🎙️ Co-Host of The B2B Playbook | 💭 Bringing Clarity to Demand Generation That Drives Revenue | The 5 BEs Framework

If you're in a small B2B marketing team, I'm guessing you've felt some of these pains:

❌ you're unsure if your brand awareness and thought leadership are getting results
❌ it's hard to show your marketing is making an impact on revenue
❌ you want more engagement with your content from Dream Customers
❌ you are in service of sales
❌ you look for B2B 'hacks' and tactics on sites like Hubspot and LinkedIn
❌ you struggle to get 'buy-in' on your content strategy
❌ your costs on advertising platforms keep going up
❌ you don't have time to document your strategy for your boss

---------------
So how can I help you?
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With our 5 BEs Framework, that shows marketers exactly how to create more demand for your business

Here's what your life looks like after implementing it:
✔️ you have higher intent leads
✔️ you have faster sales cycles
✔️ you have more word of mouth and brand loyalty

Not to mention the other benefits:
✅ you have a system to build relationships at scale, and know how to demonstrate it's working
✅ you are able to show how demand generation wins you more business
✅ you build a community that will vouch for you
✅ sales love you as you send them more qualified buyers
✅ you have all the strategy and tactics you need
✅ you move beyond just 'thought leadership', and experts outside the marketing department help you create content
✅ your entire b2b demand generation strategy is documented for your boss

------------

So! Here's 2 ways you can use The 5 BEs Framework

1/
👉 Listen to The B2B Playbook podcast 🎙️

https://the-b2b-playbook.captivate.fm/listen

2/ 
👉 Get the strategy, tools & templates you need to generate new demand for your business

https://theb2bincubator.com/

Questions?

👉🏼 Shoot me a DM

George Coudounaris

Huge news - Kevin Chen and I are finally recording The B2B Playbook in-person! 
We also re-recorded our intro to reflect the evolution of the show. No longer is it just about B2B marketing - 

We're now covering how that connects to sales, customer success, product - and how each department can work together to align their revenue functions. 

This is an important move from us, and is one that has come from so many conversations with our audience. Marketers are always TRYING to to do their best - but there is so much misalignment in an organisation that means their best efforts are hamstrung 

So now when we discuss B2B marketing,
We can do it with the lens of how it fits in with the rest of the revenue function 

I feel this is an important step to build the bridge between marketers --> sales --> chief revenue / commercial officer

---

SO if you're interested in B2B marketing,
And the role it plays in the wider revenue team

OR

If you just want to make fun of our ugly mugs from 3 different camera angles

Follow The B2B Playbook, and subscribe so you don't miss an ep!

Sam Dunning went from 50k/mo to 200k/mo in 1 year. We run his LinkedIn Ads strategy - and most enquiries mention they found him on LinkedIn. Here’s how we helped get him there (and how we’ll help get to 400k/mo  this year):

BACKGROUND

Sam knew that LinkedIn was a key place he was reaching new potential clients organically with his content - but with the algorithm always changing and limiting reach, he knew LinkedIn Ads would be key to scale to the next level.

WHAT WE DID 

(1) We forced Sam to get brutally clear on his ICP 

With a very limited budget to start (1.2k/mo), we weren’t going to rely on LinekdIn’s native filters. We wanted a TIGHT company list that matched his ICP of B2B SaaS companies he serves best. 

So we got him to answer:
• Who are your best clients? 
• Who gets the most value?
• Which companies do you want more of? 

Turned that into firmographic filters, pulled a list, looked through it manually - so we knew we were getting in front of the right companies from Day 1. 
 
(2) Thought Leadership Ads became the growth engine

Across all our clients we’ve been seeing very strong results from Thought Leadership Ads. Its high engagement rates mean that you get better bang for your buck, and is a great place to start.

(Sam’s engagement rates are at 8-15%) 

But we don’t just boost any content. 

Before we started,
We mapped Sam’s best performing posts to the 5 Stages of Awareness

• Stages 1-3 → cold audiences
• Stages 3-5 → warm audiences

Then filled any content gaps.

Next step: every post needed a CTA.

Early-stage posts link to helpful resources.
Later-stage posts push toward booking a call.

Result?

Thought Leadership Ads consistently hit engagement rates as high as 15%, which meant Sam was everywhere his buyers looked.

Since then, we’ve layered in:

• Company page ads so Breaking B2B grows beyond Sam’s face
• Amplifying partner and client posts talking about working with Sam

So the brand scales, not just the founder.
 
(3) Constant Optimisation of Thought Leadership Ads

We judge the top performing Thought Leadership Ads by looking at:
• Engagement rate
• Cost per landing page click (a custom metric not available in platform)
• New subscribers
• High intent pages
• Calls booked

And we have a tight feedback loop with Sam on what’s landing to closed-won. 
 
(4) Acknowledge the reality of the buying journey 

Most prospects aren’t in-market today. Many have an SEO vendor they’re probably not seeing value from. 

Others are getting their business to the point where they can finally invest in SEO. 

With Sam, we help stay top of mind. So when they’re ready, they come straight to him. 
 
—

What’s next as Sam pushes toward his stretch goal?

• Upload a new company list to double audience size
• Increase spend to scale reach
• Scale top-performing ads into the expanded audience
• Grow company page ads so demand scales beyond the founder
 
Follow along as Sam and I share results from The B2B Playbook !

Last year we outranked Hubspot, Cognism and other monsters with SEO in just 67 days... driving pipeline and closed-deals for our demand gen course The B2B Incubator. And when I say "we" - I mean Sam Dunning did it for us. 

Time to see if he can help us do it again. Here’s Sam's battle-plan to scale inquiries from SEO/AEO in record time:

BACKGROUND.

We worked together a year back and outranked Hubspot driving pipeline and revenue in 67 days for ‘demand generation course’ and similar keywords. Now for The B2B Playbook we want to ramp inquiries for our core paid media services offerings to B2B SaaS. So Sam and the Breaking B2B team have crafted an aggressive plan to get SEO and LLM visibility and drive inbounds from high-intent dream clients as quick as humanly possible. 

Sharing it with you here. 
Lets dive in.


NET NEW CONTENT

Landing pages.

Focused on driving high intent leads from people needing our solutions.
Following problem, agitation solution framework. Plenty of social proof and FAQs to answer real sales call Qs.

- google ads agency for b2b (1.3k searches/mo)
- b2b meta ads agency (10 searches/mo)
- demand generation agency (1.5k searches/mo)
- linkedin ads agency

Listicle articles.

Sam tells us these rank super well in classic organic search and get pulled from like crazy in LLMs and AI search to get brand mentions. We'll include a quick summary + shortlist, larger comparison table above main list, at least 11 options, consistent subsections for each agency section, position us as #1 backed by customer research sharing pricing, differentiator, social proof and where we are a great and poor fit.

- best linkedin ads agencies for b2b (300 searches/mo)
- b2b saas marketing agencies (700 searches/mo)
- best google ads agencies [for b2b] (100 searches/mo)
- best demand generation agencies (350 searches/mo)


UPDATE EXISTING CONTENT

Landing page:
- linkedin ads agency

Turn the social proof under the hero into a slider with multiple images and intro with an H3 like “Real Results from Our LinkedIn Ads Clients.”

Add a customer testimonial block under “What to expect from our LinkedIn Ads Agency.” H2 something like “Hear From Our Clients”

Listicle article: 
- b2b marketing courses

Add shortlist table + adjust the title tag (cut “the ultimate list of” and make it “13+ best…”). Add any other options that make sense. Update last published date (LLMs often pull from fresh, relevant content).


EARN BACKLINKS

DA50+ niche relevant backlinks for:

- b2b linkedIn ads agency 
- linkedIn ads agency for b2b
- linkedin ads
- the b2b playbook linkedin ads agency
- Linkedin ads agency

We'll ramp up external listicle placements and backlinks again next month once all the net new content is written and published.

Follow along as Sam Dunning and I share learnings and results!

Anything we're missing in this plan?

It's time for us to get expert help with YouTube. At 1,506 subscribers, it's been a key touchpoint for new business at The B2B Playbook - and it has offset some of the reduced organic reach we're seeing from LinkedIn.

Step in Samu Kovács 

With Samu's help, we want to grow:
+ The velocity of new subscribers (currently 50 in last 28d)
+ The amount of business generated from YouTube

Currently our posting schedule is 4x 45min videos (episodes from The B2B Playbook) each week. 

With Samu's help, 
We're going to cut some best moments into 2x 10-15min clips for those who don't want to sit through the whole thing

It will also hopefully allow our video to rank for more, relevant terms. 

He's also helping us:
• increase the production quality of our video (more engaging intros, 3x camera angles)
• overlaying graphics and explainers
• ensuring we have clear CTAs  
• Improving our thumbnails for better CTR

And he's helping us do this across our agency services and educational programs. 

Of course making these the natural conclusion of our content - without selling. 

It's super important to us that we cover topics that our audience genuinely cares about, instead of just chasing volume. 

---

P.S. next steps I gotta fix that lighting in the background, and change the picture frames to be our lines of business instead!

And the screen in the background should have our logo on it. 

Follow along The B2B Playbook to see how we go! Will be sharing learnings along the way.

I've had 3 people separately DM this to me today - 
Our demand gen / B2B marketing course being recommended organically in the Exit Five community

Best of all - 

The recommendations are from people who joined the program, some who paid out of their own pocket - and others who had their company pay for them. 

We've had over 310+ B2B marketers now go through the program, and we're striving to make it better and better every cohort. 

Yes there are other options out there

But if you're looking for:
• a program that helps you take action, not just learn theory
• small cohorts with hands on advice, and live Q&As
• a toolkit to keep with you for your career

That's where we put our energy into - and we might just be the right fit for you

If you're looking to upskill, check it out below! Next cohort is launching end of February

----

(P.S. a huge thank you to our alumni community organically spreading the good word!)

Most B2B companies wait until the RFP to start gathering intel.
 
By then, it's too late to influence the outcome.
 
Actually, even if you don't work in RFP-driven markets, the principle still applies.
 
𝗬𝗼𝘂'𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝘂𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀, 𝗼𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝘁.
 
This is the Sales & Marketing Feedback Loop we use at Chief Revenue School - a continuous validation system that runs throughout the customer lifecycle.
 
𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝗵𝗼𝘄 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀:
 
→ Market Intel feeds the Catalogue (who they're with, what they like/don't like, what they'd change)
 
→ Leadership gains Strategic Visibility and can actually forecast based on real pipeline movement
 
→ Existing/Previous Customers provide the proof points that inform positioning
 
→ Delivery & Ops turns promises into reality (which feeds back into intel)
 
→ "Are They Worth It?" ensures you're qualifying on actual contract value, not vanity metrics
 
𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗺 𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀:
 
Even without an RFP process, this loop tells you when prospects are genuinely ready to buy, what messaging will resonate, which objections will come up, and what your delivery team needs to prepare for.
 
You're not waiting for a buying committee to form. You're learning what would make them form one in the first place.
 
You learn:
 
• What they actually care about
• What they're frustrated with
• When they'd realistically move
• What needs to be in the winning proposal (or pitch, or demo, or contract)

Plus permission to circle back at the right time. 
 
This is one framework from our upcoming book Closed Circuit Selling : Architect Predictable Revenue in an Unpredictable Market (out soon with Adem Manderovic)

You'll learn all about EXACTLY how Adem did this across industry sector to break national sales records

I wish I had Luke Winter's framework for being funny in B2B when I recorded season 1 of The B2B Playbook. I find it so painful to go back and listen to our foundational episodes - 

Because I thought it was important to try and share a bit of my personal life with the audience and make the laugh, or at least smile. 

So i'd start each episode with a 'bit' 
Letting loose a little slice of my internal Larry David 

And listening back now it's pretty cringe. 

I guess I was kind of on the right path - because humour is a very viable strategy to stand out and be remembered - even in B2B

Luke and his clients at Deadpan 💀 🎬 are proof of it

and he has a KILLER framework for actually being funny
(Luke thinks he's not funny himself - it's his framework he leans on - which I love) 

---

Watch the full episode from The B2B Playbook to get all the juicy details and tips (it was originally from our Full Circle Conference so there's loads of examples)

But some really key takeaways are:
• The B2B ads that work aren’t clever for the sake of it. They reflect something buyers already recognise. 
• A frustration they deal with weekly. 
• A situation they’ve complained about internally. 
• Something that makes them think, “Yep, that’s exactly it.”

