Is Your CRM Ignoring 99% of U.S. Small Businesses? Fix Your ICP Coverage

The U.S. has about 36.2 million small businesses and they make up 46% of all private sector jobs according to the SBA Office of Advocacy’s 2025 update. Small businesses also make up 99.9% of firms in the U.S according to the SBA. If your CRM only has 20,000 - 100,000 of U.S. small businesses, then your market coverage is well below 1%, meaning you’re reaching only a tiny fraction of your total ICP (Ideal Customer Profile).

TL;DR

• The U.S has about 36.2 million small businesses.

• If your CRM has between 20,000 - 100,000 businesses, your actual market is well under 1%, meaning you’re only able to connect to a small handful of buyers.

• Low ICP coverage creates gaps that make you repeat outreach and base decisions on incomplete data.

• Fill the gaps with a targeted list of the ICP small business contacts you’re missing.

How Big Is the U.S. Small Business Market?

According to the SBA Office of Advocacy’s 2025 update, there are 36.2 million small businesses in the U.S which account for almost 46% of the private sector employment. A recent summary of the same SBA data shows that the 36.2 million firms represent 99.9% of all U.S. businesses and employ about 62.3 million people.

If you sell products or provide services in the B2B market, your total addressable market is dominated by small businesses. If your CRM underrepresents small businesses, this means you’re missing out on potential clients and first meetings.

Audit Your CRM’s Small Business Coverage

Run a check on your CRM by picking a small chunk of your ICP like employer firms with 10-99 employees in a couple states. Use public data to see how many firms actually exist. You can use SBA’s state profiles or census to view the most recent public data. Use this information to count how many matching businesses you have for the same chunk. If your data shows there are 40,000 firms but you only see 2,000, then your coverage is 5%, and 95% of similar businesses are missing.

What Low CRM Coverage Really Costs Your Go-To-Market

Having low coverage of your ICP in your CRM means contacting the same companies more frequently which can increase the chance of hurting your sender reputation when it comes to emailing, calling, or Linkedin campaigns. It also means you’re basing your decisions of "what works" on only a handful of businesses and not the entire market.

External data needs to be used to determine what those data gaps are instead depending on inbound leads, such as referrals. Once you’ve figured out your numbers, you can get a custom list based on exactly what you need to fill in those gaps. For example, if you need 2,000 contacts and 3 decision-makers, then start with a smaller list of those same contact types to confirm it works before getting more.

Once you have additional contact data, label each one as either "new contact" or "existing contact." Then start using the new contacts. When you start using the new contact data and it starts showing results such as new clients and first meetings, this is proof that the investment paid off.

How Emarketnow Fills Data Gaps in Your CRM

Emarketnow helps fill in gaps by providing targeted, human-verified contact lists. You can target companies based on industry, location, revenue, and more. You can use our revenue filter and add simple notes so we create a list that can help you reach smaller businesses that need your services. Since these lists are customized, they can help fill in gaps in your CRM.

FAQ

How do I know if my CRM coverage is too low?

Pick a segment in your ICP such as industry, location, size. See how many firms exist for that in public data and compare it to how many you have in your CRM. If you have under 20% coverage, then you have a coverage problem and not necessarily a lead generation one.

Why does it matter if my CRM only has a small chunk of my ICP market?

If your CRM holds only a small percentage of your ICP market, then you will keep pitching to the same contacts/companies over and over again. You’re missing out on other similar companies that could also buy from you.