Growth & Strategy
Personas
Ecommerce
Time to ROI
Medium-term (3-6 months)
Last year, I watched a client burn through €3,000 on LinkedIn ads targeting B2B prospects. Three months later? Two lukewarm leads and a lot of frustration. That's when we completely shifted our approach to something that cost practically nothing but delivered partnerships that are still generating revenue today.
Here's the uncomfortable truth about B2B outreach for e-commerce: most businesses are throwing money at the wrong solutions. They're obsessing over paid channels while ignoring the distribution goldmine sitting right in front of them - manual validation and relationship building.
After working with dozens of e-commerce clients, I've discovered that the most effective B2B outreach happens when you stop treating it like e-commerce marketing and start treating it like what it actually is: service-based relationship building.
In this playbook, you'll learn:
Why manual outreach beats automated systems for e-commerce B2B
How to identify and validate demand before building anything
The cross-industry solution method that unlocks hidden opportunities
My exact framework for building partnerships that compound over time
How to turn failed experiments into relationship gold
This isn't another generic acquisition strategy. This is about building real business relationships that create sustainable growth without burning cash on ads that don't convert.
Industry Reality
What every e-commerce founder tries first
Walk into any e-commerce marketing meeting and you'll hear the same playbook repeated over and over. The industry has convinced everyone that B2B outreach follows the same rules as B2C marketing.
Here's what "the experts" typically recommend:
Scale with automation - Use tools like Apollo or Outreach to send hundreds of personalized emails
Optimize for volume - Cast a wide net, play the numbers game
Perfect your sequences - A/B test subject lines and follow-up cadence
Invest in data - Buy expensive prospect lists and company databases
Track everything - Measure open rates, click rates, response rates
This conventional wisdom exists because it's borrowed directly from SaaS and tech sales playbooks. The problem? E-commerce B2B outreach isn't SaaS sales.
When you're selling physical products or seeking partnerships for an online store, you're not just selling software with predictable use cases. You're dealing with inventory, seasonality, brand alignment, and completely different decision-making processes.
The failure rate of traditional outreach approaches in e-commerce isn't talked about enough. Most businesses see 1-2% response rates and assume that's normal. They keep throwing money at better tools, better data, better sequences.
But here's what I discovered: the problem isn't your process. The problem is you're playing the wrong game entirely.
Consider me as your business complice.
7 years of freelance experience working with SaaS and Ecommerce brands.
The breakthrough came when I was working with a Shopify client who had over 1,000 products but was struggling to find wholesale partners. They'd tried every outreach tool in the book - spent thousands on prospect lists, automated sequences, even hired a sales development rep.
The results? Abysmal. Six months of effort for three lukewarm conversations that led nowhere.
That's when I suggested something that made them uncomfortable: stop trying to scale and start doing things that don't scale. Instead of sending 500 automated emails, what if we manually researched 20 perfect prospects and created genuinely valuable interactions?
But here's where it gets interesting. While working on their wholesale outreach, I was simultaneously helping another client - a B2B SaaS - with their review collection process. They'd been manually reaching out for testimonials with terrible results.
I remembered how e-commerce businesses had solved this exact problem years ago with platforms like Trustpilot. The automation was aggressive, sure, but it converted like crazy because it was battle-tested.
That's when the lightbulb went off: What if successful solutions from one industry could solve problems in completely different industries?
This cross-pollination thinking became the foundation of my entire approach to B2B outreach. Instead of following e-commerce "best practices," I started looking at how other industries handled relationship building and partnership development.
The manual wholesale outreach taught me that personal, researched approaches worked. The cross-industry lesson taught me that proven systems from other fields often work better than industry-specific tactics.
This combination - manual validation plus cross-industry solutions - became my secret weapon for low-budget B2B outreach that actually works.
Here's my playbook
What I ended up doing and the results.
Here's the exact framework I developed after that breakthrough project. It goes against everything you've been taught about "scaling" outreach, but it works.
Phase 1: Demand Validation Through Manual Outreach
Before building any system, before buying any tools, before writing any sequences - you validate manually. I learned this from working with a client who wanted to build a two-sided marketplace. Instead of spending months building the platform, I convinced them to manually match supply and demand first.
