Client

Custom Metal Fabrication & Welding Company
Location: Tulsa, Oklahoma
Industry: Metal Fabrication & Contract Manufacturing
Solution Implemented: Industrial Pipeline Engine™

Background

A mid-sized metal fabrication company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma had built a strong reputation producing custom steel components and welded assemblies for industrial clients throughout the Midwest and Southwest.

The company supported a wide range of manufacturing and industrial applications, including work for oil and gas equipment manufacturers, construction equipment companies, agricultural machinery producers, regional industrial contractors, and OEM manufacturers that required dependable fabrication capacity.

Its core capabilities included:

• Structural steel fabrication
• Precision laser cutting and forming
• MIG and TIG welding
• Heavy industrial assemblies
• Custom metal fabrication for OEM manufacturers
• Production support for industrial components and equipment

Despite having strong production capabilities, experienced fabricators, and a modern facility, the company faced a familiar growth challenge: its sales pipeline was inconsistent.

Historically, most new projects came through long-standing customer relationships, referrals from engineers and contractors, and occasional RFQs from procurement teams. These channels produced valuable work, but they were difficult to forecast. Some months brought a full production schedule, while other months exposed gaps in capacity and uncertainty around future workload.

Leadership recognized that the business had become too dependent on a small group of large customers and irregular inbound opportunities. Losing one major account, or even seeing a temporary slowdown from a key customer, could create a meaningful impact on revenue and production planning.

At the same time, the company knew that manufacturers were actively searching for fabrication partners capable of handling custom parts, structural assemblies, welded components, laser-cut parts, and OEM production support. Engineers and procurement teams were using search engines to compare vendors, review capabilities, and identify shops that could support their manufacturing requirements.

Searches such as the following represented real commercial intent:

• Custom metal fabrication company
• Structural steel fabrication shop
• Industrial welding and fabrication services
• OEM metal fabrication supplier
• Laser cutting and fabrication services
• Contract metal fabrication company

The company had the capabilities to win this kind of work, but it did not have a coordinated system for capturing active search demand, identifying target accounts, or creating consistent sales conversations with manufacturers likely to need fabrication support.

To create a more predictable path to growth, leadership needed a pipeline development system that could reach buyers earlier, generate qualified opportunities more consistently, and help the sales team build relationships with a broader base of manufacturing customers.

Strategy

To address these challenges, the company implemented the Industrial Pipeline Engine™, a comprehensive pipeline generation system designed specifically for industrial and manufacturing companies.

The strategy was built around one central idea: metal fabrication growth should not depend only on referrals, repeat customers, and occasional RFQs. The company needed a repeatable system for capturing active demand, identifying likely buyers, and staying visible with prospects throughout the sourcing process.

The Industrial Pipeline Engine™ combined high-intent PPC campaigns, targeted outbound prospecting, website visitor identification, and email nurture campaigns into a coordinated sales and marketing system.

The system included:

• Google PPC campaigns targeting high-intent metal fabrication and welding searches
• Outbound prospecting to procurement, sourcing, engineering, and operations contacts
• Website visitor identification to identify companies researching the business anonymously
• Automated email nurture campaigns to stay visible during longer industrial buying cycles
• Sales pipeline support to prioritize better-fit fabrication and contract manufacturing opportunities

1. High-Intent PPC Campaigns

Google Search campaigns were launched to capture engineers, procurement teams, and operations leaders actively searching for fabrication vendors.

Rather than targeting broad informational searches, the campaigns focused on keywords that suggested buying intent and vendor evaluation. This helped place the company in front of prospects who were already researching fabrication suppliers or preparing to submit RFQs.

Target search themes included:

• Custom metal fabrication company
• Structural steel fabrication services
• Industrial welding and fabrication services
• Laser cutting and fabrication shop
• OEM metal fabrication supplier
• Contract metal fabrication services

Visitors were directed to focused landing pages that presented the company’s fabrication capabilities, industry experience, and ability to support custom manufacturing requirements.

The goal was to turn high-intent search traffic into qualified RFQs, discovery calls, and sales conversations.

2. Targeted Outbound Prospecting

While PPC campaigns captured active search demand, targeted outbound prospecting helped the company reach manufacturers that matched its ideal customer profile but may not have been searching at that exact moment.

The prospecting strategy focused on companies likely to outsource fabrication work or require ongoing support for fabricated components, welded assemblies, and industrial equipment parts.

