"We're going to the UK and the US." I hear that in one breath from New Zealand founders, as if the two are a single English-speaking bucket you can sell into the same way. They aren't. Same language, yes. Same sales job, no. The mistakes that lose you a deal in London are not the ones that lose you a deal in Chicago, and the way you'd resource each is different too.
I've spent 20 years selling B2B technology and leading revenue teams into both markets, so let me save you some expensive lessons. Here's what actually changes when you point a New Zealand product at the UK versus the US.
Start with the size gap, because it changes everything
The US is a different order of scale. It has roughly 340 million people and a US$30.8 trillion economy; the UK has about 69.6 million people and a US$4.0 trillion economy (countryeconomy.com, 2025). That makes the US around five times the UK's population and nearly eight times its economy.
This isn't trivia - it decides how you sell. You can hold a picture of "the UK" in your head. It's largely one country, heavily centred on London, with one regulatory system. "The US market" is a fiction you sell into: fifty states, a dozen real sub-industries, and more competitors than you can name. In the UK you can pick a segment and cover it. In the US, if you try to sell to "American companies", you'll be nobody to everybody. You have to own one narrow slice - a vertical, a region, a single use case - before you earn the right to widen.
How buyers buy - pace and posture
American buyers tend to engage faster and are more willing to back a newcomer, as long as the return on investment is sharp and you carry yourself with confidence. They'll take the meeting. But they expect you to lead - a clear "why you", clear numbers, and a next step every time. Momentum matters, and they'll quietly drop a vendor who dithers.
British buyers are more reserved and more driven by proof and pragmatism. Hype lands badly. They want evidence, references, and a sensible ROI story, and they take longer to say yes - but they mean it when they do. Procurement can be process-heavy, and being over-sold is a fast way to lose trust.
The simplest tell: in the US you're usually selling against other vendors. In the UK you're more often selling against "do nothing" and internal caution.
How each judges a vendor from the other side of the world
Both markets quietly ask the same question: can these people actually support us from all the way over there? The answer that works is proof that looks like them. A US buyer wants a reference customer that resembles their size and sector, ideally in-region, and eventually some local presence or at least US-hours support. A UK buyer wants references they recognise and a track record that reads as low-risk.
And the distance isn't just a feeling. New Zealand sits roughly 11 to 13 hours ahead of the UK and 16 to 19 hours ahead of the US mainland (timeanddate.com). Your working day barely overlaps either. That shapes who you hire, when, and how you cover support - long before it shows up in a sales forecast.
What it costs to serve each from New Zealand
The quiet trap in the UK is cost to serve. It's a smaller economy than the US, deal sizes are often more modest, and the time-zone gap plus travel makes every high-touch deal expensive to run from Auckland or Christchurch. You can win in the UK and still watch the margin disappear into servicing it. Build the cost of distance into your pricing and your delivery model from day one - don't discover it in year two.
The US is expensive in a different way: more competitors, a higher cost to win each customer, and pressure to put people on the ground sooner. It rewards a sharp niche and punishes a broad one. Going in without a real wedge is the quickest way to burn cash with nothing to show for it.
So which one suits your company?
Lean UK if your strength is proof and a pragmatic ROI story, your product suits a centralised, London-heavy buyer, and you can serve at a cost the deal size actually supports.
Lean US if you have a genuinely sharp niche, real differentiation, the capital and appetite for a crowded fight, and ideally some early pull - an inbound lead, a design partner, a warm introduction - in one specific slice.
And if you have neither a distance-proof way to deliver nor a sharp niche yet, the honest answer is often neither, not yet. Prove the engine somewhere closer and cheaper first - usually Australia - then carry a tested engine into whichever of these two fits.
Not sure the UK or the US is your fight yet?
My free International Readiness Scorecard - about 20 minutes, self-scored, instant - tells you whether your commercial foundations are ready to travel, before you pick a market and pour budget into it.
Take the free scorecard → Or map your options with the Foundation Diagnostic →Market-size figures (2025, countryeconomy.com): United States population approximately 340 million (339,989,000) and GDP approximately US$30.8 trillion (US$30,769,700 million); United Kingdom population approximately 69.6 million (69,554,275) and GDP approximately US$4.0 trillion (US$3,994,694 million). US-to-UK multiples: 339,989,000 ÷ 69,554,275 ≈ 4.9x population; 30,769,700 ÷ 3,994,694 ≈ 7.7x economy. Time-zone gaps: New Zealand runs roughly 11 to 13 hours ahead of the United Kingdom and 16 to 19 hours ahead of the United States mainland, depending on daylight saving (timeanddate.com). The buying-culture differences described here are drawn from my own experience selling and leading revenue teams into both markets, not a single study.