2026-04-sales-electric-suppliers

# Campaign: Sales @ Electric Suppliers
**La Growth name:** Sales @ Electric Suppliers
**Audience:** Sales @ Electric Suppliers
**Leads:** 85 | **Reply rate:** 8%

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## LinkedIn path (connection accepted)

### Step 1: DM #1 (after accept)
Hey {{firstname}}, thanks for connecting. I've developed an AI takeoff solution for commercial construction. Today it supports lighting, power, doors, windows, and room square footages. All data can be exported to a csv.  I plan it to fully cover MEP & the other trades. The goal is to provide you with a second set of eyes and ideally drastically save you time. Would you be open to call to give me feedback on what I've got so far?


### Step 2: DM #2 (if no reply)
I'm now inviting a handful of people to try it out for a couple of weeks so they can experience it on their projects. What's a good email to send the invite to?


### Step 3: DM #3 (if no reply, no email)
Last nudge and thanks for considering. If I'm not supporting the trades that you're estimating, I'd love to know what they are so I can bump them up on the roadmap.

Alexei


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## Email path (accepted, has email)

### Step 4: Email #1
**Subject:** Tool for construction estimating services
Hey {{firstname}},

I've developed an AI takeoff solution for commercial construction. Today it supports lighting, power, doors, windows, and room square footages. All data can be exported to a csv.  I plan it to fully cover MEP & the other trades. The goal is to provide you with a second set of eyes and ideally drastically save you time. Would you be open to call to give me feedback on what I've got so far?

Alexei

---

## Email path (NOT accepted)

### Step 6: Email #1
**Subject:** Tool for construction estimating services
Hey {{firstname}},

I've developed an AI takeoff solution for commercial construction. Today it supports lighting, power, doors, windows, and room square footages. All data can be exported to a csv.  I plan it to fully cover MEP & the other trades. The goal is to provide you with a second set of eyes and ideally drastically save you time. Would you be open to call to give me feedback on what I've got so far?

Alexei


### Step 7: Email #2 (if no reply)
**Subject:**
I'm now inviting a handful of people to try it out for a couple of weeks so they can experience it on their projects. What's a good email to send the invite to?

Alexei


### Step 8: Email #3 (if no reply)
**Subject:**
Last nudge and thanks for considering. If I'm not supporting the trades that you're estimating, I'd love to know what they are so I can bump them up on the roadmap.

Alexei

# Retro: Sales @ Electric Suppliers

**Campaign ID:** 2026-04-sales-electric-suppliers
**La Growth name:** Sales @ Electric Suppliers
**Audience:** Sales professionals at electrical supply/distribution companies
**Leads:** 85 | **Replies:** 4 | **Reply rate:** 4.7%

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## Channel Metrics

| Channel | Contacted | Key metric | Replies |
|---|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn | 85 new contacts | 26 accepted (31%) | 4 LI replies |
| Email | 47 contacted, 46 received | 29 opens (63%) | 0 email replies |

**Connection acceptance rate: 31%** (26/85) — solid, in line with other well-targeted campaigns.

**All 4 replies came via LinkedIn.** Email had the highest open rate across all campaigns (63%) but zero replies — sales professionals open emails but don't reply to cold outreach via email.

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## Content Analysis

### DM#1 (78 words)
Product-first framing — "I've developed an AI takeoff solution for commercial construction. Today it supports lighting, power, doors, windows, and room square footages." Asks for a call for feedback.

**Observations:**
- At 78 words, this is the second longest DM#1 across all campaigns. Data shows a near-perfect inverse correlation between word count and reply rate.
- **Product-first framing** — leads with features and trade coverage. Cross-campaign analysis shows product-first framing has only 2.1% reply rate vs 11.3% for founder-story-first.
- No founder story, no personal credibility hook. The EE/PlanGrid background is absent from DM#1 entirely.
- CTA is "call to give me feedback" — medium friction.
- Mentions specific trades covered and CSV export — feature-level detail that belongs in DM#2 or a demo, not the opener.

### DM#2
"I'm now inviting a handful of people to try it out for a couple of weeks." Urgency/exclusivity angle. Asks for email to send invite.

### DM#3
"If I'm not supporting the trades that you're estimating, I'd love to know what they are so I can bump them up on the roadmap." — Smart feedback-ask close that could inform product direction.

