How to sell to Heads of Sales at Manufacturing companies
Heads of Sales in manufacturing are focused on revenue growth, specifically measured by quarterly sales targets. They respond to outreach when it highlights solutions that streamline production processes or enhance team performance, especially if it addresses inefficiencies that lead to missed targets.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 552 manufacturing company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- slow lead response times
- inefficient sales tracking
- high turnover in sales teams
- difficulty adapting to market changes
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent factory expansions
Research industry news for manufacturing companies that have recently expanded their facilities or production lines. Use sources like trade publications and local business news to find companies investing in growth. These expansions often indicate a need for enhanced sales strategies and tools.
- 02
Highlight productivity challenges
Craft your outreach to mention common productivity challenges faced by manufacturing sales teams, such as slow lead response times or difficulties in tracking customer interactions. Reference specific inefficiencies that can lead to lost sales opportunities, making your message relevant and pressing.
- 03
Connect through industry events
Look for upcoming industry conferences or trade shows where manufacturing leaders will gather. Reach out to potential prospects before the event, offering to meet for a brief discussion about their sales strategies. Mentioning a shared event can increase the likelihood of a response.
- 04
Follow up after product launches
Monitor announcements of new product launches within the manufacturing sector. These events often shift sales priorities, creating opportunities to discuss how your solution can help them adapt their strategies to new offerings. Timing your outreach shortly after a launch can be effective.
- 05
Address common objections directly
Prepare to address objections related to budget constraints or perceived complexity of new tools. Offer insights on how investing in sales enablement can lead to measurable ROI, citing examples of improved sales performance from similar companies to alleviate concerns.
Can manufacturing companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 552 manufacturing companies, sampled evenly across company sizes, to see how many authenticate their own email. It matters in both directions: a domain that does not authenticate is a domain whose team is used to mail going missing — and if your own domain is in the gap, yours is the mail going missing.
Publishes a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject — the domain actually asks receivers to act on failures.
The gap is the finding: 24.3% of 1–10-person companies against 83.1% of the largest — 59 points apart. Small companies are where the unauthenticated domains are, and small companies are who most cold outreach is aimed at.
Where does your domain sit?
Same three lookups, run live against your domain. Nothing is stored and nothing is emailed to you.
How this was measured
Company domains were sampled within employee-count bands, then queried over public DNS for SPF (TXT at the apex), DMARC (TXT at _dmarc.) and MX. One domain per company, deduplicated. Anyone can reproduce any single row of this with dig.
DKIM is deliberately absent. A DKIM key lives under a selector that cannot be enumerated from outside the domain, so a company with flawless DKIM under a name we did not guess would be counted as having none. That would measure our guess list, not the industry.
Domains with no MX record are excluded rather than counted as failures — parked and redirect-only domains would otherwise drag every figure down and make the result an artefact of the sample.
Sampled within bands, so this describes the population of companies, not of employees: a 10-person company counts once, as does a 10,000-person one. Each band is at least 60 domains; bands below that are not published. Figures are percentages of the sample, not of the whole industry, and we publish no company names — only counts.
Measured 2026-09-03. Re-measured monthly.
The full census across every industry — sortable, with sample sizes, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Subject lines that fit
- Boost your sales efficiency
- Improving factory sales strategies
- Navigating production challenges
Questions
- Why do Heads of Sales in manufacturing overlook outreach about sales tools?
- Many Heads of Sales prioritize immediate operational issues over long-term sales tool investments. They often feel overwhelmed by existing challenges and may not see the value in new tools unless there's a clear, immediate benefit to their current processes.
- What common challenges do manufacturing sales teams face?
- Manufacturing sales teams often struggle with lead generation due to lengthy sales cycles and the need for technical expertise. They also face challenges in maintaining consistent communication with clients, which can lead to missed opportunities and lost sales.
- How can I effectively reach out to manufacturing sales leaders?
- To effectively reach manufacturing sales leaders, tailor your outreach to address their specific pain points, such as lead response times or tracking difficulties. Use industry-specific language and examples to demonstrate your understanding of their unique challenges.
- What factors influence a manufacturing Head of Sales' decision-making?
- A manufacturing Head of Sales is influenced by factors such as production efficiency, team performance metrics, and market competitiveness. They are particularly focused on solutions that can directly impact revenue growth and streamline their sales processes.
Or have it run itself
SoloRiff does every step above on its own — finds the companies, finds the people, writes each of them individually, and handles the replies. Drop your URL and watch it work before you sign up for anything.
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