How to sell to Heads of Sales at SaaS companies in Germany
Heads of Sales in SaaS companies in Germany are primarily measured on annual recurring revenue (ARR). They respond positively to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of their sales cycle, particularly how to shorten the sales process and increase the conversion rates of leads into paying customers. Showing insights on optimizing their sales funnel can grab 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
- declining annual recurring revenue
- long sales cycles
- high lead drop-off rates
- ineffective sales strategies
The playbook
- 01
Identify companies with declining ARR
Use tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator to filter for SaaS companies in Germany reporting a decline in ARR over the past two quarters. This indicates potential pain points in their sales strategy, making them more receptive to solutions that can help reverse this trend.
- 02
Research recent leadership changes
Look for announcements of new Heads of Sales within your target companies. A leadership change often brings a fresh perspective and willingness to explore new strategies, making it a prime opportunity for outreach.
- 03
Craft a message about lead conversion
Focus your outreach on how your solution can address lead conversion issues specific to their sales process. Reference common challenges in SaaS sales, such as long sales cycles or high churn rates, to make your message relevant and engaging.
- 04
Follow up after product launches
Set reminders to follow up with prospects shortly after they launch new products. This is when they often reassess their sales strategies and are open to new ideas that can enhance their sales effectiveness.
- 05
Leverage customer success stories
When booking calls, reference specific success stories from similar SaaS companies that improved their sales metrics after implementing your solution. This builds credibility and illustrates the potential impact of your offering.
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 your sales conversion
- Strategies for declining ARR
- Streamlining your sales process
Questions
- Why do Heads of Sales in SaaS ignore outreach about lead generation tools?
- Many Heads of Sales prioritize immediate revenue impacts over lead generation. If your outreach doesn't directly address how your tool can enhance their existing sales processes or improve conversion rates, it may be overlooked as irrelevant.
- What challenges do Heads of Sales face during product launches?
- During product launches, Heads of Sales often struggle with aligning their sales teams on new offerings, training staff quickly, and ensuring that marketing and sales efforts are synchronized. Any solution that can aid in these areas is likely to gain their attention.
- How can I get a meeting with a Head of Sales in a SaaS company?
- To secure a meeting, demonstrate a clear understanding of their current sales challenges and offer insights or strategies that could help them improve. Tailoring your message to their specific needs and referencing recent industry trends can significantly increase your chances.
- Why do Heads of Sales prioritize sales metrics?
- Sales metrics are critical for Heads of Sales as they directly correlate to their performance evaluations and company growth. They focus on metrics like ARR, conversion rates, and sales cycle length to gauge the effectiveness of their strategies and make informed decisions.
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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