How to find new customers in Belgium: the free sources and the tools, per trigger
Tips
The short answer
Finding new customers in Belgium does not start with a list of companies that fit, but with companies where something is happening: they are hiring, they were just incorporated, they are moving or opening a branch, they filed accounts with more staff, or they visited your website. Each of those triggers has a free official source and a tool that makes the source searchable. This page sets them side by side per trigger, with what the free route costs in time and what the tool costs in money.
Why per trigger? Because a trigger solves three problems at once: it says who you call this week, it gives you the first sentence of the call, and in Belgium and Germany it is the difference between a call that is allowed and one that is not. How to run that call is in B2B cold calling in Europe.
The triggers and their sources
Trigger | Free source | Tools | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|
They are hiring | VDAB, company websites | Bizzy (PredictLeads + VDAB), LinkedIn Sales Navigator | Anything that scales with capacity: software, space, equipment, HR |
They were just incorporated | KBO Public Search, Belgian Official Gazette | Bizzy, Trends Top, Companyweb | Accountants, banks, insurers, IT and telecom |
They moved or opened a branch | Official Gazette (seat transfer), KBO (establishment units) | Bizzy, Companyweb | Fit-out, facilities, energy, security, local services |
They grew on paper | National Bank's Central Balance Sheet Office | Bizzy, Trends Top, Companyweb, GraydonCreditsafe | Anything that grows with headcount and revenue |
A director changed | Official Gazette (appointments and resignations) | Bizzy (job changes via LinkedIn), Companyweb | Advisers, software with a long sales cycle |
They visited your website | None | Leadinfo, Leadfeeder, Salesfeed, Albacross, Bizzy | Anyone with a website that draws traffic |
1. Companies that are hiring
A vacancy is a company spending money on a problem it has decided it cannot solve with the people it already has, and it is dated. That makes it the most usable trigger on a Belgian company record. Belgian vacancies live in two places: on companies' own websites and at VDAB. Neither is a searchable database of "who is hiring", so the work is joining vacancies to company records. In Bizzy, job listings are tracked from company websites through PredictLeads, complemented in Belgium by VDAB, and they sit on the same record as the filed accounts, so "manufacturers in West Flanders with 50 to 200 staff hiring operations roles" is one query. Which kind of vacancy you actually want (count, role, department) and how to read it against filed headcount is in finding Belgian companies that are hiring. Which sectors are hiring hardest right now is in Belgian job vacancies by sector.
2. Newly incorporated companies
Every new Belgian company appears in a free source within about two business days of incorporation, with its name, legal form, seat, enterprise number and directors. Two things to know before you build on it. In 2024 Statbel counted 113,289 formations, and 61,361 of them, 54.2%, were natural persons: sole traders, not companies. And the register holds no phone number; we checked forty new companies and not one had one. Anyone who wants to approach starters has to find contact details elsewhere, and may not do so freely. The three routes, the figures and the contact rules are in finding new Belgian companies.
3. Moves and new branches
A seat transfer is published in the annexes to the Belgian Official Gazette; a new establishment unit gets its own number in the KBO with an address and activities. Both are free and both are dated. For anyone selling locally this is the most underrated trigger: a company that just moved has a new neighbourhood, new suppliers and a fit-out behind it. How to search the Gazette is in searching the Belgian Official Gazette; how establishment units work in Belgian establishment units.
4. Growth in the annual accounts
The annual accounts tell you whether a company is growing: average headcount with several years of history, new hires in the year, gross margin, balance sheet total. They are free at the National Bank's Central Balance Sheet Office and appear at the latest seven months after the year end. Mind the trap: for most small companies you will not see turnover, because it is optional in the abbreviated and micro models. What you do read and how is in how to read Belgian annual accounts; how to judge health from them in is this company financially healthy?.
5. A new director
Appointments and resignations are published in the legal persons annex of the Gazette, searchable by enterprise number. A new managing director or finance director reviews suppliers in the first months; whoever calls then with a reason gets in. Bizzy also shows job changes via LinkedIn as a signal on the company record, with the old and new title and the date.
6. Visitors to your website
The only trigger without a free official source. A script on your site resolves the network address of a visit to a company, never to a person, and shows which pages it viewed. Leadinfo reports identifying roughly 30% of visitors; expect less for very small Belgian companies without their own network. What happens after identification is what separates the tools: whether the company is matched to register data and contacts, and whether it can go to your CRM. The five tools are compared in website visitor identification tools for the Benelux; what is allowed, in visitor identification and the GDPR.
Free or with a tool
Every source above, except website visits, is free. What you buy with a tool is not the data but the joining: the same triggers on one company record, filtered to the companies that fit you, with contacts attached and an export to your CRM. Anyone who looks at ten companies a week can live on the registers. Anyone who wants to sort two hundred companies a week by trigger cannot. The Belgian tools for that are compared in Belgian prospecting tools compared.
Frequently asked questions
How do I find new customers in Belgium? Start from a trigger rather than a list: companies that are hiring, were just incorporated, moved, grew in their accounts, got a new director or visited your website. Each trigger has a free source (VDAB, KBO, the Official Gazette, the National Bank) and tools that join those sources.
Which trigger works best? Vacancies, because they are dated, say per role where the company is investing, and point straight at the person to call. A website visit is the warmest, but only reaches companies that already know you.
May I call a company because it is hiring? In Belgium you must first screen the number against the Do Not Call Me list, which covers businesses too. After that, yes. The rules per country are in cold outreach rules in Europe.
Can I do this without a tool? Yes, for small numbers. VDAB, KBO Public Search, the Gazette and the Central Balance Sheet Office are free. You buy a tool for the volume and the joining, not for the data.
Photo: the Gare Maritime at Tour & Taxis, Brussels, Guy Delsaut, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons