Lead Generation for Contract Manufacturers
We do lead gen for manufacturers. Specifically, the ones who make other people's parts: machine shops, molders, fabricators, EMS providers, assembly houses. If you make your own branded product, this page isn't quite for you, though the SaaS page might be closer than you'd think.
What we do is watch for OEMs that just announced a product, or hired a sourcing manager, or opened a plant, or started pulling production out of a country, and we email their supply chain or engineering lead that week about that specific thing. When they write back, and in this industry they often write back with a drawing, it goes straight to your estimator. Starts as low as $2,999 a month, month to month.
Who you're selling to, and why the usual approach doesn't work on them
Your buyer is a sourcing manager, a purchasing agent, or a design engineer at an OEM. They've already got a supplier for every part they make. They only go looking for another one when something changes: a new product needs a process the current shop doesn't run, a supplier blew lead times twice, a tariff just made the overseas source expensive, volume outgrew the shop, or the guy who managed suppliers left and the new one wants her own people.
Every one of those is an event, with a date. None of them are in a database.
The way most manufacturing lead gen works is to pull every "procurement manager" at every company between 200 and 2,000 people in a few SIC codes and send them all an email about capabilities and certifications. It reaches buyers who have no open need. The replies ask for a line card. And the sales manager decides cold email doesn't work for manufacturing, when the problem was the list the whole time.
The other way, waiting on IMTS and referrals, produces good leads and not enough of them. A shop doing $10M that wants to do $15M isn't going to get there on trade shows and word of mouth.
There's a small, fixed group of OEMs that'll add a supplier in your categories this quarter. The job is to find them in the month the decision opens, and nothing about a database pull does that.
What we watch for
There are five signals. They are all public and dated, and they all indicate that a sourcing decision is open.
A new product gets announced. Press releases, Kickstarter and Indiegogo, FCC ID filings for anything with a radio in it, UL and CE listings, and retailer listings that show up before the product ships. New product means new parts, new tooling, and a supplier that hasn't been picked yet. We put the product's own name in the subject line and offer a quote on the parts that match your process.
Somebody posts a sourcing or supply chain job. A company hiring its first sourcing manager, or replacing one, is about to review the supplier base. We email the hiring manager before the role's filled and the new hire in their first month, and offer a second-source quote on drawings they already have. New sourcing managers like having an option in hand on day one.
A plant, a line, or a capex number gets announced. State economic development announcements, business journals, permits, incentive filings. Expansion means volume, and a supplier that was fine at 5,000 a year isn't fine at 50,000. We ask whether the current source can scale with them, and we put a capacity number in the email.
Production moves out of a country. Earnings calls, trade press, and import records that show a company's shipments from somewhere falling off. Tariff changes send OEMs looking for North American capacity in a hurry. We lead with lead time and landed cost, because that's the spreadsheet the buyer is in that week.
A hardware startup raises money. A funded hardware company goes from prototype to production inside two quarters and needs a partner who can do low volume now and more later. We offer a DFM review on their current design, which is a conversation they're already having with each other.
What the email looks like
Subject: Domestic second source on the M-Series
Hi Tom,
Saw the note in last month's call about moving M-Series production out of Guangdong. If the machined housings and brackets are still being sourced, we can quote them off your current drawings, first articles in four to six weeks.
We run CNC and sheet metal in Ohio, ISO 9001 and ITAR registered, and we hold stock for two OEMs in your category so line-down risk is covered while you transition.
Would a quote on one part help with the cost model?
Rachel
Rachel is your rep. The product name, the sourcing move, and the parts all came from the signal. Eighty words, and nothing about the shop until the second paragraph.
If you want to know how many OEMs in your process categories did one of these five things last month, book a 15-minute call and we'll pull the count before you get on it.
What we mean by "lead"
Someone at an OEM wrote back, they fit what you told us you quote, and it's on your estimator's desk as a call or a drawing. We don't count names off a list or badge scans from a show.
Before anything sends we write down the line with you: processes, annual volume range, materials, geography, certifications required, and whether prototype-only work counts. If a reply doesn't meet that line, we hand it over as a note and we don't count it.
One thing that's specific to manufacturing: buyers often skip the meeting and just send a drawing. On our programs a drawing sent for quote counts as a lead, because that's the unit your shop actually runs on.
You see every reply, including the ones that say no.
How it runs
Week one we set up sending domains and mailboxes in your name, agree the line above, and turn on the five signals across your process categories and territory.
Week two the first emails go out under your rep's or your estimator's name.
Replies and drawings go to your estimator the same day with the signal attached, so the quote or the call starts from "you're moving housings out of Guangdong" and not from "so what do you guys make?"
Every morning we look at yesterday's replies and RFQs against the target. If we hit it, we send more. If we didn't, it's one of four things: wrong OEMs, not enough of them, the email was off, or it didn't land. We figure out which, fix it, and that's what goes out today. You can follow it in the log.
When you leave, the domains and mailboxes are yours.
What it costs
Starts as low as $2,999 a month, month to month. No setup fee, no minimum term.
That covers domains, mailboxes, warmup, the list, the signals, the copy, sending, replies, getting RFQs and meetings to your estimator, and the daily log.
It doesn't cover a caller. If you want phone and LinkedIn on top, that's the outbound program, linked below.
Results
Those are software, logistics, and restaurant clients. We'll put a manufacturing number here the first time a manufacturing client lets us use their name.
Book a 15-minute fit call
Tell us your processes, your typical order size, and who quotes. We'll tell you whether we'd take the account, which signals fire most in your categories, and, if it shouldn't be us, who to call instead.
Other ways we work with Contract Manufacturers
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if you just want the email and your estimators will do the follow-up.
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if you want email plus LinkedIn and calling with our team on the phones.
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if you want to retarget the same OEM list with paid social.
Lead Generation for other industries
Questions people ask us
Our buyers are engineers. Do they even read cold email?
They read email about their part and their timeline. They don't read email about your capabilities. Look at the sample above: product name in the subject, the parts in the first line, and the shop's credentials buried in paragraph two where they belong.
We need RFQs, not meetings. Does this produce RFQs?
Yes. A drawing sent for quote counts as a lead and goes to your estimator that day. A lot of manufacturing replies skip the meeting and go straight to the quote, and we report both.
Can you email OEMs in regulated categories?
Yes. Email to a business address is legal under CAN-SPAM. If you're ITAR registered we keep anything controlled out of the outreach entirely. The email offers a quote, and the technical conversation happens on your terms after they reply.
How many emails go out?
Fewer than a list program, by a lot. A signal-based list across a handful of process categories is a few hundred OEMs a month. It depends on how many launches, hires, expansions, and rounds happen in your categories, and we'll estimate it before you start.
How long until the first RFQ?
Most manufacturing programs see the first real reply in weeks three to five and the first RFQ in month two. Product launches and reshoring moves go fastest, because the buyer's already building a cost model.
We do prototype and low-volume work. Does that fit?
It fits the funding-round signal well. Hardware startups need a prototype and pilot-run partner before they need volume, and the DFM review offer gets replies. Tell us on the fit call and we'll set the line for it.