2026-02-pm-electric-manufacturer

# Campaign: Project Manager @ Electric Manufacturer | Active on LinkedIn 7
**La Growth name:** Project Manager @ Electric Manufacturer | Active on LinkedIn 7
**Audience:** Electric Switchgear & Transformers manufacturers | Project Managers | Active
**Leads:** 41 | **Reply rate:** 22%

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## LinkedIn path (connection accepted)

### Step 1: DM #1 (after accept)
Hey {{firstname}}, thanks for connecting. I spent a decade of my life building PlanGrid and now building an AI lighting agent. As quotations specialist I'd love to learn about your biggest headaches and get your feedback/advice into what I'm building. Do you have 30 mins for a phone call sometime the next couple of weeks?


### Step 2: DM #2 (if no reply)
Would you be open with playing with the application or giving me feedback based on a demo video?


### Step 3: DM #3 (if no reply, no email)
If you aren't the right person, I'd love to learn why. I'd appreciate the insight and avoid pestering people if I'm misunderstanding something. Hope you have a great holiday season.


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## Email path (accepted, has email)

### Step 4: Email #1
**Subject:** Building AI lighting takeoffs
Hey {{firstname}},

I spent a decade of my life building PlanGrid and now building an AI lighting agent. As quotations specialist I'd love to learn about your biggest headaches and get your feedback/advice into what I'm building. Do you have 30 mins for a phone call sometime the next couple of weeks?

Alexei


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## Email path (NOT accepted)

### Step 6: Email #1
**Subject:** Building AI lighting takeoffs
Hey {{firstname}},

I spent a decade of my life building PlanGrid and now building an AI lighting agent. As quotations specialist I'd love to learn about your biggest headaches and get your feedback/advice into what I'm building. Do you have 30 mins for a phone call sometime the next couple of weeks?

Alexei


### Step 7: Email #2 (if no reply)
**Subject:**
Would you be open to trying an early version of my AI lighting tool? Or watching a demo video if you'd prefer to give feedback that way?

Alexei


### Step 8: Email #3 (if no reply)
**Subject:**
If you aren't the right person, I'd love to learn why. I'd appreciate the insight and avoid pestering people if I'm misunderstanding something. Hope you have a great holiday season.

Alexei

# Retro: 2026-02-pm-electric-manufacturer

**Campaign:** Project Manager @ Electric Manufacturer | Active on LinkedIn 7
**Audience:** Electric Switchgear & Transformers manufacturers | Project Managers | Active
**Leads:** 41 | **Overall reply rate:** 22% (highest of all campaigns)

## Summary

Best-performing campaign by reply rate. All 8 replies came through LinkedIn DMs (0 email replies, 0 email opens). The 51% connection acceptance rate is by far the highest across campaigns — PMs at large manufacturers accept connections readily. However, most replies were polite redirects ("I'm not the right person", "we use our own tools"), not genuine buying interest. The high reply rate reflects politeness and engagement norms at big companies, not necessarily product-market fit.

## Channel Metrics

| Metric | LinkedIn | Email |
|---|---|---|
| Contacted | 16 | 29 |
| New contacts / Received | 40 | 28 |
| Connection accepted / Opened | 21 (51%) | 0 (0%) |
| Replied | 8 (20%) | 0 (0%) |

Key insight: **100% of engagement came via LinkedIn.** Zero email opens across 28 received emails. These leads either have spam filters or simply don't engage with cold email — LinkedIn is the only viable channel for this audience.

## Per-Message Performance

- **DM#1** (17 reached, 1 reply = 6%): "I spent a decade building PlanGrid and now building an AI lighting agent. As quotations specialist I'd love to learn about your biggest headaches..." — Note: messaging says "AI lighting agent" and "quotations specialist" but audience is Project Managers at switchgear manufacturers. Mismatch between content and audience.
- **DM#2** (16 reached, 3 replies = 19%): "Would you be open with playing with the application or giving me feedback based on a demo video?" — Simpler, lower-commitment ask. Best performing step.
- **Email#1 accepted** (13 reached, 0 replies, 3 opens = 23%): Same content as DM#1 in email form. No engagement.
- **Not Accepted Email#1** (34 reached, 18 opens = 53%, 0 replies): High open rate but zero replies — subject line "Building AI lighting takeoffs" catches attention but the email doesn't convert.

