Lead generation for economic development
The outreach engine behind your attraction strategy.
Propel Development is a lead generation partner to economic development organizations. We do the prospecting, the outreach, and the scheduling, so your business development team spends its time in the conversations that actually move projects.
Partnering with
- REDI Cincinnati
- Team NEO
- Shreveport Next
- NW Florida
Most economic development teams do not have a lead generation problem. They have a capacity problem. The list gets built, the first emails go out, and then a site visit, a board meeting, and an RFI eat the week.
We are the part of the process that never stops. Propel works as a dedicated extension of your business development team, running consistent, well-researched outreach to the companies that fit your region, and handing you the conversations that come back.
Our roots are in economic development. We know what a qualified project looks like, what a site consultant listens for, and why the message that works for a Fortune 500 supplier fails with a 40-person defense manufacturer.
Services
Three ways we fill your calendar
Engagements are built around your goals and metrics, not a package. Most partners use more than one of these.
Attraction & Expansion Lead Generation
Ongoing outbound to companies showing real growth signals. Your dedicated Propel representative learns your region, your assets, and your process, then runs continuous outreach under your organization's name.
Conference & Trade Show Meetings
You are already going to the show. We make sure your team lands with a full schedule of one-on-one meetings booked in advance with the speakers, exhibitors, and attendees who matter to your region.
Business Retention & Expansion
The visits everyone agrees are important and nobody has time to schedule. We run thoughtful, organized, consistent outreach to your existing employers and keep your BR&E calendar full.
How we work
An extension of your team, not a vendor
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We learn your region the way a BD officer would
Your assets, your target industries, your incentive story, your disqualifiers. Not a briefing document — the working knowledge needed to write to a company as if we sit in your office.
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We build the target list around a signal, not a SIC code
Expansion announcements, funding events, hiring patterns, facility news, conference participation. A reason to reach out today beats a bigger list every time.
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We write and send outreach in your voice
Short, specific, and about the company, not about us. Every message is written to earn one thing: a reply that becomes a conversation.
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We work the replies the same day
Interested, referred, or not right now — every response gets handled while it is still warm, including the referrals most programs let die in an inbox.
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You get the meeting and the context
Confirmed meetings land on your team's calendar with the background, the signal we used, and the thread, ready to be worked and logged in your CRM.
Why partners stay
What makes the difference
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Signal-based targeting
We monitor expansion announcements, capital investment news, and hiring activity continuously, so outreach goes out when a company is actually in motion.
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Replies worked while they are still warm
Companies that answer do it within hours, and interest cools just as fast. Every reply gets answered the day it arrives, referrals included.
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Foreign direct investment experience
Companies without a US presence need a different introduction, a different qualification path, and different patience. We run FDI outreach as its own track.
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A method that gets revised
We track what happens after every campaign — list type, hook, replies, outcomes — and change the approach based on results rather than habit.
Who you work with
Craig Price
Propel Development was founded in 2018 after Craig spent years inside economic development, designing the sales processes used to attract companies to the State of Ohio.
That work made the gap obvious: economic development organizations are measured on projects and meetings, but the outreach that produces them is the first thing to get squeezed. Propel exists to be the part that does not get squeezed.
Let's talk about your pipeline
Whether you need continuous outreach, a full calendar at your next trade show, or more BR&E visits than your team can schedule, start with a conversation about what you are trying to move this year.