If you’re running a small to medium manufacturing business, 2025 has likely thrown you a curveball. President Trump’s new tariffs—imposing a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico and a 10% tariff on Chinese goods as of March 2025, are shaking up the industry. For manufacturers, these tariffs mean higher costs for imported materials, components, and even labor in some cases.

According to the Tax Foundation, tariffs are the largest tax hike since 1982, adding an average of $1,900 per US household in 2025, and studies show they’ve already led to a net decrease in manufacturing employment due to rising input costs and retaliatory tariffs.

For your business, this could mean thinner margins, pressure to raise prices, and the risk of losing customers to competitors who absorb costs or find cheaper alternatives. But here’s the good news: you don’t have to pass these costs onto your customers.

At Techsho, we’ve helped small manufacturers grow their client base without increasing prices by using smart B2B lead generation strategies. In this ultimate guide, we’ll show you how to get more B2B leads in manufacturing using cost-effective tactics like cold email, LinkedIn outreach, and appointment setting. You’ll learn how to target decision-makers in supply chains, book more meetings, and grow your pipeline—all while keeping your costs in check. Let’s get started!

Why B2B Lead Generation is Critical for Manufacturers Facing Tariff Challenges

Trump’s tariffs are hitting small to medium manufacturers hard. A 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico threatens to disrupt supply chains, especially for businesses reliant on cross-border components like steel, aluminum, or automotive parts. The tariff on Chinese goods further increases costs for manufacturers outsourcing tasks or sourcing materials from China. According to a February 2020 study by economists Kyle Handley, Fariha Kamal, and Ryan Monarch, the 2018–2019 tariffs were equivalent to a 2% tariff on all US exports, and retaliatory tariffs from trading partners like China are already targeting $6 billion worth of American products, adding an estimated $1.6 billion in taxes.

For small manufacturers, this creates a perfect storm:

• Rising Input Costs: Tariffs on steel, aluminum, and Chinese components can increase production costs by 10-25%, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission.
• Pressure to Raise Prices: Higher costs tempt you to pass the burden to customers, but this risks losing business to competitors who don’t.
• Long Sales Cycles: Manufacturing deals often take months to close, so you need a steady pipeline of leads to maintain cash flow.
• Outsourcing Challenges: If you outsource tasks to countries like Mexico or China, tariffs make this more expensive, squeezing your margins further.

The solution? Focus on B2B lead generation to bring in more clients without raising prices. By targeting the right decision-makers and filling your pipeline with high-quality leads, you can increase revenue to offset tariff costs. Let’s explore how to do this within the budget.

Step 1: Target Decision-Makers in Your Ideal Industry

To generate leads without increasing costs, you need to go straight to the decision-makers who can say “yes” to your product or service—supply chain managers, procurement officers, and operations directors at companies with the ideal “buyer” profile. These people are feeling the tariff pinch too, and they’re looking for partners who can help them save money.

How to Find the Right Prospects

1. Use LinkedIn: Filter for relevant roles at companies in your ideal customer profile (ICP). Usually, you get the best results targeting by role, industry, pain and company size. Look for those posting about tariff-related challenges, like “struggling with rising steel costs.”
2. Industry Directories: Use industry-specific directories to find buyers and their key contacts. Many of these businesses are looking for ways to cut costs amid tariff increases.
3. Join Online Communities: Participate in relevant forums, Facebook groups, Reddit subs, X discussions or LinkedIn groups to connect with decision-makers discussing tariff impacts.

Build a Targeted Lead List

Create a spreadsheet with:

• Name
• Job Title
• Company Name / Website
• LinkedIn Profile
• Email Address (use tools like Hunter.io or Prospeo to find emails)
• Pain Point (e.g., “facing higher costs due to tariffs on Mexican components”)

Step 2: Use Cold Email to Offer Your Solution

Cold email is a democratic, high-impact way to reach decision-makers in various industries. With tariffs driving up costs, your emails should focus on how you can help them save money while maintaining quality. Avoid AI-generated or extra salesy/spammy scripts.

How to Write Cold Emails That Get Replies

1. Subject Line: You have 2 different strategies that works best: Highlight their pain point immediately in the subject line or just keep it “boring” like an internal email from their peers.

• Example: “Tariffs on Mexican Steel”
• Subject lines under 60 characters have a 24% higher open rate.