For e-commerce B2B outreach, this means:
Research 10-15 ideal prospects by hand
Study their business challenges, not just their contact info
Reach out with genuine value, not sales pitches
Learn from every interaction
Phase 2: Cross-Industry Solution Mining
Once you understand the real problems your prospects face, look outside your industry for solutions. This is where the magic happens.
I've applied SaaS onboarding techniques to e-commerce customer journeys. I've used e-commerce review automation for B2B testimonial collection. I've taken newsletter strategies from media companies and applied them to product launches.
The key insight: Most businesses are so focused on their niche that they miss proven solutions from other industries.
Phase 3: Relationship-Based Distribution
Instead of treating outreach like a numbers game, treat it like relationship building. This came from observing how successful founders built their early customer base - not through mass outreach, but through genuine connections.
For one e-commerce client, instead of cold emailing 500 prospects, we:
Identified 20 businesses that perfectly matched their ideal partner profile
Researched each company's specific challenges and goals
Created custom partnership proposals that solved real problems
Followed up with value, not just sales pitches
Phase 4: The Compound Effect
Here's what happened that surprised everyone: these manual, relationship-focused approaches started compounding. Partners referred other partners. Prospects who didn't buy immediately became advocates. Failed outreach attempts turned into valuable learning and future opportunities.
This taught me that sustainable B2B outreach isn't about conversion rates - it's about relationship quality. When you focus on building genuine connections rather than optimizing email sequences, the entire dynamic changes.
Research Deep
Find 10 perfect prospects vs 1000 random ones. Quality research beats quantity every time.
Cross-Pollinate
Look at other industries for proven solutions. Your competitors aren't your only teachers.
Relationship First
Build connections before pitches. People buy from people they trust and like.
Compound Value
Manual efforts create exponential returns. Relationships refer relationships.
The results were dramatically different from traditional outreach approaches. Instead of 1-2% response rates, we consistently saw 40-60% response rates from our manual, researched outreach.
More importantly, the quality of responses was completely different. Instead of "not interested" auto-replies, we got genuine conversations about partnership opportunities, referrals to other potential partners, and valuable feedback about our approach.
For the Shopify client with 1,000+ products, this manual approach led to three wholesale partnerships within two months - partnerships that are still generating revenue 18 months later. The time investment? About 40 hours total across those two months.
Compare that to their previous six months of automated outreach: thousands of dollars spent, hundreds of hours invested, zero meaningful results.
But here's the unexpected outcome: the manual research and relationship-building process taught us things about the market that no amount of data could have revealed. We discovered new partnership opportunities, identified unmet needs in the market, and built a network of industry contacts that continues to provide value.
The cross-industry solution mining also paid dividends beyond just outreach. We applied learnings from other industries to improve their website conversion, customer retention, and even product development processes.
What I've learned and the mistakes I've made.
Sharing so you don't make them.
The biggest lesson? Stop trying to "hack" your way to success and start building real relationships. B2B outreach for e-commerce isn't about perfecting your email sequences - it's about understanding your market deeply enough to provide genuine value.
Top lessons learned from this approach:
Manual beats automated for relationship building - Automation scales transactions, not relationships
Cross-industry solutions often work better - Your industry's "best practices" might be limiting you
Research quality determines response quality - Generic outreach gets generic responses
Failure provides the best learning - Every "no" teaches you something valuable about your market
Relationships compound over time - Today's prospect might become tomorrow's partner or referral source
Value-first approaches differentiate automatically - Everyone else is pitching, you're helping
Time investment creates competitive moats - Manual research is harder to replicate than email sequences
When this approach works best: When you're building long-term partnerships rather than one-time transactions. When you have products that require relationship selling rather than impulse buying.
When to avoid this approach: When you need immediate volume and have proven conversion funnels. When your product truly benefits from wide-net approaches.
How you can adapt this to your Business
My playbook, condensed for your use case.
For your SaaS / Startup
For SaaS implementing this playbook:
Focus on partnership development over lead generation
Research integration opportunities with complementary tools
Build relationships with industry communities and thought leaders
For your Ecommerce store
For e-commerce stores implementing this playbook:
Identify wholesale and partnership opportunities through manual research
Look at B2B SaaS tactics for relationship building and apply to product partnerships
Focus on quality partnerships that can provide ongoing referrals