Today I want to share a short story about our client, GuavaHR from Estonia. They offer an internal communication and employee engagement platform, and when we first met, they were looking for ways to reach the right people in Polish HR departments. What happened next – and what results our collaboration brought – turned out to be a great lesson in how to approach the Polish market. If that sounds interesting, keep reading.

GuavaHR saw the Polish market as a great opportunity to grow their business, but they struggled to generate the right leads. Their focus on cold email campaigns didn’t bring the expected results, so they turned to us for help reaching the right people in their target group.

As the saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day” — and becoming experts in internal communication takes time. We needed to understand the market, the product, and the buyer persona before moving forward. So, we began by diagnosing what had gone wrong and why the previous approach hadn’t worked.

How to start working with us?

If you’re wondering what it’s like to start working with us, I have to admit — it wasn’t easy at first. We needed time to fully understand the product: what it is, how it works, and what makes it stand out. We spent hours in meetings with GuavaHR’s CEO, asking many detailed (and often repetitive) questions to truly grasp not only the product but also the most important aspects for us — who the buyer persona is and what the unique selling point (USP) really means in practice.

Why does it matter so much? Because every product and every client is different. Understanding the core value helps us recognize whether a lead is truly hot or just warm.

After many long meetings, we felt confident we had it all figured out and could finally start generating leads. But once we began, it turned out to be more complex than we thought.

How we started to generate leads

Successful prospecting is the key to generating real results. There are three possible outcomes: we can reach the right person with the right message and spark genuine interest; we can reach the wrong audience, even with a great message, and get no response; or – worst of all – we can reach the right people with the wrong message. I see the last case as the most damaging, because there’s rarely a second chance to make a good impression.

If someone decides from the start that working with us isn’t worth their time, changing their mind later becomes extremely difficult. Rebuilding trust and getting another opportunity takes a lot of effort and patience.

Once we realized that cold mailing wasn’t effective, we turned to what we do best – cold calling. We began reaching out directly to people responsible for internal communication. We were confident it would bring better results, but the beginning was tough. The first calls were cold and unproductive. HR professionals weren’t open to new solutions and often didn’t even want to hear what we had to offer.

The truth about the HR market in Poland

The truth is, we shouldn’t be selling the product – we should be selling the results. This project made us realize that more than ever. When internal communication works well, people feel truly connected to their organization. They’re more engaged, more efficient, and far less likely to look for another job – which naturally helps reduce employee turnover.

According to the Pracuj.pl report for 2025, the demand for both sales and blue-collar workers remains high. Nearly 19% of all job ads on the platform were related to sales positions, while 17% (an increase of 2% compared to last year) were for physical workers. This growing demand shows how important it is to create workplaces where employees feel valued and connected to the organization — places where they want to stay rather than look for other opportunities.

A Deloitte report points out that the main challenges for HR in 2024/2025 include AI transformation, employee skill development, and team management. Artificial intelligence is now present in nearly every business area, including HR. Its growing influence affects workforce stability and employees’ sense of security, which makes effective internal communication more crucial than ever.

Similarly, the Syrowka.com “Future” report highlights that managing diversity within organizations has become one of today’s key HR challenges — and it’s closely tied to how internal communication is handled.

Data: cold call, cold email and meeting results

Figure 1. Number of meetings scheduled in the first months of cooperation.

When we understood the market and the trends, it was much easier to talk about internal communication and why it needs to be improved in companies. In the first quarter of cooperation, we had over 1000+ activities and scheduled only 11 meetings.

When we realized where the problem was and what the key issue for our buyer persona was, our data increased dramatically. The key was to find the problem — and the problem was not communication itself but the effects of incorrect communication: lack of information, organizational chaos, low sense of belonging, and disengagement, all contributing to high employee turnover.

We established our main target group – especially companies with blue-collar workers who don’t have access to work email and have a distributed structure. Then, in the next month of cooperation, we scheduled about 10 meetings per month.

Figure 2. Meetings scheduled in 2025.

After several months of working closely together and really getting to know our target group and the ins and outs of the industry, we decided to take a little summer breather in July and August. Our client used this time to dive into internal work, fine-tuning the system’s features for users. We stuck to the meetings we had already planned and only started scheduling new ones again in September.

And after the summer break, we returned to the collaboration with renewed energy and started breaking new records in scheduling meetings with potential clients.

Overall, during 12 months of cooperation, we reached out effectively to 518 clients, which resulted in a total of 84 meetings.

Conferences and trade events

What’s more, we did not only generate leads. We also represented the client at events dedicated to HR professionals, like HR conferences and trade fairs. It was a great opportunity to show the brand to a larger audience. This year, we represented Guava at two conferences in the spring and two in the autumn, but the year is not over yet. There is one more conference in autumn, and we are also preparing a conference plan for next year.

Conferences are a great place to talk with clients face to face and build rapport. One day can bring more hot leads than a full day of cold calling. Moreover, building brand awareness during such events is invaluable.

What’s Most Important When Partnering with an Agency in Poland

To sum up our cooperation with GuavaHR, it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. The start was certainly difficult for both sides, but engagement from both parties brought results. If I were to give you one key piece of advice on what is the most important when partnering with an agency in Poland to enter the Polish market, it would be to continuously take feedback and use it to improve.

Each market is different, and what is crucial is that you adjust your product or services to local requirements and needs.

Want to Expand into the Polish Market?

Want to expand into the Polish market but unsure how? Let us guide you! At AOS, we help you connect with potential clients and strengthen your brand every step of the way.

Sources:

• Our own data
• Pracuj.pl: Rynek Pracy Specjalistów w pierwszej połowie 2025 roku
• Deloitte: Human Capital Trends 2025 I Raport Deloitte
• Syrowka.com: RAPORT-Future®-2026-by-syrowka.com_.pdf