How many companies are there in a typical Western country
We often talk about B2B prospection, as if prospects were in infinite numbers. How big really is the pie?
4/11/20263 min read
How Many Companies Can You Prospect in France?
Obviously, the number of companies you can target depends on your product or service!
If you're targeting small businesses and/or SMEs, your total addressable market will generally be much larger than if you're exclusively targeting mid-sized companies and large corporations. This also makes a large-scale multichannel prospecting strategy much more interesting.
Let's take a closer look at the size of the French market and the number of companies you can realistically target.
There Are Several Million Companies in France
I often find it amusing when a prospect tells me: "I know everyone in my market."
In some cases, that might actually be true, particularly if their market is extremely small and only around 100 companies or fewer could potentially become customers.
But in most cases, they simply don't realize how little of their market they actually know.
Beyond the solar system, there's an entire galaxy!
France has approximately 5.2 million companies, most of which are micro-businesses. So if you're targeting independent professionals, your addressable market is absolutely enormous.
In terms of small businesses (2–11 employees), there are approximately 120,000 to 140,000.
There are roughly the same number of SMEs (12–250 employees), probably towards the upper end of that range, around 140,000 companies.
Beyond that, the numbers drop significantly.
For mid-sized companies (251–4,999 employees), estimates range from 6,000 to 7,500.
As for large corporations, there are only 327.
So let's say you can include SMEs in your B2B target market. You're probably looking at tens of thousands of potential companies.
And if you include both small businesses and SMEs, you could potentially have hundreds of thousands of companies that might benefit from your services.
That's a lot of potential prospects for direct sales!
Through B2B cold calling, reaching this entire market will obviously be difficult. At least 30–40% of prospects in a given market will be unreachable and/or unwilling to talk to you.
The Bigger Your Market, the More Opportunities You Have
As you've probably understood by now, if you're targeting SMEs and/or small businesses, your addressable market can be absolutely enormous.
At this point, it may be worth scoring your market to identify which companies should be prioritized.
After all, let's say you have 30,000 companies in your addressable market, or even half that number. You might not even have enough capacity to prospect all of them.
And in any case, it makes much more sense to focus your efforts on the companies most likely to convert.
Scoring your market is essentially like building a prospecting list, but at a more advanced level.
It can make a real difference when it comes to meeting booking rates and conversion rates, particularly when done properly using a tool such as Apollo.io.
In a Large Market, a Good Email Sequence Might Be All You Need
A good B2B email sequence can generate one meeting for every 100 to 300 emails sent.
Email is generally less impactful than cold calling. However, when you're targeting a massive market, its potential becomes obvious.
Let's say your market consists of 15,000 companies. A good email sequence could generate 150 meetings.
You might generate even more if you have several different personas to target within each company.
And if your market contains 40,000 companies, you could potentially generate 400 meetings, even if you're targeting just one persona per company.
In other words, email prospecting can be an extremely powerful acquisition channel when your addressable market is sufficiently large.
I've developed a specific email prospecting technique that uses AI.
See here how to use AI for B2B prospecting.
Email Sequences Generate Meetings and Create Opportunities for Setting
Beyond generating meetings, email sequences also generate something incredibly valuable: email opens.
Nowadays, email open tracking isn't necessarily very reliable, since automated bots may open your emails to detect potential security threats.
However, when you see multiple opens from the same prospect, at least 2 and preferably 3 to be more confident, there's a good chance you've sparked their curiosity.
Even if they don't book a meeting directly, they're much more likely to agree to one when you call them than someone who has never heard of you.
That's for sure.
If you're consistently running good email campaigns, you could have several dozen prospects in this situation every week!
See here for more information on setting in B2B prospecting.
Conclusion
When targeting large markets, email sequences are particularly interesting because they can generate significant numbers of meetings while also creating opportunities for additional setting with dozens or even hundreds of prospects.
Interested in implementing this type of strategy in your market by outsourcing your B2B prospecting?
Feel free to send me an email at louis@outbound-machine.com