How to sell to Founders at Agencies companies in France
Founders at agencies in France are primarily measured on client retention rates. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of their unique challenges, such as managing client expectations and delivering consistent quality. Highlighting how your solution can streamline operations or enhance client satisfaction will capture their attention.
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
- client retention issues
- resource allocation struggles
- managing client expectations
- scaling operations efficiently
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent client churn
Use industry reports or news articles to find agencies that have recently lost major clients. This indicates potential pain points in client retention. Focus your outreach on these agencies to address their immediate concerns.
- 02
Research agency specialization
Look for agencies that specialize in specific niches, such as digital marketing or brand strategy. Tailor your messaging to reflect an understanding of their niche challenges, ensuring your outreach resonates with their specific service offerings.
- 03
Connect through industry events
Find upcoming marketing or creative industry events in France where founders are likely to attend. Mention these events in your outreach to create a natural conversation starter and increase the likelihood of a response.
- 04
Acknowledge resource constraints
In your messaging, address the common issue of limited resources faced by agency founders. Offer insights or solutions that can help alleviate their workload or improve efficiency, which can be a strong motivator for engagement.
- 05
Follow up with value-driven content
After initial outreach, send a follow-up email with a relevant case study or article that addresses common agency challenges. This reinforces your understanding of their industry and positions you as a helpful resource, increasing the chances of booking a call.
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
- Improving client retention
- Strategies for agency growth
- Streamlining your operations
Questions
- Why do founders at agencies overlook cold outreach?
- Founders at agencies often receive numerous cold outreach messages daily, making it easy for them to overlook generic pitches that don't address their specific needs. They prioritize communications that demonstrate a clear understanding of their unique challenges and provide tangible solutions.
- What challenges do agency founders face in client management?
- Agency founders frequently struggle with balancing client expectations and delivering high-quality work within tight deadlines. They also face challenges in retaining clients due to increased competition and the need for continuous innovation in their services.
- How can I make my outreach stand out to agency founders?
- To stand out, tailor your outreach to address specific pain points faced by agency founders, such as resource constraints or client retention issues. Personalizing your message and providing actionable insights can significantly enhance your chances of receiving a response.
- What role does networking play for agency founders?
- Networking is crucial for agency founders as it helps them build relationships, gain referrals, and stay updated on industry trends. Engaging in industry events or online communities can provide valuable connections and insights that can benefit their business.
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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