Lead Sourcing¶
The call center is responsible for sourcing the majority of its own leads. Airwai and Ergis will passively feed leads (inbound from the website, conferences, demand-gen) but the call center should not rely on the passive feed.
This file is the operating manual for building a pipeline from scratch.
Sourcing principle¶
Every persona has a public footprint. Find them where they already are, on the channel where they already operate, with the language they already use. Cold-blasting random LinkedIn lists is wasteful. Targeted sourcing is the difference between 0.5% and 5% conversion.
Per-persona sourcing playbook¶
Maya — Municipal Pavement Inspector¶
| Channel | Search approach | Volume estimate |
|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn Sales Navigator | Title contains: Pavement Inspector OR Asset Management Coordinator OR Public Works Inspector. Company type: Government Agency. Geo: US + UK + select EU. | ~8,000 |
| APWA member directory | American Public Works Association member directory (publicly searchable) | ~12,000 (US public works professionals; subset are pavement inspectors) |
| State DOT staff directories | Most state DOTs publish staff phone directories with titles. Crawl every state's pavement-management section. | ~5,000 |
| TRB (Transportation Research Board) committee rosters | Public; lists active researchers and practitioners. | ~3,000 |
| AASHTO subcommittee rosters | Public; pavement subcommittee members. | ~500 |
| EU equivalents | Highways England (UK), Rijkswaterstaat (NL), Trafikverket (SE), ASFINAG (AT), Strassenverwaltung (DE state highway authorities). LinkedIn + agency directories. | ~3,000 |
Daniel — AEC Field Engineer¶
| Channel | Search approach |
|---|---|
| LinkedIn Sales Navigator | Title: Civil Engineer OR Transportation Engineer OR Project Engineer. Company: AEC firm name list (mid-size, 10–500 person). Industry: Civil Engineering, Construction. |
| AEC firm name list | Curate a list of 1,500 mid-size AEC firms (US + UK + EU). Top US sources: Engineering News-Record top 500. Top EU: Top 200 European engineering firms (ENR Europe). |
| NCEES PE database | Public registry of licensed Professional Engineers in the US. Searchable by state. Lists practice areas. |
| ASCE member directory | American Society of Civil Engineers — paid access, but a research investment worth making for one seat. |
| AEC trade conferences | TRB Annual (Jan, DC), ASCE Annual (Oct, varies), WTS Annual, AAAE airfield-pavement track, GeoBuiz (international AEC trade show). |
| ENR top 500 contractors / designers | Engineering News-Record publishes the top 500 contractors and top 500 design firms in the US. Cross-reference with LinkedIn. |
| EU equivalents | Arcadis (NL), Royal HaskoningDHV (NL), Sweco (SE), Ramboll (DK), AECOM Europe, WSP Europe, Atkins (UK / Australia). |
Sarah — ADA / PROWAG Consultant¶
| Channel | Search approach |
|---|---|
| Title: ADA Consultant OR Accessibility Specialist OR PROWAG Auditor. Industry: Civil Engineering OR Consulting. | |
| ADAAA-affiliated consultants | List of consultants registered with the ADA National Network (publicly searchable). |
| State DOT ADA coordinators | Each state DOT has a named ADA coordinator. List is public. |
| ICC (International Code Council) accessibility committee rosters | Public membership rosters. |
| Willits-class case lists | Lawsuits and consent decrees publish the consultants and monitors who served them. Useful for both direct outreach and as a credibility marker. |
| EU accessibility consultants | Specialty firms emerging post-EU Accessibility Act. Search "accessibility audit consultant" in target EU markets. |
James — Airport Operations Manager¶
| Channel | Search approach |
|---|---|
| Title: Airfield Operations Manager OR Director of Airfield Operations OR Part 139 Compliance Officer. Industry: Airlines/Aviation. | |
| AAAE membership directory | American Association of Airport Executives. Paid membership but the directory is the highest-value list for this persona. |
| FAA Form 5010 airport master record | Public registry of every Part 139 airport with contact info. ~500 commercial-service airports in the US. |
| ACRP project participants | Airport Cooperative Research Program publishes researcher / participant rosters. |
| Regional airport authorities | Many states / regions have multi-airport authorities (e.g., Massport, Port Authority of NY/NJ, Greater Toronto Airports Authority). These are mid-size customers; small-airport tenants are the entry point. |
| EU airports | EUROCONTROL list of European airports; ACI Europe member directory. |
| General aviation airports | NBAA (National Business Aviation Association) airport directories. |
