The Old Way vs. the New Way
of Hiring Sales and Techs in Europe
Meta: Take your start-up to the next level overseas with a managed hiring service.
The concept of becoming a Global brand is understandably enticing. After all, 35% of software revenues comes from offering software and services overseas, you can achieve greater brand recognition while increasing your revenue potential and market share.
However, for US start-ups looking to establish themselves in Europe, this path to success is not always straightforward. For example, they often face many challenges when it comes to hiring the multi-skilled multilingual talent, especially when hiring sales personnel and technical staff.
By and large, these difficulties can be attributed to the recruitment processes, packages offered and employment laws in the various regions rather than a lack of available talent.
The Old Way
The ‘Old’ way of recruiting critical Go To Market roles for startups in Europe for US companies was, quite simply, the traditional recruitment process. That is, simply posting advertisements in LinkedIN or on local job boards and waiting for the applications to roll in.
While there are plenty of active job seekers in Europe, studies suggest that “candidates are 40% more likely to apply for a job at a company in which they recognize the brand compared to a company they have not heard of.” As a result, companies that are start-ups are unlikely to gain the traction they deserve. For example, if a candidate is choosing between two near-identical roles, (Orca or Wiz) they are more likely to opt for a brand they are familiar with, due to the fact it appears more ‘trustworthy’.
Furthemore, the simple process of sorting through referrals and LinkedIN job applications can be incredibly time-consuming, especially in the current market. For example, approximately 42% of applicants for any given role will not have the required skills or experience. This leaves companies in a difficult position – to keep searching or hire inexperienced candidates and offer more training – both of which can be a drain upon resources. Furthermore, hiring ‘non domain’ staff is not always an option, especially for technical roles that require both domain knowledge and exceptional commercial understanding.
Many startups attempting to scale internationally will also consider sending over employees from the US to work in Europe. However, regulations and VISA requirements can sometimes make this difficult or at least delay the process. This is less than ideal for companies who need to scale and fulfil their roles urgently to be the first mover in their market.
Overall, the old hiring method, when used in this instance, makes the hiring process more complex, costly, and time-consuming, as vital positions are left open for months on end allowing market share to go to your competition. Worse still, the available talent is ‘mishired’ leading to non performance and huge exit costs in time, money and market opportunity.
The New Way
Fortunately, if you’re looking to scale your software company to Europe, using a different type of hiring company can save you a great deal of time, energy, and money, while ensuring you hire the top 20% of the candidate pool for your team.
For example, Zero-Tough GTM services can help you with the whole hiring campaign, which includes tasks such as:
- Recruiting. Identifying and connecting with top talent within your domain such as leading sales representatives or pre-sales techs. As a result, you can carry out fewer interviews and connect and hire a higher calibre of candidates. We recruit a team for each client, with the client involved in the process and they own the decision on who to hire.
- Hiring. Processing job offers, contracts, and agreements so that your team is ready and able to work as soon as you have established yourself in Europe. We place the team on our payroll.
- Paying. Ensuring systems are in place to ensure employees are paid on time, alongside supporting contract negotiations before job offers are signed.
- Complying. Working overseas means complying with the relevant labour and employment laws – and a managed service provider will ensure that every box is ticked.
- Transferring. When the revenue starts to flow in the region you can transfer the teams to your local entity. Maintaining client relationships and your IP.
The main benefit associated with using the approach is the speed at which positions are filled across Europe.
After all, when a role is unfilled, you are losing out on expertise and support, but you’re putting the rest of your staff on the path to burnout as they work to pick up the slack or to carry out sales in International regions that fall beyond their job description.
However, hiring fears are somewhat mitigated when you enlist the help of a service like Zero-Touch GTM as “89% of talent say being contacted by their recruiter can make them accept a job offer faster.” Over time, this can save you a great deal of money as they’re able to start working right away, meaning that each and every role within your company is filled!
Furthermore, utilising a managed hiring service enables you to connect with the best of the best talent in the region. Onboarding them quickly with less cost reaching your revenue goals and market share faster than your competitor.