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## Reply Analysis (4 replies)

| # | Title | Company | Industry | State | Sentiment | Reply summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Account Manager | Frost Supply | Wholesale | MO | Warm decline | Loves the product but can't share business details. Suggested connecting with contractors instead |
| 2 | Project Specialist | Graybar | Wholesale | CT | **Strong positive** | Technical question: "Is it mainly for takeoff's, and what ai model are you using?" — engaged, curious |
| 3 | Account Manager | ABB | Automation Mfg | FL | **Strong positive / Meeting booked** | "Absolutely, I have some time tomorrow afternoon, that sounds interesting!" |
| 4 | Inside Sales Associate | All Current Electrical Sales | Electrical Equip Mfg | — | Hard decline | "Not interested." |

### Reply sentiment distribution
| Sentiment | Count | % |
|---|---|---|
| **Strong positive** | 2 | 50% |
| Warm decline (with redirect) | 1 | 25% |
| Hard decline | 1 | 25% |

**50% positive** — the highest positive ratio of any campaign. But with only 4 replies, the sample is very small.

### Notable reply details

**ABB Account Manager (Florida):** Booked a meeting immediately. This is the clearest conversion signal across all campaigns. ABB is a large company, but this is an individual contributor (Account Manager), not a PM who gets redirected.

**Graybar Project Specialist:** Asked about the AI model — this person is technically curious and evaluating the product seriously. "Project Specialist" at a major distributor is exactly the kind of technical evaluator who could champion adoption.

**Frost Supply Account Manager:** Couldn't share business details but said "I love what you're working on here!" and suggested connecting with contractors. Interesting redirect signal — sales reps at suppliers see the value but the purchasing pathway goes through their contractor customers.

---

## Leads Analysis (85 leads)

### Title distribution
| Title cluster | Count | Replies | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inside Sales Representative | 22 | 0 | 0% |
| Account Manager | 19 | 2 | 10.5% |
| Branch Manager | 6 | 0 | 0% |
| Salesperson | 6 | 0 | 0% |
| Sales Representative | 3 | 0 | 0% |
| Sales Associate | 3 | 1 | 33.3% |
| Project Specialist | 2 | 1 | 50.0% |
| Other | 24 | 0 | 0% |

**Account Managers and specialists respond; inside sales reps don't.** Inside Sales Representatives (26% of leads) produced zero replies. Account Managers who manage relationships — not just process orders — are more engaged.

### Industry distribution
| Industry | Count | Replies | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wholesale | 31 | 1 | 3.2% |
| Appliances/Electronics Mfg | 24 | 0 | 0% |
| Automation Machinery Mfg | 5 | 1 | 20.0% |
| Electrical Equipment Mfg | 2 | 1 | 50.0% |
| Other | 23 | 1 | 4.3% |

The Wholesale segment (largest) had the lowest reply rate. Manufacturing-adjacent industries showed more interest.

### Geography
Florida (ABB meeting booked), Missouri (warm decline), Connecticut (technical question). Small sample, but Florida continues to over-index on positive engagement across campaigns.

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## Hypothesis Verdict

**Hypothesis:** Sales professionals at electrical suppliers are viable targets for AI takeoff tooling.

**Verdict: Mixed.** The 4.7% reply rate is below average, but reply quality is unusually high (50% positive, including a meeting booked). The problem is that sales reps at suppliers are **adjacent** to the problem — they sell to contractors who do takeoffs, but they don't do takeoffs themselves. The ones who responded positively are in technical/project roles (Project Specialist, Account Manager), not pure sales.

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## Key Insights

1. **Sales titles don't convert, but technical-adjacent roles at suppliers do.** Inside Sales Representatives (0%) vs Account Managers (10.5%) and Project Specialists (50%). The title filter matters enormously.
2. **Product-first framing underperformed.** This campaign had no founder story in DM#1. Combined with the longest word count (78 words), it hit both anti-patterns identified in cross-campaign analysis.
3. **Suppliers see value but can't buy.** The Frost Supply redirect ("connect with contractors") mirrors the PM-electric-manufacturer finding — people adjacent to the problem appreciate the tool but the purchase pathway goes through the end user.
4. **Meeting booked (ABB) is the strongest conversion signal across all 7 campaigns.** An account manager at a major automation company willing to meet immediately suggests that supplier-side technical roles could be viable if properly targeted.
5. **63% email open rate but 0 replies.** Sales professionals are trained to open emails (it's their job) but don't respond to inbound cold outreach from vendors. LinkedIn DMs are the only viable channel for this audience.

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## Recommendations

1. **If targeting suppliers again**, filter for "Account Manager", "Project Specialist", "Application Engineer" — not "Inside Sales Representative" or "Salesperson."
2. **Rewrite DM#1** using the estimating-services template: founder story first, open question, under 60 words. The product-first framing hurt this campaign.
3. **Follow up with Graybar Project Specialist** (technical interest) and **ABB Account Manager** (meeting booked). These are the two best leads.
4. **Consider the supplier as a distribution channel, not an end user.** Suppliers could recommend Gink to their contractor customers. The Frost Supply redirect suggests this framing might work: "Help your customers do faster takeoffs."
5. **DM#3's roadmap question is worth keeping.** "What trades are you estimating?" is a lightweight way to gather product intelligence. Include it in future sequences.