How to sell to Heads of Sales at Energy companies
Heads of Sales in the energy sector are primarily measured on revenue growth from renewable sources. They respond to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of market fluctuations and regulatory changes impacting their sales strategies. Highlighting how your insights can help them adapt their approach to selling solar solutions can 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 550 energy company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- fluctuating regulatory requirements
- stagnant sales growth
- difficulty adapting to market changes
- competition from emerging technologies
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent regulatory changes
Research the latest regulations affecting the energy sector, particularly around renewables. Use sources like government publications and industry news. Tailor your outreach to discuss how these changes impact their sales strategies, allowing you to establish relevance and urgency.
- 02
Target companies with new solar projects
Use LinkedIn or industry reports to find energy companies that have recently announced solar projects. Focus on VPs or Heads of Sales at these firms. Mention their new projects in your outreach to demonstrate you’re aware of their current initiatives and challenges.
- 03
Analyze their current sales performance
Look for publicly available sales performance data or recent press releases regarding their financials. If their sales growth is stagnant or declining, reference this in your communication to highlight your understanding of their situation and the need for innovative sales strategies.
- 04
Engage with their leadership content
Follow the Heads of Sales on LinkedIn and engage with their posts by commenting thoughtfully. This establishes familiarity and shows you’re invested in their perspective. It can also lead to a more receptive environment when you reach out directly.
- 05
Propose a call after significant industry events
Identify key industry events or conferences and reach out shortly after they conclude. Mention insights or trends discussed at the event that are relevant to their business. This timing can increase your chances of securing a meeting, as they may be reflecting on new ideas.
Can energy companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 550 energy 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: 21.6% of 1–10-person companies against 85.8% 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
- Navigating new energy regulations
- Boosting solar sales strategies
- Insights from recent industry trends
Questions
- Why do Heads of Sales in energy ignore outreach about new sales tools?
- Heads of Sales may ignore outreach if they perceive the tools as irrelevant to their specific challenges, such as regulatory compliance or market volatility. If the outreach doesn't address these pressing issues, it risks being seen as generic and unhelpful.
- What messaging resonates with Heads of Sales in the energy sector?
- Messaging that highlights solutions to current market challenges, such as regulatory changes or competition from renewables, tends to resonate. Demonstrating a clear understanding of their unique pain points and how your insights can help them navigate these challenges is crucial.
- How can I follow up effectively with energy sales leaders?
- Effective follow-ups should reference previous conversations or insights shared. Timing your follow-up after industry events or regulatory announcements can also increase relevance. Keep the tone consultative rather than salesy to maintain engagement.
- What common objections do Heads of Sales in energy have?
- Common objections include concerns about the ROI of new initiatives, skepticism about the relevance of solutions to their specific market, and a lack of time to explore new tools. Addressing these objections with tailored insights can help overcome resistance.
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