Put this into practice with Resquared
Resquared is the AI sales platform built for selling to local businesses: the most complete local business database, verified contacts, and outreach written and followed up in your name.
- Verified emails and phone numbers, with owner and staff names on premium plans
- Filter by radius, category, business size, hours and recent reviews
- AI writes each email in your name from the business's own details
- Automated follow-ups that stop when someone replies; replies land in your inbox
Every digital footprint of every brick-and-mortar business, resolved into one record and checked source by source.
See how it worksListing sites mainly reach tenants already looking for space. Direct outreach reaches operators who may expand or relocate when the right location appears. Resquared lists 14,786,458 active local businesses in the US and Canada, and 87% are independent.
Start with the vacancy and the market. Define suitable uses, build-out, approximate size, exclusions, neighborhood, and the property's strongest advantage. Use a Market Demand report to compare estimated local demand and business supply by category, then choose plausible tenant groups rather than targeting every nearby business.
Describe the ideal tenant, geography, exclusions, and campaign goal in Resquared's AI search. Inspect the map and filters before saving the list. Keep the initial target broad enough to learn from responses, but put materially different categories into separate campaigns with relevant messages.
Send a short, plain-text first email through managed sending infrastructure. Mention the business type, area, and one useful property detail, then ask whether you can send information or whether the owner is considering expansion. Leave out the exact address, square footage, price, links, and attachments. Use a 3-email sequence spaced about three days apart, then call positive replies the same day when possible and use manual social messages or field visits to reinforce the outreach.
What to do
- Create a tenant profile from the space, build-out, suitable uses, exclusions, location, and strongest property advantage.
- Review neighborhood demand and existing business supply to select the first categories to test.
- Build a separate list for each materially different category, inspect the geography, and remove obvious category errors or competitors.
- Launch a short plain-text sequence with one easy reply question, such as "Can I send the flyer?"
- Call interested respondents promptly and record broader location or space needs that may fit another property.
Related questions
Should I remove the property from listing sites?
No. Keep the listing available for active searchers while direct outreach creates conversations with operators who are not currently browsing listings.
Should the first email include the flyer?
No. Keep the first email free of links and attachments. Send the flyer after a reply, then try to start a phone conversation.
What if direct outreach also generates no qualified leads?
Diagnose the campaign in stages: sending health, targeting, replies, positive replies, and qualified conversations. Test meaningfully different categories, geography, subject lines, messages, and asks before increasing volume.