Complete Guide to Manufacturer Lead Generation using Lobstr.io

Last week, a manufacturer messaged me asking how to use Lobstr.io to find buyers.

At first, I thought this would be easy. There should be clear guides already… It's a common problem.

Then I looked.

The search results are full of generic GPT generated guides and ridiculously expensive services offering you outdated, pre-built lead lists.

So here I come to your rescue!!!

In this guide I'll walk you through the only 2 platforms you really need high quality leads… Google Maps for local buyers and Sales Navigator for bigger buyers.

And I’ll use Lobstr.io to collect leads data cleanly and enrich it with verified contact information affordably and at scale.

So let’s start with the basics…

What is manufacturer lead generation?

It’s basically about identifying B2B buyers. Companies with real demand. Decision makers with authority to say yes.

The goal is simple.

1. Find the right companies
2. Find the right decision makers inside those companies
3. Get their verified contact details

But how to do lead generation?

How to get customers as a manufacturer using lead generation?

Broadly, there are two ways to get customers.

1. Inbound
2. Outbound

Inbound pulls buyers to you with content, SEO, ads, referrals... all the slow-burn stuff.

Outbound is the direct approach. You pick who you want and you reach out first.

I’ve already explained both in detail along with the best inbound and outbound strategies in this article:

But what am I going to cover?

Well… Inbound has a million guides online. But they all rely on the same slow idea. You create content, you wait for rankings, and you hope buyers eventually find you.

It works and is actually the best long term strategy, but it works on its own schedule, not yours.

Outbound, on the other hand, is quick because you start the conversation.

You don’t wait for demand... you go straight to the companies that already buy what you make.

So I’m focusing on outbound lead generation.

But what am I gonna talk about? 🤔

Strategies? Nope. Already got them covered here.

As the heading says… I’m covering how to actually “find the customers” as a manufacturer.

This guide solely focuses on collecting leads.

But what does a lead mean for a manufacturer?

What does a lead mean for a manufacturer?

In manufacturing lead generation, a “lead” depends on who you’re trying to sell to.

If you’re targeting local businesses, a lead is basically the business itself.

Most of the time the business contact information you get is of the owner's, which means, you’re reaching the decision maker by default.

So just finding the business info and contact details is usually enough to start your outreach.

But if you’re going after bigger buyers, there is a twist.

Medium and large companies don’t route purchasing through generic contact info. You don’t reach the right person unless you intentionally look for them.

At this level, a lead isn’t just a company… it’s the company plus the decision maker who handles purchasing.

So the definition shifts with your target:

1. Local buyers… company-level info is enough.
2. Bigger buyers… you need the company and the person who can actually approve the deal.

But how do you actually find these leads?

Let’s start with the simplest one… local business leads. The best source of finding local business leads for your manufacturing business is… Google Maps!

How to use Google Maps for manufacturer lead generation?

Google Maps is the biggest source of local business data on the planet with over 200 million businesses listed in 5000+ business categories.

If you want small businesses or local buyers, this is the first place you look.

For manufacturers specially, it literally has most business listings in categories like:

1. Retail stores
2. Contractors
3. Installers
4. Local service companies
5. Repair shops
6. Distributors
7. Small facilities
8. Niche operators tied to your product

OK I know you’re thinking I’m gonna say “manual data collection is hard… blah blah blah…”.

Nope! I know you’re smart, you’ll find some automated way to collect it.

But there are a few problems.

1. Google often returns results from mismatched locations
2. Similarly, you’ll often see mismatched categories too
3. And each search only gives you only a few hundred listings

That’s where Lobstr.io makes your life easier.

Using Lobstr.io to collect Google Maps data

Features

1. Target by category/query and precise location parameters
2. Go as broad as a whole country and as precise as a single zip code
3. 50+ meaningful data points from each listing
4. Includes contact details (phone and email), social links, and website
5. Built-in email validation system
6. Accuracy filters for geo mismatch and category mismatch
7. Reviews scraper to collect 30+ meaningful data points per review
8. Scheduling feature for automated data collection
9. API for integrations in workflow tools and your own apps

