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Case studyAutonomous mobile robotsHardware and manufacturingSeries BNine months

$11.8M of US enterprise pipeline in nine months

A Series B autonomous mobile robot company from Germany entered a US market that had never heard its name. Every deal ran through the CEO's network. Codax built a signal-led growth engine that reached the whole buying committee inside US manufacturing plants.

$11.8M

Qualified US pipeline, from $0.6M

186

MQLs passed to sales

52

Opportunities accepted by sales

6 → 38

Meetings booked at MODEX

About the client

Autonomous mobile robot company

Robots that move materials inside manufacturing plants

The company builds autonomous mobile robots that carry materials between lines, stores and docks inside manufacturing plants, so forklifts come off the floor and every shift is covered without new hires. The robots run three shifts at two anchor plants, integrate with the major warehouse and manufacturing execution systems, and are sold on annual contracts per site. Every purchase is reviewed by operations, the plant, safety, IT and finance.

Proven on the floor

Live across three shifts at two plants, with measured throughput.

Built for the plant

Works with the WMS and MES platforms plants already run.

Sold per site

Annual contracts, so one plant win opens the next site in the group.

At a glance

A US market with no pipeline produced $11.8M of qualified opportunities

Before

A product proven at two plants in Europe. Every deal through the CEO's network. One marketer and a newly hired VP of Sales.

What we did

A signal-led motion into US plants. 420 accounts built from data, worked in pairs by the CEO and VP of Sales, backed by integrators, trade shows and anchor plant proof.

After

186 MQLs passed to sales and 52 accepted as qualified opportunities worth $11.8M. 28% of pipeline sourced through integrators.

Qualified US pipeline, USD

20x

In nine months

0.6M
Nine months before
11.8M
Nine months with Codax

01 The situation

A high-value committee purchase, and none of the US channels that reach that buyer

Robotics companies sell into the same conditions. This client met every one of them on the way into the US.

$120K+

A year per site, reviewed by five functions

5

Seats on every deal, each with a veto

$0.6M

US pipeline, all from the CEO's network

Exhibit 1. The conditions robotics companies are selling into

Investors want revenue, not demos

The next round goes to companies with repeatable enterprise revenue. A great robot is no longer enough.

The founder is still the sales team

Deals come through the founder's network, with a first sales leader just hired and no marketing team.

The buyer is a committee

Operations, the plant, EHS, IT and finance each hold a veto, and most meet the vendor too late.

Pilots stall before contract

A pilot operations loves is not a purchase. Without the rest of the committee, deals sit for months.

Trade shows carry the budget

MODEX, ProMat and Automate take much of the spend, and most booths leave with scans, not meetings.

Crossing into the US

European and Asian companies arrive with proof at home and no name, network or channel in the US.

The robot was proven. The US had never heard the name.

Two anchor plants willing to vouch, a VP of Sales with reach and a fresh round. None of it reached a US plant that had not already met the CEO.

Exhibit 2. Six gaps between a proven product and a US buyer

Outbound

No domains, sequences or verified list.

Never opened a US conversation

Account list

No researched list of US plants.

No way to work the market

Positioning

The site led with payload and navigation.

Plant managers found specs, not outcomes

Proof

No case study, video or ROI model.

Nothing to send between meetings

Trade shows

Booth booked, no pre-show outreach.

Six meetings, mostly with vendors

Committee

Finance, EHS and IT met it in month six.

Deals stalled after the pilot

The brief from leadership

Build a US pipeline the VP of Sales can run, measured on qualified opportunities accepted by sales. Do not touch what already works in Europe.

0

US channels at the start

9

Months to prove it

02 The approach

One team ran the US motion, and the client hired no one

Codax ran the whole function under one senior lead and asked for about five hours a week from the client.

The Codax team, under one accountable lead

  • Growth leadOwns qualified pipeline, runs the monthly review, sets priorities
  • Outbound leadAccount universe in Clay, signals, email and LinkedIn sequences, reply routing
  • Content leadFounder voice, case study, floor video, webinar
  • Partnerships and eventsIntegrator programme and trade show campaigns
  • Marketing operationsCRM, MQL routing and the dashboard

Exhibit 3. Five phases in sequence, each starting before the last ends

M1M2M3M4M5M6M7M8M9
1 Assess
2 Fix
3 Build
4 Test
5 Scale

Nothing is sent until the foundation can carry it. Nothing is scaled until a test has shown it converts.

03 The strategy

Reach the whole plant, with a reason, through people it already trusts

Four findings from the assessment set the plan. Every lost deal had stalled when finance or EHS arrived late, and the anchor plants never once mentioned payload.

An industrial robot arm in a bright white room
Plant managers buy outcomes: the third shift covered and forklifts off the floor.

