Outbound for Contract Manufacturers
We run outbound for shops that make other people’s parts. Email, LinkedIn, and phone, all about the same OEM, all about the same part, run by someone on our team who’s on your account.
The problem it solves is that at most shops, business development is the owner or a sales engineer, and they’re doing it between quoting and the floor. The email goes out, nobody follows up, and three weeks later the OEM picked someone who did. We build the list every day from OEMs that just announced a product, or posted a sourcing job, or started pulling production out of a country. The email goes first, about that specific part. Then we call and connect on LinkedIn about the same part, and when the buyer says “send me a quote,” it lands on your estimator’s desk. Starts as low as $2,999 a month, month to month, for the email, with the calling layer priced for your volume.
Why calling an engineer works when it’s about a part
Everyone says engineers hate sales calls, and they do. What they hate is the call that starts with “I’m reaching out from a precision machining company to see if you have any upcoming projects.” That call gets a “we’re all set” before the sentence ends, and it should.
A different call goes like this. “Hi, Dan here, I sent a note Tuesday about the enclosure and bracket on the Nova unit. Are those still being sourced, or did they get placed?” That’s not a sales call. That’s a question about a part the engineer’s been thinking about all week, and she’ll answer it. Sometimes the answer is “placed,” which is fine, we close the file. Sometimes it’s “still open, who are you again?” and the next thing she says is “send me the drawing.”
The phone works in manufacturing when it’s the second touch and it’s about the part. It doesn’t work as a first touch and it doesn’t work about capabilities. So the email always goes first, and the person calling reads the email before they dial.
Who does the calling, and what to ask about them
On our programs the person making the calls is one named member of our team, on your account. They see the signal list every morning, they know which OEM got which email about which part, and they’ve read enough of your quotes to know what you run and what you don’t.
That last bit matters more in manufacturing than anywhere else. If a sourcing manager asks “can you hold plus or minus two thou on that bore in 17-4,” whoever’s on the phone can’t say “let me get back to you.” They need to know the answer or know that your estimator does, and say so. We’ll spend the first week learning your processes for exactly that reason.
Whoever you hire for this, ask them:
Who’s actually going to be on the phone, and what do they know about machining, molding, or whatever you do? If they’ve never been in a shop, the first technical question ends the call.
Is that person dedicated or shared? Shared across two accounts is normal for a shop, because the list is small. Shared across six means your OEMs get called on Thursdays.
What happens when a buyer replies with a STEP file? The answer should be “it goes to your estimator inside the hour,” not “we’ll add it to the CRM.”
What the sequence looks like
Here’s 14 business days for an OEM that just posted a supply chain manager role. Every touch is about second-sourcing the parts they already make.
Day 1. Email. Saw the Supply Chain Manager posting go up. If you’re reviewing suppliers, we can quote a second source on your current drawings, first articles in five weeks. Day 2. LinkedIn. Connection request to the hiring manager, and to the new hire once they’re announced. No note. Day 3. Call. “I sent a note Tuesday about second-sourcing. Is the supplier review waiting on the new hire, or is it open now?” Day 5. Email. Reply to day 1. One line about an OEM in the same category that added a second source last year and what it did to their lead times. Day 7. LinkedIn. If they accepted, a message. Same question as the call, shorter. Day 9. Call. Second attempt. Voicemail if no answer, under 20 seconds, names the parts. Day 12. Email. Last one. Asks whether to close the file or check back once the new manager starts. Day 14. Call. Final attempt. If nothing, the OEM goes back into monitoring and gets a fresh sequence the next time something happens there.
Eight touches, three channels, three weeks, all about the same parts. And if at any point the answer is “send me the drawing,” the sequence stops and your estimator takes over.
The five signals
The list gets rebuilt every day from these. Whoever’s calling sees which one fired for each OEM before picking up the phone.
A product announcement or an FCC, UL, or CE filing. The email offers a quote on the parts you can see in the filing. The call asks whether they’ve been placed.
