Founder-led B2B SaaS outbound into manufacturing: 100+ leads, 1 soft demo, almost no replies
I’m building a SaaS product for multi-shift manufacturers and I’m in that ugly early stage where I can’t tell if the market doesn’t care, my message is off, or I just haven’t done enough reps yet.
Not trying to pitch here. I’m looking for sales feedback.
The product basically sits around ERP/MES reports and helps plants close the gap between “we saw the bad metric” and “someone actually owned the follow-up.”
Example:
2nd shift has high scrap, extended downtime, missed output, quality issue, etc.
Most plants can see the number somewhere.
What I’m trying to solve is:
Did anyone acknowledge it?
Did they add context?
Was a task created if it needed follow-up?
Who owns the fix?
Did it ever get closed?
My basic line has been:
“ERP tells you what happened. We help make sure something actually happens about it.”
ICP I’m testing:
Multi-shift / multi-site manufacturers
100 to 2,500 employees
Plastics, food, metal fab, CNC, stamping
Reaching out to VP Ops, Directors of Manufacturing, CI leaders, Plant Managers, Ops Managers
Cold call script I’ve been using:
"When a production metric is off target, like scrap or downtime, what system makes sure the issue is acknowledged, assigned, and followed through to closure?”
If they say they already have software, I’ve been saying something like:
“Yeah, makes sense. A lot of plants have ERP, dashboards, Teams, whiteboards, etc. What I’m trying to understand is whether the action-to-closure part is actually systemized or if it still lives in handoffs and follow-up meetings.”
So far:
100+ leads worked
Mostly email + some calls
1 soft demo
Only a couple replies
Some email opens and site visits, but not many real conversations
What would you change?
Is the problem too abstract?
Am I going too high by targeting Directors/VPs before talking to more Plant/Ops Managers?
Should I lead harder with shift handoff failures, recurring scrap/downtime, margin leakage, or leadership visibility? Open to any advice people may have.