How ORF-Enterprise Turns Hours of Sales Research Into Minutes

You were the first to show us to do this in bulk. Account Intelligence, like 50 to 100 companies in minutes, that was really eye-opening

Philipp Stein

Senior Account Manager

A broad sales environment across Austria and beyond

The ORF-Enterprise Sales House is the commercial arm of Austria's public broadcaster ORF. It sells advertising across television, radio and digital channels in the Austrian market, while its international licensing business sells ORF content to broadcasters around the world.

For Philipp Stein, sales research is a fundamental part of the sales process. The team works with very different products, customers and industries, so the right approach depends heavily on what they are trying to sell and to whom.

"We're selling to hugely different markets, different companies, different branches. It's pretty easy to waste effort."

That makes identifying the right companies particularly important. A sponsorship campaign, a TV advertising opportunity and an international licensing deal can all require completely different target accounts.

When research becomes a bottleneck

Before SalesPort, ORF-Enterprise relied heavily on historical data, existing relationships, market databases and manual Google research. The team looked at previous bookings, spending patterns and market developments to decide which companies to approach.

That worked for recurring business, but it became difficult when the team needed to identify new opportunities or research a specific market.

Stein gave the example of researching Volkswagen Group brands around upcoming vehicle launches. Understanding when a new model would enter the Austrian market, what advertising inventory was available and what could be relevant to the client could take hours of research.

The scale made the problem more obvious. ORF-Enterprise has around its CRM, with roughly 1,000 representing companies that had actual bookings in the previous year.

For larger projects, the team may need to assess more than 100 potential sponsors or companies. Without a clear signal about which accounts are worth approaching, salespeople can spend significant time researching companies that ultimately have little potential.

For Philipp Stein, sales research is a fundamental part of the sales process. The team works 8,000 companies in "You have no indicator of what the chances of a sales conversion are like. You're going in basically blind into a sales pitch."

Moving from individual research to account intelligence

ORF-Enterprise evaluated a large number of AI solutions before choosing SalesPort. Stein estimated that the company had received around 50 different offers, with the volume particularly high during the summer of 2025.

The decisive factor was not simply AI-generated answers. It was the ability to apply research across multiple companies at once.

Account Intelligence allowed the team to research groups of companies using the same questions instead of repeating the process one account at a time.

"You were the first to show us to do this in bulk. Account Intelligence, like 50 to 100 companies in minutes, that was really eye-opening."

The team also uses the AI Sales Researcher for individual accounts. Before an important customer conversation, a salesperson can open the company website, launch the research and quickly review the company's current situation, recent developments and relevant topics.

The onboarding process was also straightforward. Stein said the basic setup took around 15 to 20 minutes per sales branch, with the team creating separate configurations for international licensing, TV advertising and radio advertising.

What changed

The clearest improvement is the amount of manual research required.

Before SalesPort, Stein estimated that an in-depth review of one company could take 20 to 40 minutes, particularly when the team needed to verify the information. Researching 50 companies at that pace would represent roughly 17 to 33 hours of research before any sales activity begins.

With Account Intelligence, the same type of research can be performed across multiple accounts in minutes. Stein said that around 25 to 30 companies per batch is a practical working size because the resulting information can still be reviewed and acted on by an account manager.

The impact is not limited to the research itself. Better information also changes when the team contacts a company.

For example, if research shows that a client typically spends more during a particular season, the salesperson can avoid approaching them with irrelevant offers during a low-spending period and instead time the conversation around the period when demand is higher.

"The time saved is not only the time saved for research. It also gives me deeper knowledge when and how to contact a client."

Stein also believes that a better understanding of customers improves the quality of sales conversations and reduces the number of irrelevant offers. However, ORF-Enterprise does not yet have a large-scale closing-rate measurement that can be attributed directly to SalesPort.

What's next

SalesPort is becoming part of the sales process across ORF-Enterprise, with AI Sales Researcher, Contact Finder and Account Intelligence currently being used in different ways.

The team is still defining how Account Intelligence should fit into larger sales projects. Possible applications include researching existing customers, building cold-calling lists and identifying companies for specific products or campaigns.

One example already being explored is international content licensing. ORF-Enterprise's global licensing team is using SalesPort to research potential partners in markets such as Southern

Asia, including companies that could be relevant for specific television or radio content.

Looking ahead, Stein would like to expand the use of SalesPort across the company and potentially add more licenses. He also sees potential in having SalesPort suggest companies based on the products ORF-Enterprise is trying to sell.

"If the AI can suggest us companies based on what we are doing, suggest us companies that will be relevant to us in the future, or relevant for the specific product we are trying to sell, that's something."

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