If you sell to other businesses, your next customer is probably less than an hour away — and has no idea you exist. This guide walks through a step-by-step method to locate companies in your area that fit what you sell, using public sources and concrete criteria to decide who to contact first.
1. Before you search: define who you are looking for
The most expensive mistake in local prospecting is starting with the list. Before opening any directory, write down:
- What problem do I solve? Not what you sell — what happens to the company that buys from you.
- What kind of company has that problem? Industry, rough size, type of operation (plant, warehouse, office, retail…).
- Who decides the purchase? Owner, operations manager, purchasing, marketing…
- What rules a company out? Too small, too large, incompatible industry, already locked in with a strong competitor.
Those four answers give you a basic ideal customer profile. Everything that follows gets filtered against it.
2. Public sources to locate companies near you
With the profile defined, these free sources deliver surprisingly good results:
- Maps (Google Maps / Bing Maps): search by activity + town (“logistics warehouses Newark”, “dental clinics Austin”). Reviews and photos tell you size, real activity and even how long they have been around.
- Industrial parks and business districts: many municipalities publish a census of the companies in each park. Gold for industrial B2B: real companies, physical premises, organized by location.
- Trade associations and clusters: member directories are public lists of active companies that care about their industry.
- Public contracts and awards: which local companies win contracts tells you who is growing, and in what.
- Local business press: expansions, relocations, new facilities, hiring sprees. Every story is a company in motion.
Tip: do not try to “empty” every source. Gather 30–50 candidates that pass your profile filter and stop. More volume without criteria only adds noise.
3. Look for signals, not just names
Two companies that look identical on paper can be in opposite moments: one just expanded its warehouse, the other is cutting staff. Commercial signals — expansion, relocation, hiring, new services, recent investment — tell you who has budget and a reason to buy now. Before reaching out, spend two minutes per company on their website and recent news:
- Are they announcing anything (facilities, equipment, certifications, openings)?
- Are they posting job openings? For which roles?
- Is their website alive or abandoned?
4. Prioritize: not every candidate deserves your time
With your candidate list and their signals, score each company simply (say 1 to 10) by combining two questions: how well does it fit my profile? and is there a reason to contact it now?. Sort descending and work the list from the top. That single habit — prioritizing before contacting — is what separates professional prospecting from “sending emails and hoping”.
Want to see this method applied to your business?
Tell us what you sell and where: we send you one analyzed opportunity. No card required.
Find my first opportunity free5. The first contact: short, specific, with a reason
When you reach out, mention something specific about the company (the signal you found) and explain in one sentence why you are writing to them in particular. We wrote a full guide on this: how to write the first message to a B2B prospect.
How NEXUS Prospect does it
Everything above can be done by hand — and it works. What NEXUS Prospect does is run this same process for you: you tell it what you sell and where, and it returns companies selected for your business, each with its reason to fit, the signals found, who to contact and a suggested first message. You can try it with a first opportunity free, no card required.