International recruitment
The right commercial person, in the right market, at the right time.
Recruitment for businesses entering, establishing or expanding a market — carried out by people who have built those markets commercially, not by a generalist agency working from a job specification.
Why recruitment sits alongside market entry
International recruitment at Evans Sales Consultancy means identifying, assessing and helping appoint the commercial and technical people a business needs to enter, establish or grow a new market — a Country Manager, Sales Director, Business Development Manager, Specification Manager, Technical Sales Manager, Regional Sales Manager or Commercial Manager. It works in both directions: overseas businesses hiring into the UK, and UK businesses hiring in Europe or North America.
A market-entry strategy eventually reaches the same point. Somebody has to be in the territory: talking to specifiers, managing distributors, chasing projects, holding the relationships and carrying the number. Until that person exists, the plan is still a plan.
That hire is unusually difficult. The person needs the technical understanding to be credible with engineers and specifiers, the commercial discipline to build a pipeline from nothing, and enough autonomy to operate a long way from head office. 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 that market in its first two years, what route to market it must operate through, and therefore what kind of person can genuinely deliver it.
Roles we recruit for
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.
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.
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.
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.
Regional Sales Manager recruitment
Regional Sales Manager recruitment means appointing the person accountable for customers, distribution and revenue growth within a defined geographic territory.
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
Roles we recruit for
Commercial and technical roles connected to market entry, territory development and B2B sales growth. These are the appointments that decide whether an expansion produces revenue.
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 commercial leadership for a territory or business unit — strategy, structure, pipeline discipline and team performance.
Business Development Manager
The person who opens the market from a standing start: target accounts, first customers, early pipeline and momentum.
Specification Manager
Influencing architects, engineers, consultants and specifiers so a product is written into projects long before tender.
Technical Sales Manager
Selling engineered or technical products credibly, translating between the customer's application and the factory.
Regional Sales Manager
Owning a defined geography, its customer base and its distribution, with real accountability for territory growth.
Commercial Manager
Pricing, margin, contracts, channel terms and the commercial mechanics that keep growth profitable rather than simply busy.
Supporting commercial and technical roles
Internal sales, estimating, technical support and applications engineering roles where they are essential to making a new market work.
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.
How an international hire is approached
01
Commercial briefing
The market, 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, targets, reporting line, tools and the profile that can genuinely deliver it.
03
Search and approach
Targeted identification within the relevant sectors and territory, approached directly and discreetly on the strength of the commercial opportunity.
04
Commercial assessment
Structured assessment against the market plan — how the candidate would actually open the 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 sales growth.
- Roles in the UK, 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
No. Evans Sales Consultancy is a commercial growth and international market-entry consultancy. International recruitment is a specialist capability offered because businesses entering new markets repeatedly need the right commercial person on the ground, and generic agencies struggle to assess that role properly. We do not operate a general recruitment division.
Commercial and technical roles connected to market entry and territory growth: Country Managers, Sales Directors, Business Development Managers, Specification Managers, Technical Sales Managers, Regional Sales Managers, Commercial Managers and closely related technical commercial roles.
Yes. The service 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 destination market rather than a translated home-market job description.
No. Recruitment can be commissioned on its own. 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.
The digital commercial infrastructure a new appointment needs behind them to be credible and generate enquiries.
Planning a hire in a market you do not yet know well?
Tell us the market, the role and what it has to achieve. We will tell you honestly whether it is the right hire, and what a credible search looks like.