How to sell to Founders at Professional services companies
Founders in professional services are primarily measured by client retention rates. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of their challenges, such as managing client expectations and optimizing team productivity. Highlighting specific pain points and offering tailored solutions can significantly increase the likelihood of engagement.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 565 professional services company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- high client turnover
- inefficient project management
- staff burnout
- regulatory compliance headaches
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent funding rounds
Search for professional services firms that recently secured funding, as they are often looking to scale. Use platforms like Crunchbase or PitchBook to filter for companies that have raised capital in the last 6 months. This indicates a readiness to invest in solutions that can support their growth.
- 02
Research client satisfaction metrics
Look for firms that have published client satisfaction scores or testimonials. This information can often be found on their websites or in industry reports. Understanding their current client feedback can help you tailor your outreach to address specific areas where they may be seeking improvement.
- 03
Analyze team expansion announcements
Monitor LinkedIn for announcements about new hires in leadership or client-facing roles. These signals often indicate a shift in strategy or service offerings. Reach out with insights on how your solution can support their new initiatives and help integrate new team members effectively.
- 04
Address common compliance challenges
Identify common compliance issues faced by professional services firms in your communication. For example, mention how many firms struggle with regulatory updates and client data security. Providing insights on how your solution can alleviate these stress points will resonate more with founders.
- 05
Follow up on industry trends
Keep an eye on emerging trends in the professional services sector, such as digital transformation or remote work strategies. Use this knowledge to craft a follow-up message that aligns your outreach with their current strategic priorities. Timing your message to coincide with these trends can improve response rates.
Can professional services companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 565 professional services 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: 18.3% of 1–10-person companies against 86.1% of the largest — 68 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 rates
- Strategies for team productivity
- Navigating compliance challenges
Questions
- Why do founders in professional services ignore cold outreach about operational tools?
- Founders often prioritize immediate client needs and may not see the value in operational tools that appear to distract from client-facing activities. They may also be overwhelmed by the volume of outreach they receive and fail to recognize the relevance of your offering to their specific challenges.
- What factors influence a founder's decision to engage with vendors?
- A founder is likely to engage with vendors who demonstrate a deep understanding of their industry and specific pain points. They appreciate solutions that offer tangible benefits, such as improved efficiency or enhanced client satisfaction, and are more likely to respond to outreach that addresses these directly.
- How can I effectively demonstrate my value to a founder?
- To demonstrate value, focus on providing insights or solutions that directly address the founder's pain points, such as client retention or staff productivity. Case studies or examples of similar firms benefiting from your solution can also enhance credibility and encourage engagement.
- What common objections do founders have regarding service solutions?
- Founders often raise objections related to cost, time investment, and the perceived complexity of implementation. They may also question whether your solution truly addresses their unique challenges or if it is a one-size-fits-all approach that won't deliver the promised results.
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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