
Owning a defined geography, its customer base and its distribution, with real accountability for territory growth.
Technical and specification sales
Appointments where technical credibility and commercial ability both have to be present.
Technical Sales Manager
Selling engineered or technical products credibly across a territory or account base, translating between application and factory.
Sales Engineer / Technical Sales Engineer
A technically qualified, customer-facing salesperson who works through the application and still asks for the order.
Specification Manager
Influencing architects, engineers, consultants and specifiers so a product is written into projects long before tender.
Other commercial and technical roles
Evans also supports closely related appointments where they matter to commercial growth or market development. These do not have dedicated pages, and we do not recruit outside commercial and technical sales.
Related appointments we can support
Sales Managers, Key Account Managers, Account Managers, internal sales, applications engineers, estimators, technical support roles and other specialist commercial appointments — normally alongside a senior appointment or as part of building a commercial function.
Commercial recruitment for UK business growth
A substantial part of this work has nothing to do with crossing a border. It is UK businesses that need stronger commercial capability to grow at home.
Who this is for
UK manufacturers, engineering companies, building-product businesses, construction-sector suppliers, specialist B2B organisations and, where the sale is genuinely technical, technology businesses.
Typical situations
Replacing or recruiting a Sales Director; introducing a first Head of Sales so the founder can step back; scaling an existing sales team; recruiting a Technical Sales Manager or Sales Engineers; strengthening business development; opening a new UK territory; building a specification-sales function; or putting commercial discipline around pricing and margin as the business scales.
How it differs from a generalist agency
The brief starts with your numbers: where growth has stalled, what the team converts today, what the appointment must change in twelve months. The role is then defined against that, and candidates are assessed against it — including an honest view on whether fractional leadership would serve you better first.
Recruitment that works in both directions
This is not a service for overseas businesses hiring in Britain. It is for any business hiring commercially outside the market it already knows.
Overseas manufacturers hiring into the UK
A German, French, Spanish or Nordic manufacturer establishing itself in the UK needs a first UK hire who understands British specification, distribution and contracting culture. We help define the role against the UK route to market, then find people who have genuinely done it.
UK businesses hiring in Europe
A British engineering or building-products business setting up in Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands or the Nordics needs somebody who can sell in-language and in-culture. We assess candidates against the commercial reality of that market rather than against a translated UK job description.
European businesses moving between European markets
Expansion inside Europe still crosses commercial cultures. A Scandinavian business entering Germany faces a different specification chain, a different distribution structure and different buying behaviour.
North America and Europe in either direction
Transatlantic appointments carry the largest gap between what a CV suggests and what a territory demands. Regional structures, distribution and project cycles all differ from European norms.
What makes this different from a generic agency
Commercial definition first
We start with what the market needs to achieve, not with a job title. Very often the role a business asks for is not the role the market requires.
Technical B2B fluency
Manufacturing, engineering, construction, building products and specialist B2B are the markets this consultancy already works in. We can hold a real conversation about specification, distribution and project cycles.
Assessment against the market plan
Candidates are tested against the actual commercial task — the route to market, the customers, the sales cycle — rather than against generic competency questions.
Honest counsel about the alternative
Sometimes a permanent hire is the wrong first move and an interim, fractional or agent arrangement is better. We will say so, even though it means a smaller piece of work.
Continuity with the strategy
Where we have already worked on the market entry, the person is recruited into a defined plan with a defined pipeline, not into an empty diary.
Support after the appointment
The first year of a market-entry hire is where most of them fail. Commercial support, structure and review can continue after the person starts.
The difference
We do not start with the vacancy. We start with the market.
Both approaches end with a shortlist. They rarely end with the same role.
| Traditional recruitment agency | Evans Sales Consultancy | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting point | The job description you supply | The market, route to market, customer type and commercial objective |
| Role definition | Taken as given | Derived from what the territory actually requires in the first 12–24 months |
| Search method | Database, advertising and applications | Targeted direct search and headhunting into the relevant sector in that market |
| Assessment | Against the job specification | Against the market plan: can this person open this market, through this route, at this pace? |
| Honesty about fit | A vacancy is a vacancy | We will say when the hire is premature, the territory unrealistic or the wrong role entirely |
| After appointment | Placement complete | Structure for the first year, and continuity with the wider market-entry work if you want it |
Evidence, and what we will not claim
Recruitment is a specialist capability built on this consultancy's commercial work in these markets. We publish what is genuinely ours and nothing else.
What the published evidence covers
The case studies on this site are commercial market-entry and sales growth engagements. Several involved defining commercial roles, structuring teams and deciding when a market was ready for a permanent appointment — but they are published as commercial work, not as recruitment assignments.
What we do not claim
No placement statistics, no candidate database size, no recruiter headcount, no client testimonials we have not been given, and no offices or recruitment teams in countries where Evans does not have them. Search is run personally, from the UK, into the market concerned.
How recruitment assignments will be published
As genuine assignments complete and clients agree to their publication, each will be published in a single consistent structure.
