A manufacturing Operations Management platform targeting manufacturing firms in the US.
* Entering the USA without a prior outbound motion.
* Low early traction on senior personas (C-level, VP) and minimal engagement via email; only two early positives from cold calls.
* We had to quickly figure out:
→ What roles respond?
→ What industries engage?
→ Which channels actually work?
We launched a multi-channel appointment-setting campaign:
Targeting:
→ Manufacturing verticals (Chemical, F&B, Consumer Goods, Construction)
→ Personas in Operations and Continuous Improvement
→ Roles: Mid-level managers, directors, and C-levels
Channels:
→ Started with LinkedIn, email, and cold calling
→ After 30 days, we leaned in on LinkedIn-only; it was the only one working
Messaging:
→ No hard-sell pitches
→ Focused on exploratory, discovery-first conversations
✅ Industry Fit Matters
Chemical and Food & Bev manufacturers responded best.
Why? These industries often deal with complex processes and legacy systems, so the idea of streamlining operations or improving shop-floor visibility hits home faster.
14 leads and 3 meetings came from just these verticals.
✅ The Right Personas Make the Difference
Continuous Improvement and Ops Managers were most open to conversations.
They’re hands-on with daily problems and more likely to engage when messaging speaks to solving inefficiencies or removing manual overhead.
Senior execs, by contrast, were harder to engage cold, likely due to bandwidth, gatekeeping, and lack of immediate context.
✅ Message Framing Matters
When we led with “Can we explore how your team is approaching [X]?” instead of “Let me show you our platform,”
…response rates significantly improved.
Outbound can work, even in complex, traditional industries.
But it has to be channel-aware, persona-specific, and discovery-led.
