Europe is not one market. It is a set of markets that differ in data availability, in the rules for approaching businesses cold, in the language decisions are made in, and in pace. Any company that wants to expand B2B sales across Europe therefore answers a selection question first and a sales question second. Where you find companies is the easy part: national business registers, pan European directories such as Europages, and networks such as the Enterprise Europe Network. What matters more is what those sources cannot do. They show you companies that want to be visible or are actively looking for a partner. Most of your future customers are in neither group.
Directories and networks are a cheap and useful starting point, but they lead you to a self selected minority: firms already looking for a partner. The majority of your future customers never register a profile anywhere and will never look for you. What decides the outcome is not the source, but choosing one market and making the first call in its language.
Where do you find companies when selling across Europe?
There are three usable starting points, each answering a different question.
The first is the Enterprise Europe Network, a cross border network that supports small and medium sized companies wanting to grow internationally. The European Commission launched it in 2008. It brings together around 600 organisations across all EU member states and in more than 20 other partner countries, which makes it the largest SME support network. Behind it stand over 3,000 experts from more than 600 member organisations, including chambers of commerce, technology parks, innovation support organisations, universities and institutes, and regional development bodies. For a first move across a border that matters: you speak to someone on the ground who knows the market.
The second is the same network’s partnering opportunities database. It holds profiles of companies, institutes and universities looking for partners, including firms explicitly seeking business or sales partners. It is the most direct matchmaking a public body offers, and it costs nothing but time.
The third is directories and national registers. Europages is a European B2B directory and marketplace, useful for scanning who supplies what across borders. National business registers are the most reliable source of company data, but access and quality vary widely. For market size and structure, Eurostat structural business statistics give you the framing.
| Source | What it gives you | Limits |
|---|---|---|
| Enterprise Europe Network | Advice and local contacts in all EU states and over 20 partner countries | Works case by case and does not hand you a target list |
| Partnering opportunities database | Profiles of companies, institutes and universities seeking partners, including sales partners | Contains only organisations that registered themselves |
| Europages | A European B2B directory and marketplace for scanning suppliers | You see who wants to be seen, with no signal about need |
| National business registers | The most reliable company data per country | Access, scope and cost differ substantially by country |
| Eurostat business statistics | The structure of a market by industry and company size | No individual companies you can approach |
Why registers and rules differ from country to country
Three neighbouring markets show how different the starting position is before a single call.
- Germany. The statistical business register recorded around 3.5 million legal units in 2024. How we work in that market is described on our Germany page.
- Netherlands. The KVK Handelsregister holds over 3.7 million registrations and also publishes a free open data set. Access to company data is noticeably easier there, as our Netherlands page explains.
- United Kingdom. At the start of 2025 there were an estimated 5.7 million private sector businesses, of which 99.9 percent were small and medium sized. A very broad market made up of many small units, see our United Kingdom page.
Three neighbours, three completely different starting positions. In one country you download an open data set, in the next the structure is entirely different. Treating one country’s data work as a template for the next costs you weeks.
The rules for approaching businesses by phone and email also differ by country and should be checked for the target market before any campaign starts. Our article on B2B cold calling in Germany shows how strict such rules can be. Never carry assumptions from one country into another unchecked.
Beyond data and rules, three differences show up in the first minute of a call. First, the language of the decision: English is spoken almost everywhere, but decisions are often not made in English. Second, pace and formality: in one market a thorough introduction reads as serious, in another as wasted time. Third, the channel that opens the door: sometimes the phone, sometimes email, sometimes a referral. An overview of the markets we work in sits on our markets page.
How do you choose your next European market?
The most common mistake is not picking the wrong country. It is entering five countries at once and doing each of them halfway. One market done properly beats five done in passing. Six questions are enough for a solid decision.
- Do you already have a customer, a reference or a partner there? A single satisfied customer in the country changes every first conversation. It replaces a long explanation with a name your contact can place.
- How close is your product to what that market already buys? If you have to explain a new category on top of selling, you have doubled the job. The easier market is the one where your topic already has a budget.
- How accessible is the register and how usable is the data? Open and complete data saves weeks. Restricted or patchy data is not a reason to walk away, but it belongs in the budget.
- How much of the local language do you need for first contact? This question drives both cost and timeline. You do not need a perfect answer, but you do need an honest one.
- Can you deliver and support a customer in that market? An order you cannot service properly does more harm than good, and in small markets people talk to each other.
- How long is the decision cycle and how long can you fund it? If your sales cycle runs nine months, you need to fund nine months without revenue from that market. Otherwise you stop shortly before it works.
Answer these six questions in writing for three candidate countries. In most cases the decision then makes itself.
Why your best European customers will never find you
This is the part directories and networks cannot solve. A partnering database shows you companies that are themselves looking for a partner. That is genuine, and sometimes it is exactly the right way in. It is also a small and self selected slice of the market.
Think about your best customers at home. How many of them registered a profile somewhere stating that they were looking for a supplier? In most cases, none. Those companies already have a supplier, they are busy, and it will never occur to them to search for you. They are still reachable, but only one way: someone calls them, speaks their language, and has a concrete reason for the conversation.
That is the work between a list and a meeting. It has three parts: selecting the right companies, finding the right person, and holding the conversation where real interest separates from politeness. Those steps are the substance of B2B lead generation, the lead qualification that follows, and appointment setting. A list of 3,000 companies pulled from a directory is worth less than 200 companies where you can name the reason for the call.
When you can do this yourself, and when you need a local first line
Not every company needs a partner for this. You can run it internally when three things line up: the target market is small enough to handle, someone on your team speaks the local language at business level, and that person has protected time for research and calls. With a few dozen target accounts and an existing network, outside help is unnecessary.
It looks different when you want to test several countries in parallel, when nobody on the team speaks the language at negotiation level, when results are expected this quarter, or when you do not yet know which segment carries in the target country. Building a local sales team is the most expensive and slowest way to answer those questions.
That is what market entry sales support exists for. You get a local first line without opening a local office. German, Dutch and British English are covered by native speakers, other European markets on request. Our process page sets out each step from the target group to the meeting itself, and whether a specific market is worth the effort is usually clear after one consultation.
One limit we state openly: we do not work inside your CRM. DialFox runs its own system and provides a structured handover instead, meaning contact details, notes from the conversation and the agreed next step. Your sales team takes over where it is genuinely needed.
Germany is the market most companies test first, and it is the one where the first contact decides the most. The ninety day sequence for that market is described step by step under entering the German market without a local team.
FAQ on European market entry in B2B
Is Europe one market for B2B sales?
No. Data availability, rules for cold outreach, the language decisions are made in, pace and the channel that opens doors all differ by country. A campaign built for one country rarely transfers unchanged to the next. Treat each country as its own market, with its own list, script and legal check.
Are directories and networks enough to find customers in Europe?
As a starting point yes, as a sales channel no. The Enterprise Europe Network and its partnering database connect you with organisations actively seeking a partner. That is a small share of any market. The companies with the most potential are not looking and are not listed anywhere. You reach them only by calling them.
Can we run our European outreach in English?
For being understood, usually yes. For being chosen, often not. English is widely spoken across Europe, but internal discussion happens in the local language. In first contact the question is not whether people understand you, but how seriously your interest reads. The local language opens conversations that end politely in English.
Do you work inside our CRM?
No. DialFox works in its own system and not in your CRM. You receive a structured handover with the contact details of the person we spoke to, the notes from the conversation and the agreed next step. Your team records it where it already works, without us needing access to your systems.
This article is not legal advice. Rules on approaching businesses differ by country and by channel. Have your approach checked for each target market before a campaign starts.