Carmen — Industrial Facility Manager¶
| Channel | Search approach |
|---|---|
| Title: Facility Manager OR Operations Manager OR Warehouse Manager OR EH&S Manager. Industry: Warehousing, Logistics, Manufacturing, Real Estate. | |
| IWLA | International Warehouse Logistics Association membership directory. |
| NAIOP industrial committee | National Association for Industrial and Office Parks; member directory. |
| REIT investor relations pages | Industrial REITs (Prologis, Duke Realty, Rexford Industrial, Stag Industrial, Segro in EU) publish facility-manager contacts at their largest sites. |
| 3PL company lists | Top 100 third-party logistics providers (Inbound Logistics annual list). |
| Premises-liability insurance brokers | Insurance brokers and loss-control consultants often refer industrial accounts. Build relationships with brokers as a referral channel. |
Cross-channel sourcing tactics¶
Conference + trade show extraction¶
Pull attendee / speaker lists from: - TRB Annual Meeting (Jan, DC) — gold-standard list for Maya + Daniel - AAAE Annual (May) — gold-standard for James - IWCE / FacilitiesNet / NFMT — Carmen - ICC Annual + state IAEC events — Sarah - ENR FutureTech, ACEC Annual — Daniel
LinkedIn engagement (warm-up before cold outreach)¶
For target prospects: 1. Follow them 2. Like a recent post (something work-related, not personal) 3. Comment thoughtfully on a relevant post within 48 hours 4. Send connection request 3–5 days later with a personalized note 5. After connection accepted, wait 7 days before sending a soft pitch DM
Skip the engagement warm-up only for highest-volume cold outreach where individual personalization isn't economic.
Email-finding tools¶
- Hunter.io, Apollo.io, RocketReach for finding work emails from LinkedIn profiles
- Validate every email before sending (NeverBounce, ZeroBounce) to keep deliverability above 95%
Account-based prospecting¶
For larger AEC firms (Persona 2) — pick 50–100 named firms, find every relevant person at each firm, and run a coordinated multi-touch sequence across all of them. This is how a single firm becomes a Team-tier sale of 5–15 seats.
Sourcing volume targets¶
To hit the 1,200-paying-user year-1 floor at a realistic 2% conversion rate, the pipeline math is:
| Stage | Conversion | Volume needed (year 1) |
|---|---|---|
| Sourced prospects (cold lead pool) | — | 60,000 |
| Engaged (opened email / accepted LI request) | 25% | 15,000 |
| Booked discovery call | 8% of engaged | 1,200 |
| Demoed product | 70% of called | 840 |
| Free / Trial signup | 65% of demoed | 546 |
| Converted to paid | 40% of trialed | 218 |
Wait — that's not 1,200 paying. Let me reconcile. The 1,200 target assumes a higher conversion rate than this base case. If the conversion from sourced to paid is 2% (which is the high end for cold outbound), 60,000 sourced gets you 1,200 paid. The funnel above is more conservative. You will likely need to source 100,000–150,000 prospects in year 1 to hit the 1,200 target with confidence.
That sounds like a lot. It is. It is also why the call center is being engaged in the first place — Airwai can't sustain that sourcing volume internally.
Inbound + passive lead handling¶
Airwai's website (airwai.com) and docs.airwai.com generate inbound leads — book-a-demo requests, contact form submissions, free-tier signups who downloaded the app. These will be routed to the call center via HubSpot.
| Inbound source | Expected volume (year 1) | Quality |
|---|---|---|
| Free-tier signup with no purchase intent yet | 200–500/month | Variable — most need nurture |
| "Book a demo" form | 30–80/month | High — qualified, expecting outreach |
| Contact form | 20–50/month | Variable |
| Esri co-marketing referral | 10–30/month | High — pre-qualified |
| Conference / event leads (Airwai-attended) | Variable | Medium-high |
| Conference / event leads (Ergis-attended) | Variable | Owned by Ergis |
Treat inbound as cream-on-top, not the primary motion. The primary motion is your sourced outbound.
Restricted / off-limits lead sources¶
Do not source leads from:
- Federal procurement databases (SAM.gov, etc.) — federal procurement is Airwai's lane; escalate
- Existing Airwai customers (the active customer list) — Airwai owns these accounts
- Existing Airwai pipeline (named accounts on the Investor Tracker / Pipeline) — these are Airwai-owned; ask before approaching
- Purchased B2B email lists of unverified origin — high deliverability risk + violates GDPR / CCPA in many cases
- Scraped employee directories from non-public sources — legally risky
The Airwai-owned accounts list is maintained in HubSpot. When in doubt, search HubSpot first; if the account is owned, route to Airwai before approaching.