Ask HN: How do I approach German businesses? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do I approach German businesses?

11 pointsDharmakirti4 comments

Hallöchen HN,

I'm a developer working on an pilot Product that targets traditional German businesses, like bakeries, cafes and restaurants. (No it's not a POS solution).

However I'm totally clueless about how to approach the businesses. I speak B1 level German, and can hold a decent conversation with the locals.

How do I approach this? I would really appreciate if anyone have pointers about talking to German businesses.

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Find out who the owner is and approach them outside of business hours (this one doesn't just apply to German businesses).

Businesses with foot traffic can become very busy during business hours. Therefore, employees won't have the time and patience for vendors trying to sell them something, even if that something potentially is tremendously helpful to them.

Finding out who the owner is usually is particularly easy with German businesses: If the business has a website just have a look at the company details (the legally required "Impressum"). If it doesn't - which unfortunately still is the case with some companies in those industries you mentioned - you can try looking up the company at the company register ("Handelsregister", https://www.handelsregister.de ). Only incorporated companies are listed there, however.

Many businesses of these kinds are branches of larger chains or franchise businesses. In that case, contacting procurement or ideally trying to reach the managing director / CEO of the mother company probably is a more conducive approach.

In terms of business culture both conversations in general and business practices in particular can appear to be more direct and formal than one might be used to from other cultures.

These resources might help with familiarising yourself with some cultural aspects of communication in a business context in Germany. I just had a cursory glimpse at them but from what I've read the information stated there seems to be correct. Keep in mind, though, that due to the influence from other cultures, particularly from the English-speaking world, conventions and practices today tend to be much more relaxed, especially with younger people:

https://businessculture.org/western-europe/business-culture-...

That's more or less what I had in mind. Thanks for the detailed write-up, I think I'll need foot on the ground approach, and get in touch with them directly.

If it's not a POS, maybe you could just talk to POS-vendors and supporters. They already have the contacts and can act as multipliers.

That's an interesting point, thanks for the tip. I'll try to contact the POS vendors/startups in Berlin and see if they could help.

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