Manuel Hartmann's Linkedin Analytics

I told a B2B software CEO to stop obsessing over "more leads, more reps & more tools", but to prioritize pipeline & process... The CEO got very angry at me, shouting at me: - "I need to do everything myself in GTM, forever!" - "We just need more leads, that will fix everything!" - "If I only would have more SDRs, that would fix leads!" - "I need more money to buy Salesforce, ZoomInfo & 6sense!" - "But marketing does not fix message-market-fit, and sales closes 0!" OK, I wish the above would only be April Fools' Day prank statements. But they are realistic conversations to an unsettling degree for 2025. So why not become proficient in doing LESS, BETTER? - Do LESS "jobs to be done" as a CEO, but better - Narrow your ICP, use cases & channels - Hire less people, get experts on board - Get HubSpot + 3-5 amazing tools - Make it easy to evaluate & buy ---- (And yes, the 6 stitches are not made up by an AI, but a doctor. After an accidental knee to the head in kick-box sparring a while ago. It was a great reminder to do less, better - so boxing, no MMA for me.)

Enter "SalesPlaybook HQ: Garden Office" - a pro of Remote-First. (Not the same as "Manu is always on Garden Leave"...). Look, I get it that renting a fancy office is great for ego. An office culture can be really valuable to socialize. Hell, I agree it is great for cold call bootcamps. And walking over to people for a quick chat. And to enjoy a beverage with your team. But let's all be really honest: Forcing people back can feel like you are not trusting them fully? And the best talent for your company might not be in your city? So I'll keep trusting my team to do their best work. Wherever they want to work at that time. And yes, I really enjoyed our Q2 Retreat! And working on our terrace at times. Trusting myself to actually work. What's your take on this?

Selling CHF 100'000 deals is very different from selling CHF 1,000 deals. Here’s what I’ve learned scaling SalesPlaybook from 0 to 7-figures: Deal Size -> GTM Motion -> People. Not the other way around. Picture this: you're selling something for CHF 1'000/year. Now imagine selling something for CHF 100,000/year. Same product? Nope. Same sales process? Absolutely not. 1️⃣ Know your revenue model. → Selling low-cost products requires volume. → Selling high-ticket deals means fewer clients but deeper relationships. → Your approach changes entirely based on your annual contract value (ACV). 2️⃣ Nail your go-to-market motion. → Small contracts? Focus on product-led growth (PLG). → Big deals? Prioritize Account-Based-X. → Match your strategy with your ACV. 3️⃣ Align your hiring decisions. → Don’t hire people because they’re nice or available. → Hire based on clear needs tied directly back your revenue model. → Map your org structure carefully—every role must serve your go-to-market motion. 4️⃣ Solve problems with high costs for delay. → Selling CHF 100 solutions can feel optional. → Selling CHF 100k solutions? Show urgency, "Why now". → Frame your offer outlining 3-10x higher COI - Costs of Inaction What’s your biggest challenge adapting your strategy for different ACVs?

Fabian Geissler wrote a Top 1% guide on how a client booked >30 ICP calls in <3 months by turning LinkedIn engagement into qualified sales pipeline with Clay & AI. Here is what you will get from the guide: - How to shift from cold outbound to signal-based ICP outreach - How to identify, source & enrich high-intent leads automatically - How to implement a signal-based LinkedIn Engine using AI & Clay - How to do all of that while adding 0 headcount or vendor lock-ins 👉 Comment below to get the full step-by-step Notion guide from Fabi?

“Fire Flower Features” don’t sell large deals. Specific outcomes like saving Little Mario’s life do. Too many B2B software companies focus on themselves. But especially senior buyers care 0 about features. They care about outcomes improving their life. Every time I play Super Mario (bought a Switch to play in this resolution again), I am super careless when I am "Big" or "Fire" Mario. Once I hit a turtle, my emotional loss aversion goes through the roof. I pay very close attention again on how I can avoid to die. Because my Costs of Inaction of not getting that flower. 3 specific ways of how to improve your sales game: 1/ Pitch COI (Costs of Inaction) People like to win, but hate to lose. Quantify how much your buyer loses per month. Be very, very specific about why this is the case. 2/ Craft a "What's in for me" per Buyer Persona B2B=H2H: Human to Human. It is people you help & people buying from you. Invest to deeply understand your individual stakeholders. 3/ Replace 1st person with 3rd person language Stop "We are company A & offer features D,E & F. Start "World-Class customers like A, B, C achieve X,Y & Z." Make it about your buyer, not yourself (general advice for life?). ♻️ Share this to help your network & follow Manuel Hartmann for more.

Most B2B entrepreneurs are "slightly skeptic" when we tell them from 0 to smoothly running HubSpot CRM in <4 weeks - here's how we get this done. 1/ Relentless "Frontloading" We learn how to invest a lot into client onboarding. Without full-day workshops or hour-long forms to fill. But 50+ CRM implementations in the same niche help. 2/ Winning by Design Revenue Architecture Technically, we could implement a best-practice CRM with 0 client input. Which is NOT the point - but starting with world-class systems helps. So we rather remove all that is not needed, then build from scratch. 3/ Rockstar "HubSpot Hero" Team Shout-out to Erik Steffen Miltos S. Eric Mattner & Erik Plischke. I admit that "hiring Erik, Erik & Eric" is "slightly subpar" on diversity. But I am 100% committed to hire the absolutely best talent I can. And this team is the #1 HubSpot Sales Hub Team in DACH!

I was a Salesforce "Fanboy" 2012-2020 - but not anymore, because you cannot afford "2 Jedi Knights + Yoda to control the force" at 5-500 FTEs. And unfortunately, Pipedrive, Zoho, Close, Odoo & Co. struggle with a: - Lack of integrated marketing & sales for a world-class buyer journey - Lack of reporting capabilities on sales velocity, conversion & cohorts - Lack of clean integrations with outbound + quote-to-cash capabilities That's why see see 4 of 5 B2B entrepreneurs choosing HubSpot today. ♻️ Share this if you find it useful & follow Manuel Hartmann for more?

Sales reps always want to earn more money by creating more value. But is AI taking away sales reps' jobs, making a few ones very rich? Dominic Klingberg was smart enough to not let me bring slides to ARRtist Circus - and I love it, because it drives a human conversation! On Friday, we'll discuss: - Why “Basics Done Right” is equally true in sales as in elite sports - How much headcount you really need per EUR 1 Mio. ARR - What AI can (and cannot) fix for sales A few icebreaker questions also if you're not joining the event: Do you - Have ever asked ChatGPT to write a cold email or sales call script - Have fewer reps now than last year but the same or more ARR - Secretly fear your CRM is smarter than half your sales team - Believe AI will enhance sales jobs, not replace them - Are skeptical whether AI can actually close deals I am also truly curious to learn from you: - What’s one thing AI fixed in your sales process? - What’s one thing it absolutely failed at? - What needs to “go back-to-basics”? And if you are still reading: - Are you using AI more for top-of-funnel or bottom-of-funnel activities? - What’s your current & target sales rep to ARR ratio? - Where have you seen AI even hurt sales? - What’s been your most surprising AI win? Alice Egan Andreas Kozma Anna Becker Axel Benoist Christian Korda Christian Soller David Sattar Deniz Caglayan Dennis Ortmann Erik Kraiczy Fatma Djilani Fynn Mackensen Giulio Segantini Henri Bekeris Hind Haddouch Kim My Duyen Nguyen Lennart Zapf Leonik Ahmetxhekaj Marcel Braun Matthias Heußner Pierre Moreau Prince Clayton K. René Kiwitt Roland Schallhaas Simone Weidner Tufan Evren Yannick Klatte-Christiansen please already now share 1-2 thoughts in the comment so we'll start out swinging on Friday afternoon? 😃 Julius Göllner since you don't let me into the ARRtist Slack channel, I'll start my GTM conversation here 😜 jokes aside: really looking forward to meeting you all again in person! 🤗

Stop asking CxOs for time. Start giving them a reason to care. Nobody wants to “just jump on a quick call” anymore. Because time is the 1 resource EVERY CxO lacks. Here’s how to actually get a reply in 2025: 1/ Lead with value. Show something useful up front. Social, functional, technical proof. Let them see in 60 seconds if you’re worth their time. 2/ Make it about them. No "Here is what we do at our company." No “when do you have 15-30 minutes for me?” Instead: “Here’s what I solved for others in your space.” 3/ Pull effect. Invite them to find out in 60 seconds or less if this might be a fit. No pitch slap. No forced meetings. No "this is just urgent." Let them decide if the problem has high Costs of Inaction. 4/ Answer straight. If a CxO asks “how do you work?” Or “what’s your revenue model?” Or “who else in my niche?” Give a straight answer. 5/ Proof over PowerPoint. Don’t send decks unless you have real cases to show. Customer wins. Screenshots. Testimonials. Trust is built with evidence, not slides. And if you nail the above, guess what? Your Sales Velocity goes through the roof. Because CxOs have little time, but decide fast. And yes, they have the Budget & Authority to do so. 👉 Follow Manuel Hartmann for more tactical B2B sales content?

The average sales rep is only selling 27% of the time. The rest is lost to admin, unnecessary calls & unadopted tech. Here are a few levers how to increase "Sales Time": ✅ User-friendly CRM design → Tailor dashboards for each role (AE vs CS needs differ). → Add quick actions like templates for follow-ups or tasks. → Limit fields & workflows—keep what matters, ditch the rest. ✅ Onboarding that sticks → Interactive training (videos, demos, playbooks). → Visible support (champion users, helpdesk links). → Create early wins—small successes boost adoption. ✅ Integration with daily routines → Pipeline reviews directly in the CRM. → Task management, meeting notes, follow-ups—all in one place. → Let Slack, Email & Phone logs sync with your CRM for less admin. ✅ Measure what matters → Sales time/week. → SQLs x Win Rate x Velocity x Deal Size = ARR. → NOT 27 metrics that are not even accurately captured. ♻️ Share this if you find it useful and follow Erik Steffen for HubSpot?

