Where should you start looking for leads? Choose an industry and region

Before choosing an industry, write down how a customer would use your product or service. ‘I sell packaging’ is too broad. ‘I supply packaging to businesses selling their own food products’ gives you a clearer idea of whom to look for. You still need to work out which products suit the materials, formats and order sizes you offer.

Start with a segment whose activities you can verify on a company website. You do not need to know all its needs. You need a specific reason to take a closer look and a way to distinguish a potential customer from a business with a similar name. Simply belonging to the broader food industry does not establish a fit.

If fulfilment involves deliveries, servicing or visits, define an area you can cover. A packaging supplier in Manchester might start with the city and towns along its delivery route. List them specifically. ‘Around Manchester’ may mean something different to you and to the business you find.

If you sell remotely, location can simply help you limit the first trial. Choose one city, review the results and then expand your search. Remember that a company's registered office, production site and service area may be in different places. Including a city in a query does not guarantee that every result will meet your location criteria.

Before collecting results, write down two or three essential criteria. In our example, these are in-house food production, products suited to your packaging and a location you can serve. A phone number or email address makes contact easier, but does not replace those criteria. A business with complete contact details can still be entirely unsuitable.

During your review, distinguish a poor fit from missing information. If a website does not explain whether the company manufactures its own products, do not assume it does or automatically reject it. Note what still needs checking. This lets you return to unclear cases without reading everything again.

Give the campaign a name that identifies its customer type and area, such as ‘Food producers · Manchester’. Your first query could be ‘food manufacturer Manchester’. Also note why you are starting with that term. In Find, the business data you collect appears in the campaign in your dashboard; keep your brief and conclusions in your usual work tool.

After reviewing the results, decide what actually needs to change. If stores dominate, make the business type more specific. If you find producers of other products, narrow the segment. If suitable businesses are outside your area, check their locations. Expanding the campaign to another city makes sense once you understand the results of the first trial. Finding producers alone does not confirm demand for your offer.