You don’t get B2B clients by following standard practices and hoping for the best. You get them by building a scalable, repeatable system that speaks directly to the people who matter. Or to be frank, you stop begging for attention and start earning interest.
Far too many agency owners, freelancers, and SaaS founders today prioritize the basics. Things like tweaking email templates, trying random outreach hacks, and crossing their fingers that someone replies. But that’s more marketing roulette than strategy.
This article breaks down eight ways to get B2B clients the way top closers do: by identifying real buying signals, crafting B2B outreach that lands, and building trust before you ever hop on a call.
Whether you’re just getting started or trying to scale a proven offer, these hard-won, field-tested strategies will help you consistently get your foot in the door.
Getting B2B Clients: The Fundamentals
You’ll need a few essentials to get more prospects and B2B clients in your roster. The following will help you out, whether you’re running inbound or outbound prospecting:
A Clear Understanding of Your ICP
The first step to any prospecting campaign is having a definitive understanding of your ideal customers. These people champion your product or service, can make a purchasing decision, and need your offer to reach a goal.
Cold Email Infrastructure
Cold emails are one of the fastest, most scalable, and high-ROI strategies for getting B2B clients. But finding success here requires building a solid foundation with the proper cold email infrastructure.
You can get this done in one of two ways. You can either set up all technical records yourself, including SPF, DKIM, DMARC, Forwarding, and email warmup, or use Instantly’s Done For You (DFY) email setup service to get up and running with zero hassle.
A Website Optimized for Conversions
You don’t have to go all in on SEO. You just need enough to have at least some visibility for inbound marketing. The goal for now isn’t to rank first on search engines, but to have an optimized website that guides prospects who visit your site to your B2B sales funnels.
A Social Media Presence
Social media is the best place to engage with potential prospects, answer questions, and provide value to your community. So ensure you’re active on social media platforms like LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter (X), and Facebook.
Forum Accounts
When people ask questions, most aren’t reading blogs or watching 22-minute-long YouTube videos. They go to forums like Reddit or Quora for answers. There are Subreddits for almost everything under the sun, so you’ll likely find one that fits your niche.
Now that we’ve covered the fundamentals, let’s look at the eight best strategies for getting high-quality, high-intent prospects in your sales pipeline.
8 Battle-Tested Strategies for Getting B2B Clients
The following strategies are built for both inbound and outbound efforts, so feel free to pick what works for your current system, apply it strategically, and iterate.
Use Instantly B2B Lead Finder
Sales prospecting takes hours of prep work and execution. With a service like Instantly B2B Lead Finder, you can cut down prospecting time and effort dramatically. All you need is a clear understanding of your ICP, and our B2B Lead Finder (with 450+ million verified contacts) surfaces relevant, high-quality prospects in just a few clicks.
To narrow your search, our lead database comes with advanced filters for technographics, industry news, seniority level, company updates, and just about any parameter relevant to your search. Already have a few great clients? You can use our “Lookalikes” filter to find more businesses just like them.
And since the leads you find are already pre-verified, you can send them directly to any active or new campaign on Instantly.ai. Lead Finder essentially makes your cold outreach campaigns far more targeted and effective, so you can enrich your lead list without switching apps. Try it for free today.
Cold Email Marketing
Cold email marketing is arguably the best strategy for getting B2B clients. It’s easy to automate, cost-effective to scale, and works on every niche or industry. But you’ll need the right tools and strategies to thrive with cold outreach. Here’s a quick rundown of what you’ll need to do:
- Buy alternate domains and set up your cold email infrastructure
- Warmup domains for at least 2 weeks before using them in campaigns
- Find leads using lead finder tools, verify, and enrich them
- Segment lead lists and create multiple campaigns for each segment
- Personalize emails using enriched lead data
Instantly.ai has all these and more if you prefer not having to switch between apps. You can automate cold emails, follow-ups, personalization, email warmup, and A/B testing. Plus, thanks to Instantly’s Inbox Placement tool, you can also test if your cold emails will land in your prospects’ inboxes and adjust as needed.
