prospecting · local-prospecting

Local SMB Prospecting Reference

For when the user sells to local small businesses — shops, gyms, restaurants, salons, clinics, professional services, contractors, real estate, fitness studios, dental practices.

Adapted from and generalized beyond the local-client-prospector pattern (browser-assisted discovery + website status classification + proximity scoring).

ICP Signals That Matter (Local SMB branch)

Operational signals

Active business — Google Business Profile updated, recent reviews, recent hours updates
Recent activity — open right now, regular hours posted, recent photos uploaded by owner
Customer engagement — owner responding to reviews, posts on social, active calendar (for service businesses)

Online presence signals (the core SMB qualification axis)

The reference local-client-prospector skill uses website status as the primary qualification — port this directly. Four classifications:

Status	Definition	Typical outcome
No site found	No credible standalone website after cross-checked search	Hot prospect for web/marketing service
Social only	Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Linktree, booking portal, marketplace page only — no standalone site	Hot prospect for web/marketing service
Weak site	Standalone site exists but outdated, broken, very thin, non-mobile-friendly, or missing clear contact/conversion flow	Warm prospect for refresh / rebuild service
Has site	Credible, modern standalone site exists	Low prospect unless other signals apply (e.g., poor SEO, weak conversion design)

Proximity signals

Distance from the user's location or service area
Density — clusters of similar businesses in one area = neighborhood targeting opportunity
Travel time — useful when in-person discovery, install, or service delivery is required

Decay signals

Closed permanently (Google Maps banner)
Reviews paused or business listing reported as closed
Last activity (review, post) >12 months ago

Discovery Sources (Local SMB branch)

Primary

Google Maps (browser, manual) — search "category near [location]" and walk the visible results. Cross-check details. Don't bulk-extract.
Yelp — secondary verification; complementary categories
Bing Local / Apple Maps — different coverage on smaller businesses
Facebook Pages search — many SMBs are Facebook-only

Cross-verification

Business's own website (if any)
Industry directories (e.g., Healthgrades for medical, OpenTable for restaurants, Avvo for legal)
Local Chamber of Commerce listings
State business registries for incorporation status
Search results for "[business name] [city]" to discover non-Maps presence

Browser Research Workflow

Open a browser and search Google Maps for the category near base_location
Build a candidate list from visible local results, search results, and public directories
For each candidate, inspect public sources to fill required fields
Search the exact business name plus city/town to check whether a standalone website exists
Classify website status per the table above
Mark confidence: High (2+ sources), Medium (1 source + consistent evidence), Low (incomplete/ambiguous)

When the user explicitly asks for subagents AND subagents are available, split candidates into non-overlapping batches and ask each subagent to verify only website/social/contact status. Don't use subagents for the primary search if it slows progress.

Optional: programmatic verification with Firecrawl or Browserbase

Once you have a candidate's website URL (found via manual Maps/Yelp discovery), you can speed up website-status classification by hitting the URL programmatically:

Firecrawl for simple "is this site live, modern, mobile-friendly, conversion-flow-equipped" reads — returns clean markdown you can inspect
Browserbase when the candidate site requires JS rendering, has a cookie consent dialog, or you need session state

Strict line: use these on the individual business's URL. Don't point them at Google Maps, Yelp, or any platform whose ToS prohibits bulk extraction — discovery stays manual.

See data-sources.md for setup details.

Qualification Checklist (Local SMB branch)

Business is active (recent reviews or activity in last 6 months)
Category matches user's service offering
Distance / proximity within target radius
Website status classified
Phone or contact channel verified
At least one cross-source confirms business operates at the listed address
Not a duplicate / chain location / out-of-scope category
Not closed permanently

Lead Scoring (Local SMB)

Use this simple rubric (matches local-client-prospector pattern):

Score	Criteria
Hot	No site found OR social-only + phone present + active business + within target radius
Warm	Weak site, poor online presentation, or marketplace/booking-page only
Cold	Good website already present OR low confidence
Skip	Closed, duplicate, outside radius, irrelevant category, or not a business prospect

Output Columns (Local SMB branch)

Chat table (≤15 rows):

| Score | Business | Category | Area | Distance | Website status | Website/Social | Phone | Why it's a prospect | Confidence |

CSV:

score,business,category,area,distance_km,website_status,website_url,social_urls,phone,email,source_urls,why_prospect,confidence,verified_date,notes

Rules:

Keep "Why it's a prospect" short and actionable
Use Not found instead of leaving blank fields
Include source links sparingly, not all of them
After the table, add Best first outreach targets with the top 3 leads and one practical reason each
If confidence is low, state exactly what remains uncertain

Top Outreach Targets Selection (Local SMB)

Prioritize for the top 3 hot leads:

No site / social only + phone present = clearest service opportunity
High review count = active, established business with real customers
Owner-responded reviews = engaged owner = more likely to evaluate a vendor
Industry alignment with your service specialty beats generic category match

Each top target rationale should be one sentence naming the gap and the signal: "No standalone website (cross-checked); 80+ Google reviews with owner replies; 2 km from target area."

Compliance Notes (Local SMB-specific)

The local branch is the most scraping-sensitive of the three motions. Specifically:

Google Maps Terms of Service prohibit bulk extraction. Treat browser visits as research, not as data acquisition.
Don't store full Google Maps Place IDs in your CRM — the ToS limits storage of Maps data.
Public business contact channels only: published phone, contact form, info@ email. Don't reach individual employees through their personal channels.
Owner/operator name when published on the business's own site is OK to use. If you only got it from LinkedIn, mark the source.

Common Mistakes (Local SMB)

Bulk-scraping Google Maps — fastest way to violate ToS and lose the research channel.
Treating Google Maps data as truth — listings go stale. Cross-check hours, status, and reviews.
Skipping the website status cross-check — finding "no site" on Maps doesn't mean no site exists; do an exact-name web search before classifying.
Targeting only the largest businesses — they're already covered by other providers. The 2–5 employee SMBs are the under-served opportunity.
Generic outreach to all hot leads — local SMBs respond better to outreach that names their specific gap ("I noticed your menu isn't visible on mobile") than generic pitches.
Ignoring chains and franchises as Skip — sometimes the franchisee is the buyer and they have local marketing authority. Verify before skipping.