How to sell to Product leads at Education companies
Product leads in education companies aim to improve user engagement metrics for their online courses. They respond positively to outreach that demonstrates an understanding of specific challenges like course completion rates and learner satisfaction. Highlighting solutions that directly enhance these metrics will capture their attention and 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 554 education company domains over public DNS on 2026-09-03. Last updated 2026-09-03.
What actually hurts
- low course completion rates
- high learner dropout
- inadequate user feedback
- inefficient product iteration
The playbook
- 01
Identify recent funding rounds
Use databases like Crunchbase to filter for education companies that have recently secured funding. This indicates they may be looking to enhance their product offerings or expand their reach, making them more open to new solutions.
- 02
Research course completion challenges
Investigate industry reports or forums to pinpoint common pain points related to course completion rates in the education sector. Tailor your messaging to address these specific issues, demonstrating that you understand their unique context.
- 03
Highlight learner satisfaction metrics
Craft your outreach to emphasize how your solution can improve learner satisfaction scores. Reference industry benchmarks or case studies that showcase successful implementations in similar educational environments.
- 04
Leverage seasonal trends in education
Timing your outreach around key academic calendar events, such as the start of a new semester, can increase responsiveness. Mention how your solution can help them prepare for upcoming course launches or transitions.
- 05
Address objections about implementation complexity
Be prepared to discuss how your solution integrates seamlessly with existing learning management systems. Highlight ease of use and support resources to alleviate concerns about the learning curve for their team.
Can education companies even receive your mail?
We measured the DNS of 554 education 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: 16.3% of 1–10-person companies against 80.2% 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
- Boost your course engagement
- Solutions for learner retention
- Enhance your online training
Questions
- Why do product leads in education ignore outreach about new tools?
- Product leads often receive numerous pitches and may overlook outreach that lacks specificity to their challenges. If the message doesn't clearly connect to improving course metrics or enhancing user experience, it risks being dismissed as irrelevant.
- What are the biggest challenges faced by product leads in education?
- Product leads frequently struggle with low engagement and high dropout rates in online courses. They seek solutions that can provide actionable insights into learner behavior and improve the overall educational experience.
- How can I demonstrate value to education product leads?
- Demonstrating value involves showcasing how your solution directly addresses their pain points, such as improving course completion rates. Use relevant case studies and metrics that resonate with their specific goals in the education sector.
- What factors influence product decisions in education companies?
- Product decisions in education are influenced by user feedback, market trends, and the need to enhance learner outcomes. Product leads prioritize solutions that align with their strategic goals of increasing engagement and satisfaction among users.
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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