• About us - Bern View over the old town and the snowy mountains of the Bernese Oberland
  • About us - Bern Federal Palace Seat of the Swiss Government and Parliament
  • About us - Bern Zentrum Paul Klee
  • About us - Bern The old town of Bern is a UNESCO World Heritage Site
  • About us - Bern Münster Cathedral of St. Vincent is the most impressive late-Gothic building in the city
  • About us - Bern Rosengarten. Viewpoint with view of the old town.
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About us

With our overall offering “Business-Development-as-a-Service”, we have a niche in the Swiss market. We specialise both in the development of business areas as well as in the marketing and sale of business-oriented IT solutions and IT services on behalf of domestic and foreign companies. With assets such as our many years of experience in market development, our strength in new customer acquisition and long-term customer care, our knowledge of consulting-intensive sales, the local language as our mother tongue, our understanding of the local mentality and local business practices, and with our business network, we can help you to accelerate your sustainable growth in the Swiss market.

The SWISS in our company name refers to the Swiss market area, as it is here where we can make full use of our assets and where we want to share Swiss values such as reliability, quality, stability and security with you.

With Swiss Business Connection, you have a competent, professional partner at your side, who will support you with great commitment in achieving your sales goals. We love what we do and strive to achieve good results together with our clients.

The Business Idea “Business Development-as-a-Service”

Not reinventing the wheel again and again

We have seen how often the wheel has been reinvented – sometimes as a square.

The business idea of Swiss Business Connections originated from many years of experience with large international IT service providers. The founder worked successfully in several projects with a foreign IT solution and product providers who were not active in Switzerland with their own representatives. The aim was to search for innovative solutions worldwide and use them in system integration projects instead of continually developing everything from scratch.

The founder of Swiss Business Connections recognised that these foreign suppliers lacked a local partner with knowledge of the market, local culture, and a mature network of contacts for sustainable, successful market entry. More than this, many IT companies have innovative solutions and products, but do not have the necessary strategies and resources to sell them to new customers in new market segments. This led to the creation of the management consultancy for “Business-Development-as-a-Service”.

Swiss Business Connections GmbH was founded in 2010 by Andreas Kohler as a consulting boutique. Our many years of experience, our customer orientation, our passion for consulting and selling, and our network of contacts in the industry form the strong foundation of our business activities.

Our Approach: Practice Instead of Theory

Practice instead of theory for professional market development

We have noticed that our typical clients prefer to see customer meetings rather than extensive market analyses with widespread PowerPoint presentations and insights gained in a vacuum. They do not have the time or the funds to obtain this information and then act accordingly. We heartedly share this view. We do not believe in exaggerated market analyses but only targeted necessary market analyses. With practical, common sense and preferably with a clear customer value proposition, we determine in direct discussions with customers whether a solution or service offering is of interest to the market. We go directly to potential new customers. Our approach is practice-oriented, structured, and professional.

Usually, market development in new countries or segments requires an adjusted approach, considering both cultural and strategic differences. Swiss Business Connections does not have one standardised solution for your specific company, but we know the systematic approach from practical experience and we benefit from the experience of satisfied customers. We support you in finding and realising the optimal solution for your company and your portfolio.

Why work with Swiss Business Connections?

Successful cooperation through experience competence and trust
  • Our employees are experts in the IT industry and have many years of experience in business development and successful sales in various market segments.
  • We are intimately familiar with the Swiss market, its culture, and peculiarities as well as the local language, we have a vast network of contacts, and we operate locally.
  • Our focus is on successful implementation because we do not want to accompany our clients only as strategy consultants or coaches.
  • Our service packages are flexibly tailored to the client’s needs and include a fair and performance-oriented remuneration model with minimal risk for you as the client.
  • We ensure that our mandates never compete with each other.

Our Management

Management Andreas Kohler Managing Director

Andreas Kohler – Founder and Managing Director

Swiss Business Connections in 2010. Before this, he held various management and executive management positions at several international IT service providers.

Andreas Kohler has substantial experience in various disciplines such as software development, consulting, sales management, key account management, business and market development, portfolio management, marketing and communication, partner management, strategy development and restructuring.

He uses his extensive business network in the IT sector and companies in various market segments including industry, telecommunications, postal services, railways, tourism, public administration, defence, healthcare, media, financial and private service providers.

What clients say about us

Swiss Business Connections and its founder Andreas Kohler were a great help to us in planning, structuring, and implementing our sales activities in the context of the Swiss Federal Administration. Swiss Business Connections distinguished itself through a lot of market knowledge and commitment, as well as through its initiative in finding and pursuing opportunities. After many years of cooperation, we are now able to assess our target market much better and have also achieved a high level of brand recognition.

