You want to sell something to local businesses: a website, a cleaning contract, a case of shampoo, a weekly pastry order. Search “lead generation ideas” and page 1 is written for marketing teams: exit-intent popups, webinars, gated content, retargeting ads. Those all assume people are already coming to your website. If you’re starting from zero, the other options are paying for leads (pay-per-lead listings, lead lists, an agency) or scrolling Google Maps until the list stops loading.
None of those tell you which businesses to call. So I picked 18 things someone might sell to local businesses, ran the search for each one in Local Lead Finder, a $10 Google Sheet I built that pulls every business on Google Maps into a spreadsheet, and wrote up the playbook I’d follow. Each idea below has the real count from a real run and a link to the full post with the list, the screenshots and the message I’d send.
TL;DR
- 18 local lead generation ideas, each with a real list: 255 Minneapolis property managers, 325 Chattanooga salons, 142 Boise coffee shops, 225 Spokane dentists.
- One search only goes 20 deep, so each list comes from one search per neighborhood: 98 Boise plumbers instead of the 20 Maps showed.
- The list is the start, not the sale: every post ends with who to skip and the one message I’d send first.
Who this is for
- Freelance web designer: four of these ideas are lists of businesses with no website, or with only a booking page or a Facebook page.
- Commercial cleaner, landscaper, snow plow or junk removal contractor: one list of property managers covers four kinds of contract work.
- Product maker or small roaster: three ideas are about getting a product into salons, spas and coffee shops.
- Bookkeeper, virtual assistant or social media manager: the small businesses with few reviews are the ones nobody else is calling.
- Side hustler picking a business: every idea has a real count, so you can see how big the list is before you start.
Before you start
- A Google Places API (New) key
- Local Lead Finder set up in your Google Drive
- Local Lead Finder itself
- One thing you sell, and one city to sell it in
Don’t have a Places API key yet? How to get one free. Haven’t set up the sheet? Setup takes 5 minutes.
How every list was made
Same three steps every time. Find Areas turns a city into every neighborhood and suburb around it (Minneapolis became 87 areas, later 150). Search in All AREAS runs “keyword in area” for each one, removes duplicates, and writes the results to a new tab: name, phone, address, rating, reviews, website and a Maps link. Then a few formulas count and sort what came back.
The sheet uses Google’s official Places API on your own key, so the lists are the same businesses Google Maps shows. It just runs more searches than you would by hand and keeps everything in one place.
“Reject the tyranny of being picked: pick yourself” (Seth Godin, Seth’s Blog)
Paying for leads is waiting to be picked. Building the list yourself is picking who you call.
Lead generation ideas for web designers and marketers
- Sell websites to businesses that have none. How to Find Local Businesses Without Websites: 131 of 325 Chattanooga hair salons list no website on Google Maps. In East Ridge it’s 11 of 13.
- Sell websites to salons whose site is a booking page. How to Sell Websites To Salons: 38 Chattanooga salons list a GlossGenius, Vagaro or Booksy page as their website.
- Sell to great businesses nobody can find. Local Lead Generation for Web Designers: 31 Spokane dentists rated 4.8 or higher with under 50 reviews, when the typical one has 209.
- Sell social media management. How to Find Social Media Management Clients: 25 Chattanooga salons list Facebook, Instagram or Linktree as their website. They already post.
- Sell Google reviews help. How to Get More Google Reviews for Local Businesses: 38 Spokane dentists rated 4.5 or higher with fewer than 52 reviews.
Lead generation ideas for contractors and trades
- Snow removal contracts. How to Get Snow Removal Contracts in Minneapolis: 255 property management companies and 153 plazas, the people who decide about dozens of lots at once.
- Landscaping contracts. How to Get Landscaping Contracts: the same 255 property managers, starting with 8 HOA managers and 106 in the suburbs.
- Commercial cleaning contracts. How to Get Commercial Cleaning Contracts: 63 of the 153 plazas have no phone number on Google, so their property manager is who you message.
- Junk removal jobs. How to Get Junk Removal Jobs: 35 rental and apartment managers with tenants moving out every month.
