How to Find International Business Customers: A Step-by-Step Guide for Small Businesses

Your next customer might not be in your town, or even your country. Many small businesses sell services online, ship products abroad or work with partners overseas. The hard part is knowing where to start and who to talk to.

This guide shows you how to find international business customers in a sensible order: pick the right market, find real businesses there, and contact them in a way that respects local rules.

Step 1. Choose one market to start with

Start with one country, not ten. Good first markets usually share something with you:

• Language. Selling where your language is spoken makes every email and call easier.
• Time zone. Customers who are awake when you are get faster replies.
• Delivery and payment. Check you can deliver there and get paid there before you look for customers.
• Rules. Some products and services need licences or follow local standards. Check before you sell.

Step 2. Check there is demand

Look for businesses abroad that already buy what you sell, or that have the problem you solve. Trade associations, chambers of commerce, government export services and online marketplaces are all useful places to look. If competitors already sell there, that is usually a good sign: there is demand.

Step 3. Find real businesses in that market

Search for the type of business you sell to, in the cities or regions you chose. Check that each one is real, still trading and not a competitor, and keep a list with where you found it.

Find Customers does this for you. Choose up to 5 countries, and optionally a city or region, and it searches the web for businesses that could buy from you. Every result is checked first, labelled Hot, Good or Possible, and shown with its website, location and where it was found.

Step 4. Find a local reason to get in touch

A new location, a job advert, a new website or reviews that mention a problem are just as useful abroad as at home. Find Customers can show a fresh public reason to contact a business from the last 6 months, with its date and source link, so your first line is about them, not about you.

Step 5. Contact them in a way that fits local rules

Email rules differ from country to country. Use a public business contact route, keep your first message short, tell them who you are and how to stop hearing from you, and stop when they say so. Find Customers and Email Marketing include helpful tips with the email rules for the UK, the US, Canada and Australia.

Write in their language if you can, mention their city or country, and give prices in a currency they understand.

Step 6. Make it easy to buy from you

Once a business is interested, send them to a professional website or online store where they can see what you offer. With Machinence Payments, card payments are handled by Stripe, and mobile money by PawaPay, through your own PawaPay account connected in Payments, Mobile Money, in the countries PawaPay supports, including Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia (Machinence shows every country your account covers once it is connected).

Start with one free search

On machinence.io you can run one free Find customers search with just your email, choosing the country and the city or region: it shows 3 sample leads in full. The 7-day free trial includes 10 qualified leads and never asks for a card.

New to finding business customers? Start with How to find B2B customers.

Find international customers →