Target industries included:

• Construction equipment manufacturers
• Oil and gas equipment suppliers
• Agricultural machinery OEMs
• Industrial machinery manufacturers
• Material handling equipment companies
• Regional industrial contractors

Outreach was directed toward the roles most likely to influence vendor selection, including:

• Procurement managers
• Sourcing managers
• Engineering managers
• Operations leaders
• Manufacturing executives

This helped introduce the fabrication company to decision makers responsible for identifying and qualifying outside manufacturing partners.

It also helped the company move beyond passive referrals and begin creating conversations with prospects that had the potential to become long-term fabrication customers.

3. Website Visitor Identification

Many industrial buyers research suppliers quietly before submitting a form, calling sales, or issuing an RFQ. Website visitor identification helped reveal which companies were visiting the fabrication company’s website, even when individual visitors did not convert immediately.

This gave the sales team better visibility into account-level interest. If a manufacturer viewed fabrication capabilities, service pages, or RFQ-related content, the sales team could prioritize that company for follow-up.

This was especially useful in fabrication sales, where buyers often compare multiple vendors, review capabilities internally, and involve several stakeholders before making direct contact.

By identifying companies already showing interest, the sales team could focus time on prospects with stronger buying signals instead of relying only on cold outreach or waiting for inbound forms.

4. Email Nurture Campaigns

Because fabrication opportunities often involve longer evaluation cycles, automated email nurture campaigns were used to keep the company visible with prospects over time.

The nurture content reinforced the company’s capabilities, production strengths, industrial experience, and fit for OEM and custom fabrication projects.

This helped maintain awareness with engineers and procurement contacts who were not ready to issue an RFQ immediately but could become qualified opportunities later.

Rather than treating each inquiry or website visit as a one-time event, the system supported ongoing communication throughout vendor research, internal review, budget timing, and sourcing decisions.

5. Sales Pipeline Development

The combined strategy gave the company a more complete pipeline development system.

PPC captured active demand. Outbound prospecting created new conversations with target accounts. Visitor identification surfaced companies already researching the business. Email nurture helped keep prospects engaged until they were ready for a deeper sales conversation.

Together, these tactics helped the company shift from reactive business development to a more proactive, measurable, and repeatable system for generating manufacturing contract opportunities.

This gave leadership better visibility into future opportunity flow and helped the sales team focus on qualified buyers, better-fit accounts, and higher-value fabrication projects.

Results

Within several months of implementing the Industrial Pipeline Engine™, the fabrication company began seeing a noticeable improvement in the consistency of new project opportunities entering the pipeline.

Instead of waiting for occasional RFQs or referrals, the sales team began having regular conversations with manufacturers actively sourcing fabrication vendors.

On average, the program generated 10 qualified discovery meetings per month.

Over a typical 90-day industrial sales cycle, this resulted in approximately 30 qualified opportunities.

Historically, the fabrication company converted roughly 18% of qualified opportunities into awarded contracts. This translated to approximately 5.4 fabrication contracts per 90-day cycle.

With an average project value of approximately $75,000 per contract, the revenue impact was substantial.

Revenue Projection:

• 30 meetings × 18% close rate = 5.4 contracts
• 5.4 contracts × $75,000 average contract value = $405,000 in projected contract revenue per 90-day cycle

Once annualized, this represented approximately $1.2 million in projected new fabrication revenue.

Long-Term Impact

Beyond the immediate revenue generated, the most valuable outcome was the improvement in pipeline predictability.

The company was no longer relying only on repeat customers, referrals, and occasional RFQs to fill production capacity. It now had a more consistent system for identifying manufacturers that were either actively searching for fabrication services, researching potential vendors, or likely to need outsourced fabrication support.

This helped leadership reduce customer concentration risk, improve visibility into future workload, and support more confident production planning.

Once the system reached steady-state operation, leadership projected approximately $1.2 million in new fabrication revenue annually.

Many of these opportunities also had the potential to become long-term production relationships, creating recurring revenue beyond the initial awarded contracts.

Key Takeaway

For metal fabrication companies, growth often stalls when business development depends too heavily on referrals, legacy accounts, and unpredictable RFQ flow.

By implementing the Industrial Pipeline Engine™, this fabrication company created a more reliable way to capture high-intent search demand, identify target manufacturers, engage procurement and engineering contacts, and nurture prospects through the buying process.

The result was a stronger sales pipeline, more consistent conversations with qualified buyers, and a projected $1.2 million in annualized new manufacturing contract revenue.