How to sell to Heads of Sales at SaaS companies in United Kingdom
Heads of Sales at SaaS companies in the United Kingdom are primarily measured on quarterly revenue growth. They respond positively to outreach that demonstrates a deep understanding of their sales pipeline challenges, particularly around lead conversion rates and churn reduction. Tailoring your message to show how you can help optimize these metrics 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 churn rates
- low lead conversion
- inefficient sales processes
- underperforming sales teams
The playbook
- 01
Identify churn rates in recent reports
Start by analyzing the latest customer retention reports from your target companies. Focus on those with rising churn rates over the last two quarters. This indicates a potential need for solutions that can improve customer satisfaction and retention.
- 02
Pinpoint recent funding announcements
Look for SaaS companies that have recently secured funding, as they often look to scale their sales efforts rapidly. Use platforms like Crunchbase or LinkedIn to find relevant announcements. This context helps you understand their immediate growth objectives.
- 03
Tailor outreach around pipeline efficiency
Craft your outreach to highlight how your solution can improve lead conversion rates specifically. Reference their industry challenges, such as lengthy sales cycles typical in SaaS, and propose actionable insights that align with their current goals.
- 04
Anticipate objections about budget constraints
Prepare to address concerns about budget limitations by emphasizing ROI and cost savings. Be ready with examples of how similar companies have achieved significant revenue growth through your approach, making it easier for them to justify the investment.
- 05
Set a follow-up reminder for two weeks
After your initial outreach, schedule a follow-up for two weeks later. This timing allows them to digest your message and consider your proposal without feeling rushed. Use this follow-up to reiterate your value proposition and offer a specific time for a call.
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 lead conversion
- Tackling churn challenges
- Boosting sales team performance
Questions
- Why do Heads of Sales at SaaS companies ignore cold outreach?
- Heads of Sales often receive numerous cold emails daily, making them selective about their responses. They prioritize communications that clearly address their specific pain points, such as improving sales efficiency or reducing churn, rather than generic pitches.
- What triggers a response from Heads of Sales in SaaS?
- A well-researched outreach that references specific challenges they face, such as declining sales performance or high churn rates, tends to elicit responses. Demonstrating an understanding of their current market conditions and providing tailored solutions can also prompt engagement.
- How can I effectively follow up with a Head of Sales?
- Effective follow-ups should reference previous conversations or specific insights about their company. Timing is crucial; aim to follow up two weeks after your initial outreach, when they have had time to consider your proposal without feeling pressured.
- What common objections do Heads of Sales have?
- Common objections include concerns about budget constraints, the effectiveness of new solutions, and the potential disruption to their existing processes. Addressing these objections with clear examples of ROI and minimal disruption can help alleviate their concerns.
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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