How to sell to Heads of People at Marketplaces companies
Heads of People at marketplaces focus on employee retention rates as a key performance indicator. They respond to outreach that showcases a deep understanding of the unique challenges in managing talent for two-sided platforms, particularly in balancing the needs of both buyers and sellers within the marketplace ecosystem.
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
- high employee turnover in customer support
- difficulty in scaling recruitment processes
- low employee engagement scores
- challenges in balancing vendor and customer needs
The playbook
- 01
Identify turnover spikes in customer support roles
Use HR analytics tools to filter for recent spikes in turnover rates in customer support positions. These roles are critical in marketplaces, and high turnover can indicate systemic issues. This data will help you craft a message that addresses their immediate concerns.
- 02
Analyze employee engagement survey results
Access recent employee engagement survey results and look for low scores related to career development or work-life balance. Tailor your outreach to highlight solutions that could improve these specific areas, showing that you understand their pain points.
- 03
Monitor marketplace expansion announcements
Set up alerts for news about marketplace expansions or new vendor partnerships. These events often lead to increased hiring and may also create strain on current HR processes. Your outreach can focus on how to streamline talent acquisition during these growth periods.
- 04
Address common objections about budget constraints
Prepare responses to common objections regarding budget limitations, especially in the context of talent development. Highlight cost-effective strategies that have proven successful in similar marketplace environments to preemptively address these concerns.
- 05
Schedule follow-ups after major hiring campaigns
Track the timing of major hiring campaigns and follow up shortly after these periods. This is when Heads of People are most likely to reflect on the challenges faced during recruitment and onboarding, making them more receptive to discussions about improving these processes.
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
- Improving retention in support roles
- Enhancing employee engagement strategies
- Streamlining your hiring process
Questions
- Why do Heads of People at marketplaces ignore outreach about HR software?
- Heads of People may ignore outreach if it doesn't address the specific challenges of managing a two-sided marketplace. They need solutions that consider the unique dynamics of balancing vendor and customer needs, rather than generic HR tools.
- What are the biggest challenges for Heads of People in marketplaces?
- The biggest challenges include managing high turnover rates in customer-facing roles, ensuring effective onboarding processes, and maintaining employee engagement in a fast-paced environment. These issues are compounded by the need to meet the demands of both buyers and sellers.
- How can I make my outreach relevant to marketplace HR leaders?
- Make your outreach relevant by referencing specific pain points such as high turnover in customer support or the impact of rapid marketplace growth on recruitment. Tailoring your message to their unique challenges will increase the chances of a response.
- What timing is best for reaching out to Heads of People in marketplaces?
- The best timing for outreach is shortly after major hiring campaigns or during periods of organizational change. These times are when they are likely reflecting on their HR strategies and may be more open to discussing solutions.
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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