A target list, a German script, and a bounded experiment — so the argument with Daniel gets settled by 100 conversations instead of by whoever talks longest. Commentary in English; everything you say out loud is in German.
Two things decide whether this is worth two weeks, and I can't answer either from the outside.
Where does Swelis host its data, and is there a signed AVV template ready? The single strongest wedge in the German agency market right now is data residency. There is an entire cottage industry of German blog posts explaining how to make GoHighLevel DSGVO-compliant — easyRechtssicher, ghl-experte.de, highlevelakademie.de — which tells you exactly where the market is anxious. An agency that puts its own clients' data into a white-label system carries that risk personally. If you're EU-hosted with an Auftragsverarbeitungsvertrag ready to send, say it in the first thirty seconds. If you're not, cut every DSGVO line from the script — an overclaim here is the one mistake that ends the conversation permanently.
What is the actual price? The script has a placeholder. Objection 5 falls apart without a real number.
I'm not a lawyer and this isn't a legal opinion. The UWG section below is the shape of the rules as I read them, enough to keep a 100-dial test sensible. Before you scale past a test, spend an hour with a German lawyer — it costs less than one Abmahnung.
Start with what doesn't work, because it's the obvious first move and it's a trap. Germany has excellent published agency rankings, and every one of them is the wrong size band. The BVDW Internetagentur-Ranking opens at Plan.Net with 1,859 employees. Even the owner-led ranking — which sounds exactly like your ICP — starts at Appsfactory with 386 people and €43.5M revenue, and its smallest entries are still around 100 staff. Agencies that size bought Salesforce years ago and have a procurement process. They are not switching CRMs because you called.
Your ICP — the 10-to-50-person owner-led shop where the founder picks the tools and answers the phone — appears in no ranking at all. It has to be assembled. Four sources actually produce it:
| Source | Filter | Why these convert |
|---|---|---|
| Tool partner directories HubSpot Solutions, Semrush Agency Partners, Google Partners |
Country = Germany; smallest available size tier | These agencies already manage software on behalf of clients. They've bought the concept; you're only arguing about which vendor. Also the cleanest presumed-consent case you'll ever have. |
| The GoHighLevel DACH ecosystem ghl-guide.de, go-highlevel.de, ghl-experte.de, highlevelakademie.de |
Agencies named as partners, case studies, or commenters | The highest-intent segment that exists. They already sell white-label CRM to their clients. You are not explaining a category — you're offering a German-hosted alternative to a system they already worry about. |
| Sortlist.de and Agenturmatching.de | City (Berlin, München, Hamburg, Köln, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart, Leipzig, Hannover, Nürnberg) × service | Volume, and the size band you want. Work one city at a time so the caller builds local pattern recognition. |
| BDU-Mitgliederverzeichnis | Small consultancies, regional | Your consultancy segment. Less resale-minded, but a shorter path to "we'd use this ourselves" — which is the angle you picked anyway. |
| Job postings StepStone, Indeed |
"Projektmanager" / "Account Manager" at agencies, posted in the last 60 days | A timing signal, not just a name. An agency hiring its third account manager is feeling coordination pain this quarter. That is the moment the pitch lands. |
You don't need a paid data tool for the German market. §5 DDG (the section that replaced §5 TMG in 2024) requires every commercial German website to publish an Impressum naming the company, its legal form, its Handelsregister entry, and its Vertretungsberechtigter — the managing director, by name. A phone number isn't strictly mandatory, but in practice almost every agency lists one.
So each target on your list yields, free and accurate: the decision-maker's real name, the legal entity, and a number that reaches a human. It's better data than most enrichment vendors sell, and — this is the part that matters — it gives you a truthful, reassuring answer to the objection every German prospect asks.
FirmaOrtSegmentMitarbeiter (geschätzt)WebsiteGeschäftsführerTelefonQuelle der NummerAktueller StackAnrufdatum + UhrzeitErgebnisAntwort auf die DiagnosefrageNicht mehr kontaktieren
The last three do the real work. Quelle der Nummer and Anrufdatum are your UWG paper trail. Antwort auf die Diagnosefrage is the actual output of this experiment — see the last section.
Five stages. Read it out loud twice before the first dial — the point isn't to recite it, it's that the branches are already decided so you're listening instead of composing.
Die Zentrale
Getting past the front desk. Do not pitch the gatekeeper — ask for a specific human by name, which you have from the Impressum.
„Guten Tag, Mocic mein Name, von Swelis. Ich hätte gern Frau Ostermann gesprochen."
Nothing else. No explanation, no „Ich hätte da mal eine Frage". A name plus a company name sounds like business; a preamble sounds like sales.
