Struggling with LinkedIn Outreach for My AI Manufacturing Startup. Need Feedback

[Shougan]

Hey everyone,


I’ve been working on building traction for my AI-powered cost analysis tool for manufacturers. Right now, I’m validating the market through outreach rather than focusing on product development.


For the last few weeks, I’ve been sending LinkedIn DMs daily to my ICP (operations managers, CI leads, plant managers). Here are my numbers so far:

• Total outbound DMs sent: 342
• Positive replies: 43 (≈ 12.6%) – people curious, open to learning more
  • Of these, 6 asked to see my example report
  • 3 said I can come back in a few months
• Negative replies: 57 (≈ 16.7%) – “not interested,” “timing off,” etc.
• Neutral / no clear direction: 223 (≈ 65.2%)
• Unique conversations tracked: 163

Where I’m stuck: the ones who show interest upfront (the 43 positive replies) tend to go silent after I share my example report. I rarely get replies after that, which makes me think I might be doing something wrong in my messaging or in how I deliver value early.


Here’s an anonymized example of my outreach:

Hi [Name], saw you’re in [industry]. I actually used to work in [related field]. A lot of ops leaders I talk with say they spend hours digging through dashboards and Excel sheets but still struggle to find the right actions. I now help ops teams spot their biggest cost drivers instantly and turn them into focused actions based on their data. Would you be open to seeing an example of what that looks like?

I try to start with a shared experience, then transition into a pain point, and finally show what I do.


But I’m wondering:

• Is my messaging wrong?
• Should I change the value I give upfront? (e.g., instead of just sending a static example, offer something more interactive like a short scorecard, a one-pager, or a free mini-analysis of their own data)
• Would a whitepaper or “AI Kickstart Framework” style guide work better to build trust first?
• Or should I stick with what i do and see who bites?

I don’t mind sharing my process here because the more I share, the more feedback I get – and hopefully others doing cold outreach can benefit too.


Any insights on what I should tweak, add, or cut from my approach?


Thanks in advance,
Marcus

 

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