2. Personalize the Opener: Show you understand their business or did your research before reaching out. Focus on sincerity over flattery, mention specifically why you’re reaching out, and just be a human being. With all the AI automation nowadays, people just want to feel like they’re dealing with a real person.

• Use a conversational, genuine tone with simple, jargon-free language.
• Keep your emails short and sweet (between 50 to 125 words)

3. Address Their Pain Point: Focus on the cost factor, in this case.

• Example: “As we know, the x% tariff on {relevance} imports is increasing costs for small {industry} like {company}, forcing {pain point}.”

4. Slightly pitch your business: Write as if you’re having a one-on-one conversation with the recipient. This approach can help build rapport and make your emails more engaging. Avoid overly formal language and instead, use simple, friendly, and approachable wording.

5. Call to Action (CTA): For many industries, we don’t advise asking for a meeting right on the first email. However, this practice isn’t relevant for the manufacturing industry (since buyers are always looking for suppliers that can offer better rates or other benefits). Plus, you can still ask for clarification from the prospect.

Best Practices for Cold Email Success

• Send at Optimal Times: End-of-the-day emails (or calls) have the highest reply rates.
• Follow Up: If no reply, send a follow-up 3 days later. We recommend always trying different outreach channels (LinkedIn, for instance). The trick is not rely only on emails.
• Leverage Agency Expertise: Outbound is a highly technical and quite expensive customer acquisition strategy in 2025. For beginners, this means more money spent on failed campaigns that will most likely land on spam folders. If you’ve never done cold email campaigns successfully before, we recommend taking expert’s help. B2B Lead Generation and Appointment-Setting Agencies, such as Techsho, can generate high-quality leads and book meetings with ready-to-buy prospects every month to keep your pipeline full of opportunities.

Step 3: Leverage LinkedIn Outreach to Build Trust

LinkedIn is perfect for connecting with decision-makers (and professionals in general) who are worried about tariffs and real-life problems that affect businesses in your area. It’s a free way to build relationships and position your business as a trusted, cost-saving partner.

How to Use LinkedIn for Lead Generation

1. Optimize Your Profile: Make it clear what you do and what’s in for your clients.
2. Find Prospects with LinkedIn: Target your ICP by role, keyword, location, or filter companies that match your ICP through company search. You can also monitor posts, comments and see what people is talking about to personalize your message.
3. Engage Before Pitching: Comment on their posts to build rapport. For example, if someone is complaning about a pain that you can solve, reply to the comment with an insight followed by a subtle pitch/case study that worked for you.
4. Send a Connection Request: We recommend sending an empty connection request for higher chances of accepting. When the person accepts your connection, wait for a few hours before messaging them. Don’t forget to build rapport and network before pitching!

Real Result: 86PCB subscribed to Techsho’s lead generation services and got 8 meetings booked in 2 weeks only through LinkedIn alone, landing a $10K deal with a regional supplier.

Step 4: Book More Meetings with Appointment Setting

Appointment setting is a cost-effective way to turn leads into meetings, especially for businesses who can’t afford to raise prices. It’s all about getting decision-makers on a call to discuss how you can help them.

How to Set Appointments with B2B Decision-Makers

• Qualify Leads First:

Focus on leads who are struggling with challenges you solve. Use this framework:

1. Budget: Can they afford your solution?
2. Authority: Are they a decision-maker or someone with “influencing” power?
3. Need: Are tariffs increasing their costs?
4. Timing: Are they looking for solutions now? (qualify through questions on cold calls, LinkedIn or your first email).

• Make it easy for the prospect to reply:

Although short, your message should be easy to understand and full in value proposition. The goal is to get the prospect curious enough to start a conversation.

If no response after 2 emails, follow up with some kind of value that will “oblige” the prospect to reply. This could be an useful resource, a video, a free tool, anything that can potentially add value or facilitate their tasks.

Why Choose Techsho for B2B Lead Generation in Manufacturing?

Techsho provides a real solution for B2B lead generation and appointment-setting that starts at just $499—significantly less than the tough choice of raising your prices or watching customers walk away.

Imagine booking 20+ meetings every month with the right decision-makers. That’s what we’ve done for many B2B business in manufacturing and other industries, opening doors to new opportunities and potentially finding ways to save.

Our team specializes in helping manufacturing companies navigate buyer acquisition through targeted cold email campaigns, cold calling, strategic LinkedIn outreach, and sales pipeline development. Think of us as your partner in growth.