Kaufanlass-Radar · Research service for B2B sales Buying triggers for B2B sales in Germany. Documented, not scored.
Your sales team doesn’t need more leads. It needs to know when someone needs it. We find documented buying triggers at your potential customers, with source and contact persons, so your team calls because there is a reason.
No access to your systems required Every fact with source and date
Research report
Real example · recipient anonymised
- The company
- Novogenia GmbH (Novogenia AG), biotechnology and human genetics
- The event
- Groundbreaking for headquarters and production site in Hallwang, over 9,300 m²
- Source and date
- eqs-news.com, 20 July 2026, link checked
- The mechanism
- New automated lab and packaging lines need consumables and dosing systems
- The decision window
- 0 to 3 months
Example from a real report. Structure and content are defined with you. Full report (German) →
- 3
- documented buying triggers per monthwith source, contact persons and conversation opener
- EUR 3,000
- for the pilotfour weeks, fixed price
- 2 hrs
- your effort in the pilotkickoff and handover
- monthly
- cancellable at month endno IT project, no access to your systems
Modular Ops researches documented buying triggers for B2B sales teams in Germany: dated, publicly documented events at potential customers, each delivered with source, contact persons and a possible conversation opener. It is a research service, not a tool, built for heads of sales and managing directors in the German Mittelstand who sell machinery, industrial components or other complex products. In German we call this a Kaufanlass: a dated, publicly documented event at a potential customer that can create a need for your product. Others call it a trigger event or buying signal. Structure and content of the reports are defined with each client and developed further over time. The first step is a four-week pilot for EUR 3,000 at a fixed price; after that, setup EUR 7,700 and EUR 3,000 per month for three documented triggers, cancellable at the end of any month.
The situation
Why this matters now
Many sales teams in the German Mittelstand spent years serving orders that came in by themselves. That was not a mistake; that was the market. Since enquiries have dried up, sales has to approach new customers actively, and management faces the question of how to ask this of a team that was never needed for it.
We see this in conversations with other companies. And we see what makes the switch easier: a concrete trigger. Whoever calls a company where something is happening right now, at the right time and to the right person, calls differently from someone working through a list. The call has a reason, for both sides.
Incoming orders in German mechanical engineering, first half of 2026: domestic minus 2 percent, growth came from abroad. Source: VDMA, 10 August 2026.
The problem isn’t your sales team. It’s the timing.
- Lead lists tell you which companies fit in principle. They don’t tell you when.
- The CRM shows what your sales team has done. It doesn’t show where something is coming up.
- Sales often hears about projects only after the decision has been made.
- Checking where something is happening takes time nobody has in day-to-day business.
Terms
What a documented buying trigger is
Three terms are often lumped together in sales. They say very different things.
Level 01
A lead
This company could, in principle, become your customer.
Level 02
A buying signal
This company may be looking into your topic.
Level 03 · what the radar delivers
A buying trigger
Something is happening here right now that can create a need for your product. A dated, publicly documented event that you can read for yourself before anyone picks up the phone.
Others call this a trigger event or a buying signal. We call it a Kaufanlass, because German has a word for it. The event is what matters, not the topic: not “digitalisation” in general, but a plant expansion at a named site, dated and backed by a source.
The research report
What you get: a report that fits your sales team.
A trigger is only useful once your sales team can call with it. What the report contains for that is worked out with you in the kickoff and developed further in the monthly review. There is no fixed format you have to adopt.
Which companies
Your target account list, three companies your sales team names, or a field we narrow down together.
Which events
The event types that create a need for your product at your customers, with the time window that matters to you.
Which sources
The sources we monitor for your market, for example tenders or job postings as a customer-specific extension.
Which contact persons
The roles that buy, decide or take the call at your customers.
What the report contains
Which components, how detailed, with a conversation opener, objections or a draft email.
Only the standard is fixed: every fact with source and date, every finding through four checks.
An example: seven components
This is what a report can look like. The example is real: a report we delivered, only the recipient is anonymised.
