If you sell to other businesses in the UAE, your next customers are already visible. Restaurants, clinics, salons, offices and shops list themselves on Google Maps so people can find them. Managers and owners describe their roles on LinkedIn. The information is public. What is missing is a clean, organised list your team can actually work through.
Most small teams build that list by hand. Someone searches, opens each listing, copies the name, area and number into a spreadsheet, and moves on to the next one. It is slow, it is easy to get wrong, and by the time the list is ready, the energy for the real work, the conversation, is gone.
This guide walks through a method you can use today, then shows how Dub Ai shortens the search part while your team keeps control of the outreach.
Start with who, not with where
The most common mistake is opening Google Maps before deciding who you want. A vague search (“companies in Dubai”) gives a vague list. Before you search anything, write one sentence that describes your ideal prospect:
- The type of business or role (Italian restaurants, dental clinics, HR managers)
- The area (Dubai Marina, JLT, Al Reem Island, Sharjah industrial areas)
- A sign that they need what you sell (newly opened, several branches, hiring, no website)
“Independent cafés in JLT with fewer than three branches” is a list you can work with. “Food businesses” is not.
A manual method that works
Here is a simple process you can follow with nothing more than a browser and a spreadsheet.
- Write your one-sentence target. Keep it on top of the sheet so everyone uses the same definition.
- Set up fixed columns. Business name, area, category, phone, website, source (Google Maps or LinkedIn), date added, owner, status.
- Search one area at a time. On Google Maps, search the category plus the area. Work through the results in order so you do not skip or repeat.
- Record the source on every row. You will want to know later whether Maps or LinkedIn gave you better conversations.
- Check for duplicates by phone number. Before adding a business, search the sheet for its number. Many businesses appear under slightly different names.
- Qualify before you contact. Look at the website or profile for a minute. Does this business really match your sentence? If not, leave it out.
- Assign an owner and a first step. Every row gets a person and a planned action, such as an introduction email or a visit.
- Respect consent and opt-outs. Use approved channels and templates, introduce yourself clearly, and remove anyone who asks not to be contacted, straight away and for good.
That last step matters as much as the others. Outreach that ignores platform rules or local regulations damages your reputation and, on WhatsApp, the quality rating of your business number.
Where the manual method stops
The method above is sound, but steps three to five eat the hours. Copying details one listing at a time is repetitive, and repetitive work is where mistakes creep in: a wrong digit, a missing source, the same café added twice under two names. Meanwhile, the time you planned for calling and meeting people shrinks.
How the Dub Ai lead finder helps
With the Dub Ai lead finder, you send the admin assistant a WhatsApp message with your target, for example “find restaurants in Dubai Marina” or “clinic managers in Abu Dhabi”. The assistant searches public business listings on Google Maps and LinkedIn and saves the matching results into your leads list, each one labelled with its source. Results are matched by phone number, so businesses you already have are not saved twice.
The leads arrive in your leads and pipeline list, next to the enquiries that came in by themselves. Your team reviews them, removes the ones that do not fit, assigns the rest and decides who to contact and how. Nothing is sent to a prospect just because they appear in the list.
During setup, the Dub Ai team advises you on approved WhatsApp templates and opt-out handling, so your outreach follows each platform’s rules and local regulations from day one.
Know more before the first message
A name and a number are only the start. Before you reach out to a shortlist of prospects, it helps to know what they offer, who they compete with and what is changing in their sector. The AI researcher can look these things up on the web and send back a short summary with links to its sources, so your first message is relevant instead of generic.
A sensible weekly rhythm
For a small sales team, a steady routine beats a big push once a quarter:
- Monday: one lead search for one area and one type of business.
- Tuesday: review and qualify the new leads, remove the ones that do not fit.
- Wednesday to Thursday: first contact with a short, clear introduction through approved channels.
- Friday: update statuses, honour every opt-out, and look at which source gave the better conversations.
The lead finder handles the searching and the saving. Your team handles judgement, tone and relationships. You can read more on the lead finder feature page.
Book your 15-minute demo
If your sales team spends more time copying listings than talking to prospects, it is worth seeing the search done for your own market. Book your 15-minute demo on WhatsApp at +971 56 552 6662.