IN THIS ARTICLE
How do small businesses win new customers in 2026? These 100 founders say it comes down to focus and being genuine. Here's why.
If you run a small business in 2026, silence is deafening. Finding new business is harder, but here’s the key: focus on the channels that work for you and be genuine.
That’s what our 2025 research with 100 founders, Managing Directors, and CEOs from across tech and management consulting revealed.
This report shares what you need to do in 2026.
What Is This Report?
Small businesses are told that if you put work out into the world, send emails, and post updates, new business will come. That's not reality.
2026 is noisier; it's harder for buyers to find budget, and "attribution fog" is a real condition for owners, because it's tougher than ever to clearly say which marketing activity generated business.
We wanted to learn how leaders are handling this. Over the last year, we sat down with 100 founders, Managing Directors, and CEOs to find out.
They run small businesses ranging from 1 to 50 employees. They're based in the US, UK, Canada, South Africa, the Netherlands, and Estonia. They operate in high-stakes industries such as SaaS and management consulting. They're like you.
Despite the geographical spread, the feedback was soberingly consistent. The "growth at all costs," "spray and pray" approach to marketing is over, if it ever was. In fact, they're doing these five things:
- Picking their ideal buyer and focusing on them exclusively
- Build trust with buyers over creating more noise
- Using 2-3 marketing channels that work for them
- Leveraging email outreach, within reason
- Documenting what works today so it builds a tomorrow
These small businesses are relying on a revenue loop:
Ideal buyer clarity -> create trust -> use multiple channels -> start conversations -> get feedback -> refine
Before we share their insights, let’s agree on a definition. In this report, when we say "marketing," we don't mean "posting on social media." We're talking about the system that creates conversations with people who can buy from you.
Here is what your peers are doing to build that in 2026.
Picking an ideal buyer and focus
The most common trap small businesses fall into is the fear of missing out.
When resources are tight, it feels safer to cast a wide net.
If you sell to everyone, you can catch anyone, right? Right?
The data from our interviews suggests the opposite.
The "everyone" trap is the primary cause of founder burnout.
The symptoms are unmistakable:
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High activity levels
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Low conversion rates, and
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A message that feels watery and confused.
To fix this, you have to ruthlessly define your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
In plain English, this isn't just a demographic; it's about finding new business from the specific type of buyer who actually needs what you have right now.
Matt Lauro, Fractional CRO, highlighted the struggle of focusing:
“Nailing down the ICPs is the hard part. You then need to get your team aligned to just focus on those ICPs.”
If you don't align, you end up with what Brandon Smith described as the "availability" problem:
“‘We’re available for everyone’… is a huge problem… we can generate thousands of leads, but they won’t convert…”
Patrick Murphy, xalt.io, echoed this, noting the operational cost of a broad focus:
“…it’s very tempting to be like, ‘we can serve everyone’…but actually you get pulled in too many directions.”
Successful founders in 2026 are stripping their strategy back to a single, defensible niche. Spike Johnson put it bluntly with his approach to finding photojournalists:
“I’m trying to carve out a niche… I want to work with people who already have a revenue engine… not… someone with an idea.”
The "Ideal Buyer" Template
If you're struggling to define your perfect buyer, it's more than a job title. Here's one way to do it:
- Role: Who are they?
- Trigger: What specific event happened (a new hire, a regulatory change, a funding round) that makes them need help now?
- Pain: What keeps them up at night?
- Proof: Do you have evidence you’ve solved this before?
- Willingness to Pay: Do they actually have a budget?
You can use our template to build your ideal buyer to focus on:
But remember, the devil is in the details. Your ideal buyer can and will change based on location or the different solutions you can offer.
As Bradley Elliot, RelyComply, noted:
“Who is our ICP, then? Our ICP in South Africa might be very different from our ICP in the US.”
Your next steps
- Cut your list: Reduce your target list to just two distinct segments. Ignore the rest for 30 days.
- Define your Triggers: Write down three "events" that happen in your buyer's life that compel them to buy.
- Define your Proof: Select one case study that perfectly matches those segments.
Build trust with buyers, not noise
For years, marketing was obsessed with "lead generation" - getting names and emails.
Getting a list of emails is easy. Getting those people to care is hard.
The consensus from our interviews is that trust is the new currency.
A lead without trust is just a name in a spreadsheet. A lead with trust is a sales opportunity.
To lower your Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and improve your close rate, you need to build a "Trust Asset Stack."
This includes:
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Proof points
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Case studies
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A strong founder's Point of View (POV), and
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Third-party signals.
Bradley Elliot, RelyComply was definitive on you needing to make this shift:
“The role of marketing in our business is not lead gen .It is to build trust and credibility… White papers… cues that build trust…”
Mark Webb, Future Purchasing, explained why the old "numbers game" fails without this foundation:
“…that’s not building trust… just sending them a random email is not going to lead to success.”
Founders are realizing that trust is often built before a conversation ever happens.
Dennis Kelly, Postalytics, points to SEO not just for traffic, but for authority:
“[Top of funnel] is still SEO… we invested in SEO very heavily from day one…and it's paying off.”
Above all, in a time of AI slop, being human and building a connection with your buyers still wins. As Adam Robinson, RB2B, says:
“You know what’s gonna hold up? A founder brand. No joke.”
Your next steps
It's crucial you give leads plenty of reasons to trust you.
What you decide on is down to your comfort level, especially with using your role as the leader to become the public face of your business on social (founder-brand).
At a bare minimum:
- Publish one proof asset: Create a case study or "problem/solution" document that proves you can do the job.
