How to sell to Heads of Operations at Biotech companies
Heads of Operations in biotech are focused on optimizing operational efficiency and ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of the complexities involved in clinical trials and supply chain management, particularly when you highlight how your solution can mitigate risks associated with these processes.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 573 biotech company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- regulatory compliance delays
- supply chain disruptions
- clinical trial inefficiencies
- resource allocation challenges
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent FDA approvals
Search for biotech companies that have recently received FDA approvals. Use databases like BioPharmaDive or industry news sites to find these announcements. This indicates that the company is in a growth phase and may have operational challenges that your solution can address.
- 02
Segment by clinical trial stage
Filter your list for companies currently in Phase 2 or Phase 3 clinical trials. These phases often involve complex logistics and compliance requirements. Understanding their current challenges can help you tailor your outreach to address their specific operational pain points.
- 03
Leverage industry-specific language
Craft your outreach using terminology familiar to biotech operations leaders, such as 'GxP compliance' or 'supply chain optimization.' This will help establish credibility and show that you understand their unique challenges in managing operations within the biotech landscape.
- 04
Acknowledge common regulatory hurdles
In your messaging, reference common regulatory challenges faced by biotech firms, such as maintaining compliance during scale-up. This demonstrates that you are aware of their day-to-day struggles and can provide relevant solutions that ease their operational burdens.
- 05
Follow up after key industry events
Monitor industry events like BIO International Convention or local biotech meetups. Send follow-up emails to connect with prospects shortly after these events, referencing discussions or trends from the event. This timing can increase your chances of getting a response.
Can biotech companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 573 biotech 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: 27% of 1–10-person companies against 84.3% of the largest — 57 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
- Streamlining clinical operations
- Navigating biotech compliance
- Optimizing supply chain logistics
Questions
- Why do Heads of Operations in biotech ignore cold outreach?
- Heads of Operations often receive numerous outreach attempts and may overlook them due to lack of relevance. If the message doesn’t address their specific operational challenges or demonstrate a clear understanding of the biotech industry, it is likely to be ignored.
- What operational challenges do biotech companies face?
- Biotech companies frequently struggle with regulatory compliance, managing complex supply chains, and ensuring efficient clinical trial processes. These challenges require innovative solutions that can streamline operations and reduce risks, making it essential to address these in outreach.
- How can I effectively engage with biotech operations leaders?
- Engaging biotech operations leaders requires a deep understanding of their industry. Share insights on regulatory trends or operational best practices that resonate with their daily challenges. This establishes credibility and encourages them to consider your outreach seriously.
- What is the best timing for outreach to biotech operations leaders?
- The best timing for outreach is often after key industry events or during quarterly planning cycles. During these times, operations leaders are more likely to be evaluating new solutions to improve efficiency and compliance, making them more receptive to relevant outreach.
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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