B2B prospecting in the Netherlands: meaning, the method in five steps, sources and rules
Tips
The short answer
Prospecting is finding and approaching companies that could become customers, before they contact you. Dutch sales teams mostly use the English word; in Belgium the same work is called prospectie. The process has five steps: define whom you are looking for in fields you can verify (sector, size, legal form, region), build a list from the company register and other sources, find a trigger per company, choose channel and message, and follow up until a conversation or a no. The difference between teams that keep prospecting and teams that give up after three weeks is almost never the call script. It is steps 1 and 3: a list that is right, and a reason to call today.
This page describes the method for B2B teams in the Netherlands: the words, the five steps, which Dutch sources to use, what is allowed, ten tips and what to measure.
Prospecting, prospect and prospectie: the words
A prospect is a company or person that fits your target group but has not yet shown interest. A lead has: a request, a download, a visit to your pricing page. Prospecting is the work that turns a prospect into a lead or a conversation. Lead generation is the broader term for everything that produces leads, inbound included; prospecting is the outbound part, where you make the first contact. Teams that mix the words up in their CRM can no longer see later which source produced customers; more on that in what a lead is.
The prospecting process in five steps
1. Define whom you are looking for, in fields you can verify
"Growing SMEs in the Randstad" is not a target group, it is a feeling. Write your ideal customer down in fields that exist in a register or database: SBI code or sector, number of employees, legal form (BV, NV, sole trader), province or radius around a town, and what your current best customers have in common. Take the latter from your own CRM: the ten customers with the highest revenue or the lowest churn, and look at what they share. That profile is your filter for step 2 and your yardstick for qualification later.
2. Build the list from the company register and other sources
Every Dutch business is in the Handelsregister of the KVK with name, KVK number, legal form, SBI codes, branch addresses and directors. Extracts and data products are paid; the basic data per company can be looked up on kvk.nl. Annual accounts are filed with the KVK, but small and micro companies file only a limited balance sheet, no profit and loss account, so for most of the SME market revenue is not in any public source. Complement the register with job boards (who is hiring), LinkedIn (who works there and what changed) and the company website (what they really do, which software they use). A tool like Bizzy combines those sources per company, taking Dutch company data from Creditsafe, and lets you filter on the fields from step 1, with the contacts attached; the steps to build such a list by hand are in how to build a lead list.
3. Find a trigger per company
This is the step that separates a list from prospecting. A trigger is something happening at the company that makes your product relevant: a vacancy for a role you support, a new director or manager, a second branch, a move, filed figures that show growth, a visit to your website. A message that opens with the trigger gets read; a message that opens with your company does not. Sort your list every week by who has a trigger and start there. Bizzy attaches those triggers to every company as signals, so you do not have to open a hundred websites to find them.
4. Choose channel and message
Phone for decision-makers you can convince in one conversation, email for a target group you first want to read something, LinkedIn for roles that live there (marketing, HR, IT) and not for roles that never do (production, construction). The message is short: the trigger, one sentence on what you did for comparable companies, one question. No attachment, no three paragraphs about yourself. Our cold calling script is on the hub page; for LinkedIn the same script applies in text form.
5. Follow up and record
One attempt is not prospecting. Count on at least five contact attempts over two channels before you close a prospect as "no reply", and record every attempt in the CRM with date and outcome. Prospects that say "not now" go into nurturing with the trigger you will come back on; prospects that say no get a reason in the CRM so that after a quarter you can see which segment to drop. The whole process around it is in lead management.
What is allowed in the Netherlands
Calling companies is allowed. Since 1 July 2021 an opt-in applies to consumers and also to sole traders, general partnerships and professional partnerships: you may only cold call them if they gave consent. Legal persons (BV, NV, foundation) may be called without consent. Unsolicited email is stricter: article 11.7 of the Telecommunicatiewet requires prior consent, with a narrow exception for addresses the company has explicitly published for commercial messages. An info@ address on the website does not automatically qualify. The precise rules per country, with the legal texts, are in the rules for cold outreach in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. The practical consequence for your list: filter on legal form in step 2, and put the phone first.
Which tools you need
A source of company data: the Handelsregister itself for individual look-ups, or a database that adds filters, contacts and signals on top. The comparison of prospecting tools sets nine options side by side.
A CRM to record attempts, outcomes and next actions. From 14 euros per user per month; see the CRM comparison for SMEs.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator if your target group is there; it is a search engine, not a contact database.
A calendar. Prospecting that is not blocked in one-hour slots does not happen.
Ten prospecting tips, briefly
Call the companies with a trigger first, then the rest.
Open every message with the trigger, not with your company name.
Call in one-hour blocks; between two meetings it does not work.
Ask for fifteen minutes, not for "a chance to get acquainted".
Check the legal form before you call; a sole trader has different rules.
Use the KVK number as the key in your CRM, not the company name; names change, numbers do not.
Never close after one attempt; five over two channels is the minimum.
Record every no with a reason from a short fixed list.
Refresh your list every quarter; contacts change faster than you think.
Measure conversations per hour, not messages per day.
What to measure
Three numbers are enough. Conversations per hour of prospecting: the only number that tells you whether your list and triggers are right. Meetings per hundred prospects, per segment from step 1: the number that tells you which segment to expand and which to drop. Customers per hundred meetings: the number that tells you whether in step 1 you chose the right companies or just the reachable ones. Messages sent, connections made and open rates say something about your activity, not about your pipeline.
Frequently asked questions
What is prospecting? Finding and approaching companies that could become customers, before they contact you: defining the target group, building a list, finding a trigger per company, making contact and following up. In Belgium it is called prospectie.
What is the difference between prospecting and lead generation? Lead generation is everything that produces leads, inbound (content, ads, trade fairs) and outbound. Prospecting is the outbound part: you choose the companies and make the first contact.
What is the difference between a prospect and a lead? A prospect fits your target group but has not done anything yet; a lead has shown interest. Prospecting turns prospects into leads or conversations.
Can you cold call companies in the Netherlands? Legal persons, yes. Sole traders and partnerships only with consent, since 1 July 2021. Unsolicited email requires consent, with a narrow exception for addresses explicitly published for commercial messages.
Does prospecting via LinkedIn work? For roles active on LinkedIn it does, with the same short message as on the phone: trigger, one sentence, one question. For production, construction and logistics the phone is usually faster.
Read next: prospecting in Belgium, how to build a lead list and winning customers per channel.
Photo: Rotterdam Centraal station and the Delftse Poort building, Frans Berkelaar, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons