Cold email agency for software companies
Sales.co runs done-for-you cold email for software and infrastructure vendors whose buyer is an enterprise IT department. Between March and August 2026, 48,045 people at companies with more than 500 employees got a first cold email from campaigns on the Sales.co platform. Of them, 38 replied positively, one in 1,264. At companies of up to 500 employees the rate was 0.31%.
How people at large companies answer cold email
The unit is the contact: one person who got a first cold email from one of 20 B2B campaigns on the Sales.co platform between March 6 and August 31, 2026, with replies counted up to October 9, 2026. The campaigns sold different products and services, so the tables show how these people answer B2B cold email in general. A positive reply is one where the person shows interest, asks a question, asks to be contacted later or refers a colleague.
| Recipient's company | Contacts | Replied in person | Positive reply | Positive rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All contacts in the 20 campaigns | 336,257 | 2,830 | 975 | 0.29% |
| Up to 500 employees | 276,742 | 2,510 | 861 | 0.31% |
| More than 500 employees | 48,045 | 132 | 38 | 0.08% |
One campaign supplied 12,400 of the 48,045 contacts (26%) and 1 of the 38 positive replies, a rate of 0.01%. The other 16 campaigns together got 37 from 35,645, or 0.10%.
More than 500 employees, by department
| Department | Contacts | Replied in person | Positive reply | Positive rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Executive | 7,784 | 38 | 17 | 0.22% |
| IT | 1,057 | 4 | 1 | 0.09% |
| Engineering | 845 | 8 | 0 | 0.00% |
| Operations | 11,599 | 24 | 5 | 0.04% |
| Marketing | 12,530 | 21 | 3 | 0.02% |
| Finance | 2,371 | 5 | 1 | 0.04% |
| Other departments | 11,859 | 32 | 11 | 0.09% |
The IT department at these companies is 1,057 contacts with 1 positive reply, and engineering 845 with 0. Nobody signs alone at this size, so Sales.co builds the list as a committee and contacts its members separately: the CIO or CTO, the director of IT who lives with the incumbent, the enterprise architect, IT procurement and the security reviewer.
More than 500 employees, by seniority
| Level | Contacts | Replied in person | Positive reply | Positive rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C-level | 8,093 | 22 | 6 | 0.07% |
| VP | 5,828 | 12 | 2 | 0.03% |
| Director | 18,567 | 52 | 16 | 0.09% |
| Manager | 8,036 | 20 | 2 | 0.02% |
| Other levels | 7,521 | 26 | 12 | 0.16% |
More than 500 employees, by company size
| Employees at the recipient's company | Contacts | Replied in person | Positive reply | Positive rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 501 to 1,000 | 17,095 | 62 | 15 | 0.09% |
| 1,001 to 5,000 | 21,124 | 48 | 14 | 0.07% |
| 5,001 and up | 9,826 | 22 | 9 | 0.09% |
Replacement windows run one to three years and the date is not public. For these accounts Sales.co reports on meetings and account coverage, not on replies in week two. A product bought by one department head on a card is a different motion, covered on the SaaS page.
The numbers as a file: cold-email-software-companies-2026.csv. The all-contact figures and the method are in the cold email conversion rate benchmarks.
Who Sales.co emails for a software company selling to enterprise IT
| Segment | Who gets the email |
|---|---|
| CIO and CTO | The budget holder for anything that touches the whole estate |
| VP Infrastructure, director of IT | Lives with the incumbent and knows what it costs to run |
| Enterprise architect | Owns whether the product fits the reference architecture |
| IT procurement | Rarely replies to a cold email and still decides the timeline |
| The security reviewer | Arrives after the first meeting with a questionnaire |
Installed technology is the most useful filter for this buyer. A stack list is a targeting signal, not a buying signal. More on this vertical: the Sales.co software companies page.
Lists the campaigns are built from
| List | Contacts | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Companies Using SAP | 38,000 | Large estates with a long integration surface. Relevant if you sell into, around or against an ERP. |
| Companies Using Workday | 15,000 | An HR and finance system of record, and a marker of company size and process maturity. |
| Companies Using Snowflake | 8,500 | A data platform in production means a data team with budget. The tightest list of the four for infrastructure vendors. |
| SaaS Companies | 52,000 | For vendors whose customers are other software companies: developer tooling, observability, infrastructure. |
| Hardware Startups | 4,788 | Small and specific. Useful for firmware, device management and anything hardware-adjacent. |
A company running SAP has an integration problem a vendor may solve. The list says nothing about whether its contract is up.
A comparison of vendors for this vertical: best IT lead generation companies.
Sales.co plans
| Plan | Emails per month | Price | Setup fee | Term |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | Up to 10,000 | $2,000/mo | None | Month-to-month |
| 15,000 | Up to 15,000 | $2,500/mo | None | Month-to-month |
| 20,000 | Up to 20,000 | $3,000/mo | None | Month-to-month |
Add-ons on any plan: cold calls +$1,500/mo, ads +$1,000/mo, LinkedIn +$1,000/mo. Every plan includes both tracks, TAM Takeover and Intent Takeover. The fee covers strategy, list building, a unique email for every prospect, the sending domains and mailboxes, follow-up on every positive reply, a US account strategist and live dashboards. Sending starts within 7 days. Full pricing.
Questions
Does cold email work for selling software to enterprises?
One sequence rarely opens the account: 38 of 48,045 contacts at companies with more than 500 employees replied positively, one in 1,264. At companies of up to 500 employees it was 0.31%.
Who at a large company answers a cold email?
The executive department replied positively 0.22% of the time (17 of 7,784), more than any other. Marketing replied positively 3 times out of 12,530.
What does it cost?
Sales.co charges $2,000/mo for up to 10,000 emails, $2,500 for 15,000 and $3,000 for 20,000, month-to-month with no setup fee.
How fast does a campaign start?
Sending starts within 7 days at Sales.co.
Reply data from the Sales.co sending platform, read October 9, 2026: first emails sent March 6 to August 31, 2026 in 20 campaigns. Targeting and list counts from the Sales.co software companies page. Pricing from sales.co/pricing, October 9, 2026. Report a change: contact.
Other industries: fintech companies · IT services firms and MSPs · recruiters and staffing firms · manufacturers · marketing agencies · seed-stage SaaS startups · cybersecurity companies · healthcare companies · logistics companies · professional services firms · consulting firms
Related: Conversion rate benchmarks · Best cold email agency for B2B · List building · Reply management · Domains and warmup