When you do that:
• You earn attention earlier
• You build familiarity before demand exists

We talk about:
• Why showmanship matters before salesmanship
• Why one-off campaigns disappear but series compound
• How to use comedy frameworks without damaging credibility

And why “looking professional” is no longer enough

---

Watch, listen or READ the full episode below (available with slides)

Why don’t marketing’s leads close?

This question comes up in most B2B teams I speak to.

Sales says the leads are bad.
Marketing says the leads are fine. Blames Sales for not chasing hard enough

Everyone’s busy.
Pipeline looks full.
Revenue still misses.

Here's the reality (which makes sense when you think about it) 👇

Roughly 95% of your market isn’t in a buying window at any given time.
Only about 5% are actually ready.

But we treat every lead like they’re in that 5%.

So what happens?

• Form fills get treated as buying intent
• Sales + Marketing activity gets mistaken for progress
• Marketing keeps guessing timing
  
It puts the two departments against each other, and means that any intelligence gathered from one isn't passed onto the other. 

My view?

👉 The timing question can’t be answered by marketing alone.
It MUST get answered through 1:1 sales conversations.

Sales is the only function that can reliably learn:
– who’s actually in-market
– who’s not
– and what it would take to win

-----

It's not that the leads are bad. 

It's that we're trying to make people buy who are just not ready.

Why don't Revenue Leaders trust their pipeline anymore? 
Across the board, leaders are seeing deals slip, forecasts move, and close dates magically reset. 

To unpack what's really going on, 

I sat down with Phil Cleary - 21+ years at Salesforce, and someone who’s coached revenue teams across APAC for over a decade.

He’s seen every cycle.

Boom. Bust. AI hype. SaaS explosion. Cost-cutting waves.

It’s how buyer psychology and seller behaviour have shifted - and how most revenue systems haven’t caught up.

A few things we unpacked:

• Why FOMU (fear of messing up) is stronger than FOMO right now
• Why fake pipeline is often a measurement problem
• The 2x2 coaching model every sales leader should use
• Why “software with a service” is the future
• And why you are your calendar

One line from Phil stuck with me:

He questioned the “realness of the pipeline… how much of it is fabricated.”

Not fabricated through dishonesty.
Fabricated through optimism.

That means moving deals through stages without real proof, or confidence in deals that's unfounded.

Most revenue enablement strategy tries to fix this with better skills.

i.e.
Better discovery.
Sharper messaging.
More inspection.

But if the system doesn’t force you to answer basic viability questions, like who’s driving it, why now, what would stop it, what success actually looks like - instability keeps resurfacing.

---

Phil Cleary and Adem Manderovic go into why this isn't just a training issue, but an architectural one. 

If you’re leading sales, marketing or revenue right now and forecast calls feel heavier than they used to, this one’s worth a listen on The B2B Playbook 

---

Check it out below!

B2B Marketers - you don't need that new 'playbook' that's comment-gated on LinkedIn... THe biggest impact is going to come from applying the fundamentals with structure, clarity, and confidence. The only issue is,

Most marketers never get the time to do it, because we're stuck on the hamster wheel. 

And the best time to do that planning for 2026 is now
Everyone is back in action - and its time to build the strategy, get buy-in on it, and start executing

That’s why now’s the perfect time to work on the fundamentals most marketers never get around to:

+ Building and documenting your demand gen system
+ Aligning your strategy with sales and leadership
+ Setting up a repeatable framework you can actually scale

That’s exactly what The B2B Incubator is built for.

It’s a 6-week demand generation program designed to help you:
✅ Build and document your demand engine step-by-step
✅ Apply proven frameworks and templates directly in your company
✅ Get expert feedback and accountability so you’re not building in isolation

You’ll build alongside a small group of like-minded B2B marketers,
with live Q&As for guidance, collaboration, and support.
And you’ll walk away with a firm plan to execute in 2026 and tools to do it

(not just ideas)

Over 310+ marketers have completed the program so far.
Some now with their revenue team drive 70–80% of pipeline and have tripled qualified opportunities from the systems they built during it.

