Lead Generation for Construction Companies

Smirnov Consulting Group books qualified meetings with main contractors, developers, procurement managers, project directors and engineering managers for construction contractors, subcontractors and construction product and service suppliers, using cold email and LinkedIn.

UK manufacturer of fall-protection equipment for construction sites: 200+ sales calls and 600+ leads over 2 years, from 24 countries.
Replies from companies such as AECOM, bp, Skanska, Doka, Altrad and Saipem.

Smirnov Consulting Group is a Prague-based B2B outbound lead generation agency that runs cold email and LinkedIn campaigns for founder-led B2B companies and books qualified sales calls. 12 years in outbound, hundreds of B2B companies, 24 countries.

Who this is for

Construction companies that sell to other construction companies, and want more of the right buyers to know them before the next project goes out to tender. They sell into the US, the UK and internationally, and they have delivered work or supplied products that a buyer can check.

The companies we see most:

Specialist subcontractors: scaffolding and access, formwork, temporary works, facades, groundworks, M&E, fire protection
Construction product manufacturers: site safety and fall-protection equipment, access systems, building products, temporary structures
Construction service suppliers: plant and equipment hire, surveying, testing and inspection, site services
Contractors that want to win work from developers and larger main contractors in a new region or a new country

The people who hire us:

The owner or managing director, who still wins most of the big accounts personally
The commercial director or sales director
The head of business development or the export manager, at companies selling abroad

The people we book into your calendar:

Procurement managers, buyers and supply chain managers at main contractors
Project directors, construction directors and project managers who choose what goes on their sites
Engineering managers and temporary works coordinators who approve methods and equipment
Heads of health and safety, where the product is about keeping people safe on site
Development directors at developers, and asset or facilities managers at owners who commission work

Why outbound is hard for construction companies

Your buyers are on site, not at a desk. A project director spends the day on site and in meetings. A long email about your company history does not get read between two site walks. A short message about one problem on their type of project sometimes does.

Buying runs through tenders, frameworks and approved supplier lists. Most main contractors buy from suppliers already on their list. If you meet a procurement manager for the first time when the tender is out, it is usually too late. The job of outbound here is to get known and pre-qualified before the next package is let.

Several people decide. The engineer specifies, the site team uses, procurement negotiates and the commercial manager signs. One contact per company is not enough. We reach several roles at each target company, so one person leaving or ignoring you does not end the conversation.

Sales cycles follow project pipelines. A contractor may like your product today and buy it on a project that starts next year. That is normal in construction, and it is why construction outbound is judged over quarters, not weeks.

Trade shows are expensive and seasonal. A stand at one big show costs a lot, and it meets the people who happened to walk past. Outbound reaches the exact companies and roles you choose, every month of the year, in every country you sell into.

Why LinkedIn and cold email work in construction

Project directors, procurement heads and engineering managers at contractors are on LinkedIn, and many of them check it on their phone between meetings. They look up who is writing to them before they reply, so the founder's or sales director's profile does part of the selling.

Cold email reaches the same people in their work inbox, where supplier questions and pre-qualification forms already arrive. Running both, from real people at your company, means a buyer sees your name twice in two channels, not ten times in one.

How we run outbound for a construction company

1. One product or service, one buyer segment. We start with one thing you sell and one type of buyer who needs it, for example edge protection for main contractors on high-rise residential work, or plant hire for groundworks contractors in one region. "We supply everything for every project" gives a procurement manager nothing to reply to.

2. Proof before volume. Before anything goes out, we look at you the way a contractor's procurement team would: your website, the LinkedIn profiles of the people who will send the messages, your project references, certifications and approvals, and product data sheets. A short video of the product being installed or the service being delivered often does more than a brochure. If the proof is missing, we build it with you first.

3. Lists built on company fit, not job titles alone. We build the list from 16+ B2B data tools, including Sales Navigator, Apollo, ZoomInfo and Clay. Then we check each target company against what it actually does, from its own website, so a list of "construction companies" becomes a list of the contractors that do the kind of work your product is for. After that we add several decision makers per company and verify every email, so bounces stay under half a percent.

4. LinkedIn and cold email, sent from real people. LinkedIn outreach runs from your founder's or sales team's profiles, with warm email follow-ups. Separate cold email campaigns run from dedicated domains we set up and monitor, on dedicated sending IP addresses that are separate even across your different domains. We handle SPF, DKIM and DMARC, warmup and monitoring. When a prospect replies in one channel, we stop the other one for that person, so nobody gets chased twice. No paid ads.

5. Qualified calls on your calendar. We answer the replies and check each prospect against your criteria: the type of project, the region, the timing of their next package and who else needs to be in the room. Then we book the call on Zoom, Microsoft Teams or phone with you or your estimating and sales team.

Compliance. Construction suppliers sell across borders, so one country's rules do not cover every campaign. Most of our campaigns target the USA, the UK and English-speaking Europe: CAN-SPAM applies to US buyers, UK GDPR and PECR to UK buyers, and CASL to Canadian ones. Business contacts only, a simple way to opt out in every email, and anyone who asks to stop is removed and not re-added. Your current clients, open tenders and anyone you name are excluded before launch. In Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, where business email needs prior consent, we do not send cold email without a compliant basis and use LinkedIn instead. This is how we work, not legal advice.