Research report
Real example · recipient anonymised
- The company
- Novogenia GmbH (Novogenia AG), biotechnology and human genetics
- The event
- Groundbreaking for headquarters and production site in Hallwang, over 9,300 m²
- Source and date
- eqs-news.com, 20 July 2026, link checked
- The mechanism
- New automated lab and packaging lines need consumables and dosing systems
- The decision window
- 0 to 3 months
- The contact persons
- Lab management, production, project management, IT, named in the report
- A possible conversation opener
- Three questions and five talking points for the first call
The company
Named, with an indication of size. No category, no paraphrase.
In the example: Novogenia GmbH (Novogenia AG), biotechnology and human genetics
The event
The dated occurrence that can trigger the need. Not the topic, the event.
In the example: Groundbreaking for headquarters and production site in Hallwang, over 9,300 m²
Source and date
A working link to where it was found, so you can read it yourself.
In the example: eqs-news.com, 20 July 2026, link checked
The mechanism
Why this event can create a need for exactly your product.
In the example: New automated lab and packaging lines need consumables and dosing systems
The decision window
A rough estimate of when a decision is likely: 0 to 3, 3 to 6 or 6 to 12 months. Derived, not documented.
In the example: 0 to 3 months
The contact persons
Who at this company is involved, every name with source and date.
In the example: Lab management, production, project management, IT, named in the report
A possible conversation opener
How the first call could begin. How the conversation goes remains your craft.
In the example: Three questions and five talking points for the first call
How the conversation goes remains your craft. The report delivers the reason for the call, not the conversation.
Checks
Checked more strictly than searched.
The hard part is not finding, it is sorting out. A wrong trigger costs your sales team a call in which it sounds badly informed. That is why every finding passes four checks before it reaches you.
Check 01
Two independent research runs
Every finding is researched a second time, without knowing the first result. Only what is confirmed both times counts as documented.
Check 02
The source must exist
Every source URL is technically checked for reachability. A finding whose evidence leads nowhere is dropped.
Check 03
Names, not categories
A hit is a real, named company. Industry trends and paraphrases do not count.
Check 04
The mechanism must hold
Even a confirmed event is discarded if it does not plausibly create a need for your product.
“Better one documented buying trigger than five questionable ones.”
There is no score. Instead of a number, the report states the path from the event to the need in one sentence you can check.
Event types
Which events count
Ten types of events keep creating a need at industrial customers. Which of them count for your product is defined together with you in the kickoff.
They are found, among other places, in press releases, business and local press, the commercial register, the Bundesanzeiger and industry news. Tenders and job postings are possible customer-specific extensions; further sources and signals that matter for your market are defined together with you. Every fact in the report links to where it was found. No purchased address lists.
- Construction project
- Acquisition
- New site
- Investment
- New partnership
- New product line
- Modernisation
- Hiring wave
- Public tender
- Strategic shift
How each of these events creates a need
| Event | How a need arises |
|---|---|
| Construction project | A new hall needs conveyor technology, controls, safety equipment and fit-out, usually within a few months of groundbreaking. |
| Acquisition | After an acquisition, systems, suppliers and processes are harmonised. Whoever supplies has a window while nothing is decided yet. |
| New site | A new site needs everything again: equipment, logistics, local service providers, staff. |
| Investment | An announced investment in machinery or plant pulls peripherals with it: tools, test equipment, maintenance, training. |
| New partnership | A new major customer or partner changes volumes and requirements. Investments in capacity and quality often follow. |
| New product line | A new product line needs new supplied parts, new test procedures, sometimes new sales channels. |
| Modernisation | A modernisation replaces what exists. The moment a supplier is changed is exactly this one. |
| Hiring wave | Visible hiring shows where capacity is being built and where equipment, tools and processes are needed. |
| Public tender | A public tender states need, scope and deadline. Whoever knows it early can talk to the department before the deadline. |
| Strategic shift | An announced direction (new markets, sustainability, digitalisation) creates demand that has no supplier yet. |
Process and pricing
How it works, and what it costs
Start small, at a fixed price. Only once the triggers hit the mark is the ongoing service worth it.
01 · Pilot
The first stepEUR 3,000
four weeks, fixed price
- Kickoff, one hour: your target customers, your product, how your sales team recognises a good trigger and what your report should contain.
- Three documented buying triggers, each with source, contact persons and a possible conversation opener.
- Handover, one hour.
