How to sell to Heads of Marketing at SaaS companies in France
Heads of Marketing in SaaS companies in France are primarily measured on customer retention rates. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a deep understanding of the specific challenges in subscription models, such as churn reduction and effective customer engagement strategies. Highlighting insights or trends in their market can make them more receptive to connecting with you.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 559 saas company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- high customer churn rates
- ineffective lead nurturing
- low campaign engagement
- budget allocation challenges
The playbook
- 01
Identify churn trends in their sector
Look for SaaS companies that have recently reported an increase in customer churn in their quarterly earnings. Use platforms like LinkedIn or industry news sites to find announcements or reports. This shows you understand their immediate challenges and can offer solutions.
- 02
Analyze their recent marketing campaigns
Review the last few marketing campaigns launched by your target company. Use tools like SimilarWeb or SEMrush to assess their engagement metrics. Tailor your outreach to address potential gaps or missed opportunities in these campaigns.
- 03
Craft a message around retention strategies
When reaching out, focus on specific retention strategies that align with their recent campaigns. For example, mention innovative customer engagement tactics that have worked for similar SaaS companies. This shows you’ve done your homework and have relevant insights.
- 04
Prepare for common objections about timing
Be ready to address objections related to budget constraints or timing, especially if they’ve just launched a major campaign. Acknowledge their current priorities and suggest a follow-up discussion in a month, when they may be more open to new initiatives.
- 05
Schedule follow-ups based on engagement
If they engage with your initial outreach, schedule a follow-up within a week. Use their engagement as a trigger to propose a specific date and time for a call. This keeps the momentum going and shows your commitment to helping them improve their marketing efforts.
Can saas companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 559 saas 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: 16.7% of 1–10-person companies against 80.9% of the largest — 64 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 customer retention
- Engaging your subscribers better
- Boosting campaign effectiveness
Questions
- Why do Heads of Marketing at SaaS companies ignore cold outreach?
- Heads of Marketing often receive a high volume of unsolicited outreach and may prioritize messages that directly address their current challenges. If your message doesn't immediately resonate with their goals or pain points, it is likely to be overlooked.
- What common challenges do SaaS marketing leaders face?
- SaaS marketing leaders frequently battle issues like maintaining customer engagement, addressing high churn rates, and justifying marketing budgets. They need to balance innovative strategies with measurable results to demonstrate value to their organizations.
- How can I increase my chances of a response from a SaaS CMO?
- To improve your chances of receiving a response, personalize your message with specific insights about their company and industry trends. Show that you understand their unique challenges and can provide tailored solutions that align with their objectives.
- What timing is best for reaching out to SaaS marketing heads?
- Timing your outreach after major product launches or marketing campaigns can be effective, as marketing heads may be assessing results and looking for improvements. Additionally, reaching out at the start of a quarter can align with their planning cycles.
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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