- Add a "Belief" CTA: On your website, stop asking everyone to "Book a Demo." Offer a lower-friction step, like "Read our Guide" or "See the Methodology."
- Audit your Homepage: Add a dedicated "Credibility" section above the fold (logos, testimonials, or specific results metrics).
Use 2-3 marketing channels that work
Continuing the idea of finding marketing activities you are comfortable with, this extends to narrowing the number of marketing channels (i.e., email, social media, canvassing, podcasts, etc.) you use.
There is a temptation to be everywhere: LinkedIn, X, TikTok, email, events, and SEO.
Matt Lauro, Fractional CRO, describes this perfectly as a:
"hodge podge of channels and no real understanding of… how they’re getting their leads."
More channels mean more to execute and more to understand. This creates attribution fog, where you don't know what's working and what you can invest more time in:
“…it’s a multi-multi-touch attribution… I saw your email two months ago… event… ad… post… [which] makes it very hard… to figure out what channels are actually truly converting…”
You have to be ruthlessly focused. That's why investing in a marketing department is where growth outside the founder begins.
But don't rely on just one channel. Use a layered approach that mixes in one social channel, email, and your network. The success stories don't do everything, but they do a few things that feed into each other.
As Maksym Lushpenko, Brokee, suggests:
“Layer all these things together… use a multi layered approach… that’s what I’m doing, and it is working for me.”
One marketer, Lottie Jenkins, Deployed, noted:
“Any lead that is coming in now is from marketing related activity… event… LinkedIn… inbound through content… mainly through partners…”
1+1+1 focus method
With limited time, these small businesses are comfortable being focused. They use the 1+1+1 method:
- 1 Core Channel: Where you show up every day (e.g., LinkedIn).
- 1 Compounding Channel: Where effort grows over time (e.g., SEO/Blog).
- 1 Partner Lever: Who already has your customers?
In smaller businesses, this is vital because allocating resources to delivering to customers and generating new leads is a delicate balancing act.
Your next steps
- Pick 2 Channels: Commit to only two channels for the next 30 days. Pause the rest.
- Define one "Compounding" cadence: e.g., "I will write one searchable article per week."
- Define one conversion event: Decide exactly where you want all these channels to point (e.g., a newsletter sign-up or a consultation booking).
Leverage email outreach within reason
Is cold outreach dead? No. But generic cold outreach is extinct.
If you are sending templates that say "I hope this finds you well," you are wasting your time. The founders, finding success with outbound in 2026, are using a "research-first" methodology.
Adam Goldfarb, Transcendence Audio, breaks down the ratio:
“80% of my time is the research that goes into sending my outreach emails.”
This means spending 80% of your time finding the reason to contact someone and only 20% writing the email.
View our conversation around outbound email, below:
This ties back to trigger events - identifying a specific change in the prospect's world that makes your email relevant right now.
Brendon Lush, Waco Media, notes that timing is the biggest hurdle:
“…the biggest challenge… is… why now? Why are you reaching out to me now?”
When you do write the email, brevity is king. Ieuan Leigh, Validient, advises:
“…keep emails three or four sentences long… what are the things that I could use to make it more relevant for this prospect?”
Dennis Kelly, Postalytics, agrees, focusing on specific problems rather than generic pitches:
“…cold emails that work for me… very topical, very, painpoint focused.”
Your next steps
- Define Triggers: Before you email, find a "trigger event" (e.g., they just hired a VP of Sales or they just opened a new office).
- Build a Proof Snippet Library: Write 3 one-sentence case studies you can paste into emails.
- Quality over Quantity: Next week, write 10 "right" emails based on deep research, rather than 1,000 generic ones.
Document what works today, so it builds a tomorrow
In the early days (1-10 employees), the founder isthe marketing engine. But reliance on "hero mode" eventually breaks.
Ieuan Leigh, Validient, shared the reality of hittingthat wall:
“Founder-led sales will only get any company so far… it’s just not sustainable… Before… you’re sending all the emails manually… tomorrow you’ve got 200 and you just can’t keep up with it.”
To scale past the "owner-operator" trap, you must document what's working so that you can create systems/plays that you can replicate.
This means delegation, repeatable motions, and a mindset shift toward profitable growth rather than vanity metrics.
Ieuan eventually found relief through hiring:
“We’ve just recruited a new sales director… that’s freed my time up a little bit more…”
But hiring requires cash. So, create marketing that is sustainable in its execution and cost. Adam Robinson, RB2B, gave a reality check on this:
“You should probably just run a profitable business in the first place. I think tech companies should be more profitable than e-commerce stores, not less.”
Marketing isn't just about the next lead; it's about building a machine that runs efficiently enough to be profitable.
Your next steps
- Choose one thing to systemize: Take a task you do manually every week (like social posting or email follow-ups) and document the process so someone else (or software) can do it.
- Install a weekly cadence: Review revenue and pipeline numbers weekly, not monthly.
- Measure conversations: Stop counting "likes." Start counting how many genuine conversations you started this week.
Build a revenue loop
You are not alone in finding 2026 difficult. But the path forward isn't to work harder or shout louder. It is to build a loop that feeds itself.
Based on our 100 interviews, you need to create this loop:
Ideal buyer clarity -> create trust -> use multiple channels -> start conversations -> get feedback -> refine
Marketing is the connective tissue that holds this loop together.
It takes focus, it takes trust, and, most of all, it takes the courage to say "no" to the wrong opportunities so you can say "yes" to the right ones.
For more advice on your go-to-market, sign up for a free theorytwenty7 growth plan.
We'll help build a free marketing plan to help you do more of what works and less of what doesn't to grow in 2026.