A sourcing, supply chain, or procurement job. That’s the sequence above.
A plant, a line, or a capex number. The email asks whether the current supplier can follow the volume. The call asks what the ramp looks like.
Production moving out of a country. The email leads with lead time and landed cost. The call asks what’s driving the timeline.
A hardware startup raising money. The email offers a DFM review. The call asks where they are between prototype and pilot.
What we mean by “lead”
Someone at an OEM that fits the line wrote back or picked up, and it’s on your estimator’s desk as a drawing to quote or a call to take. We don’t count badge scans or requests for your line card.
Before anything sends we write down the line with you: processes, materials, volume range, geography, certs required, and whether prototype-only counts. If a reply misses that line, we hand it over as a note and we don’t count it.
Drawings count as well. A STEP file with three words of text is the best reply in this industry, and it goes on the count and to your estimator the same hour.
You see every reply and every call outcome, including the “we’re all set” ones.
How it runs
Week one we set up sending domains and mailboxes in your name, agree the line, turn on the five signals across your process categories, and assign the person on our team who’ll be on your account. They spend part of that week learning what you run.
Week two the first emails go out. Calling and LinkedIn start in week three, once the email’s shown us which signals are getting replies, so the calls go to OEMs that are already warming up.
Replies, drawings, and booked calls go to your estimator the same day with the signal, the thread, and the call notes.
Every morning we look at yesterday’s RFQs and meetings against the target. If we hit it, we send more and we dial more. If we missed it, it’s one of four things: wrong OEMs, not enough of them, the message was off, or it didn’t land. We find which, fix it, and that’s what goes out today. You can follow it in the log, by signal and by channel.
When you leave, the domains and mailboxes are yours and the call notes go with them.
What it costs
Starts as low as $2,999 a month, month to month, for the email program on domains you own. No setup fee, no minimum term.
The LinkedIn and calling layer is priced per program, based on how many OEMs a month your categories produce and how much of a person that needs. We’ll give you the number on the fit call. It’s a flat monthly figure, not per meeting and not per RFQ.
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 certs, and who's doing outbound today. We'll tell you whether we'd take the account, what the calling layer would cost at your volume, and, if it shouldn't be us, who to call instead.
Other ways we work with Contract Manufacturers
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if you haven't picked a channel and want the qualification line and the RFQ count first.
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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 to retarget the same OEM list with paid social while the sequence runs.
Outbound Sales for other industries
Questions people ask us
Our sales engineer does the outbound now. Why would we outsource it?
Because your sales engineer is also quoting and probably also on the floor, and the follow-up is the first thing that stops happening. We do the part that needs to happen every day. Your sales engineer does the part that needs to know how to hold a tolerance.
Can whoever’s calling actually talk to an engineer?
About the part, yes. About your process at the level your estimator can, no, and they won’t pretend to. The first week is spent learning what you run so the call doesn’t end at the first technical question. Anything past that goes to your estimator, and the honest “let me have Dan call you on that” gets a better reception than a bluff.
Do you go through supplier portals?
When a buyer says “register on our portal,” that reply goes to your estimator with the link. We count it as a lead, because getting told to register is the outcome we wanted.
Is calling worth it for us? Our buyers are all email people.
Some of them are. For a lot of sourcing managers, though, the phone is where “we’re evaluating” turns into “send me the drawing.” On our programs the call is always the second touch, never the first, so it’s cheap to try and easy to drop if your buyers don’t pick up.
What about ITAR?
Nothing controlled in the email, nothing controlled on the phone. We say you’re registered, we say what you run, we ask whether the part’s been placed. Everything technical happens between your estimator and their engineer, under your controls.
How long until the first RFQ?
Usually weeks three to five for the first real reply and month two for the first drawing. Product launches and reshoring moves go fastest, and the call speeds those up more than the others, because the buyer’s already got a cost model open.