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)

You raised capital. Now "the ARR clock is ticking".
When do you "hire" AI, a human, or do it yourself?

What CRM setup do you need, at what stage, why?

How do you scale sales pipeline & ARR, not costs?

Startups do not lack ambition, but open dialogue.

That's why we are co-hosting a "closed door" GTM breakfast with HubSpot & Workist within START Global Summit.

Operators sharing openly what breaks and what works.
0 slides, 0 BS, 40 Seed/Series A founders & revenue leaders.
Markus Bimüller sharing how he's saving EUR 200k, per year.

3 key topics that I got asked weekly about:
1/ Scaling Complexity vs ARR
- When is an "enterprise tech stack" a growth blocker?
- How do I avoid adding too much complexity, too early
- How do I do less to grow better, already before 7-figures?

2/ Scaling Efficiently ≠ Slow Growth
- How do I build a "Revenue Factory" instead of silos?
- When is hiring people the wrong answer to do more?
- Is scaling efficiently an excuse to grow slowly? (Nope...)

3/ "Open Operator Q&A"
- "Raw" questions on GTM tech, hiring, fundraising & more
- Candid feedback on where "the LinkedIn hype" is untrue
- What still truly works in 2026, and what is truly "dead"

👉 Join Markus Bimüller, Fabian Hartmann & me on Friday 20th March@St. Gallen to discuss how to scale revenue, not costs? https://lnkd.in/eaQTUkFC

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

Cold Calling ist nicht tot. Aber 2026 oft einfach "zu spät".
Weil B2B-Entscheider Lösungen ohne Sales evaluieren.
Hier ist die Realität aus 400+ B2B-Kunden in DACH:

Das Problem: Der Call kommt nach der Entscheidung
- Wer nur am Skript optimiert, optimiert am falschen Ende
- Weil Käufer googeln, LinkedIn lesen & ChatGPT prompten
- Weil Bewusstsein & Vertrauen vor dem ersten Gespräch entstehen

Aufmerksamkeit ohne Kontext ist kein Dialog
- Executive-Led Content schlägt anonyme Brand-Posts
- Klare Positionierung am Markt schafft Wiedererkennung
- Wiederholung einer Kernbotschaft > 20 austauschbare Themen

Wenn man dich nicht einordnen kann, spricht man nicht mit dir.

Weil Vertrauen vor, nicht im Erstgespräch Gespräch entsteht
- Menschen, nicht Logos schaffen Vertrauen
- Ehrliche Einschätzungen, nicht Features
- Kunden Case Studies, nicht "Immer 10x"

Ganz ehrlich: CEOs als sichtbare Experten bauen mehr Pipeline auf als jeder Junior SDR mit schlechten Outreach-Sequenzen

Und nein, zum Hörer zu greifen und anzurufen ist NICHT tot.

Aber bessere Opener & Fragen im Call geben bessere Deals.

Und genau das ist der Shift vom Cold Call zum Warm Call
- Gespräche starten auf Augenhöhe
- Inhalte werden aktiv referenziert
- "Einwände" werden zu Dialog

Der Call bleibt. 
Das Telefon bleibt.
Der Mensch bleibt.

Mit "Rückenwind" durch starke Persönlichkeiten & Point of Views.

👉 Hier gerne der gesamte Artikel zum Thema beim aus meiner Sicht #1 Calling-Partner in DACH speziell für B2B Software REP - Revenue Excellence Partners - thanks for having me Julius Dany Robert Borchert Rebecca auf'm Kamp & Felicia Moser & Julius Göllner!

https://lnkd.in/e9xk8SDC

If my CEO asked me as a CRO to 4x scale ARR from 2.5 to 10 Mio. ARR within 2 years with minimal additional headcount, 0 external funding at low risk, here’s exactly what I would do"

First: I would NOT hire 5 more people.

More people on a broken system just create more entropy.

At 2.5M ARR, you typically do not have a growth problem.

You have a focus, process & pipeline problem.

