Prospecting for startups

Posted on May 08, 2021

This post is about creating a comprehensive list of B2B prospects effectively. It contains my learnings and best-practices on that matter. The biggest value of this process isn't only the accumulated data, but what you'll learn about your future clients along the way.

In case you're conquering a new market with a new product, you have to understand that market first. I'll cover that in another post soon.

Open up a browser and have a spreadsheet ready, let's go!

Google

... or any other search engine will be your best friend.

Lists of companies, e.g. german automotive companies
Market reports, these usually contain lists of relevant companies, e.g. mobile mapping market report
Landscapes, a compilation of logos, e.g. austrian ai landscape
Countries, e.g. car dealerships malaysia

Figure out hashtags your prospects typically use.
Search recent posts with these hashtags.
Check profiles who reacted or commented on the posts and learn which companies these people work for.

10-K's

Other sources

Trade commission websites. Some of them provide extensive lists of companies by category.
The partner/customer/testimonial section on companies' websites.
B2B-matchmaking and other online events.

Which data to collect?

The most essential piece of information you’re looking for is the link to a company’s website.
The e-mail address of a contact person, or otherwise a generic office@.
If you're going international, check in which country the company's headquarter is located.
Notes. You're going to notice interesting facts about the prospect when browsing through websites that will help you later on.

Maximize learning

Write down how how individual prospects can benefit from your product/service.
Write down what you've learned and surprised you.
Write down what you don’t know yet (known unknowns).
Try to put prospects into categories. This will make it easier to create tailor-made content for the outreach.

Hacks