When Sales Goes Global: 3 Lessons from Sales Beyond the USA

When we started expanding our GTM services beyond the United States, we originally thought we just needed to translate our messages and apply the same best practices that drove results.

We were wrong.

Breaking into international markets taught us that GTM strategies vary by culture, behavior, and sales norms. But it also reinforced why building the most flexible AI SDR – one that you can adjust to different markets – matters.

To that end, here are 3 key lessons we learned about sales outside the US.

TLDR

• The goal: Run sales that targets a global audience
• The tactic: Adjust your GTM outreach and practices to reflect the market
• The result: Book demos with non-US audiences and fill your calendar on US holidays

Lesson #1: GTM isn’t one-size-fits-all across countries

When we launched our partnership program last year, it opened up opportunities for us to put GTM plays into action around the world.

Spanish. Portuguese. Polish. German. Japanese.

To name a few.

But this expansion taught me something critical. Good GTM strategies vary dramatically by country and culture.

Take Japan, for instance.

Here are a few insights I’ve gained by helping run GTM in Japan:

• HubSpot use is surprisingly low compared to Western companies
• LinkedIn outreach is not a very popular channel
• Formal openings are better at conversion than casual

The most eye-opening part? 

Watching AiSDR book meetings in languages I can’t even read. 

There’s no more powerful demonstration of AI’s potential in sales than seeing AiSDR successfully engage prospects in languages aside from English.

Lesson #2: Best practices aren’t “universal”

What works in San Francisco might easily fail in Frankfurt, and vice versa.

In other words, best practices aren’t the same for different locations.

Case in point: We helped a German customer run a targeted micro-campaign that saw 2 meetings booked out of 50 emails.

The opening line that delivered these results?

Dear [name], I hope this email finds you well.

Crazy, right? 

This flies directly in the face of today’s latest “accepted wisdom” in sales outreach, which insists that good sales copy is:

• Ultra-short (think Justin Michael Method)
• Casual and conversational
• Optimized for mobile
• Straight to the point

And finishes with a soft call to action.

This disconnect happens because these “universal” best practices are actually localized to:

• US-based sales
• B2B tech companies
• Audiences already accustomed to sales messaging

So when you see an email with a formal opening line convert, it reminds you how much we live in a LinkedIn bubble. After all, what’s considered outdated in Silicon Valley (and by extension the United States) can actually be seen as respectful and professional elsewhere.

The key takeaway?

Question every “best practice” when you’re expanding globally. Your target audience’s cultural context matters far more than the latest sales trends on LinkedIn.

Lesson #3: Cultures approach holidays differently

Our end-of-year sales push taught us an interesting lesson about global business rhythms – work cultures treat holidays very differently across regions. 

Our European campaigns effectively went into hibernation from December 23rd to January 6th.

For instance, I asked a prospect on Friday (December 20th) if they could reschedule our call to the following Monday (December 23rd). They replied that we would need to reconnect in January because they were out of office for the next two weeks.

And this wasn’t just a one-off. This was the norm for many of our prospects in Europe.

Meanwhile, in the US, the contrast was striking. People were actively pinging me directly on LinkedIn for demo time slots even on December 24th and 26th. The Christmas break barely seemed to register.

Japan showed a similar commitment to end-of-year business activity as prospects were booking time slots on December 24th and even New Year’s Eve.

In the coming months, I foresee bookings fluctuating for region-specific holidays.

For example, I expect our Japanese pipeline will freeze during Japan’s Golden Week in April-May. Similarly, countries like France and Denmark will have a huge slowdown in August.

The strategic implication?

Build your sales outreach while keeping regional rhythms in mind. This will not only ensure resources don’t go to waste (why send an email if you have reason to believe the person’s not working?), but you’ll be able to focus better on locations that are continuing to operate as expected.

Result

Expanding beyond the US market taught us a lot about international sales and powering GTM strategies in other countries. It’s not about translating your message. It’s about transforming your approach.

What once seemed like “challenging” areas are now producing results, simply because we learned to approach sales like a local, even if it meant adopting communication styles that broke what we thought was best practice.

More importantly, when you demonstrate genuine respect and understanding for local customs and communication preferences, you stop being just another vendor. Instead, you transcend the role of vendor and become a true GTM partner who understands their world.

This further seems to underscore the importance of GTM engineers who can blend AI capabilities with savvy, nuanced cultural intelligence.

As AI continues to reshape sales, the AI SDRs that win won’t have just the best algorithms. They’ll have the deepest understanding of the humans on the receiving end.