Remaining flexible and growing your business internationally: insights and advice from Vincent Coirier, Head of Sales at Partoo

Partoo, a B2B SaaS company, focuses on enhancing retailers' visibility and customer engagement through a suite of innovative services. From distributing business information across 15 websites to leveraging AI-driven review management and centralized messaging tools, Partoo ensures retailers can manage their online presence and customer interactions efficiently.

Vincent Coirier, the Head of Sales at Partoo, has helped scale the company from a modest team of seven to a global workforce of 400 employees, growing its revenue from €300k to €30 million. Vincent, who also manages the entire sales team, grew it from zero to 100 Sales/BDR/KAM professionals from 25 nationalities, selling in 50 countries across the world. Under his leadership, the team handles complex sales cycles ranging from €10k to €700k.

This article delves into Vincent’s actionable advice for founders and SaaS teams, offering insights from his experience on international expansion, sales strategies, metrics, and content to foster business growth.‍

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Partoo’s focuses

Partoo is a solution that helps retailers maintain accurate and consistent online information, such as opening hours, GPS coordinates, and contact details, across multiple platforms. 

Vincent explains how this service simplifies the management of online data, saving retailers time and ensuring their information is always up-to-date. This enhances visibility and attracts more customers. Partoo’s AI-driven system also automates the collection and response to customer reviews to help businesses maintain a positive online reputation.

Additionally, Partoo’s messaging tool consolidates messages from platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, and website chat into a single interface to improve response times and customer service.

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Scaling sales teams internationally

One of Partoo's main strengths was expanding its teams worldwide and building a strong global presence.

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Building a global sales team

Vincent’s strategic approach to scaling the sales team at Partoo was both methodical and expansive. Initially, the focus was on establishing a strong foundation in France, which served as a base for further international expansion. 

Later, Vincent pushed the company’s growth into Iberia, Italy, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa, and eventually the rest of Europe. This phased approach ensured that each new market was entered with a solid strategy and a clear understanding of the local business environment.

He explains that this expansion required a strong hiring strategy that prioritized diversity and cultural fit. Vincent brought together a diverse team of 400 people from 25 nationalities, recognizing that a multicultural team could offer a wider range of perspectives and ideas. This diversity enriched the company culture and improved their ability to understand the needs of clients in various regions. Vincent highlights that adapting to different cultural norms and business practices is crucial to building an effective global team.

In addition, adaptability was key to the success of this expansion. Partoo ensured that team members were flexible and open to new ways of working, which helped in overcoming the challenges posed by different markets. By fostering an environment where cultural differences were seen as strengths, Partoo was able to create a unified and motivated global sales team.

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Centralized vs. decentralized expansion

Vincent decided to centralize Partoo’s operations in Paris while expanding internationally, which allowed for centralized training to align all team members with the company’s core values and methodologies. 

This approach facilitated a consistent onboarding process, as the team members were immersed in the company culture with comprehensive training before being deployed to various regions.

This centralized model offers several benefits, including : 

• maintaining a unified company culture ;
• streamlining communication and coordination ;
• optimizing resource allocation ;
• enhancing operational efficiency. 

By having a central hub, Partoo made sure that all regional teams had access to the same tools and support systems, making it easier to implement company-wide initiatives, respond quickly to issues, and scale operations.

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Adapting to different markets

Managing sales teams across various markets can be a challenge for SaaS founders. Vincent advises creating a unified sales methodology while taking into account regional differences. At Partoo, a sales framework that provided a structured approach to selling was implemented but remained flexible enough to adapt locally. This ensured that all sales teams operated under a common strategy, which facilitated training and performance tracking while allowing them to address the specific needs of local markets.

Additionally, the company encouraged local teams to adapt the framework to fit their contexts. Doing so, Partoo ensured that stronger relationships with clients and partners were built in each region.

Vincent’s strategy also involved continuous feedback and adaptation. Regional teams should be encouraged to share insights or best practices to constantly improve strategies. That is how Partoo remains agile and responsive to market changes.

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How to implement effective sales strategies?

Selecting the appropriate sales methodology is vital for your company’s success. 

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MEDDIC sales process

Partoo adopted the MEDDIC sales framework from the outset, to have a structured approach to sales.

But what is MEDDIC? It is a sales methodology designed to help sales teams qualify and close complex deals more effectively, especially complex B2B ones. Here’s a breakdown of MEDDIC and how it can enhance your business:

1. Metrics: You should focus on understanding the goals and KPIs your customers want to achieve. Based on these indicators, you tailor your solutions to the client’s specific needs.

2. Economic buyers: Engage with the person who has the ultimate decision-making authority. This way, you will deal with someone who can approve the purchase.

3. Decision criteria: Understanding the criteria the customer uses to evaluate your product or service is primordial. This means knowing what features, benefits, and specifications are most important to them.

