How to sell to Heads of Operations at Marketplaces companies
The Head of Operations at a marketplace is primarily measured by operational efficiency, specifically the speed of vendor onboarding. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of their unique challenges, such as addressing vendor churn or streamlining logistics processes that directly impact their bottom line.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 179 marketplaces company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- vendor onboarding delays
- logistics inefficiencies
- vendor churn
- operational visibility issues
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent vendor onboarding challenges
Search for news articles or press releases about your target marketplace experiencing vendor onboarding issues or complaints. Use Google News or industry-specific publications to find relevant updates. This will help you tailor your outreach to address their immediate operational concerns.
- 02
Segment for two-sided marketplace leaders
Filter your prospect list to include only those companies identified as two-sided marketplaces. Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator or industry databases to locate these organizations. This ensures your outreach is focused on businesses that face the specific operational challenges you're equipped to solve.
- 03
Craft messaging around vendor churn
Develop your outreach message to specifically address how your solution can reduce vendor churn, which is a critical pain point for marketplace operations. Highlight case studies or insights related to improving vendor retention rates, as this will resonate with their operational goals.
- 04
Connect through industry-specific events
Identify upcoming industry conferences or webinars focused on marketplace operations and engage with attendees. Use platforms like Eventbrite or Meetup to find relevant events. This connection can serve as a warm introduction point for your outreach.
- 05
Follow up with insights on logistics optimization
After your initial outreach, follow up with a message that includes insights on optimizing logistics processes. Mention specific challenges they face and offer actionable tips or strategies. This demonstrates your understanding of their role and keeps the conversation relevant.
Can marketplaces companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 179 marketplaces 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.
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 vendor onboarding
- Reducing vendor churn
- Optimizing logistics processes
Questions
- Why do Heads of Operations in marketplaces ignore outreach about vendor management tools?
- Heads of Operations often receive numerous outreach messages that lack specificity. If the outreach does not directly address their current vendor management challenges or demonstrate a clear understanding of their operational context, it is likely to be overlooked.
- What operational metrics are most important to Heads of Operations in marketplaces?
- Heads of Operations typically prioritize metrics such as vendor onboarding time, churn rates, and operational efficiency. These metrics directly impact their ability to scale and maintain a competitive edge in the marketplace, making them crucial for their decision-making.
- What challenges do marketplace operations leaders face in scaling?
- Marketplace operations leaders often struggle with scaling vendor onboarding processes and maintaining quality control as they grow. Balancing the need for rapid expansion with operational efficiency is a constant challenge that requires innovative solutions.
- How can outreach be more effective for marketplace operations leaders?
- Outreach can be more effective by being highly targeted and relevant. Demonstrating a clear understanding of their specific pain points, such as vendor churn or logistics inefficiencies, and providing tailored solutions will increase the likelihood of engagement.
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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