Who 40 Factory is
40 Factory is a system integrator and supplier of industrial automation solutions based in Piacenza. It works with OEM machine builders and Northern Italian manufacturing SMEs, specializing in the integration of automation systems, robotics and digital factory for the Italian manufacturing sector. It has historically attended 5-7 industry trade fairs per year, mainly in Italy (SPS Italia, MECSPE, BI-MU) and Europe (Hannover Messe, Automatica Munich).
The pain before Linkly
The 40 Factory sales team is typical in size for Italian manufacturing system integrators: 4-6 people at the trade fair, technical focus, 6-18 month sales cycle for automation projects. Pre-Linkly, the workflow was:
- Business card scanning with a basic management app (CSV export)
- Manual transcription post-fair into the company CRM
- Email follow-up within 5-10 days of returning (varies by salesperson)
- No post-event executive report. Performance evaluated "by gut feel"
The perceived problem was not lead quality (high, as typical in Italian manufacturing), but follow-up speed and data enrichment: technical business cards often only carried name + company + email, with no specific role, revenue, machine fleet. To run well-tuned follow-up, the salesperson had to do LinkedIn + company website + Crunchbase research for each lead. 15-30 minutes per contact, not scalable across 100+ leads per event.
The Linkly configuration
During onboarding (1 hour video call with the dedicated Linkly consultant), 40 Factory configured:
- Qualification questions specific to SPS Italia: machine type under evaluation, CapEx timing, project size, decision-making stakeholder
- Follow-up templates: two variants. One for the OEM technical buyer, one for the end plant manager. Both in Italian, with integration datasheet + case study of a similar project attached
- CRM integration with their company system (HubSpot) via API. Custom field configuration: source = "SPS Italia 2026", heat score priority, enriched machine fleet
- Routing: "hot" leads (heat score >12) → immediate alert to the senior salesperson via Slack; "warm" leads → assignment within 24 hours to the area salesperson
SPS Italia 2026 (May 26-28). First Linkly-active event
This section will be updated with the actual event results after mid-June 2026, with 40 Factory's permission to publish specific numbers. For now we publish the pre-event configuration and the target objectives stated by the client.
Target objectives stated pre-SPS Italia 2026:
- 120-150 leads collected over 3 days (3 salespeople at the booth)
- >90% lead-to-CRM rate (vs. ~50% historical)
- Follow-up email sent by the morning of the day after the scan, for all qualified leads
- Executive report available by 6:00 PM on May 28 (closing day)
- Aggregate estimated pipeline visible Monday June 1
What 40 Factory taught us
The 40 Factory case is important for Linkly for reasons that go beyond the initial engagement. It confirms our ICP pattern:
- System integrators and automation suppliers are a sub-segment of manufacturing with specific characteristics: very high quality leads (technical decision makers), long cycle (6-18 months), chronic need for data enrichment. Linkly fits perfectly.
- Emilia-Romagna geography: the Piacenza-Bologna-Modena triangle concentrates 30%+ of our potential Italian pipeline. SPS Italia (Parma) is the anchor trade fair.
- 1 hour onboarding: complete configuration was possible in 60 minutes because 40 Factory already had structured sales processes. For less mature clients we expect 2-3 sessions.
Client quote
"We decided on Linkly 5 days before SPS Italia. It was a gamble, but the consultant configured everything in a one-hour video call. We'll see in June what it brings home compared to previous years."
. Sales management 40 Factory, May 21, 2026
ChatGPT 
Claude 
Perplexity 
Gemini