Initiative · Goal
Winning new customers
Referrals are a stroke of luck. Not a sales strategy.
More qualified enquiries and new contracts through prospecting, outreach, campaigns, events, partners and tenders, depending on market and offer.
The situation
“We need more new customers.”
New business used to arrive almost by itself: through referrals, regular customers and a good reputation. Now that's no longer enough, and nobody has actively gone after orders in a long time.
Now things get tried: a few ads, a trade fair, a bought-in address list for sales. Each measure runs for a few weeks, brings little and gets dropped again.
What's left is the feeling that nothing works in your market anyway.
Where it often goes wrong.
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Channel before target group
First the channel is fixed, then someone asks who it's actually meant to reach. Without a clear target profile, even the best channel falls flat.
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Following up too late
Contacts from trade fairs or the website sit in an inbox and wait. By the time someone gets back to them, a competitor has already sent a proposal.
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Two departments, two ways of counting
Marketing counts leads, sales counts orders, and the two talk past each other. Without a shared definition of a qualified lead, good contacts get lost in between.
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Leaving tenders to others
Many large contracts, public and private, are put out to tender. If formalities and deadlines put you off, you never show up in these processes at all.
Which disciplines work together here.
3 of 13 disciplines, one team, one point of contact. Every service has a clear role, and you decide which ones we take on.
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D02 Sales
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Defines which companies are worth pursuing and researches the right contacts there.
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Approaches target companies within the legal framework, qualifies their needs and books meetings.
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Runs first meetings, proposals and negotiations through to closing, alone or with your sales team.
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Finds suitable tenders, assesses the odds and prepares complete bids on time.
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D03 Marketing
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Places ads where the target group is searching and steers budget by enquiries, not clicks.
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Builds visibility for the terms companies use when they look for offers like yours.
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Writes articles and guides that answer real questions and give sales a reason to call.
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Plans trade fairs and your own events, and makes sure every contact gets followed up.
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Keeps prospects warm by email and hands them to sales once they're ready to buy.
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D01 Business Development
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Opens doors at a few strategic target companies that broad outreach doesn't reach.
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Wins partner companies that recommend your offer to their customers or co-sell it.
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You decide the scope.
A good start is often a single channel for a clearly defined target group, such as outbound or a trade fair. Equally possible: one tender, following up existing leads or the whole route to closing. More gets added once it's clear what works.
Good questions. Straight answers.
Do you promise a fixed number of meetings?
No. How many conversations come about depends on market, offer and timing, not just on outreach. Anyone promising fixed meeting numbers tends to book conversations with no real need behind them.
What we do commit to is something else: a clear target profile, clean execution and open figures for every step.
Do you know in advance which channel will work?
Not for certain, but with good reasons. Target profile, competitors and past figures show where a first test is worthwhile. After that, results decide which channel gets more budget.
If the website gets visits but hardly any enquiries, look at the online presence first.
Do you handle the sales conversations too?
Yes, if you'd like. We run meetings, proposals and negotiations through to closing, on your behalf or together with your team. If this is to become your own sales function that does it all long term, building sales is the right initiative.
Is cold outreach to companies even allowed?
Yes, within limits. In Germany, calls and emails follow different rules, and advertising emails usually stricter ones.
We stay within that framework and only work with data collected in line with the GDPR. In cases of doubt, a law firm we appoint on your behalf checks the details.
Do we need a big marketing budget for this?
No. Outbound, tenders and partnerships mainly cost working time and hardly any media spend. Ads only come in once it's clear they pay off.
You set the limits, and you get the figures regularly.
Proof first. Contract second.
In the free Initiative Check, we listen for 45 minutes and ask the questions that usually only come up after the contract is signed. Then you get a short written assessment: what we see, how we would go about it and roughly what it would take.
No obligation. And if we're not the right fit, we'll tell you.
Or write to us at hello@intoops.com.