Data

+------------------------------+------------------------------+--------------------------------+------------------------+

|  🎯 MATCHING ACCURACY        |  🏷️ BUSINESS IDENTITY        |  📍 LOCATION DETAILS           |  ☎️ CONTACT             |

+------------------------------+------------------------------+--------------------------------+------------------------+

| • Match filters              | • Name 🏷️                    | • Street address 🏡            | • Phone 📞             |

| • No match reasons           | • Category                    | • Address                      | • Email ✉️             |

|                              | • Description                 | • City                         | • Email status         |

|                              | • Website 🌐                 | • Region                       | • Email verified at    |

|                              | • Facebook 📘                | • Zip code                     |                        |

|                              | • Instagram 📸               | • Country name                 |                        |

|                              | • Booking link 📅            | • Country code                 |                        |

|                              | • Menu 📄                    | • Lat                          |                        |

|                              |                              | • Lng                          |                        |

|                              |                              | • Plus code ➕                  |                        |

|                              |                              | • Main image URL 🖼️            |                        |

|                              |                              | • Images count 📷              |                        |

|                              |                              | • Image links 🔗               |                        |

+------------------------------+------------------------------+--------------------------------+------------------------+

+------------------------------+------------------------------+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+

|  🧩 BUSINESS METADATA        |  ⭐ RATINGS SUMMARY           |  🗺️ MAPS SOURCE DATA          |  📝 REVIEW IDENTITY            |

+------------------------------+------------------------------+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+

| • Opening hours 🕒           | • Score                      | • URL 🔗                      | • Review link 🔗              |

| • Hours updated at 🔄        | • Ratings total              | • POI                         | • Internal review ID          |

| • Popular times 📈           | • Reviews per score 1         | • Place ID                    | • Text 📝                     |

| • Price 💲                   | • Reviews per score 2         | • CID                         | • Pictures 📸                 |

| • Temporarily closed 🚧      | • Reviews per score 3         | • Result position             | • Review score                |

| • Permanently closed ❌      | • Reviews per score 4         |                               | • Published datetime 📅       |

| • Has owner 👤               | • Reviews per score 5         |                               | • Modified at                 |

| • Health 🏥                  |                              |                               | • Modified datetime           |

|                              |                              |                               | • Is modified                |

|                              |                              |                               | • Total likes ❤️              |

|                              |                              |                               | • Language 🌐                |

|                              |                              |                               | • Origin 🌍                  |

+------------------------------+------------------------------+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+

+------------------------------+------------------------------+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+

|  👤 REVIEWER IDENTITY        |  🍽️ REVIEW CONTEXT           |  🍔 SUB RATINGS               |  🏛️ PLACE METADATA            |

+------------------------------+------------------------------+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+

| • User name                  | • Recommended dishes 🍛      | • Service                     | • Place name                  |

| • User link 🔗              | • Veg friendly 🥗            | • Food                        | • Place address               |

| • User internal ID          | • Meal type 🍽️              | • Atmosphere                  | • Place ID                    |

| • User reviews count        | • Group size 👥              |                               | • CID                         |

| • User image URL 🖼️         | • Noise level 🔊             |                               | • Place avg score             |

| • Local guide badge 🎖️      | • Price per person 💵        |                               | • Total reviews               |

|                              | • Wait time ⏱️               |                               |                               |

+------------------------------+------------------------------+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+
f

Pricing

1. Starts at $3 per 1000 leads with verified emails
2. At scale, drops to $2 per 1000 leads with verified emails

How to collect leads from Google Maps using Lobstr.io?

For this guide, we’ll keep it simple. You only need 3 very simple steps:

1. Create Squid
2. Lock target
3. Launch

1. Create Squid

Log in to your Lobstr.io dashboard and:

1. Click New Squid
2. Search Google Maps
3. Select Google Maps Search Export

That’s it. Your Squid is ready.

2. Lock your target

1. Category
2. Country
3. Region
4. District
5. City

In Category, you can search and choose Google business categories or just use your own keyword.

In Region, District, and City, you can go broad or extremely precise. You can pick states, cities, neighborhoods, and even zip codes.

For example, If I need to find industrial equipment suppliers in Houston, Texas, I just enter my keyword and set the location. Done.

But it’s not necessary for our use case.

3. Launch

You can leave the tab or even turn off your computer. Once all leads are collected, you’ll get an email notification.

And that’s it.

As I said earlier, you can also collect Google reviews using Lobstr.io. To do that, simply create a Squid of Google Reviews Scraper.

To enrich your leads with reviews data, you can upload the listing URLs from your Google Maps Search Export results sheet to this Google Reviews Scraper Squid.

1. Copy the URL column
2. Save it as a TXT file
3. In add task tab of reviews scraper, select upload task
4. Upload that TXT file

The rest of the process is the same as collecting leads from Google Maps.

But since Lobstr.io is a scraper and will collect results in real time, this is indeed going to take some time.

What if I need leads instantly?

Spherescout is built specifically for people targeting small and local businesses. You can:

1. Access to clean and targeted local business leads from Google Maps
2. Filter by country, state, city, business category, and available contact data
3. Export leads with emails, phone numbers, websites, and social links

Here’s a full guide on how to use Spherscout for lead generation:

But what if I need decision makers data too?