LinkedIn Nurturing
Yes, there are cringy posts. Yes, the engagement pods are real. But if you can look past the noise, LinkedIn is still one of the best places to connect with B2B buyers. The key is to play the long, meaningful game.
Start by growing your network with intent. Connect with people who match your ICP, not just anyone. Be active in the right communities, comment on relevant posts, and share helpful insights without sounding like you’re trying too hard. Over time, people recognize your name, associate it with value, and trust what you say.
And don’t forget segmentation. Not everyone in your network is at the same stage. Some are just browsing, some are ready to buy. Tailor your messages and follow-ups accordingly. Relationships built here often turn into warm leads that are easier to convert.
Reddit Marketing
People trust other people’s experiences far more than polished sales pitches. That’s why Reddit works as well as it does. Today, Reddit is one of the best platforms for learning, asking questions, and engaging with potential B2B buyers naturally.
You don’t even have to connect with a decision-maker right away. Sometimes, all it takes is helping someone who is curious or struggling with a problem your product solves. That person becomes your internal champion, who helps get your foot in the door.
It’s a bit of a guerrilla tactic. But if you stay active in relevant subreddits and play the long game, Reddit can quietly become one of your most reliable lead sources.
Building a Community Around Your Product
This follows the same spirit as Reddit marketing, but now you’re creating a space for people who already use your product or are seriously considering it. A product’s success isn’t measured by how many features it has or how many services it offers.
It’s measured by how successful your clients become after using it. A strong community helps you put that success on display. Inside the group, users ask questions, share wins, and help each other solve problems. You’re creating a platform where proof of value is front and center. And that’s powerful, especially for people just there to learn.
They may not be ready to buy, but when they see real people getting real results, they start moving closer to taking action. This creates a positive feedback loop: Members bring in peers, new users become advocates, and the community grows independently.
Chatbots That Know and Understand Your Product
Chatbots are pretty commonplace today. They’re a great way to capture contact information, especially during dead hours. But most chatbots stop there. They rely on scripted flows and can’t handle nuance. If you want your chatbot to support sales, it needs to do more than just greet visitors.
It should understand your product well enough to answer specific questions, explain features, and guide prospects to the right solution based on their needs without forcing them into a call.
Most people would rather get answers to specific questions right then and there, instead of going through a discovery call with a rep. Take the Instantly.ai chatbot, for example. You can get relevant information about features, pricing, and specific platform functions, all without speaking to a rep.
Use Website Visitor Identification Tools
Not every site visitor will engage with things like chatbots or talk to your sales team. Some are still in their browsing phase. But it doesn’t change the fact that they’re interested. They might just need a little push in the right direction.
The Instantly Website Visitor Identification tool helps you uncover who your site visitors are, the pages they frequently view, and their contact details. Since they already show some interest, sending them a warm email is more likely to get a response.
Strategic Partnerships with Complementary Businesses
Sometimes, the easiest way to reach your ideal clients is through someone who already has their trust. Look for businesses that serve the same audience but aren’t direct competitors.
For example, if you offer CRM consulting, you could partner with a web design agency or a marketing automation platform. If you’re a SaaS founder, teaming up with a service-based business that works with your target market can lead to steady referral traffic.
You don’t need a formal partnership out of the gate. Start by referring leads to each other, co-creating content, or doing simple shoutouts. As the relationship builds, you can explore deeper collaborations like bundled offers, webinars, or joint campaigns.
Key Takeaways
With the right strategies and tools, filling up your B2B sales pipelines, getting sales calls, and closing deals becomes a system that runs like clockwork.
If you want to get B2B clients, the fastest, most cost-effective, and scalable strategy is cold email marketing. Instantly.ai is built specifically to help you find success with email. Start your free Instantly trial today.