Here’s what I'd do step-by-step:

1/ Pick one "sport", not 2-5.
- Most 2–4M companies try to do
- Enterprise (think 100k ultramarathons)
- Mid-market (think half-marathons)
- SMB (think 5k runs)
- PLG (think 100m)
Usain Bolt does not do Marathons.
Natascha Badman does not sprint.

Here's what I would do instead:
- Define a tight ICP of 2,000–5,000 target accounts
- Align on 1 ACV band (e.g. 30-100k) -> GTM Motion
- Build messaging for Decision Makers & Champions

2/ (Re)Build the revenue engine before pushing the gas
If you cannot answer these 5 minutes, you can't scale:
- Which 20% of channels drive 80% of ARR?
- What pipeline coverage do I need for 10M?
- Where does churn and expansion happen?

What I would do:
- Replace "CRM Theater" with a single source of truth
- Map the full lifecycle: Awareness → SQL → Closed → Expansion
- Track NRR (Net Revenue Retention) as aggressively as New ARR
   (100% NRR at 5M ARR means you only need to add 5M for 10M!)

3/ Scale 3-5x pipeline without 3-5x headcount
Scaling from 2.5 to 10M with 50k ACV means:
- You need ~150–180 active customers.
- That requires 3–5x more qualified pipeline.
- Without adding 250-400k in annual costs.

Here's what I would do instead:
- Define your TAM (Total Addressable Market
- Invest into a solid LinkedIn GTM Engine via content
- Run signal-based outbound, not generic AI spam
(Creating text is free. Losing Trust is expensive. 

Ignore all the "Outbound is dead. Everything is dead."
Outbound still works beautifully, IF 
- It is tied to real, relevant triggers
- It is synced, continuously with CRM
- It is stacked upon high awareness & authority

Not when you send 2,000 "Quick Question" emails.
But when you turn CxOs into KPIs: Key Persons of Influence
CxO-led sales doesn’t scale. But CxO-led trust does.

Here's what I would do:
- Position 1–2 executives as category voices
- Publish 2–3 sharp, buyer-relevant posts per week
- Align outbound messaging around this Point of View
- When a prospect receives an email or LinkedIn DM then
- ...and already knows you from LinkedIn, velocity + win rate works

Your goal is to 
A/ Build the engine within 2-4 weeks
B/ Validate the engine within 2-4 months
C/ Scale the engine within 2-4 quarters

Once you know: "If I put X in, roughly Y comes out."
Then you press "the Fast & Furious NOS button".
Before that, please do NOT press the button.
Because scaling chaos is a death spiral.

Some CROs try to "brute-force" growth from 7- to 8-figures.
If you were a CRO, what would you prioritize first and why:
A) Pipeline, B) Process or C) People?

As a Founder CEO, I get pitched 10+ sales tools a week.
95% are noise. Only about 5 I use +/- daily, like Surfe.

Here is why it "made my 95/5" cut: 0 context switch.

Context switching kills consistent concentration.

Every time you need to jump LinkedIn x CRM x Gmail:
- You lose momentum
- You delay follow-ups
- You forget tasks
- It sucks energy

Surfe fixes 3 common issues here:

1/ Fill the CRM from LinkedIn without leaving LinkedIn
- Create a Contact, Company and/or Deal in seconds
- Assign a task to myself or a colleague quickly
- See context such as existing deals instantly

2/ Instant contact creation + enrichment
- Add a LinkedIn profile to HubSpot in one click
- Find the right email directly within seconds
- Write an email after sending a connect/DM

3/ Better CRM data = Better Deal Flow
- Deals in 2026 fail because the rep only knows 1-2 contacts
- I now add +3-5 Budget Holders + Influencers to my Champion
- In this way, I map the full buying center to my deal at the start

👉 Connect to David Chevalier if this makes sense for you as well?

(And yes, you get my email address + even mobile phone no.
Send me that Loom video if you can truly solve a problem for me...)

