How to find B2B leads that actually fit your business

Most lead lists fail before the first email is written. They are bought by job title and company size, and they contain thousands of businesses that have no reason to need you. A short list of businesses that clearly fit beats a long list of businesses that might, every time.

Start from the customers you already have

Your best evidence about who will buy is who already has. Write down your three favourite customers: the ones who paid on time, came back and sent friends. What do they have in common? Not their size or sector alone, but the situation they were in when they found you. A restaurant that just opened a second branch. A clinic whose website was built ten years ago. A software company hiring its first designer.

Describe your ideal customer in one sentence

Then write it down as one sentence that names the kind of business, where it is, and the sign that it needs you now. For example:

• Independent dental clinics in Manchester whose websites have no online booking.
• Boutique hotels in Lisbon with fewer than forty rooms that are hiring front-desk staff.
• Accounting firms in Nairobi that advertise payroll services but have no case studies on their site.

The sign is the important part. It is what lets you say something specific in a first email, and it is something you can check on a public web page.

Signs a business needs you now

The best signs are public, recent and specific to what you sell. A few that work for many businesses:

• Hiring. A job advert says what a business is trying to grow, and often what it lacks. A firm hiring its first marketer may want help before that person starts.
• Opening or expanding. A new branch, a new service or a new market brings new problems in a hurry.
• Something visibly missing. No online booking, no prices, no case studies, a website that does not work on a phone. If what is missing is what you provide, say so.
• Something visibly old. A copyright year from long ago, a menu that lists last season, a portfolio that stops several years back.
• Who they already work with. A business that uses a tool or a supplier like you has already decided it needs what you do.

Pick one or two signs that line up with your offer and put them in the sentence. They become the reason for the first email, which is what turns a cold message into a relevant one.

Mistakes that waste a list

• Describing a size, not a situation. Companies with 10 to 50 employees describes thousands of businesses and tells you nothing about which ones need you.
• Starting too wide. A whole country before one city. Narrow first, then widen what works.
• Trusting a score you cannot check. A match without the evidence behind it is a guess with a number on it.
• Forgetting who you already know. Writing cold to a customer, or to someone who asked to be left alone, costs more than the list was worth.

Or find businesses like one you already have

Sometimes the sentence is hard to write but the example is easy: you want more customers like that one. Lookalike search starts from a business you already work with and looks for others that share what makes it a good customer. It is often the quickest way to a good first list.

Check the evidence before you write

For each business on the list, you should be able to say why it is there and where you saw that. Read the evidence, not just the score. A tool that ranks a business as a strong match without showing the page that convinced it is asking you to trust a guess. Then remove anyone you already work with, anyone who has asked not to be contacted, and anyone you would rather approach in person.

Fewer, better, then wider

Start with twenty, not two thousand. Write to the ones you approve, read every reply, and adjust the sentence. If the replies say not for us, the description is wrong, not the wording. Widen the search once a small batch brings back real conversations. Then make sure the emails arrive: our guide to deliverability covers the setup.

How Speek does it

Paste your website and Scout reads what you sell and who buys it, then proposes who to look for in one line you can change. He finds businesses that match, scores them by fit, shows the evidence and its source for each one, and skips businesses you already have. Nobody is contacted until you approve them, and then Speek writes to them from your own email.