How to sell to Heads of Operations at Recruiting companies
Heads of Operations in recruiting firms are primarily measured on time-to-fill metrics. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of the challenges in sourcing and managing talent pipelines. Highlighting solutions that streamline recruitment processes or enhance candidate engagement 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 562 recruiting company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- high turnover rates
- lengthy hiring cycles
- inefficient candidate sourcing
- poor candidate engagement
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent layoffs in the industry
Filter for companies that have recently announced layoffs or downsizing. This indicates a potential need for restructuring their recruiting efforts. Use LinkedIn or industry news sites to find relevant announcements and gather contact information for the Heads of Operations.
- 02
Target firms expanding into new markets
Look for recruiting firms that are expanding into new geographic areas or sectors. These companies often face challenges in scaling their operations efficiently. Use job postings or press releases to identify these firms and tailor your outreach to their specific expansion needs.
- 03
Craft messaging around operational efficiency
Develop email outreach that focuses on improving operational efficiency in the recruiting process. Mention specific pain points like high turnover rates or lengthy hiring cycles. Use case studies from similar companies to illustrate how your approach can reduce these inefficiencies.
- 04
Follow up with insights on candidate engagement
After your initial outreach, follow up by sharing insights or articles related to candidate engagement strategies. This shows your understanding of their challenges and positions you as a knowledgeable partner. Make sure to reference specific metrics that demonstrate the impact of improved engagement.
- 05
Suggest a call after sharing relevant data
After providing value through insights, propose a brief call to discuss how you can help them achieve their operational goals. Be specific about how your solutions can address their current challenges, and suggest times that align with their busy schedules.
Can recruiting companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 562 recruiting 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: 20.2% of 1–10-person companies against 75% of the largest — 55 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 hiring process
- Improve candidate engagement
- Reduce turnover in recruiting
Questions
- Why do Heads of Operations in recruiting ignore outreach?
- Heads of Operations may ignore outreach if it lacks specificity or does not address their immediate pain points. If the message feels generic or does not demonstrate an understanding of their unique challenges, it is likely to be overlooked in their busy schedules.
- What challenges do Heads of Operations face in recruiting?
- Heads of Operations often deal with high turnover rates, which strain their resources and affect team morale. They also face challenges in maintaining an efficient hiring process, ensuring that they can attract and retain top talent while managing operational costs.
- How can I get a response from a Head of Operations?
- To get a response, your outreach should be personalized and relevant to their current challenges. Highlight specific issues like inefficient candidate sourcing or lengthy hiring cycles, and offer actionable insights or solutions that demonstrate your understanding of their needs.
- What metrics do Heads of Operations prioritize?
- Heads of Operations prioritize metrics such as time-to-fill, candidate quality, and turnover rates. They focus on these metrics to assess the effectiveness of their recruiting strategies and to ensure they are meeting organizational goals in talent acquisition.
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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