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?”

No alternative text description for this image

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

Bjoern W. Schaefer

De-risking GTM Acceleration 📈 - B2B SaaS only

Most B2B SaaS & AI startups don’t fail because of the product. They fail at the exact moment they try to scale sales beyond the founder.

After working with 150+ startups between €1–10M ARR, I see the same four expensive phases again and again:

1️⃣ Fake Sales Teams
2–3 sellers hired. Tools everywhere.
But the founder still closes most deals.
That’s not a sales team. That’s revenue theatre.

2️⃣ Symbolic Sales Leadership
Great CV. Weak impact.
6–12 months lost. High burn. Frustrated team.


3️⃣ Premature Scaling
15 deals. 15 use cases.
No clear GTM motion. No repeatable value creation.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth:

If revenue still needs heroics, it has no rhythm.

That’s why I built Revenue Rhythm by Funky Flywheels.

Not as a framework.
Not as a course.
But as an operating standard for founders who want:
- predictable pipeline
- clean execution
- real retention & expansion
- and a GTM engine that works without them 

No hype.
No slide decks.
No growth theatre.

Only what actually works in the DACH reality between €1–10M ARR.

🎙️ Host of The Funky Flywheels Show
🚀 Working with founders who want systems, not heroics

If you ever want to pressure-test your own growth honestly: DM me for your personal 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗥𝗵𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗺 𝗗𝗶𝗮𝗴𝗻𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰

Founder | Chief Revenue Officer (CRO)

Scaling your B2B revenue organization is tough. We have been there multiple times. The good news is that we know exactly what it takes to master your upcoming challenges on your journey between Sees and Series B. We are thrilled to support B2B startups and scaleups with a holistic view on performance.

Björn W. Schäfer

Neues Jahr. Neue Challenge. Neue Mitstreiter:innen.

Nach der Express-Alpenüberquerung und dem Athen-Marathon geht meine sportliche Challenge 2026 aufs Rennvelo und Gravelbike 🚵‍♂️. 

Auftakt: Trainingslager im März auf Lanzarote
Großes Finale: Von Basel nach Lyon im Juni

Nicht als rein-sportliche Challenge, sondern als erfrischendes Networking.

Wieder dabei - mein Partner in Crime, Dr. Alexander Brunst. Dazu ausgewählte Persönlichkeiten mit Drive & Passion.
 
Unsere Value Proposition:
Tiefe Gespräche statt Small Talk.
Frische Luft statt Konferenzhallen.
Schöne Landschaften und gute Hotels.
Sportliche Grenzerfahrung für Normalsterbliche.

👉 "Bewerbungen" an mich oder an Alexander...

From Founder-Led Sales to scalable GTM Engines | €1–10M ARR | Revenue Rhythm by Funky Flywheels 🕺

💥 Mein erster Post 2026 - und der wichtigste seit 𝗙𝗨𝗡𝗞𝗬 𝗙𝗟𝗬𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗘𝗟𝗦🕺

Aus meinem GTM-Bestseller wird ein 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺.

Warum?
Weil ich in den letzten Jahren neben der Zusammenarbeit von Marketing, Sales, Customer Success und Produkt immer wieder das Gleiche gesehen habe:

📈 Wilde Businesspläne ohne realistisches Fundament 
📊 Kein rollierender Abgleich und kein Frühwarnsystem
🤼 Zahnlose interne Meetings, die nicht auf das große Ganze einzahlen
😔 Verfehlte Wachstumspläne und Enttäuschungen auf allen Seiten

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In den letzten 3 Jahren habe ich das Funky Flywheels Framework bei über 50 Early-Stage SaaS-Teams eingesetzt, weiterentwickelt und operationalisiert.

Das Ergebnis:
Ein ganzheitliches Revenue Operating System für Founder-led Sales- und GTM-Organisationen zwischen 1–10 Mio. ARR.

Ein System, das 6 zentrale Hebel messbar und steuerbar macht:

𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 1 – 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 & 𝗖𝗮𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴
 → Ist dein Bottom-Up-Plan realistisch – und investorenfähig?

𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 2 – 𝗦𝗲𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
 → Welche Segmente verdienen Fokus? Welche kosten Energie?

𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 3 – 𝗣𝗶𝗽𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 & 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴
 → Wie präzise steuerst du qualifizierte Pipeline und Forecast Accuracy tatsächlich?

𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 4 – 𝗖𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲
 → Wie schnell entsteht messbarer Impact beim Kunden – und wie zuverlässig sind Retention & Expansion?

𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 5 – 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗲 & 𝗥𝗶𝘀𝗸
 → Wo bist Du Wachstumshebel – und wo Wachstumsbremse?

𝗟𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 6 – 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗥𝗵𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗺
 → Hast Du einen wöchentlichen, monatlichen und quartalsweisen Steuerungsrhythmus – und wie effektiv ist dieser?

---
Mit dem 𝗙𝗨𝗡𝗞𝗬 𝗙𝗟𝗬𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗘𝗟𝗦 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 implementiere ich in 12 Wochen mit Deinem Kernteam ein Betriebssystem für Wachstum.

Optional ergänzt um die 𝗙𝗨𝗡𝗞𝗬 𝗯𝗼𝗻𝘁-Software, die ich parallel mit 𝗗𝗲𝗻𝗻𝗶𝘀 𝗧𝗲𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗻 und 𝗡𝗶𝗸 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗰 weiterentwickelt habe.

Du siehst, ich bin bestens in 2026 gestartet. Wie schaut's bei Dir aus 🤓👇 


P.S. Teste Dich und den Status Quo in Deinem Startup. Kommentiere oder sende mir eine DM und ich teile den brandneuen 𝗢𝗥𝗦 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝗖𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸 mit Dir.

Wir wissen schon heute, welche Deiner Deals in Q1 kommen - und welche nicht ❌

Was wäre, wenn Du schon heute wüsstest, welche Deals in Q1 wirklich kommen - und welche nur aus Hoffnung bestehen? 🤔 

Was wäre, wenn Du schon heute Klarheit hättest, an welchen Hebeln Du JETZT ziehen musst, um rechtzeitig gegenzusteuern?

In den letzten Wochen waren wir fleißig und haben 𝗙𝗨𝗡𝗞𝗬 𝗯𝗼𝗻𝘁 so weiterentwickelt, dass es der perfekte Co-Pilot für die Erreichung Deiner ambitionierten Ziele für 2026 ist.

Dazu analysieren wir Deine aktuelle Pipeline, Deine Aktivitäten und die Performance der letzten Monate und geben Dir einen ungeschönten Ausblick auf Deinen Q1-Forecast (und darüber hinaus) 🙄 

Nur für kurze Zeit verschenken wir drei 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗶𝘂𝗺-𝗢𝗻𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀.

Was Du bekommst:
 ✅ Faktenbasierter Q1-Reality-Check
 ✅ Klare Gap-Analyse Richtung 2026
 ✅ Sofort umsetzbare Umsatzhebel

👉 Bewirb Dich jetzt per DM mit einem Satz: Warum genau Du 😉 ?

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Björn W. Schäfer

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The Battle

Manuel Hartmann

Björn W. Schäfer

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Posts

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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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