"Dad, humans & guinea pigs are obviously not animals, because they have no tails!" - "KI: Koala Intelligence" aka Matteo (my 4-year-old).

OK, let's rewind time to 5 minutes before that statement.

Matteo: "Dad, are we also animals?"

Manu: "Matteo, what do you think, and why?"

Matteo: "NO dad, we are OBVIOUSLY not animals!?!"

Manu: "OK, you told me your opinion. So why not then?

Matteo: "Because all animals have tails, and we do not."

Manu: <Thinking, actually for quite some time...>
           <Thought many animals have no tail...actually not>
           <Scanning fish, birds, reptiles, insects, mammals....   >

Manu: "Hmm...interesting statement indeed. 
           So anyway, tell me, if a living being had no tail...
           ...would it then not be an animal, according to you?"

Matteo: "Yes dad, as I already told you, of course!"

Manu: <"ManuGPT", belated result : Guinea Pigs!>
           Guinea pigs have no tail, so they are no animals then?

Matteo: "Yes, obviously dad, humans and guinea pigs then!"

Manu: "Amazing son, I truly love your thought process here!"
----
"BONUS Dialogue"
Matteo: "Dad, do I know get a guinea pig as a pet?

Manu: "If you still want, maybe once you go to Kindergarten"

Matteo: "So when can I go to Kindergarten?!?"

Manu: "This summer, upon Mid-August."

Matteo: "When is this summer, Mid-August?"

I will always love dialogue with my kids more than any AI ever!

(Yes, this post was pre-scheduled since Wednesday=Dad Day.
Yes, I will most probably reply to 0 comments here today.)

I’ll take 1 view from a committed DACH B2B Software CRO triggered to have a deep conversation over 100,000 views from "influencers" any day.

Every. Single. Time.

Look, I am perfectly happy on a personal level without LinkedIn.

I posted 0,0 times during my 10 weeks paternity leave.

The whole point of this platform is (or was?) 
to help fellow professionals elevate their game
learning from trusted advisors about their expertise.

Not to amass followers.
Not to bath in impression screenshots.
Not even "Comment Below" engagements.

It has always been about scaling B2B Buyer Trust.

Here is an uncomfortable truth:
100k view posts often have LESS impact than 1k views.
Because "the nerdy, but useful stuff" is less "click-baity".

So I will remain adamant of rarely posting that stuff:
- "Everything is Dead, AI solves everything"
- "Unrelated Selfie meets shallow GTM stuff"
- "VCs are evil and the world is a tough place"

But I will keep posting about what revenue leaders care about:
- How to scale B2B Buyer Trust
- How to solve the right problems in the right sequence
- How to avoid 6-figure pipeline, process & people mistakes
- How to leverage tech to buy back your time to be a human

If this resonates, I would shift your strategy:

1. Write for the 5 "Economic Buyers" who can actually say yes
- Use their CxO/VP language, not "creator-influencer-speak"
- Address board-level pressure, not surface tactics
- Talk in revenue, costs, profit, risk & proof

2. Signal depth, not popularity
- Share a sharp Point of View, not copied frameworks
- Show trade-offs and second-order effects
- Be so specific that consumers tune out

3. Measure the right leading indicators
- Profile views from ICP titles, not impressions
- Inbound from decision-makers, not "influencers"
- Conversation & pipeline quality, not comment count

The LinkedIn algorithm rewards dopamine attention.

Revenue rewards deep authority & trust.

Scale authority & trust?

----
Thanks for Diego Sosa for sharing the table and Shield for creating it.

Founder @ Slyleadz | I help startups build cold outbound systems that generate qualified meetings | 💌 slyleadz.us

STRUGGLING TO FILL YOUR PIPELINE WITH QUALIFIED LEADS?

I've been there. After testing 1000+ outreach campaigns, I cracked the code.

Now, I help B2B companies build outbound systems that:
→ Generate 20-30 qualified meetings/month
→ Convert cold prospects into warm conversations
→ Scale predictably without the spam tactics

Our secret?
- Multi-channel outreach that actually works
- AI-powered personalization at scale
- Follow-up sequences with 40%+ response rates
- Data-driven targeting that finds your ideal customers

Recent wins:
→ Helped a SaaS startup book 100+ demos in 60 days
→ Built a 7-figure pipeline for a tech company in 90 days
→ Generated 500+ qualified leads for enterprise clients

Want to stop guessing and start closing?
Book a strategy call: calendly.com/slyleadz/slyleadz-15-minute-meeting-clone

Nick Palasz

People warn you about different substances but no one warns you about choosing sales as a career

Where your entire emotional stability depends on

• A reply that says looks interesting	
• A calendar notification
• Or someone typing…

It can be exhausting at times

But it’s also the kind of challenge that keeps you coming back, and I still wouldn’t trade it for anything else

If your cold email still starts with Hope you're doing well, your prospect already knows what’s coming

And it’s not good news.

They’ve seen that line a hundred times.
They know a pitch is sitting right behind it.
Half the time, they’ve already decided what to do with it before finishing the second sentence.

If you want replies, you have to give someone a reason to reply and that should happen in the first line, not the last.

Here are 5 ways that make it easier to start conversations:

1. Trigger-based opening

Mention a recent update so your email feels intentional right away, not something that was sent to 300 other people at the same time

Example: “Congrats on the Series A last week. Are you planning to grow the pipeline through outbound this quarter or mostly inbound?”

2. Observation-based opening

Point out something specific about their business to show you actually did your homework. Even one detail can separate you from everyone else emailing them.

Example: “Your team sells to CFOs at mid-market companies. How are you starting those conversations?”

3. Pattern interrupt opening

Break the usual cold email script and just sound human. You don’t always need to sound polished to get attention.

Example: “This might be the only cold email you get today that admits it’s a cold email 😅”

4. Problem hypothesis opening

If you mention a problem they probably already deal with, the email feels familiar instead of intrusive.

Example: “ Many sales teams can generate leads but struggle turning them into booked meetings. How consistent is your outbound pipeline right now?”

5. Simple question opening

Not everything needs a clever angle. Sometimes one good question is enough to start a real conversation.

Example: “What channel is driving most of your pipeline right now?”

♻️ Repost this so your team stops sending emails that look like everyone else's.

Follow Nick Palasz for more outbound breakdowns like this.

77 Cold Email Openers Every SDR Should Know

If your first line starts with Hope you’re doing well…. You already sound like everyone else

And that’s where people stop reading

These are the openers to use if you want replies and real conversations

So I built a cold email opener cheatsheet based on what’s actually working:
 ✅ Trigger-based openers (funding, hiring, product launches)
 ✅ Observation-based openers that show real research
 ✅ Problem hypothesis openers that feel relevant
 ✅ Curiosity openers that start natural conversations
 ✅ Direct question openers that get straight to the point
 ✅ Pattern interrupt openers that break the usual script
 ✅ Social proof openers that build instant credibility

If you run outbound and want more replies without rewriting your whole strategy, this one’s for you

Want the PDF version of it?

• Like this post
• Connect with me
• Comment “OPENERS” and I’ll send it over

Send information is all I needed to start believing again

That’s it. Two words

There’s no timeline, no budget, no actual commitment but I closed the laptop like something meaningful just happened

I’ve already replayed the call in my head and decided they liked me.
Now I’m imagining how I’ll structure the follow up
And I’m slightly nicer to everyone for the next 20 minutes.

They didn’t promise anything
But I emotionally adapted to the deal anyway

Now I’m checking my inbox like we’re in a long distance relationship

Sales reps don’t get attached to closed deals
We get attached to the possibility of one

Follow Nick Palasz for more

At some point, waiting becomes a personality trait in sales😅

You’re not even anxious about it anymore
You’ve kind of made peace with it

It’s just part of the routine now
Drink your coffee
Send those emails
Randomly think, huh… whatever happened there?

