The list is not the work. Almost everybody who builds a buyer list stalls here, because a list is private and outreach is not. The first unanswered email feels like a verdict, and the easiest way to avoid that feeling is to keep improving the list instead of using it.

Outreach is also the only step in this domain that you fully control. You cannot make a buyer say yes. You can decide that twenty of them will have heard from you by the end of the month, and that decision is what produces every order further down this route.

Have your line sheet finished and saved as a PDF. Outreach without a line sheet generates a second email asking for prices, and that second email is where momentum dies.

Know your three numbers cold: minimum order, lead time, wholesale price. You will be asked for all three, sometimes in the first reply.

Set your expectations before you start rather than after. Plan on most of the twenty never replying, several saying no, a few turning into real conversations, and one or two becoming orders. Judged against twenty that is a good month. Judged against five it is a disaster, which is why the list is twenty.