01

Signal first

No account contacted without a live signal. Signals set the order of the list.

02

Two voices, one week

The CEO reaches operations, the VP of Sales reaches the plant manager.

03

The committee from day one

EHS, IT and finance get their own proof before the pilot.

04

Through the channel inside

Regional integrators introduce the company to plants they already serve.

Exhibit 4. A plant buys as a committee, so every seat got its own voice and its own proof

RoleWhat they care aboutWho reaches themProof they get
VP OperationsThroughput and labour coverThe CEO on LinkedInAnchor plant case study
Plant ManagerShifts covered and uptimeThe VP of Sales on LinkedInFloor video from the anchor plant
EHS LeadForklift traffic and incidentsEmail sequenceSafety and compliance brief
IT and OTFit with the WMS and MESIntroduced by the championIntegration brief
CFOPayback and capexIntroduced by the championROI model on the plant's own numbers

Why it worked

Plant buyers were hard to reach cold and slow to agree. Every seat reached with a reason, through trusted introductions, shortened the path to a qualified conversation. It started as a test and is now the standard motion for every US account.

3.5x

Replies from signal-led messages

5

Seats engaged from week one

04 The work

What was done, phase by phase

Five phases in sequence, each starting before the last ends. These are the decisions and results that mattered in each.

1

Assess

Weeks 1 to 3

Interviews with both anchor plants, the US pilot and four lost deals, with the foundation started alongside.

01

The committee was the bottleneck

Every lost deal stalled when finance or EHS arrived late. The motion had to reach five seats from the first week, not one.

02

Plant managers buy outcomes

The anchor plants talked about covering the third shift and taking forklifts off the floor, never payload.

03

Trust already sat inside the plants

Regional integrators serviced most target plants and were trusted there. A channel the company had never used.

04

Signals said when to call

Expansions, volume hiring and new operations leaders marked the plants with a reason to talk now.

2

Fix

Weeks 3 to 8

Six weeks of foundation, so every play had somewhere to land.

Positioning

Three plant outcomes: shifts covered without new hires, forklifts off the floor, payback inside 18 months.

Vertical pages

Food and beverage, automotive tier 1 and contract manufacturing, each led by the outcome it buys.

Proof assets

The anchor plant case study, a three minute floor video and an ROI model on the plant's own numbers.

Committee briefs

A safety and compliance brief for EHS and an integration brief for IT and OT.

Sending infrastructure

Secondary domains, mailboxes and authentication, warmed for four weeks before the first sequence.

CRM and definitions

Lifecycle stages, the MQL and the accepted opportunity in writing, routed to the VP of Sales.

3

Build

Weeks 6 to 14

Every account started as data. 2,900 US plants were found and scored from five sources, and 420 made the list sales signed off.

SourceWhat it told us
Expansion and capex newsPlants opening sites or adding lines
MODEX, ProMat, Pack Expo and Automate listsOperations teams shopping for automation
Industry associationsFull coverage of each target vertical
Job boardsVolume hiring of material handlers
Regional integrators and dealersPartners already inside the plants

2,900

US plants found, matched and scored

420

Plants on the target list, signed off by sales

Tier 1 · 80 accounts

Multi-site groups with a live signal, worked one to one with tailored content and founder outreach.

Tier 2 · 340 accounts

Single plants, worked in vertical clusters with signal-led sequences.

The sweet spot

150 to 2,000 employees, two or three shifts, manual forklift traffic, multi-site, and a live signal in the last 12 months.

Exhibit 5. No message went out without a reason to send it

SignalWhere it came fromHow it opened the conversation
New plant or lineExpansion newsStaffing the new line without more forklift traffic
Volume hiring of handlersJob boardsShift cover without the hiring cycle, with proof
New operations leaderLinkedInOne quick win on the plant floor in the first 90 days
Booked for a trade showEvent listsA meeting set before the show, not a booth scan
Integrator relationshipIntegrator partnersA warm introduction from someone the plant trusts

Pair outbound

Two verified contacts per account. Every plant heard from the founder and the sales leader in the same week.

Signal triggers

A new signal moves an account up the list and starts its sequence within 48 hours.

Committee threading

Once one seat engages, EHS, IT and finance get a note written to their role.

Integrator programme

Six regional integrators, with a margin on every site they source.

Anchor plant webinar

The CEO and the anchor plant's operations director on running three shifts.

Founder content

Two CEO posts a week from a monthly interview, with profile engagers fed to outbound.

7.4%

Outbound reply rate, from 2.1%

Week 10

First MQL

3.5x

Replies from signal-led messages

4

Test

Months 3 to 5

Each play ran as a four to six week test against one list, and budget followed the result. These are the winners, and how far ahead they finished.