You don’t talk about it but you know it’s there

Sales doesn’t always humble you in big dramatic ways
Sometimes it just trains you to sit in silence and call it normal

After running enough outbound campaigns, you start noticing certain replies that tell you your lead list is actually good

Here are a few I always pay attention to and what they mean:

1. Wait… how did you get my email?

This means the contact data is correct and the message reached the right person.They’re surprised but not annoyed.

2. Interesting timing actually…

This means your prospecting picked up the right signal at the right moment. Timing did half the work for you.

3. Happy to chat, how’d you find us?

They’re curious, which usually means the outreach feels relevant.

4. Send me some info.

It is not a meeting yet, but it’s rarely a bad sign. It means you’ve reached someone who sees potential value.

5. Yes… this is exactly what we’re working on.

This is what happens when the right person, right timing and the right message line up.

I started noticing I get these kinds of responses much more often when I filter and clean my leads before launching campaigns.

Lately, I’ve been doing that with Icypeas when pulling prospects from Sales Navigator.
It helps enrich contacts and find verified emails so the outreach actually reaches the right person instead of bouncing or hitting dead inboxes.

P.S. How do you usually filter your lead lists before sending cold emails?

I didn’t know this job was basically professional rejection training

At the beginning, every no feels loud and personal

You read it twice
Then a third time for emotional damage
You start replaying the message in your head wondering if that one line ruined everything

For a second, you even question your career choices.

But a few months later the same rejection becomes part of the routine and you just go
yeah… never mind
Moving on to the next lead without any hesitation

Which is slightly concerning when you think about it 👀

Follow Nick Palasz for more sales moments that everyone in outbound understands

If I had to rebuild my outbound stack from 0, these are the tools I wouldn’t negotiate on

Because when things start breaking you quickly learn which tools you really depend on

The ones that help you:

 → target the right accounts
 → reach the right decision makers
 → keep deliverability healthy
 → and turn activity into pipeline

Here’s what stays in my stack:

1) Sales Nav → where everything starts
 If the targeting is off here, nothing downstream really works.

2) Clay → helps me decide who deserves an email
 Because emailing everyone is not outbound. It’s just noise.

3) Icypeas → makes sure I’m reaching the right person
 Wrong contacts don’t just waste sends, they slowly kill deliverability.

4) Prospeo.io → quick enrichment when I just need clean data fast
 Sometimes you just want answers, not another research task.

5) Maildoso → keeps the infrastructure stable
 I don’t like rebuilding inboxes every time I scale.

6) Warmy.io - Email channel. Reliable. → tells me if emails will actually land
 I’d rather know before I press send than guess after.

7) Smartlead → keeps sequences organised
 Because automation without structure turns messy fast.

8) Instantly.ai → lets me scale without stressing about domains
 Outbound should feel controlled when you scale, not fragile.

9) Aircall → makes sure calls don’t disappear into notes
 Good conversations should become real opportunities.

10) HubSpot → where everything comes together
 If it’s not logged here, it will be forgotten.

P.S. What’s one tool you’d keep even if everything else got cut?

If one hire was supposed to save your pipeline, read this

You made the expensive hire
With a higher salary, higher expectations, and a bigger quota.

This was supposed to change everything.
Finally bring in the deals.

But the targeting didn’t change
The CRM is still half-filled
Handoffs are still unclear
Data is still messy

The name on payroll is different but the friction inside the engine isn’t.

And then the quiet disappointment starts.

“Maybe they’re not as senior as we thought.”

But senior reps aren’t magicians.

They don’t create structure out of thin air
They amplify the environment they walk into

If the inputs are clean, they look elite
If the backend is messy, they look average

Before you question the rep, question the process.

P.S. If your top performer looks stuck, look at what’s sitting behind them not in front of them

Follow Nick Palasz for more

5,000 emails daily… on how many domains exactly?

