How to sell to Procurement leads at Energy companies
Procurement leads in the energy sector, such as Heads of Procurement, are primarily measured on cost savings achieved through strategic sourcing. They respond positively to outreach that demonstrates a clear understanding of supply chain efficiencies and sustainability initiatives. Highlighting how your solution can reduce costs while supporting renewable energy goals 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 550 energy company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- supplier cost fluctuations
- regulatory compliance issues
- sourcing delays
- sustainability reporting pressures
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent renewable energy projects
Research companies that have recently announced investments in renewable energy projects. Use news aggregators and industry reports to find these announcements. This indicates they are actively seeking suppliers who align with their sustainability goals.
- 02
Segment by procurement challenges
Filter your list to focus on procurement leads facing challenges such as high supplier costs or compliance with environmental regulations. Utilize LinkedIn and industry forums to identify discussions around these pain points, which can help tailor your outreach.
- 03
Craft messaging around cost-saving initiatives
Develop your outreach messaging to emphasize how your offering can provide significant cost savings or improve supply chain efficiency. Reference specific examples from similar projects, ensuring they align with the recipient's current procurement goals.
- 04
Address common objections upfront
Prepare to address objections related to budget constraints or existing supplier relationships in your initial outreach. Acknowledge these concerns in your email, offering insights on how your solution can integrate smoothly with current suppliers or provide a compelling ROI.
- 05
Time outreach around industry events
Schedule your outreach around major energy conferences or webinars where procurement leads are likely to be engaged. This timing increases the chance of your message being relevant and prompts a response, as they may be seeking new solutions during these events.
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
- Cut your procurement costs
- Sustainable sourcing solutions
- Streamline your supply chain
Questions
- Why do procurement leads in energy ignore outreach?
- Procurement leads often ignore outreach due to overwhelming volumes of generic messages that fail to address their specific challenges. If the outreach doesn't speak to their current priorities, such as cost reduction or sustainability, it is likely to be overlooked.
- What are the key metrics procurement leads focus on?
- Procurement leads typically focus on metrics like cost savings, supplier performance, and compliance with sustainability goals. They need to demonstrate value through measurable outcomes, making these metrics crucial in any proposal or outreach.
- How can I make my outreach relevant to procurement leads?
- To make your outreach relevant, align your message with their current initiatives, such as renewable energy sourcing or cost management strategies. Use specific examples that resonate with their goals and show an understanding of their unique challenges.
- What role does sustainability play in procurement decisions?
- Sustainability is increasingly central to procurement decisions in the energy sector. Procurement leads are tasked with sourcing materials and services that not only meet cost and quality standards but also align with corporate sustainability objectives, affecting supplier selection.
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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