Manuel Hartmann

Founder & CEO@SalesPlaybook | Build & scale B2B sales without trial & error

Transforming B2B SaaS Sales in the DACH Region

With over 5 years of experience, I built SalesPlaybook from CHF0 to 30k MRR in under 18 months and scaled it to a 7-figure annual revenue with fewer than 6 FTEs. I’ve supported 300+ B2B SaaS and Professional Service Entrepreneurs to:
- Achieve EUR 0-10 Mio. ARR in under 3 years profitably
- Accelerate ARR growth by over 5x from 0-1 Mio. in less than 18 months
- Close 10-50x larger deals through Message-Market-Fit & Value Selling
- Implement & optimize HubSpot Sales Hub & Outbound Sales from scratch

Career Highlights:
- 2009: Launched sales career with 3-figure NPO donations
- 2012: Reached 6-figure sales with sportscars@Tesla
- 2014-2016: Led 7-figure CRM transformations@Accenture
- 2017-2019: Managed 5-figure AI SaaS@Onedot
- Present: Driving 5-figure deals@SalesPlaybook

What I Offer:
- Pipeline Generation: Developing and executing strategies to build robust sales pipelines.
- Sales Enablement: Equipping sales teams with the tools and training needed for success.
- HubSpot Services: Comprehensive implementation and optimization of HubSpot CRM

Personal Interests: 
- I’m an avid UFC fan, active (kick)boxer, snowboarder, and musician (piano + e-guitar). 
- I enjoy taking on challenges like writing a book in under 30 days or completing 1,000 push-ups

Education: Master’s Degree in Business Innovation from HSG with MBA Exchange in Canada

Let’s connect if: 
- You're a B2B entrepreneur looking to scale sales quickly, efficiently & without 6-figure mistakes
- You identify as a Top 1% talent on hunger & drive, urgent curiosity, intelligence & integrity

Founder & CEO

Join 220+ customers to build & scale sales with the #1 B2B SaaS Startup Sales Journey Partner in DACH.

All the expert sales help you need to fast forward your B2B SaaS Startup.

👉 Book a 1:1 Sales Assessment Call: https://thesalesplaybook.com/bookacall
👉 Get proven hands-on sales resources: https://thesalesplaybook.com/resources
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Track Record:
❖ 0-2M booked ARR in <15 months by finding message-market-fit in <9 months (boostbar)
❖ 0-7 figure ARR in <12 months by hitting message-market fit, setting up outbound sales engine & more (Kyan Health)
❖ 0-7 figure ARR in <18 months by hitting message-market-fit, building outbound sales & training first sales hires (Archlet)
❖ >10 projects to 50+ subscriptions to exit after building outbound sales from 0 (Airica)
❖ 0-2M+ ARR in <18 months by building a sales team from scratch (rready)
❖ 5x MRR by building scalable sales & hiring first sales rep (Turbit)
❖ Ramp 5 SDRs to quota in less than 3 months (Beekeeper)
❖ 4x annual revenue after closing 700k deal with Fortune 500 company by leveraging value-selling (novoMOF)
❖ 2x MRR in 6 months by niching down on Ideal Customer Profile (Houston & Ko)
❖ 370k+ deal closed through hands-on support, approaching 7-figure revenue (56k.Cloud)
❖ 2x ARR in 9 months by 10x'ing ACV by 10x, winning 100K+ deals & hitting 90% reply rates (Classtime)
❖ 2x MRR in 3 months, from 5-10k deals to EUR 150k contract, hitting 30% booking rates (wowflow)
❖ 2x MRR in 6 months from group coaching sessions & more (Houston & Ko)
❖ 250k ARR deal closed by changing their positioning & negotiation approach (Linimex)
❖ <5% to 80% opening and 30%+ reply rates on scalable outbound sales (TRESIO)
❖ 2x MRR in 6 months by niching down on Ideal Customer Profile (Houston & Ko)

What happened when the Founder CEO of a 7-figure agency (me) has been on paternity leave for 10 weeks straight...

First, finishing Q4 >10% ABOVE ambitious booking targets.
With me gone for all of November + December 2025.
Yes, I wrote a 10 page Sales Enablement GDoc.
No, it was not what helped most to succeed.
What really helped was qualified pipeline.
And indeed a rockstar team of "Drivers".

Second, "Drivers Only" is 1 of our 3 Core Values.
It includes to take charge, to lead, to take action.
Every single team member did that, proactively, WITHOUT ME.
Or my huge ego aside, probably a lot more than with me working.

Third, it proved that SalesPlaybook is resilient and operating well.
"If the company needs you all the time, it is not worth much".
(Most agencies work only if the founder works.)
Wise words from our board a while ago.
Glad we're directionally correct here.