## Reply Analysis

### Positive (interested) — 2 of 8
- **Project Manager @ Schneider Electric** (LA): "apologies for the slow reply... just come on board and been learning about the various workflows" — genuinely curious, new to role
- **Project Manager – Smart Buildings / Automation @ Siemens** (Panama City): "Sounds interesting" — brief but positive

### Neutral (redirect/not the right person) — 4 of 8
- **Project Manager @ Eaton** (NC): "I genuinely don't know. This part is done by another group. Eaton is so large..." — wrong person but helpful, reveals org structure issue
- **Field Service Project Manager @ Eaton**: "Thanks for connecting, I don't believe we've formally met" — not a rejection, just confused
- **Project Manager @ Schneider Electric** (Miami): "I'm not directly in charge of this topic, but I'll discuss with the team" — polite redirect
- **Project Manager @ Siemens** (San Diego): "I appreciate you reaching out but I'm not in a position to assist you in getting your software adopted by Siemens. Siemens is HUGE: 315k employees" — clear explanation of why this doesn't work at enterprise scale

### Negative (not interested) — 2 of 8
- **Project Manager @ Siemens** (Tracy): "we actually use a tool called keyspot. It scans specs and plans for various key words" — already has competing tool
- **Project Manager @ ABB** (Detroit): "ABB employs its own developed tools to analyze that data" — enterprise builds in-house

## Who Replied vs Who Didn't

**Repliers (8):**
- All Project Managers (100%)
- All at large multinational manufacturers: Eaton (2), Siemens (3), Schneider Electric (2), ABB (1)
- Industries: Automation Machinery Manufacturing (6), Appliances/Electrical Manufacturing (2)
- US-based, spread across states (CA, FL, NC, MI)

**Non-repliers (33):**
- Also mostly Project Managers (28/33)
- Same companies and industries
- No clear differentiator between repliers and non-repliers in terms of title or company

**Key finding:** The differentiator isn't who they are — it's that this audience type (enterprise PMs) is polite and responds but doesn't convert. They have in-house tools, can't adopt external software easily, and are often the wrong person in a 300K+ employee org.

## Sub-persona Discovery

**Enterprise ≠ buyer.** These are large manufacturers (Siemens, Schneider, Eaton, ABB) where PMs don't make tool decisions. The replies reveal:
- "Eaton is so large, I don't know what's happening" — org too big
- "Siemens is HUGE: 315k employees" — can't navigate procurement
- "ABB employs its own developed tools" — build vs buy decided at corporate level

The 22% reply rate is misleading — it's engagement, not conversion. **0 leads won.**

## Content Issues

1. **Audience/content mismatch:** Content says "AI lighting agent" and addresses them "as quotations specialist" — but the audience is Project Managers at switchgear/transformer manufacturers, not lighting quotation specialists. This was likely copy-paste from the lighting campaign.
2. **Enterprise pitch to enterprise audience:** Asking PMs at Siemens to try your startup tool is a poor fit. They can't unilaterally adopt tools.

## Recommendations

1. **Don't repeat this audience.** Large multinational manufacturers (Siemens, Eaton, Schneider, ABB) are not viable SMB sales targets. They build in-house, have enterprise procurement, and PMs can't make tool decisions. Reply rate was high but conversion-relevant engagement was ~0%.
2. **Target small-to-mid switchgear manufacturers instead.** Companies with 20-200 employees where a PM actually does estimating and can trial software. The hypothesis that "switchgear manufacturers need takeoff tools" might still be valid — just not at enterprise scale.
3. **Fix content/audience alignment.** If retargeting manufacturers, rewrite content to address manufacturing-specific pain points (quoting, panel scheduling, BOM generation) rather than generic "lighting takeoffs."
4. **LinkedIn is the only channel for this audience.** Skip email entirely or use it only as a backup.

## Proposed Playbook Updates

None yet — insufficient cross-campaign evidence. However, the "LinkedIn-only engagement for technical roles at manufacturers" pattern should be watched across future campaigns targeting similar audiences.

## Proposed Persona Updates

No persona doc exists yet for this audience. If retargeted with small/mid manufacturers, create `personas/switchgear-manufacturer.md` with the enterprise exclusion baked in.

No leads linked to this campaign yet.