How to sell to Heads of People at SaaS companies
Heads of People at SaaS companies prioritize employee retention rates, as high turnover can significantly impact productivity and culture. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a deep understanding of their specific challenges, such as talent development and employee engagement strategies, especially in a fast-paced, competitive environment. Tailoring your message to highlight solutions for these issues will capture their attention.
Written and maintained by the SoloRiff team, who build outbound software and run outbound with it. The figures below are our own: we measured 559 saas company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- high employee turnover
- ineffective talent development
- low employee engagement
- inefficient onboarding processes
The playbook
- 01
Identify companies with high turnover rates
Use LinkedIn or industry reports to filter for SaaS companies that have recently reported high employee turnover. This indicates a potential need for solutions that improve retention and employee satisfaction, making them more receptive to outreach.
- 02
Research recent employee engagement initiatives
Look for news articles or press releases about employee engagement programs or surveys conducted by your target companies. Mention these initiatives in your outreach to show you understand their current efforts and can offer complementary solutions.
- 03
Craft messages addressing talent development
When reaching out, focus on how your solutions can enhance talent development and career progression within their organization. Highlight specific challenges related to skill gaps or employee satisfaction that you can help address, making your message relevant and timely.
- 04
Follow up after key industry events
Monitor industry conferences or webinars where Heads of People are likely to attend. Send a follow-up email referencing discussions or themes from these events, demonstrating that you are engaged in the same conversations and can provide valuable insights.
- 05
Leverage testimonials from similar SaaS companies
If you have case studies or testimonials from other SaaS companies that improved their retention rates through your solutions, include these in your outreach. This builds credibility and shows that you understand the unique challenges faced by their industry.
Can saas companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 559 saas 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: 16.7% of 1–10-person companies against 80.9% of the largest — 64 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
- Improving retention in SaaS
- Boosting employee engagement strategies
- Solutions for talent development
Questions
- Why do Heads of People in SaaS ignore outreach about general HR tools?
- Heads of People are often inundated with generic HR tool pitches that don't address the unique challenges of the SaaS industry. They need to see a clear connection between the solution and their specific pain points, such as high turnover or employee engagement.
- What specific metrics do Heads of People at SaaS focus on?
- They typically focus on metrics like employee retention rates, engagement scores, and the effectiveness of talent development programs. These metrics directly impact the overall productivity and culture of their organization in the competitive SaaS landscape.
- How can I get a response from a Head of People in SaaS?
- To get a response, tailor your outreach to demonstrate a deep understanding of their challenges. Reference specific initiatives they've undertaken and suggest targeted solutions that align with their goals around talent retention and employee satisfaction.
- What objections do Heads of People commonly have to new HR solutions?
- Common objections include concerns about implementation costs, the time required to train staff, and the effectiveness of the solution in addressing their specific needs. Addressing these concerns in your outreach can help ease their apprehensions.
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.
Try it on your site