How to sell to CFOs at Agencies companies
CFOs at agencies are primarily measured on profit margins, and they respond to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of financial efficiency. They appreciate insights that reveal cost-saving opportunities or revenue growth strategies tailored to the unique challenges of the creative industry, such as project overruns or fluctuating client payments.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 558 agencies company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- cash flow fluctuations
- project cost overruns
- client payment delays
- budget forecasting inaccuracies
The playbook
- 01
Identify agencies with recent funding
Use platforms like Crunchbase to filter for marketing agencies that have recently secured funding. This indicates they may be looking to expand operations or optimize financial processes, making them more receptive to discussions about financial tools that enhance efficiency.
- 02
Highlight cash flow management struggles
Craft your outreach to emphasize common cash flow challenges faced by agencies, especially during project ramp-ups. Use data from industry reports that showcase typical payment cycles and project delays to resonate with their pain points.
- 03
Address concerns about project cost overruns
In your messaging, directly mention how your solution can help mitigate project cost overruns, a frequent issue in agency work. Reference case studies or examples of similar agencies that have benefitted from improved budget tracking and forecasting.
- 04
Leverage timing around fiscal year planning
Send your outreach during the agency's fiscal year planning period, typically in Q4. This is when CFOs are actively looking for tools that can streamline financial reporting and improve forecasting accuracy for the upcoming year.
- 05
Prepare for objections about ROI
Anticipate questions regarding the return on investment for any proposed solution. Be ready to present a clear, concise breakdown of how your offering can lead to measurable improvements in profitability, using industry benchmarks as support.
Can agencies companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 558 agencies companies, sampled evenly across company sizes, to see how many authenticate their own email. It matters in both directions: a domain that does not authenticate is a domain whose team is used to mail going missing — and if your own domain is in the gap, yours is the mail going missing.
Publishes a DMARC policy of quarantine or reject — the domain actually asks receivers to act on failures.
The gap is the finding: 16.8% of 1–10-person companies against 55.4% of the largest — 39 points apart. Small companies are where the unauthenticated domains are, and small companies are who most cold outreach is aimed at.
Where does your domain sit?
Same three lookups, run live against your domain. Nothing is stored and nothing is emailed to you.
How this was measured
Company domains were sampled within employee-count bands, then queried over public DNS for SPF (TXT at the apex), DMARC (TXT at _dmarc.) and MX. One domain per company, deduplicated. Anyone can reproduce any single row of this with dig.
DKIM is deliberately absent. A DKIM key lives under a selector that cannot be enumerated from outside the domain, so a company with flawless DKIM under a name we did not guess would be counted as having none. That would measure our guess list, not the industry.
Domains with no MX record are excluded rather than counted as failures — parked and redirect-only domains would otherwise drag every figure down and make the result an artefact of the sample.
Sampled within bands, so this describes the population of companies, not of employees: a 10-person company counts once, as does a 10,000-person one. Each band is at least 60 domains; bands below that are not published. Figures are percentages of the sample, not of the whole industry, and we publish no company names — only counts.
Measured 2026-09-03. Re-measured monthly.
The full census across every industry — sortable, with sample sizes, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0.
Subject lines that fit
- Improve your agency's cash flow
- Solutions for project overruns
- Optimize your financial forecasting
Questions
- Why do CFOs at agencies ignore outreach about financial tools?
- CFOs at agencies often feel overwhelmed by sales pitches that lack relevance to their specific challenges. If the outreach does not address their unique financial concerns, such as cash flow management or project cost overruns, they are likely to disregard it as irrelevant.
- What financial challenges are unique to marketing agencies?
- Marketing agencies frequently face cash flow fluctuations due to delayed client payments and unpredictable project scopes. These challenges can lead to budget overruns and difficulties in forecasting, making it crucial for CFOs to seek solutions that provide better financial visibility.
- How can I get a CFO's attention without a referral?
- To capture a CFO's attention without a referral, focus on delivering insights that directly relate to their pain points. Use data to highlight common financial challenges in the agency sector and propose tailored solutions that align with their operational goals.
- What metrics do CFOs at agencies prioritize?
- CFOs at agencies prioritize metrics related to profit margins, cash flow management, and project profitability. They are particularly interested in how these metrics can be improved through better financial oversight and reporting, making targeted solutions appealing.
Or have it run itself
SoloRiff does every step above on its own — finds the companies, finds the people, writes each of them individually, and handles the replies. Drop your URL and watch it work before you sign up for anything.
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