Construire une équipe internationale de 60 sales

How Vincent Coirier built a sales organization from scratch - from first hire to 100+ salespeople across 25 nationalities and 50 countries.

Listen on Spotify ->

WHAT IT'S ABOUT

Recorded for the Lieutenant podcast, this episode covers Vincent's full journey building the sales organization at Partoo - from joining as employee #7 at €300K ARR to leading 100+ salespeople across Europe, LATAM, and the Middle East.

Vincent breaks down the three major phases of growth: scaling the team from 7 to 50 people, then to 200; internationalizing from France to Spain and Italy, then to the rest of the world; and managing the shift from bootstrapped growth to funded acceleration. It is a rare, honest account of what it actually takes to build and lead a sales organization through each stage - not in theory, but from the inside.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

01Each stage of growth requires a completely different skill set. From 1 to 5 people, you need to be a great sales and a great coach. From 5 to 15, a great recruiter and process builder. From 20 to 60, a strategist who can delegate and build intermediate management. The mistake is trying to lead the same way at every stage.

02International expansion is not about opening offices. Partoo expanded to Spain at €300K ARR - very early - and to Italy 6 months later. The key was finding the right local operator first, then building the structure around them.

03Retention is the foundation of growth. Partoo maintained a 90 to 95% renewal rate every year from the beginning. When you are bootstrapped, predictable revenue is what allows you to recruit confidently. Growth without retention is not scalable.

04Don't ask salespeople for results - ask for the actions that lead to results. Vincent shares a concrete example of putting negative pressure on a BDR who was already making hundreds of calls on a difficult market. The lesson: timing and channel matter as much as the message.

05To progress as a sales leader, you need to stop measuring yourself by what you produce directly and start measuring yourself by what your team produces. The shift from individual contributor to coordinator is the hardest - and most important - transition in a sales career.

VINCENT'S PERSPECTIVE

I went from field sales at Fiducial to managing 70 people. The biggest thing I learned is that you never stop learning how to do the job - you just learn it at a different scale each time.

Vincent Coirier

Building an international sales team?

We've done it across France, Spain, LATAM, MENA and Italy. From first hire to full organization.

See our advisory work ->