Fourth, it seems it gave both the team and me perspective.
That "Manu & Manual processes" do not matter THAT much."
That the team is allowed, able & willing to take decisions alone.
That I contribute positive impact, but it is not critical for survival.

Thank you Florian Lussi Miltos S. Erik Steffen Eric Mattner Erik Plischke Luke Schneider Diego Sosa Fabian Geissler Matteo Treichl Christoph Karger Alen Cerovina Constantin-Alexandre Papadopoulos Jan Fischer for making the above happen + also Jeremias Meier Patrick Trümpi Lars Mangelsdorf Julius Göllner Timo Mueller for your support.

Now truly looking forward to scale sales quickly again here.
I've never been more confident in SalesPlaybook success.
Still Day 1.

Helping DACH B2B software firms to scale sales quickly, efficiently & without 6-figure mistakes with done-for-you pipeline generation, fractional sales & HubSpot services.

After 3 years on Salesforce, this B2B software firm completely moved to HubSpot for Marketing, Sales & Customer Success in <3 months.

Like most companies, they were hesitant at first.

Because CRM migrations are notorious for:
- Misaligned processes with low adoption
- Broken data and data quality issues
- Low adoption and frustrated teams

Here’s what the client appreciated with SalesPlaybook
- A structured, hands-on migration approach from start to finish
- Clear mapping and adaptation of Salesforce processes into HubSpot
- Deep HubSpot, Software & GTM expertise, not generic CRM consulting

CRM migrations do not work with "good morning, go-live & goodbye."
They require onboarding, training, and continuous optimization.
So revenue teams do not get a new CRM.
They get to buy back their time.
And scale sales quickly.

One line from the client that stuck with me from this 5-Star Review:

“We switched to HubSpot and are not looking back.”

I have never seen a CxO say "I miss Salesforce...".

👉 “Considering a Salesforce → HubSpot switch this year?”

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How to grow impressions by +8‘000% & members reached by +15‘000%:


Post 0 for 10 weeks while on paternity leave. 

Then post reasonably valuable content. 

Sounds feasible for most CxOs here. 

Just not happening a lot.

Due to capacity or fear. 

👉 Share below?

Vertrauen im Vertrieb ist die neue Währung. Nicht Technologie. Nicht Budget.
Wer in B2B "kaufen lassen" will in 2026, muss eines verstehen:
Ohne Vertrauen kein Meeting. Ohne Meeting kein Umsatz.
Das gilt in DACH noch 10x mehr als in den USA.
Hier ein paar unbequeme Wahrheiten:

1. Kunden, die Dich nicht kennen, kaufen nicht.
- Vertrauen ist die Eintrittskarte in den Entscheidungsprozess.
- >70% der B2B Software-Deals scheitern nicht an der API-Doku.
- Sondern am als zu hoch empfundenen Risiko des Buying Centers.

„𝘞𝘦𝘯𝘯 𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘥𝘢𝘴 𝘬𝘢𝘶𝘧𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘴 𝘨𝘦𝘩𝘵 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘧  𝘩𝘢𝘣𝘦 𝘪𝘤𝘩 𝘬𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘯 𝘑𝘰𝘣 𝘮𝘦𝘩𝘳.“ 
Das ist die stille Angst auf der anderen Seite.
Nicht, ob Du jetzt CHF 30 oder 50k willst.

2. Vertrauen ≠ Reichweite.
- Niemand kauft, weil Du "laut, VC-backed & 10x" bist.
- Kunden kaufen, weil Du ihr Problem besser löst als sie selbst.
- Dafür brauchst Du Relevanz und Tiefe, nicht Likes & Clickbait.

3. Vertrauen muss skalierbar werden.
- Heute: LinkedIn Content, Case Studies, E-Books.
- Früher: Persönliche Beziehungen, Netzwerke, Messen.
- Auch Heute: Software + AI, um früher zeitlich möglich zu machen

Wenn Du Aufbau & Skalierung von Vertrauen heute nicht systematisiert?

Kannst Du morgen im 2026 Sales nicht skalieren ("ohne sauteure Leute").

Most "AI GTM B2B SaaS" in 2026 is too much, too confusing.
Ocean.io is one of the few that consistently just f***ing works.

I've been 10+ years in the GTM Tooling space (Salesforce in 2012...).
But I struggle to understand what "the market leaders" do.
Salesforce, Apollo, Gong, ZoomInfo, 6Sense etc?
Those stopped working for <500 FTE firms.

Here’s why I love "niche" solutions like Ocean.io :

It does ONE job really, really well:

“Show me companies that look like my best customer.”

That’s it. Not 14 features, 9 use cases and 3 clouds.

If let's say Personio is your #1 customer. 
Just type in Personio. Get 14,000 lookalikes.
Filter for DACH + 50–200 FTEs. Get 60 real prospects.

That’s who you should call in January 2026.
Not some inflated number from an SDR scraping LinkedIn.

We do not need more "GTM Tech."