- Bookkeeping clients. How to Get Bookkeeping Clients: 25 Boise plumbers with under 20 Google reviews, small enough to be doing their own books.
Lead generation ideas for product makers
- Get a product into salons. How to Get Your Product Into Salons: 284 independent salons in Chattanooga for a new shampoo, after taking out chains and barbershops.
- Sell on consignment. Selling on Consignment to Salons and Spas: 55 spa, nail, wax, brow and lash shops for a new razor kit.
- Sell wholesale to coffee shops. How to Sell to Coffee Shops: 83 independent Boise cafes for a commercial bakery or a small roastery.
- Book a group deal. Wedding Hair Group Deals: a wedding planner’s list of salons big enough to take a whole bridal party on a slow weekday.
Local lead lists and the numbers behind them
- See how many leads Google Maps leaves out. Where to Get Local Leads: Google Maps showed me 20 plumbers in Boise. The sheet found 98.
- Build any local business list. How to Build a Local Business List in Google Sheets: 142 Boise coffee shops, broken down by town.
- Get the whole list in one city. Property Management Companies in Minneapolis: all 255, ranked by Google reviews, with the 8 HOA and condo managers.
- Count who has no website. How Many Small Businesses Don’t Have a Website?: 40% of Chattanooga hair salons, and only 7% of Spokane dentists.
Want them as things to sell, with the first message for each? 18 Ways to Make Money With a Google Maps Lead List.
How to pick one
- Start with what you can already do. If you can build a site, start with the web designer ideas. If you have a truck, start with the contractor ones.
- One list can feed several ideas. The 255 Minneapolis property managers are the list behind five of them, and the 325 Chattanooga salons are behind seven.
- Pick the smallest group worth calling first. 8 HOA managers, 25 small plumbers, 38 booking-page salons. A short first list gets called; a list of 300 sits in a tab.
Common pitfalls
- Searching before Find Areas finishes: it keeps working in the background. Minneapolis started at 87 areas and grew to 150.
- Calling everyone on the list: take out what doesn’t fit first. 16 of the 325 salon results were chains and 16 were barbershops.
- Trusting names: Honey Bunny was near the top of the busiest salons, and it’s a wax studio. 25 of the 326 shopping center results were park buildings.
- Reading no website as no business: “no website listed on Google” doesn’t mean no website anywhere. Check before you pitch a site.
- Messaging the same business twice: mark each row Outreached and it stays green in every future search.
Learn the Google Sheets formulas in these posts
- 3 Ways to Count in Google Sheets: every count on this page, like 131 of 325 with no website, came from a counting formula.
- How To Sort A Filter: sorting a filtered list, like small plumbers by number of reviews.
- 200 REGEXMATCH Examples in Google Sheets: the pattern matching behind finding booking pages, Facebook pages and chains.
- How to Create a CRM in google sheets w/ Dashboard: a next step for tracking who you called and what they said.
Better Sheets has hundreds more tutorials like these. If you want to get better at Google Sheets, join Better Sheets.
FAQ
What is local lead generation?
Finding local businesses that might buy what you sell, and getting a way to contact them. For most of these ideas that’s a phone number, a website or a Google Maps link for every business of one kind in one city.
Are these leads free?
The sheet is $10, and free for Better Sheets lifetime members. Searches run on your own Google Places API (New) key, and Google gives up to 1,000 searches a month free. Each area is one request per results page.
Why not just use Google Maps?
You can. One Maps search gave me 20 plumbers in Boise, 2 of them ads. The same search across 42 Boise areas found 98. More searches in smaller places dig further down the list.
Is Local Lead Finder a scraper?
No. It doesn’t scrape Google Maps. It uses Google’s official Places API with your own key.
Do these ideas only work in these cities?
No. The city is just where I ran each one. Type your own city into Find Areas and your own keyword into the search, and you get the same kind of list for your town.
Which idea has the biggest list?
The 325 hair salons in Chattanooga and the 255 property managers in Minneapolis. Each of those lists feeds several of the ideas above.
How long does setup take?
About 5 minutes. The first run asks you to authorize the script in Google. Here’s the setup walkthrough.
Get the sheet
Local Lead Finder is $10, and free for Better Sheets lifetime members.