I’ve learned not to get excited by volume anymore because I’ve burned domains before 😅

Not in one dramatic crash, but in slow fatigue like:

• Replies thinning out
• More emails landing in spam
• Campaigns that used to work suddenly feeling average

And the worst part is you don’t immediately connect it to volume

You think it’s the angle, the copy, or even the market being weird this week.

Meanwhile, the domain’s just tired

There’s too much load on it and not enough support.

That’s why before I scale anything, I check the math.

If I want to send 5,000 emails a day, I want to know exactly how many domains and mailboxes that actually requires.

I’ve been using Warmy’s domain calculator for that.

It shows me the setup I need before I touch the dial

👉 So before you turn the dial up to 5,000, plug your number into the calculator and see what your setup actually needs (https://lnkd.in/gHJ3cf5a)

5000 Emails a Day?

The way you talk to AI says a lot about how you sell

I’ve seen a lot of reps blame AI for average results
But when I look at what they’re typing, it’s this:

 -Give me pain points
 -Write a follow-up to this conversation
 -Help with objections

And then they’re confused when it reads like everyone else’s email

That’s not an AI issue
AI is not here to think for you. It responds to the prompt you give it

So instead of vague requests, here are 8 prompts every seller should actually be using for:

• ICP research
• Personalised icebreakers
• Pain hypotheses
• Objection handling
• Strong CTAs
• Smart follow-ups
• Case study rewrites
• Multi-threading inside accounts

Go through them

♻️ Repost it and audit your prompts today
 Follow Nick Palasz for more tactical outbound breakdowns like this

Corporate English is getting out of control 😂

I love watching how meeting requests slowly become more sophisticated over time.

It starts with:
Free for a call?

Then becomes:
Open to a quick conversation?

Then suddenly:
Would it make sense to explore a potential discussion?

At this point, I’m reading these messages, wondering whether we are scheduling a call or signing a partnership agreement.
All that just to ask if I have 20 minutes.

♻️ Repost this if you've ever had to reread a meeting request twice.
Follow Nick Palasz for more sales realities

There should honestly be a cooling-off period before anyone is allowed to send Quick question

Like a small warning that asks, do you really want to be this person today?

Because nothing good has ever followed these two words

We see it in the subject line every day.
We already know it’s going to ask for something.
Still, we open it 

Just in case this one is relevant.
Maybe this one actually did their homework.

It didn’t

Most of these subject lines aren’t bold. They’re exhausted.
You read the first sentence and your brain is already reaching for the delete button.

Swipe the carousel and tell me the worst subject line that needs to go away.

9 Subject Lines That Should Be Banned From LinkedIN

There’s no confidence like 9:47 PM confidence 👀

All week you were aligned
Clear strategy
Strong angle
Everyone approved

Then you reread it once 
And suddenly you’re convinced this entire sequence is personally responsible for slowing your company's growth 

So, you delete it and rewrite everything:
New positioning
Stronger hook
Different CTA

Launch is in 8 minutes but it feels like the perfect time to reinvent outbound

Because salespeople don’t avoid chaos

We just book it right before it goes live

Follow Nick Palasz for more

P.S. If you’ve ever renamed a doc “FINAL_final_v9,” you’re part of the problem too

I’ve always had a soft spot for movies about sales, business or big deals

There’s something about watching negotiations and pitches play out on screen that is just so entertaining

So, I compiled a list of my top 20 movies that everyone should watch

Some of these are classics, some are a bit chaotic and a few are probably more cautionary tales than inspiration but they’re all fun to rewatch

P.S. Is there any movie I’m missing from this list? 👀

Some sales conversations start in a very interesting way

You open the message and the first thing waiting for you is a calendar link

We haven’t spoken yet
I don’t know who you are
You don’t know what I do but somehow we’ve already skipped to the meeting stage

Sales really does give you moments like this
Where the only logical reaction is to laugh for a second and close the laptop😅

Follow Nick Palasz for more

I spent 4+ years and 1000+ outreach campaigns building what most teams never finish a full outbound strategy system.