Google Maps only offers you company-level leads not person-level lead data.

Yes, you can use data enrichment tools to find those decision makers, but it gets expensive fast and it doesn’t always work.

So the real question becomes… is there a platform where you can find both the company and the decision maker together?

That’s where LinkedIn comes in. It has 69+ million companies, and LinkedIn Sales Navigator lets you find the ones you want to target..

How to use LinkedIn Sales Navigator for manufacturer lead generation?

Sales Navigator is LinkedIn’s advanced search tool for finding companies and decision makers.

You can use it to filter leads by industry, company size, geography, job title, department, and seniority, and much more.

I already explained its features and pricing here:

Key features include:

1. 50+ advanced search filters to find leads
2. Personalized lead recommendations
3. Visually map decision-makers and stakeholders
4. Lead and account lists to organize prospects
5. Sales insights like buyer intent signals

To find leads for your manufacturing business, you can use industry, company size, location, and roles filters and find decision makers in your targeted companies.

How to find leads using LinkedIn Sales Navigator?

You can use Sales Navigator leads search to set your target and find decision makers.

There are mainly 3 types of filters in SN lead search you can use to find leads:

1. Company
2. Role
3. Personal

In company filters, you can find leads by current or past company name, headcount, location, and company type.

In role filters, you can sort leads by their function, seniority, current and past job titles, and year in job title and company.

In personal filters, you can further narrow down leads by geography, industry, experience, and educational background.

I have explained all these filters and how to use them effectively in my Sales Navigator tutorial:

For example, I’m trying to find procurement, purchase, supply chain, and operations managers in Oil & Gas companies having up to 50 employees, based in Houston.

But, we have a problem…

Sales Navigator just shows you these leads, you can’t export them into an Excel spreadsheet.

And that’s exactly why you’ll need Lobstr.io’s Sales Navigator Leads Scraper.

How to collect Sales Navigator leads using Lobstr.io?

This one not only scrapes leads from Sales Nav, but also enriches them with verified contact details (email and phone number).

Features

1. Export all leads from Sales Navigator in a few clicks
2. Export 40+ meaningful data points about each lead
3. Enrich leads with verified emails and phone numbers
4. Filters to identify industry and company filters mismatch
5. Export to Google Sheets, CSV, S3
6. And all other features I mentioned in Google Maps Search Export

Data

+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+

|  👤 PERSON DETAILS             |  🧑‍💼 POSITION & CAREER INFO      |  🎓 PROFILE / CONNECTIONS       |  🏢 COMPANY DETAILS             |

+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+

| • Full name 🏷️                | • Position                      | • Connection degree 🔗         | • Company name 🏢              |

| • LinkedIn profile URL 🔗     | • Headline                      | • Is premium 💎                 | • Company description 📝       |

| • Sales Nav profile URL 🔗    | • Seniority                     | • Is saved ⭐                    | • Company domain 🌐            |

| • Person ID 🆔                | • Is open to work               | • Picture URL 🖼️               | • Company location 📍          |

| • Location 📍                 | • Started on (current role) 📅 |                                | • Company ID 🆔               |

|                               | • Time in position      |                                |                                |

|                               | • Time in company       |                                |                                |

+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+

+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+

|  🏭 COMPANY INFORMATION         |  💼 COMPANY STRUCTURE           |  🌐 COMPANY PRESENCE            |  🎯 ACCURACY                   |

+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+

| • Company type                 | • Employee count 👥            | • Company LinkedIn URL 🔗      | • Match filters                |

| • Company industry             | • Employee count range          | • Company profile picture 🖼️   | • No match reason             |

| • Company specialties 💡       | • Founded year 📅               |                                |                                |

| • Company revenue range 💵     | • Current job numbers           |                                |                                |

+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+--------------------------------+
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Pricing

1. Starts at $8.3 per 1000 leads with verified emails
2. At scale, drops to $5 per 1000 leads with verified emails

How to use it?

There’s just 1 extra step required and that is account sync. You’ll have to install Lobstr.io’s Chrome extension and it handles account sync for you.

Everything else is exactly the same as other scrapers. You create a Squid, add Sales Nav search URLs, tweak settings, and launch.

I have published a step by step, detailed tutorial on how to collect leads from Sales Navigator for you.

And that’s it. Before wrapping up, let me answer some FAQs.

FAQs

What is the best way to find manufacturing companies to find new work and customers?

You can literally reverse the process. This guide was focused on finding leads for manufacturers.

But you can use the same tools to find manufacturers too, especially LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a great way to get qualified leads in the Manufacturing industry.

Conclusion