How StoneHaven Built a $31M+ Program Pipeline for a Tier-One Aerospace Supplier

The company

A tier-one aerospace and defense supplier with strong incumbent relationships across existing programs. The kind of supplier that wins steadily once it is on a program, holds long-cycle contracts, and competes on engineering credibility rather than price.

The problem was everything happening before a program existed. They had no repeatable way to reach new OEMs and new program offices early. They surfaced only when an RFP dropped, by which point the field was usually already decided.

The challenge

In aerospace, the decision happens long before the RFP does. By the time a program office publishes a request for proposal, the shortlist is set and the relationships that matter were built months earlier. This supplier kept arriving at that moment as a stranger.

Two things were costing them new programs:

They were invisible until it was too late. New program offices did not know they existed. Outreach was relationship-driven and reactive, so they entered every new pursuit already behind the incumbents and warm contacts.

Their only channel put the brand at risk. All outreach ran off the primary corporate domain. Scaling cold outreach from that domain meant gambling brand reputation and email deliverability on volume the domain was never built to send. One spam-flag spiral could damage the address every existing customer relationship also depended on.

They needed to reach new OEMs early and at scale, without touching the domain their reputation was tied to.

The process

StoneHaven built a dedicated outreach engine that ran fully separate from the client's corporate domain, sized for aerospace's long sales cycles and compliance expectations.

1. Isolated sending infrastructure. StoneHaven stood up roughly 16 dedicated outreach domains, completely separated from the client's primary corporate domain. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC were configured and verified before a single email went out, protecting both brand reputation and deliverability. Inbox placement landed at 98%.

2. A diversified, resilient sending stack. Sending was spread across providers rather than concentrated on one: 50% primary enterprise mail provider, 30% private SMTP, 20% premium mail provider, provisioned for 100,000+ emails per month. Each inbox sent conservatively, with 50% of capacity held in warm reserve. The mix kept deliverability stable and removed single-provider risk.

3. A focused 120,000-contact aerospace TAM. StoneHaven built a total addressable market of 120,000 contacts mapped to the people who actually shape programs: program directors, engineering leads, and procurement executives at OEMs and tier-one suppliers. The full list was re-engaged every 90 days with fresh angles, so the client stayed in front of program offices across the long buying cycle rather than in a single burst.

4. A compliance-aligned sequence and reply filter. A 5-touch sequence carried qualification logic aligned to aerospace compliance requirements. A structured reply system sat on top of it and surfaced only program-level opportunities to the client's team, filtering out noise so business development time went only to real programs.

The results

Over six months, StoneHaven sent 600,000 emails (100,000 per month) into the aerospace TAM. The campaign returned a 2.4% reply rate and roughly 1,000 positive replies, which the reply filter narrowed to 42 qualified opportunities.

The pipeline impact:

• StoneHaven generated $31M+ in active program pipeline across four advanced aerospace programs.
• The campaign produced 42+ qualified OEM and aviation program opportunities.
• Qualified pipeline grew 3.1×, from a roughly $10M baseline to $31M.
• Average program size rose 43%, from $6M to $8.6M.
• RFP-release-to-award lead time fell 22%, from about 18 months to about 14 months.
• Dedicated infrastructure held 98% inbox placement across roughly 16 isolated domains.

The math holds end to end: 120,000 contacts across 5 touches equals 600,000 sends. $31M across $8.6M programs is about four programs. $31M against a $10M baseline is 3.1× growth.

Beyond the numbers

The bigger shift was timing. The supplier stopped meeting program offices at the RFP and started reaching them before one existed. Getting into the conversation 90 days earlier, repeatedly, is what pulled the RFP-to-award cycle down by 22% and pushed average program size up 43%.

It also de-risked their brand. Every cold email now ran on infrastructure built to send it, fully walled off from the corporate domain that carries their existing customer relationships. Growth and reputation stopped competing for the same address.

Methodology and data note

These figures come from real campaign and pipeline data for a single client engagement, anonymized for confidentiality. The client is described by size, sector, and scale rather than name. Metrics cover a six-month sending period at 100,000 emails per month, and pipeline figures reflect active, qualified program opportunities attributed to the campaign.

FAQ

How long did it take to see results?

Pipeline was built over a six-month engagement sending 100,000 emails per month. Because aerospace buying cycles run long, the value compounded over that window rather than spiking early. The RFP-to-award lead time itself dropped from about 18 months to about 14.

How much pipeline did it generate?

$31M+ in active program pipeline across four advanced aerospace programs, alongside 42+ qualified OEM and aviation program opportunities. That represented 3.1× growth over the client's roughly $10M baseline.

Does cold outreach actually work for aerospace and defense?

Yes, when it is built for the cycle. The qualification logic was aligned to aerospace compliance, the TAM targeted program directors, engineering leads, and procurement executives directly, and the list was re-engaged every 90 days to stay present across long decision timelines.

Doesn't high-volume outreach hurt the corporate brand?

Only if it runs on the wrong domain. StoneHaven sent everything from roughly 16 dedicated domains fully separated from the client's primary corporate domain, with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC verified before sending. Inbox placement held at 98% and the corporate domain was never exposed to outreach volume.

What did the sending setup look like?

A diversified stack of 50% primary enterprise mail provider, 30% private SMTP, and 20% premium mail provider, provisioned for 100,000+ emails per month, with 50% capacity held in warm reserve.