Customer success story: Koll Group Oy

Pekka Mettälä is COO and co-founder of Koll. They're solving a problem every decision-maker knows too well: 1,200 irrelevant cold calls per year. This conversation goes deep into how Koll flipped the script on cold calling. Instead of optimizing for the caller, they built for the recipient. Every call shows the topic before you answer. You choose what matters. No wasted time, no bullshit. Pekka breaks down the pivot that happened three weeks before Slush, why most cold calls are genuinely bad (with respect to all salespeople), and what happened when Arc turned their ad hoc sales into a systematic growth engine. There's real talk about building thought leadership that generates pipeline, not just visibility. About learning fast, iterating on target groups, and scaling internationally without the Finnish "let's wait 10 years" mentality. This isn't theory. This is how systems beat luck – every time. Check out Koll: https://www.kollapp.com/ Read more commercial thought leadership stories at https://www.arcstudio.fi/en/ **** 0:00 – Intro: Who is Pekka and what does Koll do? 1:14 – The turning point - burnout and leaving big organizations 1:45 – Koll's origin story: The pivot three weeks before Slush 2:16 – The problem: 1,200 cold calls per year - most of them shit 2:44 – The solution: Shift from caller's perspective to recipient's 4:17 – Game changer: Recipient sees the topic before answering 5:22 – New Year's season coming - Koll's biggest period 6:34 – Why go public with LinkedIn thought leadership? 8:18 – Arc partnership begins: "Worth taking your time with this" 9:15 – First contact: Casual coffee, no sales pitch 10:36 – Decision: Ready to take the risk on thought leadership 13:27 – "Thought leadership is showcasing our work" 14:11 – Before Arc: Good energy but no system 15:27 – Results: Content quality and lead generation exceeded expectations 16:03 – "Scary business if you're just lucky with events" 18:05 – Email automations and CRM integrations coming together 18:46 – Next step: International scaling 19:35 – Finnish vs. Russian expansion mentality - Case London 20:37 – Arc + Koll: Taking Finnish brands global 21:00 – "Do you recommend Norders?" - "Yes."