01
What You Covered Today
A practical session on getting in front of the right people — without spending on advertising. You explored B2B vs B2C strategy, the partnership shortcut for B2C businesses, and how AI tools turn hours of prospecting research into minutes.
| Topic | What you covered |
|---|---|
| B2B vs B2C Strategy | Key differences in go-to-market approach, outreach rules, and which model fits your business |
| B2B2C Partnership Model | Using existing businesses to reach your end customers — lower cost, lower risk, faster traction |
| Ideal Customer Profile | Why you can't do any outreach without one, and how AI helped Mat build his |
| AI-Powered Prospecting | Using Comet browser, ChatGPT agent mode, and Gemini to build a prospect list automatically |
| =GEMINI() in Google Sheets | Calling AI directly inside a spreadsheet cell to pull company research at scale |
| Email Finder Tools | Hunter.io, Apollo.io, and alternatives — finding verified business emails within free tiers |
| Outreach Principles | Craft carefully, start slow, lead with value — never blast untested emails to hundreds of contacts |
02
Key Takeaways
- Know your route first. B2B and B2C require completely different outreach strategies. Get this wrong and you waste both time and credibility.
- B2B2C is your shortcut. No audience yet? Find businesses that already have yours and partner with them instead of going direct.
- Your time costs money. Even "free" outreach isn't free. Value your hours and spend them on the highest-return activities.
- AI has changed prospecting forever. A list that used to take hours of manual Googling now takes minutes. The edge goes to whoever uses that saved time wisely.
- Relationships are your most durable asset. Mat's clients from 2019 are still clients now. No ad campaign delivers that.
- Don't blast untested messages. Start slow, test what lands, refine before scaling. A bad first impression wastes an entire dataset.
- You can reach £100k without advertising. Direct outreach and partnerships can get most businesses to six figures before a single penny goes on ads.
- People buy the way you make them feel. Understand the emotional driver behind your customer's decision. Build everything around that.
03
B2B vs B2C: Know Your Route
The most important strategic question when going to market: who are you selling to — and what does that mean for how you reach them?
| B2B | B2C | |
|---|---|---|
| Direct cold outreach | ✓ Works well — if it's a business email address | ✗ High regulatory risk — needs explicit consent |
| Best approach | Outbound: direct outreach, calls, meetings | Inbound: content, partnerships, referrals |
| Closing deals | Relationship-led, often 1-to-1 | Scale-led, often via third parties |
| GDPR | Business email + legitimate interest — generally OK | Personal email — must have explicit opt-in |
| Speed to revenue | Faster if relationships are strong | Slower without an existing audience |
The B2B2C Partnership Shortcut
If you're B2C with no audience yet, go B2B2C: partner with businesses that already serve your target customers. They promote you to their base; you offer their customers a benefit. Lower risk, lower cost, builds trust faster than cold advertising.
Real example from this session
Rosie's wellness gift bags: Rather than advertising direct to consumers, she can partner with Reiki healers, massage therapists, and sound bath practitioners who already have engaged, wellness-focused audiences. She offers their clients a discount; they promote her as a benefit to their own customers. Nobody needs to spend on ads.
04
Build Your Prospect List: Step by Step
This is the workflow Mat demonstrated live. It replaces hours of manual research with a few minutes of AI-assisted prospecting.
1
Lock in your ICP
Before you search for anyone, you need a clear Ideal Customer Profile. Who are you targeting? What industry? What size? What problem do you solve for them? If you built this in a previous session, pull it out now. If not, use AI to build it.
2
Use Comet to find your prospects
Comet is a free agentic browser. Open it, paste in a prompt describing who you're looking for, and it searches the web, clicks through directories, and populates a spreadsheet — all without you doing it manually.
3
Enrich your spreadsheet with AI formulas
Once you have company names and websites in Google Sheets, use
=GEMINI() to pull AI-generated research for each row. Drag the formula down the column and it does every row automatically.4
Find verified email addresses
Use Hunter.io, Apollo.io, or Sumber.io to find and verify business email addresses. All have free tiers. Stack accounts across tools to maximise your free monthly credits.