Your effort: two hours.
02 · Setup
EUR 7,700
one-off, after the pilot
- What worked in the pilot becomes the basis for the ongoing service: target account list, trigger criteria, the sources we monitor for your market and the structure of your report, recorded in a search profile that belongs to you.
03 · Operation
EUR 3,000
per month, cancellable at the end of any month
- Three documented buying triggers per month, on request along your target account list.
- One review per month, one hour: what hit the mark, what we search for differently, what we change in the report.
What it takes from you
- No IT project, no integration, no access to your systems.
- No tool that anyone has to operate.
- If a trigger misses, one sentence is enough and the next round searches differently.
- Cancellable at the end of any month.
Market overview
Approaches to buying signals compared
There are four broad groups of providers. They answer different questions, and none is right for every sales team. Modular Ops belongs to the last group, research as a service. The order is not a ranking.
Intent data platforms
Based on: Observed online research behaviour, condensed into a score per company and topic
Delivers: A probability statement about interest in a topic
Examples: Leadfeeder (Dealfront until March 2026), Cognism, Bombora
Company data providers with trigger alerts
Based on: Commercial register, official announcements, news and company profiles
Delivers: Events as reported; broad coverage, predictable costs; assessing relevance for your product stays in-house
Examples: databyte, North Data
CRM analytics and add-on modules
Based on: Your own opportunities, activity and transaction data
Delivers: Insights from what your sales team has already recorded
Examples: Salesforce Einstein, HubSpot Sales Hub, Qymatix
Research as a service
Based on: Target profile, sources and need logic defined together with you; ongoing research
Delivers: Documented events related to your product, each with source and date; higher running costs than a data licence
Examples: Modular Ops (Kaufanlass-Radar)
A longer comparison, including when buying trigger research does not pay off, is in our German article Trigger Events und Kaufsignale im B2B-Vertrieb.
What the radar is built for
- You sell complex products or plant with long decision cycles.
- Your target customers are industrial companies, machinery manufacturers or technical buyers.
- Your orders typically start in the five-figure range or higher.
- Your sales team works through personal contact and wants to get into projects earlier.
What it is not for
- Standardised products with short, spontaneous buying cycles.
- Volume sales without personal contact.
- The expectation that it works without your sales team.
If you recognise yourself here, we will tell you in the first call and save us both the time.
Who is behind it
You talk to the founders.
Modular Ops is a management consultancy. We do not sell software and we are not a lead agency. We make sure your sales team knows where something is happening right now, and can prove it. For that we deliver finished work your team can pick up the phone with the next day.
Modular Ops is run by Mark Schleicher and Michael Trapp. The company is based in Munich, the founders work from Munich and Berlin, with mid-sized companies of 10 to 5,000 employees. The two of them build and run the Kaufanlass-Radar themselves.
Around 95 research reports since July 2026
Consulting, not software
No licence, no login, no tool that someone has to roll out and maintain. Research, verification and preparation are on our side.
Results, not slides
The Kaufanlass-Radar runs at a fixed price and delivers a report with three documented buying triggers every month.
The knowledge stays with you
We work out target customers, trigger types and contact roles with you and record them in a search profile that belongs to you. We refine it with you in the monthly review. Cancellable at the end of any month.
Mark Schleicher
Founder · Munich
More than ten years of management consulting and digital transformation, project leadership in automotive and technology. Founded several start-ups, exit with Einfach LegalTech UG in 2022.
Michael Trapp
Founder · Berlin
More than ten years of strategy and organisation consulting, leading strategic board projects, performance management.
Free material (in German)
- Worksheet: how your sales team recognises a good trigger, the same preparation as in the kickoff.
- Example research report: how a documented buying trigger is delivered.
- Kaufanlass-Radar: the full German service page.
Data protection
Research uses publicly accessible sources, without access to your systems. No contact data is collected for contact persons and no personal data is stored permanently; a name appears only in the delivered document, always with source and date. The legal basis is a documented balancing of interests under Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.
Frequently asked questions
Does this fit your sales team?
30 minutes with one of the founders: we look at your target customers and tell you which triggers count for your product. If it doesn’t fit, we will tell you.
No pitch. No presentation. A structured conversation.
Book a call