Exporter Case Study: Distributor Prospecting in 30 Days
How a mid-size industrial parts manufacturer entering the US market built a distributor pipeline from zero, with AI-assisted prospect research and an outreach sequence that ran while the sales team slept.
Overview
The client is an industrial fasteners and fittings manufacturer based overseas, entering the US market with no distributor relationships, no local sales team and a nine-hour time difference. Their export manager had a trade-show badge list and a goal: signed distributors in two regions within a quarter.
Gain Rhino built the prospecting engine in the CRM. The AI researched distributors by region and product category, scored them against the manufacturer's criteria (product lines carried, territory, size, existing suppliers), and drafted personalized outreach that the export manager approved in batches. Email and LinkedIn sequences ran in US business hours; replies landed in the CRM with a summary and a suggested next step, ready for the manager's morning.
Research
We started with the criteria: what makes a distributor worth a conversation. The export manager and a sales advisor narrowed it to territory, product fit, customer type and size. The AI compiled 412 candidates across the two target regions from directories, association lists and trade-show exhibitor data, with a fit score and a short rationale for each.
Outreach was written as a five-touch sequence over three weeks, referencing the specific product overlap for each distributor. Every message was reviewed by the manager before the first send; after that, the sequence ran on its own and stopped on any reply. Meetings were booked directly into the manager's calendar in US time, with the conversion to local time handled automatically.
Result
In 30 days the manufacturer went from a badge list to a scored distributor database and seven live conversations, without hiring in the US. The export manager spent her time on calls with qualified distributors instead of on research and cold email.
By the numbers (first 30 days):
- Distributor candidates researched and scored412
- Contacted with a personalized sequence96
- Replies23
- Qualified distributor conversations booked7
- Hours the export manager spent on research and outreachabout 6, all of it review
Client identity withheld at their request. Figures reflect the first 30 days after launch.