Auf „Worum geht es denn?": „Um die Software, mit der Sie Ihre Kundenprojekte steuern. Dafür brauche ich zwei Minuten von Frau Ostermann direkt — ist sie im Haus?"
Concrete enough to be forwarded, thin enough that it can't be judged and declined by someone who isn't the buyer.
Der Einstieg
Name the cold call before they do. German B2B buyers reward the honest frame and punish the friendly one — every second of warm-up confirms you're a telemarketer.
„Frau Ostermann, guten Tag — Ervin Mocic von Swelis. Ehrlich gesagt: ein Kaltanruf. Wenn Sie mir dreißig Sekunden geben, wissen Sie danach, ob es für Sie relevant ist. Passt das?"
Then stop talking until they answer. The silence is the whole mechanism — it converts an interruption into a small agreement, and it's the difference between the next line being heard and being endured.
„Wir bauen ein CRM speziell für Agenturen — also für Leute, die zwölf, fünfzehn Kunden parallel betreuen und das gerade über Excel, Trello und drei Mailpostfächer verteilt haben."
Die Diagnosefrage
One question, asked the same way on every call, before any pitch. It routes the conversation — and its answer is the data you're actually buying with these two weeks.
„Bevor ich weiterrede: Womit steuern Sie Ihre Kundenprojekte im Moment?"
„Das höre ich fast immer. Und der Punkt, an dem es kippt, ist meistens nicht die Zahl der Kunden, sondern der zweite oder dritte Projektmanager — ab da weiß niemand mehr, wo der Stand steht. Kennen Sie das?"
Best case. Go straight to stage 3.
„Und wie viel davon nutzen Sie tatsächlich? Die meisten Agenturen zahlen für Vertriebsfunktionen und bräuchten eigentlich Projektsteuerung."
Don't attack the incumbent. Attack the fit between an incumbent built for sales teams and a business that runs on delivery.
„Dann kennen Sie das Modell schon besser als die meisten. Eine Frage aus echtem Interesse: Wie haben Sie das mit dem Serverstandort und dem AV-Vertrag gelöst?"
Your best-qualified prospect. They've already bought white-label as a concept — so you skip the entire category pitch and land directly on the one thing that keeps them up at night. Only ask this if your own answer is genuinely better.
„Freut mich zu hören — dann halte ich Sie nicht auf. Eine letzte Frage, weil ich gerade viele Agenturen spreche: Was wäre denn das Erste, was Sie ändern würden, wenn Sie könnten?"
You've lost the sale; take the research instead. This answer is worth logging even on a no.
Der Kern — erst intern
You chose to land on internal use and expand to resale. Hold that line: resale is a bigger ask, and pitching it first makes them evaluate a business decision instead of a tool.
„Kurz, was uns unterscheidet: Swelis ist nicht als Vertriebs-CRM gebaut, sondern für den ganzen Kundenlebenszyklus einer Agentur — Angebot, Projekt, Kommunikation, Abrechnung, an einer Stelle."
Nur wenn zutreffend: „Und: gehostet in der EU, der AV-Vertrag liegt fertig vor. Sie können ihn vor dem Termin lesen."
Delete this line entirely if it isn't true today. Nothing you gain from it survives the moment an agency's own Datenschutzbeauftragter checks.
Die Erweiterung — dann Resale
Only once stage 3 has landed and they're still engaged. This is the line that turns a cost into a business case — but it's an upgrade to a live conversation, not an opener.
„Eine Sache noch, weil Sie Agentur sind: Sie können das System unter Ihrem eigenen Namen weitergeben — Ihr Logo, Ihre Domain, Ihre Kunden arbeiten darin. Aus einer Software, die Sie bezahlen, wird eine, die Sie abrechnen."
If this gets a real reaction — a question, a pause, „wie meinen Sie das?" — you've found a resale prospect and the deal size changes. Log it. If it gets a polite „interessant", drop it and close on internal use.
Der Abschluss
Ask for a short, specific, low-commitment meeting. Never „darf ich Ihnen etwas schicken" — that's a no with extra steps.
„Ich schlage zwanzig Minuten Bildschirmfreigabe vor — ich zeige Ihnen das an Ihrem eigenen Fall, nicht an einer Demo-Agentur. Passt Ihnen Donnerstagvormittag, oder ist Anfang nächster Woche besser?"
Two options, both yes. „Wann hätten Sie Zeit?" hands them the work of scheduling and they'll decline rather than do it.
Nach der Zusage: „Ich schicke Ihnen gleich die Einladung. Und falls doch etwas dazwischenkommt — schreiben Sie mir einfach kurz, dann verschieben wir."
Lowers the cost of saying yes, which raises the show-up rate.