- Client situation and the market concerned
- The commercial problem behind the hire
- The role required, and why that role rather than the obvious one
- How the search and assessment were run
- The appointment made
- The commercial outcome, once it is measurable
What you can judge us on now
The commercial reasoning on these pages, the published market-entry work, and the directness of the first conversation — including our willingness to tell you the hire is premature.
No recruitment assignment will appear on this site without the client's permission and a genuine, measured outcome.
How a commercial hire is approached
01
Commercial briefing
The business, the market or territory, the route to market, the customers, the products, the realistic first-two-year objectives and the internal support the person will have.
02
Role definition
A role built around the commercial task: accountabilities, territory or team, targets, reporting line, tools and the profile that can genuinely deliver it.
03
Search and approach
Targeted identification within the relevant sectors and market, approached directly and discreetly on the strength of the commercial opportunity.
04
Commercial assessment
Structured assessment against the commercial plan — how the candidate would actually grow the business or territory, and whether their evidence supports it.
05
Shortlist and interview support
A shortlist with honest commentary, plus help running interviews that test commercial capability rather than interview technique.
06
Appointment and first-year structure
Support with offer, onboarding and the commercial plan the new appointment works to from day one.
What this is, and what it is not
What we do
- Commercial and technical B2B roles connected to market entry, territory development and UK or international sales growth.
- UK appointments for UK growth, and cross-border appointments across Europe and North America in either direction.
- Search, assessment and shortlisting built around a defined commercial objective.
- Honest advice where a hire is premature, and what to do instead.
- Continuity between the market strategy and the person appointed to deliver it.
What we do not do
- Volume or contingency recruitment across unrelated disciplines.
- Finance, HR, IT, legal or general management appointments.
- CV forwarding from a database. Every search is run for the specific role.
- Guaranteed timescales. A credible search in a narrow technical market takes as long as it takes.
- Any claim to a standing candidate network, local recruitment offices or placement statistics. This is a specialist capability, not a recruitment division.
What we need to understand before starting
The market being entered or developed, and how far the entry has already progressed.
The intended route to market: direct, distribution, agents, specification-led or a combination.
The products, their technical complexity and who has to be convinced to buy them.
What the role must achieve commercially in its first year and its first three years.
The internal support available: marketing, technical, logistics, pricing authority and leadership time.
The realistic package, including how it compares with the local market for that role.
Language requirements, travel expectations and where the person will be based.
Whether a permanent appointment is genuinely the right first commitment.
Common questions
Not in the generalist sense. Evans Sales Consultancy is a commercial growth and international market-entry consultancy with a specialist recruitment capability across three propositions: executive recruitment for board-level and senior leadership, permanent sales and commercial recruitment for established businesses, and international recruitment connected to market entry. Evans does not provide volume recruitment across unrelated disciplines — recruitment is focused on executive, sales, commercial and technically commercial appointments where we have genuine commercial expertise.
Executive leadership (permanent, interim and fractional), permanent sales and commercial roles — from Business Development Managers and Sales Engineers to National Sales Managers and Country Managers — and international appointments connected to market entry and territory development. The permanent sales and commercial roles are listed on the Sales & Commercial Recruitment page; senior Sales Director, Commercial Director and Head of Sales appointments sit within Executive Recruitment.
No. A large part of the work is UK appointments for UK businesses growing domestically. The international side works in both directions — overseas businesses hiring into the UK, and UK or European businesses hiring in Europe and North America. Every search is defined around the commercial reality of the market concerned rather than a translated home-market job description.
No. Recruitment is a standalone service. A UK company can engage us purely to recruit a Sales Director, Head of Sales, Commercial Manager, Business Development Manager, Technical Sales Manager, Sales Engineer, Specification Manager, Regional Sales Manager, International or Export Sales Manager, or a Country Manager where that is appropriate — provided the need is genuine commercial growth. Where market strategy work has already been done — by us or by you — the search is faster and sharper, because the commercial task the person is being hired to perform is already defined.
Fees depend on the role, the market and how much commercial definition work is required first, so we discuss them directly rather than publishing a percentage that would be misleading. You will have a clear written basis before any search begins.
It varies with the market and how narrow the technical requirement is. A search in a specialised sector, in-language, in a market with few genuinely qualified people, takes longer than a generalist appointment. We would rather be honest about that at the outset than promise a shortlist by a date that suits nobody.
That is a common and sensible position. Many businesses need the market assessed, the route to market established and the first opportunities developed before a permanent salary is justified. We will say when that is the case, and the market-entry work can begin instead.
We can. The first year of a market-entry appointment is where most of the risk sits. Commercial structure, pipeline review and senior support can continue alongside the new appointment where that is useful.
Where recruitment connects to the wider commercial work
Assess the market, establish the route to market and build the first pipeline before, or alongside, the hire.
Senior sales leadership for an agreed number of days a week where a full-time appointment is not yet justified.
Where the constraint is process, structure or pipeline rather than headcount, growth work often precedes the appointment.
The digital commercial infrastructure a new appointment needs behind them to be credible and generate enquiries.
Planning a commercial or technical appointment?
Tell us the business, the market or territory, and what the appointment has to achieve. We will tell you honestly whether it is the right hire, and what a credible search looks like.