Case: UK manufacturer of construction fall-protection equipment, 200+ sales calls in 2 years

A UK manufacturer of fall-protection equipment for construction sites. Its products protect people working at height and catch falling debris on construction, industrial and energy sites.

What we did:

Chose the buyer segments where the product solves a daily problem: main contractors, scaffolding and access contractors, and industrial and energy contractors
Built target lists company by company, checking each company's own website to confirm it does the kind of work the product is for
Added several decision makers per company: project directors, operations and engineering managers, procurement, and health and safety leads
Ran LinkedIn outreach and cold email side by side, and paused LinkedIn for anyone who had already replied by email
Kept the campaigns running and the lists refreshed for 2 years, adding new countries and segments as the old ones were worked through

The results over 2 years:

Result	Number
Leads	600+
Sales calls	200+
Countries the leads came from	24

Replies came from companies such as AECOM, bp, Skanska, Doka, Altrad and Saipem, the kind of names a small manufacturer rarely reaches through referrals alone.

What the case shows: in construction, outbound is a long game. The calls are the start of a supplier relationship, and whether they turn into orders depends on project timing and on the client's own sales follow-up. We book the conversations; closing them is the client's job, and in this industry it can take many months.

Timeline and price

About 15 days from signed contract to launch: onboarding starts in the first week (usually one 60-minute call plus a few emails), then proof review, one product and one buyer segment, target list, copy, domains and inboxes.
First 30 days live: the first replies and booked calls.
After that: once a message and a list are working, we scale sideways: more countries, more buyer segments, more LinkedIn profiles and sending inboxes running the winning sequence.

Construction deals are slow. B2B sales cycles often run 6, 9 or 12 months, and in construction they follow the project pipeline, so a call booked in the first 30 days may turn into an order four months later or more, often on a project that has not started yet. Judge the first month on conversations, not on orders. That is why we recommend at least 3 months, and why about 6 months is the industry average for outbound to work fully.

Who runs your campaign. Senior people only: lead generation experts with a proven track record, GTM architects, GTM engineers and AI specialists. No interns, students or juniors write to your buyers' project directors. We keep a small number of clients so each gets full attention, and we take full responsibility for results. A senior team member is your day-to-day contact, and you have a direct line to Artem, the founder. You get a weekly and a monthly report, live notifications every day, and a client portal with live campaign data if you want one. Before you sign with any agency, ask for the names of the people who will write and send your messages, and look them up on LinkedIn. You can look up ours.

Price. From USD 3,000 (about EUR 2,500) per month, up to USD 10,000+ for companies that need more channels, markets or volume. The final number depends on scope, markets, volume and team size. The fee covers all our work: strategy, list building, copy, campaign setup, sending management, reply handling and reporting. Tools, sending domains, mailboxes and data are paid by you directly, because the right stack depends on your market and volume. If the foundations are missing, such as project case studies, an optimized website, LinkedIn profiles or a product video, a one-time setup fee may apply, agreed case by case. No minimum contract, one month's notice to cancel. On a 12-month engagement we also guarantee the results we agree with you up front (leads, pipeline and revenue targets): if we miss them, we refund the full fee you paid us. It works when both sides do their part: you reply to call-ready leads within 24 hours and take the calls, let the campaigns run without needless pauses, and stay in touch with us. Full terms are in the contract. Full details on the pricing page.

Not a fit if

You have no delivered projects, references or approvals to show yet. Outbound amplifies proof. It cannot create it.
You need orders this month to survive. Construction buying follows project timing, and outbound pays back over quarters.
Nobody on your side can follow up on calls, send quotes and go through supplier pre-qualification.
You only sell through public tenders, where direct contact with the buyer during the tender is restricted.
You want to sell every product to every trade at once. We start with one.

FAQ

How do construction companies get new clients without relying on referrals and trade shows?

Pick one product or service and one type of buyer you have already won work with, and go to the rest of that market directly. We build a list of contractors that look like your best customers, reach several decision makers at each one on LinkedIn and by email, and book calls with the ones who have a project coming up. Referrals and shows keep working; outbound adds buyers you would never have met.

Can outbound help a subcontractor or supplier get onto a main contractor's approved supplier list?

Yes, that is often the first real goal. Most main contractors buy from suppliers they already know, so the aim of the first call is usually a pre-qualification conversation, not an order. Once you are on the list, you are in front of the next package before it goes out.

Who should a construction product manufacturer contact at a main contractor?

More than one person. Procurement runs the supplier list, project directors and engineering managers decide what goes on site, and health and safety leads care about anything that protects people. We reach several of these roles per company and tell you who replied, so your sales team knows who to follow up with.

How long does outbound take to work in construction?

Launch takes about 15 days, and the first calls can come in the first 30 days. Orders take longer, because they follow project timing: a contractor may book a call now for a project that starts next year. Plan on at least 3 months for the campaign to settle, and judge revenue over a longer cycle.

Do you run outbound for construction companies selling into the US and other countries?

Yes. Most of our campaigns target the USA, the UK and English-speaking Europe, and we build a separate list and message for each country, because standards, approvals and buying habits differ. In Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic we use LinkedIn instead of cold email.

Outbound lead generation for construction companies