5
Craft your message and start slowly
Use AI to help write your first outreach email — but make it genuinely valuable, not a pitch. Test on 5–10 contacts. See what gets replies. Refine. Then scale.
⚠️ Important
Only email business addresses (company domain). Never cold email Gmail, Hotmail, or personal addresses — even if they're publicly available. If in doubt, call first.
05
Outreach Prompts to Use Now
Prospecting prompt — for Comet or ChatGPT agent mode
Copy this prompt ↓
Find [number] UK-based [business type] who [specific criteria].
For each one, find:
- Business name and location
- Website URL and email address
- Social media presence (Instagram / LinkedIn)
- Estimated audience or customer base size
Add all results to a spreadsheet.
Outreach email prompt — for Claude or ChatGPT
Copy this prompt ↓
I'm reaching out to [business type] to propose a partnership.
My business: [what you do in one sentence]
What I'm offering: [benefit to their customers — not a pitch to them]
Why it's good for them: [what's in it for the business you're contacting]
Write a short, warm, genuine outreach email. Under 150 words.
Tone: friendly, confident, not salesy. Lead with value.
Include a subject line.
Company research formula — Google Sheets
Use in a Google Sheets cell ↓
=GEMINI("Summarise what this company does and who their customers are in 2 sentences: " & A2 & " " & B2)
Replace A2 with your company name column and B2 with your website column. Drag the formula down to run it on every row.
06
Quick Reference: Tools Covered
| Tool | What it does | Free tier? |
|---|---|---|
| Comet Browser | Agentic browser — automates web research and populates spreadsheets for you | Yes — free to download and use |
| ChatGPT Agent Mode | AI that browses the web and takes actions on your behalf | Limited on free plan; agent mode on Plus |
| =GEMINI() formula | Calls Gemini AI directly from inside a Google Sheets cell | Yes — available in Google Sheets |
| Hunter.io | Finds and verifies business email addresses by domain | 25 searches/month free |
| Apollo.io | Larger contact database, email finder, and outreach tools | Limited free tier |
| Sumber.io | Email finder and lead enrichment | Free tier available |
| Prospect Tracker Spreadsheet | Pre-built Google Sheet for managing your outreach pipeline | Free — open spreadsheet ↗ |
07
The Dos and Don'ts
✅ Do
✓ Use business email addresses only — company domain, not personal
✓ Start slow: test your message on 5–10 contacts before scaling
✓ Lead with value: what's in it for them and their customers
✓ Follow up — as long as someone hasn't told you to stop
✓ Value your time as a real cost in every decision you make
✓ Stack free email finder tools to maximise monthly credits
✓ Use AI to research each company before you write to them
❌ Don't
✗ Cold email Gmail/Hotmail/Outlook addresses, even if publicly available
✗ Blast 300 people with the same untested email — you'll burn the list
✗ Lead with a sales pitch — nobody responds to "I'd love to tell you about my product"
✗ Give up after one email. Genuine persistence is the difference
✗ Describe something as "free" when it cost you hours of your time
✗ Pay for tools before you've tested whether the strategy works for you
✗ Send generic messages — personalisation is what gets replies
08
Your Next Steps
Tick these off as you go.
This week
- Download Comet browser (free) and run your first prospecting prompt using your ICP
- Open the prospect tracker spreadsheet and add 10–20 companies from your Comet research
- Try the =GEMINI() formula in Google Sheets on one row — then drag it down the column
- Sign up for free accounts on Hunter.io and Apollo.io to find business email addresses
- Draft your first outreach message using the prompt template in Section 5
Within 30 days
- Send your first 10 outreach messages — individually, personalised, value-led
- Track responses in the spreadsheet. Note what works, refine your message
- Identify 3–5 potential partnership businesses (B2B2C) that already serve your audience
- Have at least one real conversation — a call, a meeting, or a follow-up to a reply
Session resources
All slides, the prospect tracker spreadsheet, and further resources are in the shared folder. Mat will be adding the AI model reference guide and additional tools over the coming days.