When you’re sizing up a company for B2B sales, employee count often becomes your go-to proxy. It helps estimate revenue, anticipate decision-making complexity, and tailor your sales motion. But there’s a catch.

Most data providers treat employee count as a flat number – global, inflated, and often misleading. The result? Sales teams chase the wrong prospects, waste time on ghost offices, and miss high-fit opportunities hiding in plain sight.

Let’s unpack why verified, local employee data matters more than global guesswork – and how to use it to fuel smarter B2B decisions.

Why company size still matters (a lot)?

Whether you’re building prospect lists, routing leads, or setting sales territories, employee count is still one of the most reliable indicators for:

• Revenue potential: More people often means more spend
• Sales complexity: Bigger teams = more stakeholders = longer sales cycles
• Resourcing decisions: Helps plan outreach, support, and pricing strategy
• Regulatory thresholds: Certain compliance requirements kick in at headcount milestones

And when revenue data isn’t always available – especially for private companies, employee count becomes your most practical sizing lever.

But here’s the problem: too many teams are making strategic decisions based on bad numbers.

The problem with global employee counts

Let’s say you’re looking at a SaaS company with “10,000+ employees”. That might seem like an enterprise play… until you realise only 50 of those employees are actually based in Australia or New Zealand.

That difference isn’t academic – it’s the difference between pitching a local decision-maker who can buy now versus getting stuck in a six-month procurement process with global HQ.

Global-only counts

Most providers don’t distinguish between where employees are based. They show one global number, often pulled from unverified sources. It’s fine for TAM estimates – but not very helpful when planning a local GTM motion.

Bots, duplicates, and outdated data

Many datasets collate professional profiles without validating them. This leads to:

• Fake or bot accounts inflating headcounts
• Duplicate profiles skewing totals
• Former employees still showing as current staff
• Consultants or advisors being counted multiple times

These errors create a misleading picture – especially in smaller local markets where accuracy matters more.

What does “verified local presence” really mean?

At Firmable, we believe company size isn’t just about how big a company is. It’s about where that size exists.

That’s why we separate employee count into two dimensions:

1. Global employee count

Use this for high-level sizing and segmentation. It helps you:

• Identify enterprise vs SMB targets
• Estimate revenue bands
• Spot large multinationals worth monitoring

We present this as ranges (e.g. 51–200, 1,001–5,000), which gives useful context without pretending to offer false precision.

2. Employee count by country

This is where the real value lies. Our country-level filters:

• Show how many verified employees work in each market
• Only include people actively associated with the company
• Remove bots, outdated profiles, and remote contractors

With verified local presence, you can prioritise accounts with real in-region buying power and match your sales motion accordingly.

Real example: When 10,000 global employees isn’t what it seems

Let’s say you come across a global HR tech company with 10,000+ employees listed in most databases. It may seem like a perfect enterprise account – large, well-funded, and with complex needs. But in Firmable, you also see they only have 45 verified employees in Australia and 12 in New Zealand.

That’s a radically different picture. You’re not selling to a local enterprise hub – you’re likely dealing with a regional office that refers decisions back to global HQ. Understanding this distinction early changes everything – from your outreach strategy to how you handle procurement objections.

How local employee count shapes your GTM strategy

Once you have access to accurate, localised employee data, you can align your sales motion to reality.

Here’s how to think about your GTM strategy by local company size:

• 1–10 local employees: Likely a small business or satellite or sales office (if HQ is overseas). Consider HQ outreach or account-based marketing.
• 11–50: Early-stage expansion or small ANZ presence. Fit for SMB or digital-led sales.
• 51–250: Ideal for mid-market outreach. You’ll find local decision-makers and budgets.
• 251–1,000+: Enterprise motion. Expect multiple stakeholders and longer cycles.

Using local employee bands like these helps your team prioritise efforts and personalise engagement – reducing wasted cycles on accounts that look big on paper but aren’t locally viable.

Search smarter with AND/OR logic

Firmable’s country-specific filters are not just accurate – they’re flexible. We treat each country’s employee count as an independent data point, which means you can apply advanced logic to build smarter lists:

• Use AND logic to find companies with presence in both Australia AND New Zealand – ideal for regional solutions or service rollouts.
• Use OR logic to find companies with presence in either country – great for expansion campaigns.
• Combine global and local filters (e.g., 1,000+ employees globally, 100+ in AU) to isolate your true sweet spot.

Using the right employee count filter at the right time

Different decisions need different data. Whether you’re building your TAM model or qualifying individual leads, knowing when to use global vs local employee counts will make your sales motion far more efficient.

The global view is perfect for early-stage market sizing and strategic segmentation. Use it when you need to:

• Scope your total addressable market (TAM): How many companies with 5,001–10,000 employees exist across this industry?
• Segment your ICP by company scale: Filter out companies that are too small or too large for your solution.
• Map the competitive landscape: Understand how many large players are operating globally in your space.

Tip: If you typically target enterprise accounts, filtering for 10,001+ employees globally gives you a fast view of major players to prioritise.

Global size tells you the big picture – but it’s only step one.

Use it to guide your high-level strategy but always follow through with local employee filters to ensure the company has real presence in your market.

Why it matters now more than ever

In today’s market, precision beats volume. The spray-and-pray approach wastes time and resources, especially when your sales team is small, or when budget scrutiny is high. Knowing exactly which companies are active – and staffed – in your region makes every email, call, and ad impression count.

Verified local employee data doesn’t just improve targeting. It helps:

1. Increase reply and conversion rates
2. Reduce bounce rates from inactive or incorrect contacts
3. Streamline sales cycles by engaging actual decision-makers

The bottom line

If you’re still relying on inflated global counts or static spreadsheets, you’re flying blind. Firmable gives you the verified local view you need to work smarter, not harder.

• Use global counts to understand scale.
• Use local counts to close deals.
• Use verified data to build a repeatable GTM engine.

Want to see how it works? Start a free trial and search by verified local employee counts today.