Testimonial MB

As a contribution to our long-term planning, we commissioned Swiss Business Connections to carry out unusual and demanding market analysis and evaluations. Mr Kohler’s work was characterised by broad market knowledge, enormous creativity in obtaining the information and great commitment. The research was updated over a long period, and the results made a very valuable contribution to our strategic planning.

Testimonial AW

In the period 2016 – 2017, I worked very closely with Andreas Kohler to expand our IoT business in Switzerland. During this cooperation, he not only helped us to take into account the business and cultural realities of the Swiss market, but we also benefited from his extensive business network. His in-depth business and technology expertise has convinced us from hour 0 and helped us to further develop our business activities in Switzerland with the necessary professionalism. If you have any personal questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Testimonial SN

The vocational training network gateway.one supports young people, parents and host companies in finding each other. In this context, we have commissioned Andreas Kohler from Swiss Business Connections GmbH to acquire new customers for our intelligent recruiting system. With his conscientious and reliable manner as well as his perfectly organised working environment, Andreas Kohler convinced us very much. Potential customers appreciated his friendly and winning approach.

Testimonial AK

Swiss Business Connections provided outstanding services and helped us to expand into the Swiss market. We have been very impressed with the professionalism, reliability and commitment shown by Mr Kohler during joint projects. We strongly recommend their services!

Testimonial BB

We chose Swiss Business Connections GmbH with their consultant Mr Kohler based on our good experience with him and his past executive management positions. He had our trust, and we were confident regarding his experience, knowledge about markets, business networks and the ability to develop new market segments.

Testimonial PB

For market research and verification of our system solution in the Swiss market, it was essential to have the cooperation of an experienced local partner. For the successful treatment of a niche market, Swiss Business Connections afforded us with the necessary “Swissness”. Already after a short time, the first opportunities have been identified, and we have obtained a qualified overview of the potential for our intelligent platform solution in the target market railways.

Testimonial HB

FAQ – Frequently Asked Questions

Questions and answers why with Swiss Business Connections

This is entirely possible and we do it very well. With the many years of sales experience of our experts in the IT solutions and services business, and not least because of our business model, we are used to familiarising ourselves with new topics again and again. Like your own new employee, we conscientiously familiarise ourselves with the portfolio. We want to know everything about your company, the development of your solutions and services. We want to meet the most important people in your team and see the passion and history of your company. This is what excites us: to represent you and sell successfully for you.

If you want to expand internationally, it is much better to have a partner “on-site” in your target market. We know the Swiss market and have extensive experience in the market entry of IT solutions and service providers. That is why we offer a wide range of services covering all the aspects you need for a successful start in Switzerland.

When companies want to expand into a new market, they usually appoint internal staff to take care of it. Sometimes it is the CEO, or occasionally a member of the management team. In either case, there is often a lack of market knowledge, understanding of the local best practices, and network contacts. This inevitably leads to slower expansion, unexpected problems, or even a complete failure of the expansion. Why should you invest in an internationalisation project without doing everything in your power to ensure its success?

Both. With a strong focus on implementation. Often a certain amount of consulting, analysis and a strategy is important before further steps can be taken. After that, the execution is the priority for us, and this is a challenge we are happy to take on.

Usually in yours. If we represent your brand and your offerings on your behalf, then we typically also appear in your name. This makes communication with customers and in the market much more straightforward and supports success.

Basically no. Before accepting orders, we make sure that no competing solutions and services are included in the portfolio. The portfolio is transparent for each of our clients, provided this does not violate a confidentiality agreement. In case of doubt, the companies concerned will be consulted.

Yes, if you do not need an 80-100% permanent employee to work on a market or market segment, it is more economical to employ an experienced part-time expert through us instead of hiring a, possibly inexperienced salesperson yourself. Besides, the administrative tasks, costs, and time are mostly covered by us.

We promise full transparency and hand over all documents such as contact details, sales pipeline, activity list, history, correspondence, presentations, etc. In other words, everything we have produced and which you can use for further work.

If we are successful in executing the individual project and were able to convince our client of the market potential with concrete sales successes, the client might want to take the reins himself in the medium to long term. This is precisely what we see as the successful mission of our work. This is our goal, and what we are working towards.

We provide our services based on a combination of fixed sum and success commission. First, we charge a monthly fee. This covers our costs and corresponds to our availability for the project. In addition, we agree on a percentage success commission, which is paid after a transaction is concluded.

For the service “Evaluation Market Entry Switzerland” we agree on a fixed basic fee, and an agreed-upon lump sum per customer meeting.

As a minimum investment, we typically charge a marketing fee and then a commission from the subscription fees, which is staggered over the contract period.

Does our approach appeal to you? Get in touch with us today!

First step !

Developing Target Market