Vertical

Food and beverage over automotive

2x meetings

Sender

The CEO's profile over an SDR

2.8x acceptances

Channel

Integrator introductions over cold

3x MQL rate

Trade show

Pre-booked meetings over walk-ups

4x conversations

Labour cover also beat safety as the lead message in every segment. Safety was kept for the EHS thread.

5

Scale

Months 5 to 9

From month five, capacity and budget moved to what had converted, and MODEX became one campaign run across every channel.

One campaign: MODEX

Six weeks of sequences to 160 accounts, CEO and VP of Sales posts on what they would show, integrators inviting their own plant customers, and every meeting booked before the doors opened. Follow-up within 48 hours.

38

Meetings booked before the show

21

MQLs passed to sales

$2.4M

Qualified pipeline attributed

Exhibit 6. One plant's path to an accepted opportunity, a food and beverage group

  1. Week 0

    Signal

    The group announces a third plant and posts 40 handler roles.

  2. Week 1

    LinkedIn

    The CEO reaches the VP Operations, opening with the expansion.

  3. Week 2

    Floor video

    The plant manager gets the anchor plant video from sales.

  4. Week 4

    Integrator

    The integrator already inside the plant puts the company forward.

  5. Week 6

    Webinar

    The VP attends the three-shift session and asks for the ROI model.

  6. Week 7

    Accepted

    Discovery call with sales. $640K across three sites.

6

Average touches before a plant became an MQL

7 in 10

Accepted opportunities touched by three or more channels

38 days

Median from first touch to MQL

Lead with food and beverage

Outbound capacity and budget moved to food and beverage and contract manufacturing.

Labour cover first

Every first touch opens on shift cover.

CEO as the operations voice

All outreach to operations leaders from the CEO's profile.

Integrators as a channel

Six partners signed and tracked as their own source.

Pre-book every show

A six-week pre-show campaign before every trade show on the calendar.

Briefs with every MQL

EHS, IT and finance briefs sent the moment an account becomes an MQL.

Industrial robot arms working along a production line

Capacity followed what converted.

From month five the plan stopped testing and started compounding. One vertical first, one voice to operations and integrators working as a channel of their own.

28%

Of pipeline sourced through integrators

54

Inbound demo requests, from 9

$11.8M

Qualified pipeline by month nine

05 The impact

$11.8M of qualified pipeline handed to sales in nine months, from $0.6M

Exhibit 7. Cumulative qualified pipeline, USD

0M3M6M9M12M0.4M1.3M2.6M4.4M6.5M9M11.8MM3M4M5M6M7M8M9

Reported from the CRM, reviewed with the VP of Sales at month nine.

Exhibit 8. From 420 target plants to 52 accepted opportunities

420

Target plants

Built from data and signed off by sales.

268

Plants engaged

Several interactions across the committee.

186

MQLs passed to sales

Sales accepts or returns every MQL within five working days.

52

Accepted by sales

A site, a problem worth solving and a timeline inside 12 months.

Exhibit 9. Nine months before, nine months with Codax, on the same dashboard

MeasureNine months beforeNine months with Codax
Qualified pipeline created$0.6M$11.8M
MQLs passed to sales9186
Sales accepted opportunities452
Target accounts engagedNot tracked268 of 420
Meetings with plant leaders1881
Meetings booked at the flagship trade show638
Outbound reply rate2.1%7.4%
Pipeline sourced through integrators0%28%
Inbound demo requests954

Exhibit 10. Outcomes arrived in the order the method predicts: foundation, engagement, then pipeline

  1. Month 1Assessment complete. Committee mapped. Sweet spot and MQL definition agreed with sales.
  2. Month 2Vertical pages, case study, floor video and ROI model live. 420 plants on the list.
  3. Month 3Pair outbound live under the CEO and VP of Sales. Tests start. First MQLs. Pipeline $0.4M.
  4. Month 4First integrator introductions. Anchor plant webinar. Pipeline $1.3M.
  5. Month 5Tests concluded. Capacity moved to food and beverage. Six integrators signed. Pipeline $2.6M.
  6. Month 6The MODEX campaign begins. Pipeline $4.4M.
  7. Month 738 meetings booked at MODEX. 21 MQLs from the show. Pipeline $6.5M.
  8. Month 8Integrators reach 28% of pipeline. Pre-booking set for every show. Pipeline $9.0M.
  9. Month 9186 MQLs passed and 52 accepted by sales. $11.8M of qualified pipeline.

What transfers

The anchor plants and the integrators were specific to this client. Everything else is the Codax method: an account universe built from data, a written sweet spot, the committee worked in pairs, a signal in every message, every play tested before it earns volume, and an MQL agreed with sales before the first message goes out.

Series A to C

Robotics companies selling into enterprise

0

Hires the client made to run it

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