Jarek Ruminski
Market Entry
Poland can look wonderfully attractive from a distance.
The European Commission expects Polish GDP to grow by 3.5% in 2026, supported by resilient consumption and significant EU-funded investment.
Then the sales team opens LinkedIn.
There are thousands of companies.
Someone downloads a database.
A third person proposes sending the same English email to 2,000 managing directors.
Welcome to customer acquisition in Poland.
Finding customers in Poland is not mainly about finding company names. The challenge is identifying companies with a real reason to buy, reaching the right people and building enough credibility for the conversation to continue.
Poland had around 37.5 million inhabitants at the end of 2024 and more than 2.3 million active non-financial enterprises in 2023. Around 97% were microbusinesses.
That creates opportunity—and noise.
“Polish companies” is not a useful target segment.
A Nordic software company selling production-planning tools should not begin with “manufacturing in Poland.” It might begin with manufacturers employing 100–500 people, exporting to Northern Europe and operating several production sites.
That is a market you can investigate.
The narrower your first target group, the easier it becomes to understand problems, identify decision-makers and create relevant messages.
Foreign companies often ask:
“Who can we sell to?”
A better question is:
“Who in Poland has the problem we solve strongly enough to pay for solving it?”
If you sell industrial automation, look for manufacturers where productivity, quality or capacity creates pressure to automate.
If you sell consulting, identify companies undergoing a specific change: international expansion, acquisition, digital transformation, restructuring or rapid growth.
Warsaw is the obvious starting point for many foreign companies, particularly when targeting corporate headquarters and major decision-makers.
But many excellent customers are elsewhere.
Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, the Tri-City area around Gdańsk and Gdynia, Łódź, Katowice and other regional centres all have substantial business ecosystems. PAIH maintains dedicated investment profiles covering major Polish cities and regions, reflecting how geographically distributed Poland’s commercial landscape actually is.
Łódź, for example, has developed important capabilities in logistics, IT, business services and modern technologies.
Industrial customers may be far from the city where your hotel loyalty programme would prefer you to stay.
Follow the industry.
Not the airport lounge.
Do not begin with 5,000 leads.
Begin with 30–50 companies that genuinely fit your ideal customer profile.
For each one, understand its size, ownership, locations, products, customers, recent investments and international activity. Poland’s National Court Register, KRS, allows public searches for registered companies and access to corporate information, making it useful for basic prospect verification.
Annual reports, company websites, recruitment activity, trade media and LinkedIn can then help you understand what the organisation is doing.
A good target list should answer one question:
Why this company?
If the answer is “because it is in Poland,” keep researching.
In owner-led Polish SMEs, a founder or managing director may have considerable influence.
In larger organisations, buying may involve management, technical specialists, procurement, finance, IT, operations or legal functions.
The person experiencing the problem may not control the budget.
The person controlling the budget may not understand the technical details.
Discover how the decision is really made.
Sending every message to the CEO is not account-based selling.
It is account-based optimism.
Use several channels together:
The objective is commercially useful intelligence.
Twenty companies that fit your proposition are worth more than 20,000 email addresses nobody has examined.
Generic outreach performs generic miracles.
Usually none.
Your first message should show that you understand something about the company and have a credible reason for contacting that person.
Avoid opening with a long history of your organisation. The prospect did not wake up hoping to learn when your company was founded.
Instead, connect your offer to something relevant: expansion, productivity, technology change, cost pressure, compliance or an operational challenge.
Keep the first message short.
Who are you?
Why are you contacting them?
What problem do you solve?
What evidence do you have?
What is the sensible next step?
That is enough.
For internationally active Polish companies, conducting the first conversation in English can often be perfectly practical.
But do not assume English is always the strongest commercial choice.
Polish-language outreach can reduce friction when targeting local SMEs, owner-managed businesses or operational teams.
You do not need to translate every page of your website immediately. A Polish landing page, customer case or introductory email may be more valuable than a complete translation nobody reads.
The question is not:
“Have we translated everything?”
The better question is:
“Have we made it easy for this customer to understand and trust us?”
A foreign supplier entering Poland may be unknown.
Your prospect is therefore asking two questions:
Is the solution good?
And can these people actually deliver it here?
Use concrete customer cases. Explain implementation. Provide realistic timelines. Show who will support the customer. Be clear about pricing logic. Use references from similar companies or markets.
A Swedish or Danish reference can be powerful if the business situation is comparable.
The Polish buyer does not need every reference to contain a Polish flag.
They need evidence that the solution works.
Relationships can matter, particularly in larger opportunities, owner-led firms or partnerships.
That does not mean sales depends on endless dinners and ceremonial networking.
Attend relevant events. Ask for introductions. Meet people in person when justified. Build relationships with chambers, sector organisations, advisers and customers.
Industry clusters can also be useful because they connect companies, expertise and potential partners around specific sectors. PAIH has highlighted such cooperation as a practical way to build trust and identify B2B opportunities.
But remember why you are networking.
The goal is not 46 business cards and a photograph beside a conference banner.
The goal is commercially relevant conversations.
After a good meeting, send a concise follow-up.
Confirm the problem discussed, information promised, open questions and next step.
Do not end with:
“Let us stay in touch.”
That sentence has peacefully ended many promising sales opportunities.
Instead, propose something concrete: a second meeting, technical workshop, demonstration, pricing discussion, pilot or introduction to another stakeholder.
Help the customer move forward.
During the first 30 days, define one or two target segments, identify 30–50 priority companies, map decision-makers and test assumptions through market conversations.
During days 31–60, begin focused outreach, attend selected events, request introductions and hold discovery meetings. Track which messages generate replies and which problems receive attention.
During days 61–90, concentrate on the strongest opportunities. Develop proposals, demonstrations or pilots where appropriate. Stop spending time on segments that respond politely but show no commercial intent.
Market entry is not measured by the number of contacts in your CRM.
It is measured by movement toward revenue.
Poland offers scale, growth and a broad customer base. But scale does not reward unfocused selling.
The companies most likely to succeed are those that understand which customers need them, why those customers should care and how to make the first purchase feel credible and manageable.
Start narrow.
Research properly.
Localise where it reduces friction.
Build relationships with purpose.
And remember: finding a Polish company is easy.
Finding the right Polish customer is the actual job.
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