How do I find UK companies like my best customers?

To find UK companies like your best customers, first write down what your best customers have in common, then search the public registers on those traits, then use a dated record to choose who to call now. The traits come from your own customer list. The timing comes from filings, hires and contracts.

Step 1: describe your best customers

Take your five to ten best customers, meaning those who pay well, stay and refer others, and note the same facts for each: what they sell, who they sell to, roughly how many people they employ, where they are, and how old the company is.

Look for the pattern, not the exceptions. If six of ten are 10 to 50 person firms selling services to the public sector, that is your profile. Write it as a sentence a stranger could apply.

Step 2: translate it into register terms

Companies House gives you a SIC code for each company, its registered address, incorporation date and its officers. Filed accounts give an idea of size, though small companies often file abridged accounts with limited detail.

SIC codes are a blunt tool. Companies choose their own, and many pick a general code. Use them to get a first cut, then read each company's website to confirm what it does. The Companies House register and the free bulk data file are the starting points.

Customer trait and where to find it

Step 3: add timing

A look-alike with no reason to buy now is a cold prospect. Add a dated record: a new director, a charge, a first-of-function hire, a contract award or a planning application. Of the companies that match your profile, call those with a recent record first. For how that works, see our guides on buying signals in UK B2B sales.

Check each one before calling. Confirm the company is active, read the record itself and write one line explaining why you are calling.

A faster start

Lockley begins with a free scan of your own website, which builds a private page of companies worth calling for you. It reads Companies House, Contracts Finder and Find a Tender, Adzuna job postings, planning registers and company websites every night, and each finding links to the record it came from. You can then take the best matches from your customer list as a check on the result.

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