How to sell to Heads of Sales at Developer tools companies in United Kingdom
Heads of Sales in Developer tools companies focus on increasing the sales pipeline and closing deals. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of their specific challenges, such as the need for improved CI/CD processes. Highlighting how your solution can streamline their sales operations and drive revenue growth 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 587 developer tools company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- slow deployment cycles
- lack of sales visibility
- inefficient lead management
- difficulty integrating tools
The playbook
- 01
Identify teams struggling with CI/CD
Use LinkedIn Sales Navigator to filter for Developer tools companies in the UK with recent posts about CI/CD challenges. Look for teams that mention issues like slow deployment times or frequent rollbacks. This indicates a pain point where your solution can offer significant value.
- 02
Analyze recent funding announcements
Search for Developer tools companies that have recently secured funding rounds. These companies often ramp up their sales efforts and are more open to exploring new solutions. Tailor your outreach to emphasize how your offering can support their growth and scalability.
- 03
Craft messaging around observability
When reaching out, focus your messaging on how your solution enhances observability for their sales processes. Use specific examples of how improved visibility can lead to better decision-making and increased sales efficiency, making it relevant to their immediate goals.
- 04
Follow up on engagement with API platforms
If a prospect engages with your initial outreach, follow up by discussing recent trends in API platform integrations. Highlight how your solution can simplify these integrations and improve their sales team's performance. This shows you are attentive to their interests and needs.
- 05
Propose a call after sharing insights
After your initial outreach and follow-ups, propose a call by sharing a relevant industry insight or trend. Frame it as a discussion on how these insights can impact their sales strategy. This positions the call as a valuable conversation rather than a sales pitch.
Can developer tools companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 587 developer tools 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: 27.4% of 1–10-person companies against 94.9% of the largest — 68 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 your sales pipeline
- Challenges with CI/CD?
- Enhancing sales visibility
Questions
- Why do Heads of Sales in Developer tools ignore outreach about general sales software?
- Heads of Sales often ignore outreach that lacks specificity. They receive numerous messages and prioritize those that directly address the unique challenges of the Developer tools industry, such as CI/CD and observability. Generic pitches fail to resonate with their immediate needs.
- What are common misconceptions about selling to Heads of Sales?
- A common misconception is that Heads of Sales only care about pricing. In reality, they prioritize solutions that can demonstrate a clear ROI and improve their team's efficiency. They look for strategic partnerships that can help them achieve their sales goals.
- How can I effectively demonstrate value to a Head of Sales?
- To demonstrate value, focus on specific pain points relevant to Developer tools, such as improving deployment speed or enhancing lead management. Use case studies or examples that show measurable outcomes similar companies have achieved with your solution.
- What timing is best for reaching out to Heads of Sales?
- The best time to reach out is typically at the beginning of the quarter when sales strategies are being re-evaluated. Additionally, following major industry events or funding announcements can be effective, as companies are often looking to implement new 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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