How to Run an Email Campaign Targeting CEOs and VPs of Sales at B2B SaaS Companies in France (2026)

Quick Answer

You built a list of CEOs and VPs of Sales at B2B SaaS companies in France using Origami. Now you need to send them email — and Origami has a built‑in email sequencer, so you don’t switch tools. This guide walks you through segmenting that list, writing a 3‑touch sequence specific to French SaaS leaders (full copy you can steal), and launching it all from inside Origami. You’ll know what response rate to expect and exactly when to tweak your messaging.

If you haven’t built your list yet, first read how to build a list of CEOs and VPs of Sales at B2B SaaS Companies in France. That post covers the exact prompt to use. The rest of this article assumes the list is ready inside your Origami account.

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Step 1 — Build the List in Origami (Quick Recap)

You’ve already done this, but for context, here’s the prompt you likely typed into Origami:

“Find CEOs and VPs of Sales at B2B SaaS companies in France with 50 to 500 employees. Include verified email addresses, direct phone numbers, LinkedIn profiles, and company details like recent funding, tech stack, and HQ location.”

Origami’s AI agent crawls the live web, chains data sources, enriches contacts, and qualifies leads automatically. In minutes you get a prospect list with:

• Full name, current title
• Verified business email and often direct phone
• Company name, size, industry
• Funding rounds, estimated revenue, tools used
• LinkedIn URL, location

If you’re on the free plan (1,000 credits, no credit card), you can generate up to 1,000 contacts before upgrading. Paid plans start at $29/month, and you only pay for the credits you use to enrich leads. The email sequencer itself is included on all paid plans — you don’t pay extra to send sequences.

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Step 2 — Refine and Qualify the List

Your raw list from Origami will be solid, but you should still spend 20 minutes sharpening it. French B2B SaaS execs have particular triggers and disqualifiers.

Filter by company signals

• Recent funding: A Series B or just‑raised Series A means budget for growth tools. Flag these as priority.
• HQ location: Paris, Lyon, Nantes, and Lille often indicate active SaaS hubs. Remote‑first companies with a French legal entity still count.
• Employee growth: Companies that doubled headcount in the last 12 months are hiring sales leaders and expanding pipeline.

Filter by role

• CEO of a company under ~150 people: Still touches revenue. They care about pipeline velocity and sales efficiency. Good target.
• VP of Sales / Head of Sales: Owns the number. Focus on meeting quota, building repeatable process, and scaling the team. Best target if your product accelerates pipeline or conversion.
• Avoid French titles that map to “Account Executive Manager” unless they have true VP authority.

Segmentation for messaging I split the list into two buckets:

1. CEOs at 50–150 employee companies — message about scrappy, capital‑efficient growth.
2. VPs of Sales at 100–500 employee firms — message about team productivity, forecasting, and hitting €XM quotas.

You’ll use slightly different openings in your sequence (I’ll show both).

Remove bad fits

• Companies where your average deal size would be below €5k ARR — too small for a CEO to engage.
• Anyone whose LinkedIn activity shows they’re leaving the company.
• Non‑SaaS tech companies (IT services, agencies) that slipped through.

A clean, segmented list of 200–400 contacts from Origami is worth more than 2,000 unsegmented entries. This step directly impacts reply rates.

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Step 3 — Create the Email Sequence (Full Copy Included)

Origami gives you two ways to build your sequence:

1. Paste your own templates: Write your own 3‑touch sequence and paste the templates into Origami’s sequencer. Set the delays between touches (e.g., Day 1, Day 3, Day 7) and hit “Launch.”
2. Let the AI agent write it: Ask Origami’s AI agent to generate a personalized 3‑day email sequence for all your leads automatically. The agent uses each lead’s profile data — title, company, industry, tools — to tailor every message, so the sequence feels custom at scale. You can still review and edit before sending.

Below I’ll give you a battle‑tested 3‑touch sequence for French B2B SaaS CEOs and VPs of Sales. Use these as your “paste your own” templates or as a starting point before asking the agent to riff on them. The copy is direct, under 100 words per email, and written for a 2026 buyer who already gets 40 cold emails a day.

The 3‑Touch Sequence Framework

• Day 1: Cold opener — specific, no filler
• Day 3: Follow‑up with a proof point or relevant stat
• Day 7: Breakup — final, helpful, zero pressure

All emails are in English. In 2026, English is the lingua franca of French B2B SaaS, especially for VC‑backed companies. If you prefer French, translate these yourself — the structure remains the same.

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Touch 1 — Day 1: Initial Cold Email

Subject line (for CEOs): Quick question on [Company]’s GTM Subject line (for VPs of Sales): [Mutual connection pattern] & your Q3 pipeline

Preview text (both): Taking a different approach to outbound

Body (CEO version — 82 words):

Hi [First Name],

I saw [Company] raised [Round] in [Month] — congrats. Typically that means you’re scaling the go‑to‑market motion fast and trying to avoid headcount bloat.