4. Decision process: Gaining insight into the customer’s decision-making process (timelines, approval procedures, and stakeholders involved) will help in aligning your sales process with the customer’s buying process.

5. Identify pain points: Identify the challenges the customer is experiencing that your product or service can address to show why they need your solution.

6. Champion: Look for and support an internal advocate within the customer's organization who believes in your solution and will promote it internally.

Vincent also shares an important note: implement a good methodology from the start of your journey!

Natural Selling

Additionally to the MEDDIC method, Vincent wrote his own sales methodology, which he calls a "natural-selling" approach - it’s all about authentic interactions instead of rehearsed sales pitches. By doing so, your sales conversations will feel more genuine, and it will be easier to build trust with potential customers.

Here's how you can apply it: encourage your sales team to listen actively and respond to the unique needs and concerns of each potential customer, stepping away from the strict scripts. This is key for long-term relationships and customer loyalty.

Focus on delivering value from the first interaction: Vincent believes that every conversation should provide real value. Understanding your customer's business not only sets you apart but also increases successful conversions and customer satisfaction.

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Measuring success

Standardized metrics are essential for evaluating sales performance and ensuring consistency across all regions. Partoo focuses on key metrics such as:

• The M1s: the business outcomes you have delivered for your existing customers;
• The opportunity conversion rate: the percentage of leads that convert to opportunities;
• The win rate: the percentage of won contracts against the total number of deals you pursue;
• Deal loss analysis: Partoo also focuses on analyzing at which stage opportunities are lost, particularly between the first and second stages. This helps in identifying trends and implementing targeted strategies to address specific issues, rather than generic training.

These metrics provide criteria for measuring success and helping the sales team gauge how effectively they are converting interest into opportunities and ultimately closing deals. By tracking these metrics, Vincent can identify areas of improvement and implement better strategies.

According to Vincent, having consistent metrics to track across different regions is crucial for maintaining a good standard of performance within all teams.

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Creating and using content

Vincent identifies two types of content: one that will help with branding and the other that will help create leads.

For example, Partoo created informative content and organized webinars on industry changes like the Digital Marketing Act, a recently adopted European law meant to lessen the GAFAM’s power in Europe. Vincent says these events, gathering about 500 participants, won’t trigger any leads in the short term.

To scale on this, Partoo’s sales teams, coordinated by marketing, produce articles or webinars in a way that reflects their natural selling approach. For lead-generating content, they focus on relevant industry updates, such as Google’s transition to Google SGE (Search Generative Engine) with AI enhancements. These webinars, drawing up to 800 participants, effectively generate leads and strengthen Partoo’s market credibility. 

Vincent’s strategy involves integrating content into every stage of the sales funnel, to ensure continuous engagement and value delivery.

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Maximizing content ROI 

Content marketing ROI is a percentage that indicates the revenue generated from content marketing efforts compared to the expenses incurred.

💡 It is calculated using the formula: ROI = (Revenue - Investment ÷ Investment) x 100=

Repurposing content in multiple formats is key to maximizing ROI, and Vincent offers actionable strategies to achieve this. Start by identifying high-performing content, like popular articles. Transform these into webinars to delve deeper into the topics with real-time audience interaction. Then, extract key points from the webinars to create podcast episodes, offering a convenient audio format.

Next, compile the insights from articles, webinars, and podcasts into comprehensive white books, which provide in-depth value. Promote these formats across various channels: share webinars on social media, highlight podcast quotes, and offer white books as downloadable resources on your website.

For Vincent, continuous audience engagement is really important. You can also follow up through email campaigns, inviting your audience to access the new formats and provide feedback. This strategy ensures content remains relevant and impactful, maximizing its reach and value.

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Approaching large clients

To secure enterprise clients, Vincent advises starting with localized prospecting to understand each market’s specific needs. This involves detailed research and targeted outreach. Once you have localized insights, you should then coordinate global efforts.

Furthermore, building long-term relationships is essential in enterprise sales. 

Vincent’s strategy includes:

1. Regular updates: Make sure your business shares consistent communication, such as monthly check-in or quarterly reviews.

2. Value-add interactions: Provide tailored solutions and proactive support.

3. Ongoing engagement: Ensure that you support client success even after the initial sale.

By following these steps, you can secure and maintain enterprise clients, create long-term partnerships, and drive growth.

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Vincent Coirier’s insights from his years of experience and his journey with Partoo are invaluable for SaaS founders looking to grow internationally.

Scaling a global sales team, as Vincent did at Partoo, involves a strategic mix of centralized operations and local market adaptation. By focusing on cultural fit and centralized training, he maintained a unified company culture while addressing regional needs effectively.

Vincent also highlights that content strategy is very important for business growth. His approach involves creating both branding and lead-generating content and repurposing it across multiple formats to maximize ROI. His methods for securing enterprise clients, with regular updates and value-added interactions, ensure long-term partnerships and success. These strategies provide a clear methodology for SaaS founders aiming to expand their market presence.