How to sell to Heads of Sales at SaaS companies in France
Heads of Sales at SaaS companies in France are primarily measured on quarterly revenue growth. They respond to outreach that reflects a deep understanding of their customer acquisition challenges, particularly in managing churn rates and optimizing sales pipelines. Demonstrating knowledge of their specific metrics and market dynamics will increase your chances of engagement.
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 churn rates
- long sales cycles
- inefficient lead qualification
- inconsistent sales forecasting
The playbook
- 01
Identify churn risk segments
Use customer data to filter for accounts with a churn risk score above 30%. Look for accounts that have not engaged with your product in the last 60 days. This indicates a potential need for improved engagement strategies, which can be a conversation starter.
- 02
Analyze recent funding rounds
Research SaaS companies in France that have recently secured funding. Use platforms like Crunchbase or PitchBook to filter for Series A or B funding announcements. These companies often have aggressive growth targets, making them more open to solutions that can enhance their sales effectiveness.
- 03
Reference industry-specific challenges
Craft your outreach to highlight common pain points in the SaaS industry, such as long sales cycles or high customer acquisition costs. Use specific examples from recent SaaS reports or case studies to show you understand their unique sales environment and can provide relevant insights.
- 04
Leverage mutual connections
Before reaching out, check LinkedIn for mutual connections who can introduce you. Focus on contacts who have worked closely with the prospect's sales team. An introduction from a trusted source can significantly increase the likelihood of a positive response.
- 05
Propose a specific date for a call
In your follow-up, suggest a specific date and time for a brief call, like next Wednesday at 2 PM. This shows you value their time and are serious about discussing solutions tailored to their needs. Be prepared to adjust based on their availability.
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
- Tackling churn in SaaS
- Boosting your sales pipeline
- Insights on lead qualification
Questions
- Why do Heads of Sales in SaaS ignore outreach about generic sales tools?
- Heads of Sales often receive numerous outreach messages that fail to address their specific challenges. They prioritize solutions that demonstrate a clear understanding of their unique sales processes and metrics, making generic pitches easily overlooked.
- What metrics do Heads of Sales focus on most?
- Heads of Sales typically focus on metrics like monthly recurring revenue (MRR), customer acquisition cost (CAC), and churn rates. These metrics directly impact their revenue goals and strategic decisions, making them crucial for any sales conversation.
- How can I better understand the sales process of a SaaS company?
- To understand the sales process of a SaaS company, analyze their customer journey, from lead generation to onboarding. Look for case studies or industry reports that highlight successful sales strategies and common pitfalls specific to SaaS businesses.
- What common objections do Heads of Sales have during outreach?
- Common objections include concerns about ROI, existing vendor relationships, and the time required to implement new solutions. Addressing these objections proactively in your outreach can improve engagement and lead to more productive conversations.
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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