Skip to content

International

Sales hiring across borders

Adroit is based in Oxfordshire and works across the UK, and a growing share of our work crosses borders: overseas businesses building a UK commercial team, and UK businesses selling into new markets. The assessment is the same everywhere. The market advice is not.

Tell us who you're hiringTalk through a team build

How we work internationally

We take on international searches where we can genuinely map the market and give you reliable advice on salary, seniority and expectation. Where we cannot, we say so and point you at someone local. We would rather turn a brief down than run it badly.

Situations

Where cross-border hiring usually starts

These are the four conversations we have most often. Each one needs a different first hire.

Overseas businesses launching in the UK

A US or European company opening a UK function usually needs one credible early seller more than it needs a team. We help decide whether that person is a closer, a country lead or a founder-adjacent generalist, and we brief candidates honestly about what does not exist locally yet.

UK businesses expanding into new markets

Selling into a market and selling from inside it are different jobs. We work through where local presence genuinely changes conversion, and where a remote seller with the right language and time zone is enough.

Distributed and remote-first revenue teams

For teams hiring on capability rather than postcode, we widen the search across time zones and assess for the self-management and written communication that remote selling actually requires.

Building an international sales function

Several markets, sequenced. Which market first, which profile leads it, and what has to be true before the second country starts.

What we will tell you straight

Cross-border hiring goes wrong in predictable ways

  • Hiring a very senior country lead to do hands-on selling, then wondering why no pipeline appeared.
  • Anchoring a package to head-office salary bands that do not compete locally.
  • Assuming a seller who succeeded in a mature home market can build from nothing abroad.
  • Opening a second market before the first one has a repeatable motion.
  • Treating language fluency as a substitute for having sold to that buyer.

Local roots

Still an Oxfordshire business

Our home market matters. Oxfordshire and London are where we know the most people, the most buyers and the most realistic salary levels. International capability is an extension of that, not a replacement for it.

Sales recruitment in OxfordshireSales recruitment in London

Common questions

International hiring, answered

Can you recruit outside the UK?
Yes, for Sales and GTM roles where we can run a credible search. We are honest about the difference between a market we can genuinely map and one where you would be better served locally, and we will say which is which before you commit to anything.
How do you handle salary expectations in a market you do not know?
We benchmark against live data and comparable searches, and we flag where a UK-anchored package will not compete. If the budget will not attract the profile you have described, you will hear that in the first conversation.
Do you employ people on our behalf?
No. Adroit is a recruitment company, not an employer of record. Where you need an EOR or a local entity we will tell you and stay out of the parts that are not ours.

Next step

Hiring in international markets?

Pick the shape of the hire, or look at the roles and live vacancies we work on.

Permanent recruitmentOne hire at a timeTeam buildsSeveral connected hiresExecutive searchOne leadership mandate
Roles we recruitHow we assess candidatesLive vacancies

Hiring in a market you do not know yet?

Tell us the market and the role. We will tell you whether we can run it properly, and what the realistic package looks like.

Tell us who you're hiringBrowse live roles