Finding clients in B2B is quite a quest. Long deals, complex approval chains — all of this makes client acquisition a complicated and very expensive endeavor. And, of course, there's competition. There's always someone who is faster, cheaper, or has a "unique" offer that seems to address all the market pains.
Old methods like cold calls? They work, but they get worse every year. Content marketing? Great, but it takes time. Advertising? Yes, but budgets are growing while effectiveness is declining.
So what to do? Where to find clients who need your product here and now? How to avoid spending months on warming up and negotiations, only to hear, "it's not relevant for us right now"?
This article will explore effective strategies for finding clients in B2B. From classics to digital tools — everything that really helps find clients faster, easier, and cheaper.
Define Your Ideal Customer Profile
ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) — this is the profile of your ideal customer. A company that really needs your product and is most likely to buy it. Without this profile, client search turns into chaos: a lot of movements, conversations, leads, but... no sales.
Creating an ICP is not rocket science, but it's essential. Take the basic parameters:
Industry. Who are your clients? IT companies, manufacturing, retail? If your product suits everyone, then it suits no one. Define it.
Company size. Do you work with startups, medium businesses, or giants? They all have different budgets, processes, and decision-making speeds.
Geography. Where are your clients located? Maybe your product is better received in large cities or even abroad?
Budget. Are clients willing to pay what you want? Or is your price tag too high for them?
Pains and tasks. What are their pain points? What problems do they want to solve? Why would they listen to you at all?
Without a clear ICP, it's easy to spend months negotiating with "not your" clients. So it's better to immediately focus on those who are truly ready to buy.
Finding clients in B2B is always about balance. The balance of time, money, and effort you're willing to invest. Some methods provide quick results, but are expensive. Others are slower, yet work steadily in the long run. Let's sort out what tools are available, what they offer, and how much you will need to spend on them.
1. Cold Sales (calls, emails, LinkedIn outreach)
✅ What we get: if done correctly, you can quickly find clients. But the response conversion is 1–5%, and the deal conversion is even lower, somewhere around 0.5–2%. Not everyone likes being approached "head-on".
💰 Cost: relatively inexpensive, but you need good databases, plus time for calls and correspondence. You can do it yourself or outsource it.
⚙️ Difficulty: difficult. You need great scripts, catchy emails, and, most importantly, patience. Be prepared for refusals. There will be many.
2. Content Marketing (blog, articles, SEO, social media, case studies)
✅ What we get: a stable flow of incoming requests. People come to you, already understanding the value of your product. The downside — not right away. It’s a long game.
💰 Cost: if doing it yourself — time. If hiring specialists — it’s expensive, especially if you need SEO and good content.
⚙️ Difficulty: medium. The key is consistency. Just writing one article and waiting for clients won’t work.
3. Targeting and Context (Google, Yandex, Facebook, LinkedIn Ads)
✅ What we get: quick requests, but the quality of leads is questionable. Some just click, some leave inquiries "just in case". The average cost is from 500 rubles to 10,000 rubles per lead.
💰 Cost: expensive. Advertising is about budgets, tests, adjustments, and tests again. Are you willing to burn money until you find a working combination?
⚙️ Difficulty: medium. Without a good specialist, you can waste the entire budget and get nothing.
4. Networking, events, conferences, exhibitions
✅ What we get: warm contacts, trust, large deals. In B2B, it really works, especially if you know how to communicate.
💰 Cost: varies. You can attend free meetings or invest in exhibition stands for hundreds of thousands.
⚙️ Difficulty: depends on you. If you easily make connections and can sell an idea in 30 seconds — great. If not, it will be harder.
5. Partner Programs
✅ What we get: warm clients. Often with high conversion rates because they have already been "warmed up" by partners.
💰 Cost: little, if paying a percentage of sales. But first, you need to find those partners and explain why they need this.
⚙️ Difficulty: medium. The key is to make an offer that is hard for the partner to refuse.
6. PR, presentations, interviews, participation in podcasts, publications in the media
✅ What we get: recognition, status, trust. Loyal clients who come on their own.
💰 Cost: it can be free if you do everything yourself. It can be expensive if done through agencies.
⚙️ Difficulty: difficult. You need to not just tell something, but to be interesting. And also know how to communicate with journalists.
Comparative Table of Channels
If you need quick results — choose cold sales and advertising.
If you want stability in the future — choose content and PR.
If you have an expensive product and need trustful relationships — choose networking and partnerships.
Overall, the best option is to test several channels at once. See what works, what doesn’t, and then invest in the most effective ones.
Common Mistakes in Client Acquisition in B2B
Selling to "everyone"
"Well, we have a useful product, it's definitely needed by many." With such an understanding of your clients, you will waste time on clients who are not interested in your solution at all. Or are interested, but not willing to pay.
How to avoid this? Write a clear ICP. Who are your clients? What is their business like, their size, their budgets? What are their pains that are so severe they are willing to pay? The more precisely you answer these questions, the easier it will be to find "your own".
Weak Offer
"We increase sales", "We create CRMs" — boring, unclear, unappealing. A client has one question in mind: "So what?"
An offer should immediately answer: what the benefit is, why it's you, and why they should buy now. The quicker the client sees value, the higher the chances of a deal.
For creating a strong offer, you can use the template:
"We help companies X do Y so they get Z"
Relying on One Channel
"We will bombard cold calls," "We will launch ads and everything will flow in" — nope. In B2B, rarely does only one tool work.
Cold outreach + content marketing + advertising + networking — this combination yields results. One channel may falter, another will pull through. Don’t get fixated on just one.
Money is Available, but Let's Not Count
Launched advertising. Leads are coming in. Everything seems good… Then it turns out that one client costs more than their average transaction.
B2B marketing without analytics is like driving at night without headlights. You need to understand the cost per lead, deal timeframe, conversion to sales. Without numbers, it's easy to waste a budget and not notice where it went.
Pressuring for a Sale Too Early
In B2B, clients rarely buy from the first interaction. They need time: to study, calculate, discuss with colleagues. If you pounce on them at the threshold with "so, should we go for it?", they are likely to run away.
It’s better to warm them up: case studies, demonstrations, webinars, valuable content. The more trust you build, the easier it will be to sell later.
We Can Help Attract B2B Clients
If all this seems complicated or you simply don’t have time to sort it out — come to Coldy. We make cold outreach understandable and effective.
We will help you gather a database of clients who are truly suited to your product
We will advise you on how to launch your first outreach without landing in spam
Sign up — we will guide you on where to start and how to find "the right" decision-makers.