„Woher haben Sie meine Nummer?"
„Aus dem Impressum Ihrer Website — das ist unsere einzige Quelle. Wenn Sie nicht kontaktiert werden möchten, trage ich Sie sofort und dauerhaft aus."
The essential German objection. The answer is true, it's legally reassuring, and the offer to suppress is both good manners and your UWG defence. Then actually do it, within the minute.
„Kein Interesse."
„Verstanden. Eine Frage noch, dann lasse ich Sie in Ruhe: Liegt es daran, dass Sie mit dem zufrieden sind, was Sie haben — oder haben Sie schlicht gerade keinen Kopf dafür?"
Reflexive no, not a considered one. This costs them four seconds and converts a dead call into a data point. „Keinen Kopf dafür" is a callback in six weeks; „zufrieden" is a real disqualification.
„Schicken Sie mir Unterlagen."
„Mache ich gern. Damit ich nicht das Falsche schicke: Wie viele Kunden betreuen Sie parallel? … Gut. Ich schicke es heute raus und melde mich Dienstag kurz — passt das?"
The polite German brush-off. Don't fight it — accept, use it to qualify, and attach a named follow-up so it isn't a dead end.
„Wir haben schon ein CRM."
„Das erwarte ich auch. Die Frage ist eher, ob Ihre Projektarbeit darin stattfindet oder daneben — bei den meisten Agenturen läuft das eigentliche Kundenprojekt am CRM vorbei."
Reframes from replacement (expensive, risky, unlikely) to a gap they can probably feel. Don't rubbish the incumbent; they chose it.
„Was kostet das?"
„Ab [X] € im Monat für die Agentur, unabhängig von der Kundenzahl. Ob sich das rechnet, hängt davon ab, wie viele Kunden Sie darauflegen — genau das würde ich in den zwanzig Minuten mit Ihnen durchrechnen."
Answer the number — dodging reads as expensive. Then move immediately to the meeting, where the number has context.
„GoHighLevel nutzen wir schon."
„Dann sind Sie weiter als die meisten, die ich spreche. Wie haben Sie den Serverstandort und den AV-Vertrag gelöst? Das ist genau der Punkt, an dem wir anders aufgestellt sind."
Only say the last sentence if it's true. If Swelis isn't EU-hosted, this prospect is better qualified than anyone else on your list and you have nothing to beat them with — which is itself a finding worth knowing after 100 calls.
„Ich habe jetzt keine Zeit."
„Klar, ich bin ja unangemeldet. Wann passt es besser — heute Nachmittag oder morgen früh?"
Often true and not a rejection. Two concrete options, same as the close. Don't try to squeeze the pitch in.
„Sind Sie ein Startup?"
„Ja. Deswegen sprechen Sie auch mit mir und nicht mit einem Vertriebsmitarbeiter — was Sie mir heute sagen, landet direkt im Produkt."
Being small is a liability you can only neutralise by owning it. The founder-on-the-phone fact is genuinely worth something to an agency owner, so say it plainly.
The rule that makes this whole approach work: B2B cold calls in Germany require presumed consent — a recognizable professional connection between your offer and the business you're calling. Consumers need express prior consent, which is why B2C cold calling is effectively dead in Germany.
This is the strongest argument against Daniel's original plan and the strongest argument for the narrow one. A CRM built for agencies, sold to a named agency, is about as clean a professional connection as exists. The same call to a random Mittelstand manufacturer has none — and in Germany the realistic consequence isn't the Bundesnetzagentur, it's a competitor's Abmahnung, which is cheap for them to send and expensive for you to receive.
Agree the pass mark before the first dial, otherwise you'll both read the same results as confirmation of what you already thought. One list, one script, 100 dials, two weeks.
Same list, same script. Change nothing mid-run except the branch you're using.
A planning assumption for reaching a decision-maker on an Impressum number — not a benchmark. Replace it with your own rate after week one.
Three booked screen-shares out of 100 dials means the channel works and the question becomes whether it scales past the two of you.
Every conversation, no exceptions. This is the deliverable.
Not the three meetings. At your stage the valuable output is fifteen to twenty-five German agency owners answering „Womit steuern Sie Ihre Kundenprojekte im Moment?" in their own words, with their own reasons. That's a dataset nobody can buy, it arrives in two weeks, and it costs you nothing but the dialling. Even if the channel fails on the numbers, you'll know whether the pain you built for is the pain they have — which is the more expensive question to get wrong.
Both of you dial. Fifty each, same script, same fields. If one of you converts at triple the other's rate, that's the most useful thing the experiment tells you — and it's invisible if one person does all the calling. Compare notes at 50 dials, not at 100, but change nothing until the run is done.