Not a template. Not a swipe file. A real system.

📌Today, I'm giving away the entire Outbound Strategy System (2026 Edition) for free.

Built for B2B companies that want predictable meetings, not random spikes.

What's inside:
→ A decision framework to know if outbound is even right for you
→ Unit economics guardrails (where most teams quietly fail)
→ Channel portfolio breakdown cold email, LinkedIn, paid, partnerships
→ Lead demand vs SDR capacity math that actually makes sense
→ The 3 stages of outbound maturity (Chaos → Structure → Infrastructure)
→ Domain scaling model so you stop burning mailboxes
→ Deliverability checklist to run before every single launch
→ Realistic ramp timeline (if you expect full pipeline in 30 days, you're gambling)

I'm keeping this free for the next 7 days only.

Comment "system" below and I'll send it over.
 (Make sure we're connected)

Are you trusting Sales Nav data a little too much?

I did.

If the filters looked right, I assumed the emails were right.
-Good titles.
-Funded companies.
-Recent hiring.

So I’d export it, load it into the sequencer and hit send. It felt quite efficient.

Then bounce rate would creep up by 3%

Not enough to freak me out but enough to slowly mess with deliverability.

And every time replies dipped, I did what everyone else does

Rewrite it with:
-New subject line.
-Stronger opener.
-Different CTA.

I wasn’t fixing the problem. I was just avoiding it

The real issue was the step I barely respected
That middle layer between Sales Nav and send, where emails are enriched, verified, and filtered before they ever touch a sequence.

Once we tightened that using Icypeas, things took a turn for the better

Bounce rate dropped under 2%
Replies started coming from actual decision makers
And I stopped rewriting emails every week.

If you’ve been tweaking copy more than your data process, this might be the reason why

Sales Nav and Send

There’s a version of me that closes deals very fast

Mostly in my head though 👀

I move it to Closed Won
Tell myself the month is saved
And start acting slightly less stressed

Nothing is signed
Nothing is confirmed

But somehow I’m already relaxed about it

Sales really lets you celebrate things that haven’t technically happened yet 

P.S. Do you wait for the signature or just the feeling?

Not to be dramatic or anything but campaign pauses used to be my biggest fear 👀

Because every time one happened I already knew what the problem was going to be.

Some mailbox I didn’t catch in time had been slowly burning out… and now I had to deal with it.

I went through a phase where this kept happening. In one 45-day stretch I remember having:
-11 mailboxes burned
-5 campaign pauses
-Average lifespan ~22 days

And what really annoyed me wasn’t even the problem.

It was the fix.

Because it was always the same cycle:
Buy another domain, spin up new mailboxes, warm them again, redistribute sending… repeat.

At some point it just felt like maintenance work instead of outbound.

So I changed one thing.

Instead of pushing mailboxes until they died, I started pulling them out as soon as health started dropping and letting them cool off before using them again.

Around that time I started testing Maildoso because their self-healing mailboxes basically enforce this process automatically.

If a mailbox starts losing health it just gets paused. Sending shifts to the healthier inboxes and the weak one sits long enough to recover, then it quietly goes back into rotation.

No constant replacements, no restarting warmups every few weeks and no random campaign slowdowns.Honestly… it felt suspiciously peaceful 😅

And this is what the next 45 days looked like:

11 → 4 mailbox failures
5 → 1 campaign interruptions
Mailbox lifespan ~22 → ~54 days
Reply rate 3.6% → 7.8%

Most teams try to fix outbound by adding more mailboxes.
I got better results just from learning how not to burn the ones I already had

👉 If you’ve been dealing with the same issue, this is worth checking out https://lnkd.in/g_M7wEDj

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Manuel Hartmann

Nick Palasz

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taplio

The Battle

Manuel Hartmann

Nick Palasz

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Manuel Hartmann's LinkedIn Performance

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Performance ScoreManuel Hartmann's LinkedIn Performance