Type ASame product, new buyers
New market entry
A new country, or a new segment at home.
The hard part
Access: who buys, through which channel, and why they would switch from the supplier they have.
For industrial companies€20–200M · DACH and Benelux
The next market or business line is decided. Now somebody has to build it.
Your core business pays for everything, and the next growth has to come from a second engine: a new market, or a new way to earn from the customers you already have. The decision is usually made well before anyone is set up to deliver it.
I lead the launch from that decision until your team runs it without me.
- Design
- 3 months · fixed
- Fee
- From €65k
- Ends with
- Your go or no-go
- Work product
- Yours, 100%
Is this your situation?
You will recognise most of these.
- 01
The board or the owners have approved the new market or business line, and it has a line in this year's plan.
- 02
It was added to someone's existing job, next to the core business that still pays their bonus.
- 03
Sales is paid on core-business orders, so a launch deal earns less and takes longer.
- 04
Ask three people who the target buyer is, and you get three different answers.
- 05
What the new line needs to know about buyers, pricing and the offer lives in the heads of two or three people.
- 06
Six months in, there is activity: trade fairs, a website, demos. There is no repeat customer yet.
If that is where you are, the gap is around the product: owner, incentives, target buyer.
Two kinds of launch
New buyers, or a new way to earn. Some launches are both.
Type BSame customers, a new model
New business line
A service, a subscription, equipment as a service.
The hard part
The model: what the customer pays for, how risk and financing are handled, and what the channel earns.
A and B together
Both at once. The hardest, and usually the most valuable.
What Design gives you
Three months, fixed fee from €65k. It ends with your go or no-go.
Design is where I do most of the work. You receive, in writing and owned by you:
A business plan for the launch
With the targets each stage is accepted against.
The six conditions a launch needs
Set with your team, listed below.
A go or no-go decision
For you to sign, based on the plan and the conditions.
The six conditions
- 01
An owner, and the criteria the launch is accepted on
- 02
Incentives that reward the launch instead of the old business
- 03
A defined target buyer, with definitions everyone uses the same way
- 04
The model, the price and the role of the channel
- 05
An AI-ready knowledge base and the process around it, so the knowledge does not stay in a few heads
- 06
A brief for whoever runs the launch, written as a model rather than a list of tasks
Yours Everything produced in Design belongs to you from day one. There is no licence and no exit fee.
After Design
If you go ahead, the launch moves on. You pay per stage and can stop at any acceptance.
- 01 Design
Three months. The plan, the six conditions and your go or no-go.
- 02 Prove
Your team or an execution partner runs the first launches. I lead, report to you and keep the internal stakeholders aligned. You accept it twice: on the first market response (the first qualified meetings, trials or orders, measured against the targets set in Design), then on repeat orders.
- 03 Scale
The launch is carried across the whole market with your people.
- 04 Transfer
I step out, and you sign it off when nothing depends on me.
Fees after Design are set in the proposal letter.
How the stages run, in a method I call Launch to OwnWhy not hire a country manager first?
You would find out after a year, at a full salary, whether the market is there. When that person leaves, the market leaves with them.
Design gives you a go or no-go after three months, and the plan, the conditions and the knowledge base are written down and yours. If a country manager is the right answer, Design tells you, and the person you hire walks into a launch that is already built to run.
Proof
- Italian CNC machine builderFive machines sold to a new buyer type in three months, against a target of three in six.Prove · acceptance 1
- RobovisionFrom all markets to three segments, a first new deal within nine months, then 25 meetings in six weeks without new internal headcount.Prove · acceptance 1
- Electrical equipment OEM in GermanySales now runs the full discovery before product management steps in. The commercial team's confidence rose from 2.5 to 4 (of 4).Design
FAQ
What does it cost?
Design is a fixed fee from €65k for three months. The fee depends on the scope: one kind of launch or both, the number of countries and languages, and the depth of the knowledge base. Prove and Scale run on a monthly fee set in the proposal letter, and Transfer is included. You can stop at any acceptance.
What if Design ends with a no-go?
Then you stop, with a written reason and all the work product, after three months instead of a year. A clear no-go is a result: it saves the budget and the management time a failed launch would have taken.
Who does the operational work?
Your own team, or an execution partner you choose: a product studio for a platform, an agency for brand and sales enablement. I write their brief and the targets they are measured on, and I report to you on both. I do not run your sales or build your software.
How much of my team's time does Design take?
A sponsor who can make decisions, and regular access to the people who sell, price and deliver the product today. It depends on the scope, but usually a kick-off of two to three days, then two calls of 30 to 45 minutes a week on operational topics.
What if something happens to you?
The launch never lives in my head. The business plan, the conditions and the knowledge base are written down and yours from the first month, your team runs the launch, and you pay per stage. When a launch needs a second pair of hands, I bring in senior freelancers I have delivered with.
Where and in which languages do you work?
Across Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Benelux, from Ghent. I work in German and English.
Next step
Let's scope your next launch.
In 45 minutes I tell you where your launch is likely to stall and whether Design is the right next step.
3-month Design · From €65k, fixed fee · Work product is yours
If Design ends in a no-go, you stop after three months with a written answer and all the work product. No licence, no exit fee. I take on 3–5 launches per quarter.
Bernd FastenrathFounder, Altered Principles
bernd.fastenrath@altered-principles.com