Firmographic Segmentation: A Practical B2B Worksheet
Build useful B2B segments with firmographic variables, a copyable worksheet, and a worked example. Separate known fit, missing information, and buying intent.
Firmographic segmentation groups businesses by shared company characteristics, such as industry, location, employee count, or revenue. A useful segment changes what you do: which companies you research, which offer you present, or which team handles the account.
Write the rules before collecting a list, and keep missing information visible. A business that fits still needs a relevant conversation before it becomes a sales opportunity.
On this page
- Choose variables that affect your offer
- Copy the segment planning worksheet
- Work through a local B2B example
- Apply three research decisions
- Build and review your first batch
- Measure whether the segment helps
- Frequently asked questions
Choose variables that affect your offer
Begin with the service you can deliver and the companies it suits. Choose a variable only when it changes a meaningful decision.
Contentful's firmographic segmentation guide explains the common factors and their limitations. The worksheet below turns those factors into research rules you can apply to individual accounts.
For a local service provider, business activity and service area may be enough to start. Employee count matters when delivery depends on workforce size. Collect revenue only when you have a reliable source and a reason it affects fit.
Keep company attributes separate from other information:
- Firmographic: an accounting practice with an office in a supported city.
- Contact: its published office email or the name of an operations manager.
- Technology: the software it uses.
- Buying context: a confirmed project, budget, or supplier review date.
Contact details help you reach a business. They do not establish its size or purchasing plans. See the firmographic data reference for field definitions and source limitations.
Also decide whether you are segmenting companies or locations. Three branches can mean three service sites within one buying account. Preserve each site's address while linking branches to the same account where the relationship is supported by evidence.
Here are three illustrative segment designs for different offers:
- Industry and geography: a local website maintenance provider researches home-service businesses in its supported area. Confirm service type and operating location on the business website, then review which sites suit the maintenance offer.
- A sourced size band: a workforce-services provider chooses a 20–49 employee band because it matches its delivery model. Record the headcount source, date, scope, and estimate status. Put companies with unknown size in review until the required field is resolved.
- Several operating locations: a supplier targets practices whose websites list multiple offices. Link the locations under a researched account and ask how purchasing is coordinated. A location count alone does not establish centralized buying.
Copy the segment planning worksheet
Complete this worksheet for one segment before searching. The example describes a hypothetical MSP researching professional-services offices; it is a planning illustration.
| Worksheet field | Example entry | Evidence or decision needed |
|---|---|---|
| Offer and delivery limit | Ongoing office IT support within our supported territory | Confirm your own service scope and capacity |
| Business activity | Accounting practices and law firms | Check the company's own services page |
| Geography | Offices in Austin or Round Rock | Record the relevant office address and source |
| Account unit | Company account with linked office locations | Review branches before counting accounts |
| Required size | No workforce threshold for initial research | Leave employee count unknown unless sourced |
| Exclusions | Existing customers, competitors, unsupported locations | Compare with internal exclusions and site evidence |
| Missing information | Who coordinates outside IT support | Record as a question for later research |
| Next action | Check company identity and public contact routes | Assign a researcher and review date |
Use your own territory and offer.
If a size threshold is essential, write it explicitly and specify an acceptable source. A company with unknown size belongs in a review queue until that condition is resolved. A short team page cannot establish the total workforce.
Work through a local B2B example
Suppose your MSP can support professional-services offices in the two cities above. Your initial task is to identify suitable accounts for research, rather than estimate how many need a new supplier.
Consider these fictional records:
Practice A has a website describing accounting services and listing an Austin office. Those facts support activity and location fit. Its employee count and current IT arrangement are unknown. Because the segment has no initial size requirement, it can move to contact research without invented workforce data.
Practice B appears twice in the discovery results. Its website lists Austin and Round Rock offices under one organization. Keep one account with two locations unless evidence indicates separate buying entities. Ask how purchasing works later; a shared brand alone does not settle that question.
Practice C operates outside your supported territory. It fails the geographic rule, even if its industry matches. Exclude it with a reason so another researcher does not repeatedly add it.
Practice D has a similar trading name, but the listed website describes an unrelated business. Pause for identity review. Matching a name string is insufficient to attach that website's contacts to the record.
Apply three research decisions
Make the next action explicit. This simple decision table can accompany your account sheet.
| Decision | When to use it | What happens next |
|---|---|---|
| Ready for research | Required company attributes have supporting evidence; no exclusion applies | Research a relevant public contact route and remaining questions |
| Review | Identity is unclear or a required attribute is unknown | Resolve the specific missing fact; keep its source and date |
| Exclude | Evidence shows a required condition fails or an exclusion applies | Record the reason and retain it for deduplication |
Keep the segment label separate from this decision. Two companies can belong to the same industry segment while one needs identity review. Likewise, a ready-for-research account may have no published email address.
Store the value, source URL, and date checked together. When sources conflict, preserve the discrepancy and resolve it before relying on the field. Use the business information source guide to choose where to check a missing attribute.
Build and review your first batch
Choose a batch small enough to inspect record by record. Search the business activity and city, then apply the worksheet consistently.
- Capture the business name, relevant location, website, and discovery source.
- Match the website to the company and review repeated locations.
- Apply the required conditions and exclusions.
- Record unknowns separately from confirmed failures.
- Assign the next research action and retain evidence dates.
OwnerClue's local business discovery supports a starting search by business type and location. Website research can add published contact information and supported role evidence where available. Review the results against your own rules and export the records for further work.
OwnerClue does not provide a complete employee-count, revenue, or purchasing-intent dataset. Keep any additional attributes in your research sheet with their own sources. The local prospect list workbench can help prepare an existing CSV; it does not verify the commercial assumptions behind your segment.
Measure whether the segment helps
Review evidence quality before outreach performance. Check how many records match the intended activity and territory, how many remain unresolved, and whether repeated locations inflated the account count.
After relevant conversations, compare responses and confirmed opportunities by segment. Keep denominators clear: researched accounts, contacted accounts, replies, and qualified opportunities are different stages. A large list cannot show which segment buys.
Frequent geographic exclusions may indicate a search issue. Unresolved size fields may mean your source cannot support the rule. Relevant companies declining the offer may point to an offer or timing problem.
Frequently asked questions
How many firmographic variables should a segment use?
Use enough to make a different research or sales decision. Start with essential conditions and add fields when they improve the decision enough to justify collecting them.
Can a company belong to several segments?
Yes. Industry, location, and size can overlap. Decide who owns the account and how to handle overlapping campaigns so the same organization does not receive conflicting approaches.
Does firmographic fit mean a company is qualified?
It establishes a reason to investigate. Confirm the problem, relevant stakeholders, service requirements, and timing through a conversation.
Complete the worksheet, then research your first business-type and location segment. Aim for reviewed companies with evidence and a clear next action.