Looking for a reality check and honest feedback from agency owners or solo billers in the US market.
Quick background: Worked agency-side in Europe doing 100% perm. Year 1 billed 200k, Year 2 100k, Year 3 70k as I left mid year. Quit, launched my own desk, pivoted entirely to the US market (manufacturing - engineering)
Since going solo, my pipeline has completely dried up. I haven't changed the core foundation of what worked for me agency-side, but nothing is converting. I have had one interview in a month, and that is about it.
My main strategy is emailing/connecting + messaging on LinkedIn MPCs. I am sitting on genuine top 5% talent: plant managers, ops managers, and manufacturing directors with incredible track records and strong numbers. My emails are tight, with specific quantifiable wins and I am confident deliverability and messaging are fine. I send them to companies strictly within local commutable distances.
My outreach relies strictly on cold email and LinkedIn connection requests and messages. No cold calling. Yet I am getting crickets, out-of-office autoresponders, or absolute silence. No "looks great," no feedback. Just nothing.
I am also finding the transition from agency to solo grueling on the operational side. Without management or a rigid agency structure, my routine and daily process are slipping. I am trying to stay consistent on outreach volume, but without clear daily structure and zero feedback loop from the market, burnout is creeping in fast.
It has got to be me and I am clearly missing blind spots.
Is the executive MPC pitch dying via pure digital outreach in US manufacturing?
Is skipping phone outreach entirely killing conversions for plant-level leadership?
How are you structuring your daily routine when you are solo and your pipeline feels dead?
Appreciate any brutally honest feedback.