How to sell to Heads of Operations at Construction companies
Heads of Operations in construction are primarily measured by project delivery timelines. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of their daily challenges, such as managing subcontractor delays or resource allocation issues. Providing insights into solutions that enhance operational efficiency will capture their attention and prompt a response.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 564 construction company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- subcontractor delays
- resource allocation issues
- project budget overruns
- scheduling conflicts
The playbook
- 01
Identify projects facing delays
Use industry reports or news articles to find construction projects that have recently reported delays. Filter for projects with significant budget overruns or complaints from stakeholders. This gives you a specific pain point to address in your outreach.
- 02
Research subcontractor management issues
Look for online forums or social media discussions about common subcontractor challenges in construction. Identify specific pain points such as scheduling conflicts or quality control issues. Tailor your message to show you understand these challenges.
- 03
Connect through industry-specific events
Find upcoming construction industry webinars or local trade shows. Attend these events to network with operations leaders. Mention these connections in your outreach to establish credibility and relevance.
- 04
Demonstrate cost-saving opportunities
Analyze recent industry trends showing increased material costs. Prepare examples of how your solutions can help reduce these costs. Highlighting potential savings will resonate with Heads of Operations focused on budget management.
- 05
Follow up with a success story
After your initial outreach, prepare a follow-up email that includes a brief case study of a similar construction company that improved their project timelines. Use this to reinforce your understanding of their environment and the impact of your solution.
Can construction companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 564 construction 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: 19.2% of 1–10-person companies against 73% of the largest — 54 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
- Streamline your project timelines
- Addressing subcontractor challenges
- Reduce construction costs today
Questions
- Why do heads of operations in construction ignore outreach about software solutions?
- Heads of Operations often receive numerous outreach messages that lack specificity. They may ignore messages that do not directly address their current challenges, such as project delays or cost overruns. Tailoring your message to their immediate pain points is crucial for engagement.
- What common objections do heads of operations have to new technology?
- Common objections include concerns about implementation time and disruption to ongoing projects. They may also worry about the learning curve for their teams. Addressing these concerns with clear, concise information on support and training can help alleviate their fears.
- How can I demonstrate value to heads of operations in construction?
- Demonstrating value requires a deep understanding of their specific operational challenges. Providing case studies or data showing how your solution has helped similar companies improve efficiency or reduce costs can be persuasive. Tailored insights make your outreach more compelling.
- What communication channels do heads of operations prefer?
- Heads of Operations often prefer direct communication through email or professional networking platforms like LinkedIn. They appreciate concise messages that get to the point quickly, focusing on how you can solve their specific issues rather than general pitches.
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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