We need a few tools that help us execute.

Daniel Ryan 🐨 is also one of the friendliest humans I know.
So just chat him up if it seems useful?

("Disclaimer": Yes, we use ocean.io with almost all our clients.)

Switzerland "Scaled paternity leave 5x" in 2021.
From 2 to 10 days for dads welcoming a new family member... 😐️ 
Don't know how this is supposed to welcome a new family member. 

For context, I took 10 weeks off from late October 2025 to early January 2026.
(That is still <50% of what my wife has been taking off for both our sons!)

As a Founder CEO of a 7-figure agency, I "get" some of the concerns.

1/ "But the company needs me to run the firm."
SalesPlaybook is still at <20 FTEs, so yes, a challenge for small firm.
But even more motivation to "raise" your team to function without you?
And for the 2025-minded ones - is this not the same for women as well?

2/ "The dad can anyways contribute 0 to the family in the first months."
I completely disagree here - even if it is "unpleasant & inconvenient".
Yes, I don't give milk (Matteo argues my boobs are too small.)
Yes, I can even give milk via a bottle, and carry Alessio.
But most of all, I can help my spouse to recover well.

3/ "Clients want to see the Founder CEO all the time".
Honestly, not at all in my experience - with a great team.
"How can I get less Manu & more Luke", one client asked me.
"Just sign this 6-figure quote here & you're great to go."
The client DID sign the 6-figure deal on the spot.
Still want to have lunch with him.
Because I want, not need to.

4/ "But it has always been that way - women nurture, men work".
Now you lost me, like completely. Common, it is 2026 now. 
Even if Switzerland only approved women to vote in 1971.
Besides losing out on 50% of the potential workforce.
Every human deserves to fulfill their work potential.
If the person wants & commits to it indeed.

Now if you are an (aspiring) young dad reading this:
- I do not judge you if you work 7 days a week, 8am-10pm
- I do not judge you if you do not work at all and stay home
- Just please don't claim "I'd love to, but.......<excuses 1-4>?

Zylon had 39k+ GitHub stars in <2 years with PrivateGPT.
Backed by top-tier VCs, but without a revenue engine.
Here's step-by-step how they fixed it to 5x revenue.

1. Built their first enterprise sales motion
- ICP: NOT (anymore) "everybody that cannot use ChatGPT"
- 3-5 Specific niches: Credit unions, local banks, academia
- Clear buyer journey stages, fast follow-ups, playbooks
- Hands-on sales call reviews & coachings from experts

2. Converted traction into pipeline
- Increased sales velocity with improving message-market-fit
- From “GitHub stars” to "great enterprise contracts"
- Matured early inbound into recurring customers

3. Professionalized LinkedIn Brand Building
- Go from posting 2x/month to 2x/week
- Founder-first Point of Views from real experience
- Viral hits with > 1 Mio. impressions & 1'000+ engagements

4. Prepared & hired their first GTM professional
- Invested a lot into "Right Person, Right Seat, Right Enablement"
- Found & hired a top sales rep that "did it before" in their field
- Helped founders be ready to delegate without losing control

Look, there is no "Silver Bullet" to scale sales quickly in 2026.
But there is a right sequence of doing the right things right.
But here from Iván himself sharing his thoughts?
https://lnkd.in/ep6k9r3b

As a referral-focused sales trainer and commercial leader, I help founders and sales teams build pipeline through trust – not pressure.

With 15+ years in B2C and B2B sales, I bring hands-on experience across the full sales cycle: from outbound strategy and qualification, to value-driven discovery, closing, and structured deal management. I’m process-oriented, pragmatic, and focused on what actually works in the field.

Today, I train ambitious teams to win more business, and support founders and scale-ups as a fractional sales leader – with clear priorities, better systems, and measurable impact.

As the host of the Go To Network podcast, I share weekly sales insights from real-world challenges – honest, tactical, and always close to the real work.

Curious by nature and driven by outcomes, I believe that better sales comes from clarity, accountability, and continuous learning.

Christoph Karger

Geh nie alleine essen.

Ein Buch, das ich wahrscheinlich 2008 gelesen habe. Dennoch ist das Thema aktueller denn je. 

Seitdem hat sich Sales komplett verändert. Damals gab’s kein LinkedIn, keine Sequenzen. Das Telefon hatte gefühlt noch eine Wählscheibe. 
Netzwerken gab es nur analog. 

Trotz aller Digitalisierung. 
Heute ist das Thema aktueller denn je.

👉 Beziehungen machen den Unterschied.
👉 Nicht nur im Sales. Auch im Leben.

Sales erlebt eine Vertrauenskrise. Bei all den Tools und Technik vergessen wir häufig worum es wirklich geht. 

Menschen und Vertrauen. 

Und das größte Problem von Sales, ist es Sales machen zu wollen. 

