Every management team asks the same question before a DACH entry: how long until we know? The honest answer has a shape, and the shape matters more than any single number, because it tells you when to decide and what to decide on.
Weeks one to four: define and research
The mandate brief takes a week if the company knows what it sells and to whom; longer if it does not. Account research takes two to three weeks for a first set of fifty to a hundred accounts, because each one is checked individually: fit, decision context, a reason for the approach. Skipping this phase is the most common way to lose the next three months.
Weeks three to eight: first approaches, first replies, first meetings
Approaches begin as soon as the first accounts are researched, not when the whole set is complete. Replies in a well-researched DACH segment arrive within days of each wave. The first qualified meetings typically fall in weeks four to eight. By the end of month two the pattern is visible: which segment responds, which objection recurs, which role takes the conversation.
Months three to six: proposals, decisions, signatures
A considered B2B sale in the German-speaking market runs three to nine months from first meeting to signature, longer in regulated or capital-intensive categories. First proposals therefore appear in month three, first signatures from month four to six. This is also the window in which a company has enough evidence to decide on local headcount: which segment deserves an owner, which references need localisation, which stakeholders must be covered in each account.
What stretches the timeline
Three things, in order: a proposition that has not been localised beyond translation; a client that cannot take over a qualified conversation within days; and a target set built by filter rather than by research. None is fixed by more outreach volume. All are fixed before the first message.