(And that's 'real' pipeline, with timing validated - not fake pipeline to inflate numbers. Of course, nothing happens in a vacuum — revenue’s a team sport.)

If you’re responsible for demand generation and want to:

+ Build a strategy you can point to
+ Create a system you can explain
+ And start 2026 with clarity, alignment, and momentum

👉 Details and application link are down below for cohort launching end of Feb

Spots are capped at 10 marketers per group.

Check it out below! 

#b2b #demandgeneration #marketingstrategy

Demand Generation Course with Live Q&As - The B2B Incubato

Drew Brucker

Marketer / 4 Under 40 / Midjourney Expert / Novel brand & creative direction for brands who want to leverage AI

I’m a brand and content leader turned AI creative consultant, keynote speaker, and trainer. 

I’ve spent 13+ years scaling early-to-mid stage B2B SaaS companies, launching products, building teams, and driving $150M+ in marketing-sourced revenue. I’m an American Marketing Association 4 Under 40 marketer, a Top 1% LinkedIn creator, and I’ve grown a community of 110K+ followers across social channels.

In 2023, I went solo to help brands create, operationalize, and scale on-brand visuals with AI. I design end-to-end creative systems, playbooks, prompts, and workflows that make high-quality visuals fast, repeatable, and unmistakably on-brand.

My digital products on AI image generation have surpassed six-figures in sales and are used by practitioners from 97+ countries across the globe. 

Past/current clients include: Pinterest, Meta, WPP, Marriott, Brooklyn Nets, Buddy, RealPage, Indiewalls, and others, where I do anything from creative/art direction, hands-on workshops, visual production pipelines, and creative team upskilling.

I also co-host Midjourney Fast Hours, a weekly podcast for marketers and creatives exploring the visual AI arena. 

My mission: help modern brands earn mindshare with visuals that travel...distinct, systemized, and built to scale.

Fractional CMO & Creative Consultant

Currently helping brands in the following areas:
❑ Marketing and GTM—strategy + execution (b2b SaaS)
❑ Midjourney workshops & speaking engagements
❑ Content, storytelling, and design
❑ Brand + art direction

**Three hours before a client meeting, I had nothing.**

Just a rough sketch I'd scribbled on a napkin. In other words, the kind of thing you'd normally follow with, "I'll have something to you by Thursday."

I didn't say that.

Instead, I opened Figma Make, described what I needed, and watched that puny little napkin sketch become a clickable prototype in four minutes.

Yep, four minutes.

It had working buttons and real navigation. Even interactions that felt intentional and tangible.

I shared it with the client.

They spent 15 minutes clicking through it testing examples, running flows, and giving feedback.

At one point, someone asked how long it had taken to build. When I told them, they didn't believe me.

Here's what that moment clarified for me...

For years, the hardest part of design has been making something real enough to show. There's always been a days/weeks gap between the idea in your head and the thing on someone's screen.

And in that gap, ideas get questioned and heavily diluted. Hell, even lost, because they’re essentially invisible ideas.

The best idea in the world means nothing until someone can touch it.
I love how Figma Make closes that gap.

You can instantly stop being the person who describes solutions and instead become the person who demonstrates them. Which is a very different kind of authority.

Think about what that means practically.

↳ The VP who used to derail your reviews with vague concerns? They can tap through the prototype themselves. Now their feedback becomes specific, and specific feedback is solvable.
↳ The engineer who used to fire off five clarifying questions can now click through the flow. They see the loading state, the error message, the exact transition. It gets rid of the guessing and back-and-forth.
↳ The meeting where someone says, "I think users would do this"? Put it in front of them. They either get it or they don't. And if they don't, you find out now while it's still cheap to fix.

The gap between idea and proof used to be one of the most expensive parts of the design process.

It doesn't have to be anymore. And that’s an incredible thing.

You can try here: https://lnkd.in/eHHQ3nVV
#FigmaPartner

AI Creative Consultant and Hired Gun / I help brands {create, operationalize, scale} on-brand visuals with AI / Host of Midjourney Fast Hours Podcast

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The Battle

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