Wenn es einen Winning Habit gibt, die ich über die Jahre nie bereut habe, dann diese: 

Jede Woche mit mindestens einer Person essen zu gehen.

Ein alter Kontakt. Eine frühere Kollegin. Ein ehemaliger Kunde. Ein Coach.
Andere Sales-Reps. Partner. Menschen, die man nur lose kennt.

Egal, Hauptsache ehrliches Interesse, Neugier und keine Hintergedanken.

Vielleicht hast du jemanden auf LinkedIn kennengelernt.
Oder du bist in einer neuen Stadt und schaust, wer noch dort ist.

Ich war diese Woche mit Christina essen – vor 6 Jahren bei CoachHub kennengelernt.
Heute treffe ich Dominic – ich war einer der ersten Trainer bei Hyrise.

Kein Pitch. Kein Deal. 
Aber jedes Gespräch bringt neue Ideen, Verbindungen, intros und Gelegenheiten.

Sales ist kein Toolgame.
Sales ist ein People-Business.

Und Beziehungen bauen sich nicht über 23 Schritte einer Sequenz. Sondern in echten Gesprächen.

Was wäre, wenn du jede Woche mit einer neuen Person sprichst? Und wen wolltest du schon länger mal sprechen?

#1 Referral Sales Trainer | Turn Trust into Revenue | Sales Coaching & Fractional Sales Leadership @ SalesPlaybook | Host „Go To Network“ Podcast 🎙️

Wenn KI alles verändert – bleibt Sales dann menschlich?

Diese Frage war für Christian und mich der Ausgangspunkt.

Gemeinsam durften wir ein Kapitel zum neuen Buch „KI mit Köpfchen“ beisteuern, herausgegeben von Dominic von Proeck Sr., erschienen im Springer Verlag.

Das Buch wirft einen Blick in die verschiedenen Abteilungen eines Unternehmens und zeigt, wie KI zur Organisation der Zukunft beitragen kann.

Unser Beitrag: Wie verändert KI den Vertrieb?
Und was braucht es, damit er menschlich bleibt?

Wir kommen aus unterschiedlichen Ecken im Sales, bewegen uns gefühlt zwischen Technologie und Deals mit Handschlag. 

Aber uns verbindet die Überzeugung:
Guter Vertrieb benötigt vor allem Vertrauen.

Wo hilft Technologie wirklich weiter?
Und wo braucht es echte Gespräche?

Danke an Dominic für die Chance, das Vertrauen und die Erfahrung, Teil dieses Projekts zu sein, und natürlich an Christian für die großartige Zusammenarbeit. 

Und dann ist es schon einfach cool, das fertige Buch dann in den Händen zu halten. 

Was macht für dich im Vertrieb heute den Unterschied, gerade wenn alle das Gleiche versprechen?

31.12. – 160 %
Januar – 0 %

Willkommen im Sales.
Wo du heute gefeiert wirst und morgen keiner mehr fragt, was war.

Q1 2019 ist das einzige Quartal, in dem ich meine Ziele als AE verfehlt habe.
Ende 2018 lief es echt gut. Mein Ziel war im Dezember schon lange drin. 

Und mit einem letzten Push für das Team kam dann sogar noch der ein oder andere Deal on top.

Den Reality-Check gibt es Anfang Januar, mit Blick in die Pipeline. 
Dein Erfolg im Dezember interessiert heute niemanden mehr. 
Lesson learned.

Die einzig relevante Frage ist:
Was machst du ab heute?
Was steht in deinem Kalender für diese Woche?
Sales ist brutal ehrlich.

Egal ob das letzte Jahr ein Höhenflug oder ein Reinfall war, es zählt nur, was du heute machst. 

Starte mit sauberer Planung: 
Quota, ACV, Sales-Cycle, Winrate. 
Wie viele SQLs brauchst du für deine Ziele?

Block dir Zeit für die Aktivitäten, die Ergebnisse bringen:
Research, Cold Outreach, Messaging.
Calls für Referrals, Social Selling, Coffee-Chats.

Gibt es Quick Wins? Ein paar Gedanken.

Geh durch deine Lost Deals, wo lohnt sich heute ein neues Gespräch?
Sprich mit deinen Kund:innen oder Partner:innen. Wie läuft’s? Was wollten sie erreichen? Und: Wen kannst du noch kennenlernen?
Guck in dein Netzwerk: Wer kennt deine Zielgruppe, wer verkauft auch in deinen Markt?

Wenn dein Kalender diese Woche noch leer ist: Kein Grund zur Panik, aber jetzt ist der Moment zu handeln.

Was machst du diese Woche, um Q1 zu gewinnen?
Oder anders gefragt: Wo fängst du an?

P.S. Q1 2019 konnte ich nicht mehr retten, aber als ich im Sommer gegangen bin, stand ich bei über 100%.

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