We help French SaaS companies like [Relevant Example] turn their existing pipeline list into actual conversations, without adding SDRs. The platform finds verified contacts and runs sequences from one place.

Open to a 15‑minute call to see if it fits?

[Your Name]

Body (VP of Sales version — 79 words):

Hi [First Name],

Noticed you’re running a team of [X] reps at [Company]. The challenge I hear from VPs in Paris right now: reps spend 3+ hours a week hunting data instead of selling.

We built Origami to give your team a live, enriched prospect list and a built‑in sequencer — same workflow, zero exporting. Sales leaders we work with see reply rates jump because the targeting is surgical.

Worth a 15‑minute chat?

[Your Name]

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Touch 2 — Day 3: Follow‑Up (Different Angle)

Subject line: Deux pistes Preview text: Without more headcount

Body (CEO — 85 words):

[First Name], quick follow‑up.

Most founders I speak with in Lyon/Nantes are frustrated that outbound tools give them a list but leave them to stitch everything together. They end up juggling three subscriptions.

Origami consolidates list‑building and email sending — the sequencer is included on paid plans, and you only pay for the credits used to enrich contacts. A 50‑person SaaS I work with now runs their entire outbound motion for €150/month.

Does that sound relevant or am I off base?

[Your Name]

Body (VP of Sales — 91 words):

[First Name], touched base on Monday.

You’ve likely tried sequences before. The difference here: Origami doesn’t just scrape — it qualifies leads as they appear, so your open rates stay above 45% because you’re not emailing dead addresses.

One VP in Nantes told me he cut research time by 70% and saw an extra two meetings per rep per week.

If you’d like I can show you the exact list I’d build for [Company] — no call required if you’d rather just see the output.

[Your Name]

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Touch 3 — Day 7: Final Breakup Email

Subject line: Merci / closing the loop Preview text: Final note

Body (works for both — 78 words):

[First Name],

I’ll leave you alone after this.

If you ever want to turn your ideal customer profile into a clean, verified list of French SaaS execs — and then email them from the same tab — Origami takes about five minutes to set up. Free plan gives you 1,000 credits, no card, so you can test the output yourself.

Happy to answer any questions.

[Your Name]

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Customization tip: In every message, Origami can auto‑insert the recipient’s first name, company, and other tokens. You can also add a one‑line personalized snippet based on a recent LinkedIn post or hiring initiative — but keep it light; French execs value directness.

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Step 4 — Send the Sequence Directly from Origami

Once your templates are loaded, you launch the sequence inside Origami — no CSV exporting, no SMTP setup, no third‑party sequencer. The email sequencer is built into the same platform where you created the list. That’s the whole point of the workflow.

Here’s what happens when you hit “Launch”: Origami sends Touch 1 immediately (or at your scheduled time). Then it waits two days, sends Touch 2 only to people who didn’t reply. After another four days, it sends the breakup note. If someone replies at any stage, they automatically exit the sequence — you’ll never accidentally fire a “just checking in” note after they’ve already booked a meeting.

While the sequence runs, everything is visible in one dashboard:

• Opens and clicks: Track who engaged and when.
• Replies: Respond directly from Origami — the prospect’s enriched profile stays on screen so you remember their title, company, and tools they use. No flipping between tabs.
• Un‑enrollment log: See exactly who left the sequence because they replied, bounced, or unsubscribed.

Because you already enriched the contacts with Origami, you’ll also see dynamic fields like tech stack or recent funding alongside activity, which lets you reference relevant context when a lead replies. The sequencer costs nothing extra — it’s included on all paid plans. You’re only paying for the credits that enriched the leads.

What Response Rates to Expect

With a properly segmented list of French B2B SaaS CEOs and VPs, I’ve seen:

• Open rates: 42–55% (healthy inboxes, generous French spam filtering if authenticated)
• Reply rates: 6–14% across three touches (T1: 3–5%, T2: 2–4%, T3: 1–3%)
• Meeting booked rate: 1–4% (high‑intent leads)

These numbers assume your list was built in Origami and you weeded out bad fits. If replies are below 4%, suspect messaging. If opens are below 35%, suspect deliverability or list quality.

When to Iterate on Messaging vs. Iterate on the List

• Low opens across the board: Check sender reputation, sending domain, and subject lines. Try French‑inspired subject lines tested against the same list.
• Good opens, low replies: The pain point in the email isn’t sharp enough. Switch the angle: for CEOs, try an efficiency pitch; for VPs, lead with rep productivity or quota attainment. Keep testing.
• Good replies, no meetings: Your offer doesn’t match their current urgency. Adjust the call‑to‑action to “see a sample list for [Company]” instead of a call.
• Low stats across specific segments: If CEOs of Series‑A companies ignore you while bootstrapped founders reply, rebuild that segment in Origami with tighter filters (e.g., exclude funded companies, add employee count 20–80).

Remember: the sequence itself is free to send, so you can run small tests on 50‑lead segments without burning budget. Use Origami’s AI agent to generate variant templates if you want to A/B test quickly.

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