How to Use Companies House Data for Sales Prospecting

Companies House holds public records for over 5 million active companies in the United Kingdom. It's one of the most valuable free data sources in the world for B2B sales professionals — if you know how to use it.

In this guide, we'll show you exactly how to extract useful prospecting data from Companies House, the limitations you'll encounter, and how to build an efficient prospecting workflow around UK company data.

What data does Companies House hold?

For a detailed breakdown, see our Companies House data explained guide. Here's the quick summary of what's available for each company:

• Company name and registration number
• Registered office address
• Date of incorporation
• Company type (Ltd, LLP, PLC, etc.)
• SIC codes — Standard Industrial Classification codes indicating business activity
• Director and officer details — names, dates of birth (month/year only), nationality, and appointment dates
• Filing history — annual accounts, confirmation statements, and other statutory filings
• Company status — active, dissolved, in liquidation, etc.

What Companies House doesn't hold

Crucially for sales prospecting, Companies House does not provide:

• Email addresses
• Phone numbers
• Company websites
• Trading names (if different from registered name)
• Revenue or employee count
• Social media profiles

This means Companies House data alone is not sufficient for outbound sales. You need to enrich it with contact information — which is where commercial services like NewCo Data add value.

Free method: Manual search and research

The simplest approach is to use the Companies House web service to search for companies, then manually research each one.

Step-by-step prospecting workflow

1. Identify your target profile — what type of company do you want to reach? Define by sector (using SIC codes), location, and age (new vs. established)
2. Search Companies House — use the web search to find companies matching your criteria. Note: you can search by company name or number, but there's no built-in filter for incorporation date or SIC code on the web interface
3. Record company details — company name, number, registered address, and director names
4. Research directors — look up directors on LinkedIn, find their business website via Google, check for contact details
5. Build your contact list — compile email addresses, phone numbers, and LinkedIn profiles
6. Outreach — send personalised emails, make phone calls, or connect on LinkedIn

This approach works, but it's painfully slow. Expect to spend 5-10 minutes per company on research, meaning a pipeline of 20 prospects takes 2-3 hours of manual work. At 2,500 new companies per day, you're barely scratching the surface.

Technical method: Companies House API

For developers and technical sales ops teams, the Companies House API provides programmatic access to the register. Here's what a basic search looks like:

We've written a comprehensive API versus manual research comparison that covers authentication, rate limits, pagination, and code examples in detail.

Key API limitations for prospecting

• Rate limit: 600 requests per 5 minutes — enough for browsing, but constrained for bulk data extraction
• No bulk new-company endpoint: you can search by incorporation date, but still need individual requests for officers and detailed data
• No contact enrichment: the API returns the same data as the web — no emails, phones, or websites
• SIC code filtering: available in advanced search, but the mapping from SIC codes to meaningful business categories requires additional work

Practical method: Use a pre-built data service

This is what most successful B2B sales teams actually do. Rather than building and maintaining their own data pipeline, they subscribe to a service that handles the data processing and delivers sales-ready leads.

For prospecting newly incorporated companies specifically, NewCo Data is purpose-built for this use case. Here's how to set up a prospecting workflow in under 30 minutes:

Setting up your prospecting pipeline

1. Choose your target sectors — on the Starter plan, pick one sector. Professional gives you five. Enterprise covers all 40+
2. Receive your first data delivery — the next working day, you'll get an email before 9am with the previous day's new incorporations in your chosen sectors
3. Download as CSV — each row includes company name, company number, director names, registered address, SIC code, sector, plus website, email, and phone where available
4. Import into your CRM — upload the CSV to Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, or whatever CRM you use
5. Set up your outreach sequence — personalised email, follow-up, phone call, LinkedIn connection
6. Repeat daily — fresh leads arrive every working morning, keeping your pipeline full

Building your outreach strategy

Having the data is step one. Converting it into clients requires a thoughtful outreach approach. Here are the channels that work best for newly incorporated companies:

Direct mail

Physical letters sent to the registered address, addressed to the director by name. Response rates of 2-5% are typical, which at the volume of new incorporations means significant pipeline.

This works particularly well for accountants and insurance brokers, where the need is immediate and the service is expected.

Email outreach

Where email addresses are available (~30% of records in NewCo Data), personalised email is the most cost-effective channel. Key principles:

• Reference the company name and incorporation date in the subject line
• Keep the body to 3-4 sentences
• Lead with the value you provide, not features
• Include one clear call to action
• Comply with GDPR — include unsubscribe, have a legitimate interest basis

Phone calls

Cold calling newly incorporated companies is surprisingly effective because the directors are typically accessible (no gatekeeper yet) and receptive (they know they need services). Best hours: 10am-12pm and 2pm-4pm.

LinkedIn

Search for the director name from your data, send a connection request with a personalised note, then follow up with a direct message. Works well for web agencies and B2B service providers.

Measuring your prospecting ROI

Track these metrics to understand whether your Companies House data prospecting is profitable:

• Cost per lead (CPL): data subscription cost ÷ number of records received. At NewCo Data Starter (£99/mo, ~1,300 leads/mo), that's approximately 7.6p per lead
• Contact rate: percentage of leads you successfully make contact with (aim for 15-30%)
• Conversion rate: percentage of contacts who become clients (aim for 5-15% depending on your service)
• Customer lifetime value (CLV): the total revenue a new client generates (for accountants, often £5,000-20,000+)
• ROI: (CLV × new clients) ÷ total cost of data + outreach

For most B2B service providers, a single new client from data-driven prospecting pays for an entire year of data subscription. The maths works overwhelmingly in your favour.

Common mistakes to avoid

1. Waiting too long to make contact — every day you delay, competitors are reaching out. Aim to contact new companies within 24-48 hours of incorporation
2. Generic messaging — "Dear Sir/Madam, we offer business services" won't work. Use the director's name, reference their company, and be specific about what you offer
3. Ignoring sector relevance — a new construction company needs different services than a new tech startup. Tailor your messaging to the sector
4. No follow-up — a single touchpoint converts at 2-5%. Add a follow-up and conversion can double
5. Not tracking results — without measurement, you can't optimise. Track everything from the start

Key takeaways

Companies House is a goldmine for B2B prospecting, but the raw data needs processing and enrichment. Manual research works for tiny volumes but doesn't scale. The API is powerful but requires technical investment. Pre-built services like NewCo Data offer the best balance of quality, speed, and cost for most sales teams.

The companies that use data systematically consistently outperform those that rely on ad-hoc prospecting. With 2,500+ new companies every working day, there's no shortage of opportunity — just a shortage of teams moving fast enough to capture it.

Further reading:

• How to find newly incorporated companies in the UK
• Best company data providers UK 2026 compared
• New business leads for accountants: the complete guide
• UK company incorporation statistics 2026