"Outbound is dead". Signal-based outbound is very much alive. Here are 6 Smart Playbooks to engage leads at the right time: 1/ LinkedIn Engagement – Prospects liking your content? → Automated outreach kicks in via HeyReach. 2/ Website Visitors – They browse your solution page? → Smartlead follows up instantly. 3/ Champion Job Change – Your customer switches jobs? → We re-engage at their new company. 4/ Persona Hires – Ideal buyer persona joins a company? → We start conversations before competitors do. 5/ TAM/ICP Expansion – Target accounts grow? → Add buyer personas to HubSpot 6/ Unengaged Revive – Cold contacts showing new interest? → Rewarm via LinkedIn or email drip. All these playbooks combine: ✅ Syft, Trigify, LinkedIn & more for signals ✅ Clay for lead sourcing, enrichment & more ✅ ChatGPT & Claude for enhanced copywriting ✅ HubSpot, HeyReach & Smartlead for activation Less noise. Less work. More positive replies. More pipeline. Want the full Pipeline Generation Guide 2025 from Florian Lussi? Comment "Qualified Pipeline" below 👇

Yes, Clay can help you automate lead sourcing & enrichment. But it can do so much more if you get the right capacity & capabilities: 1/ Trigger-Based Prospecting: Monitor job changes, funding, & events to hit prospects at the perfect time 2/ Pipeline Analytics: Attribute conversions back to the data segment or trigger 3/ TAM/SAM Analysis: Quantify market size + align on ideal customer profile 4/ Event Targeting: Use triggers to drive webinar/event attendance & generate hot leads 5/ ICP Website visitor identification & filtering: Reach out only to your ICP 🏆 Benchmarks to aim for: - 5–15% response rates using trigger-based outreach - 20–30% meeting conversion rate on replies - 5–10x ROI on outbound investments Kudos to Jesse Ouellette for this amazing Clay GTM Cheatsheet. ♻️ Share this if you find it useful and follow Manuel Hartmann for more?

I'd like to defend the community of sales "professionals" here...but honestly, being sold to in 2025 feels way to often like being in "Haris Halkic's Zoo"! And unlike in the real animal world, many sales reps "merge skills" here: - Present, pitch & demo for 30min straight - Focus on features, not creating value - Offer discounts without even asked - Need days to follow-up via email - Then parrot "Yes, sure" to close - Then drop the ball & go again - And then blame the buyer... Shout-out here to a few truly amazing sales professionals who are absolutly NOT part of this toxic zoo (non-exhaustive list indeed): Lars Mangelsdorf Patrick Trümpi Enzo Wälchli Eric Mattner Sebastian Borchi Oliver A. Jonas Meuli Denis Agca Jan Rihak Christian Fontius Celia Geering Christoph Karger Lucas R. Nottaris And yes, many of these are founders not "professional" sales people. And they embody what B2B sales is all about: 𝐇𝐞𝐥𝐩𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐮𝐲𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐯𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥-𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡 𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐲 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐲. ♻️ Share this if you find it useful and follow Manuel Hartmann for more?

CFO: "What if we invest into our people, and they eventually leave?" CEO: "What if we do not, or even fire them, just because of a bad quarter?" Nick Hayek is not on LinkedIn, but a true entrepreneur legend. And Swatch has been thriving for 40+ years at >7 billion "ARR". What is your take on short-term cost cutting vs long-term talent development? Shout-out to Beat Stöckli for bringing this interview gem to my attention!

Thank you to everybody who took time to meet in person at Swiss Startup Association's Founders Day 2025 in Zurich! Samuel Mueller Armon Bättig Thomas Inhelder & Co. thank you for showing it is possible to build category leading startups in 🇨🇭. Philip T. R. Dominic Hofer Christoph Süess 🤖 Maximilian F. Nicole Celakovsky Steiner Lucian Wagner Tim Ruffner Jasmina Ritz Constanze Mauk Dario Mantegazza, Ph.D. Alyssia Kugler Theresa Engl Nenad Nikolic Lars Thalmann Dominique Michel Massimo Höhn Stefan Zanetti Pascal Stuerchler thank you for the open dialogue on GTM in 2025. Huge shout-out to the whole SSA team around Regula Bleuler Kristina Kaiser Maria Santos & many more who made this even possible + to Google ("ad hoc represented" by Marco Krättli) for hosting us all!

Roughly the number of people in Zurich willing to cold call + visit clients in person. Things we do NOT need more of in 2025: - Badly automated cold emails - AI bots destroying trust - Generic marketing - Lazy sales people - 0 will to change Things that keep working in GTM in 2025: - Write <100 word relevant cold emails - Buy back time with AI to be human - Niche down message-market-fit - Pick up the phone & go out - Still Day 1 mindset Off to our Q2 Company Retreat & ARRtist Circus in Berlin now. (And yes, I happily got up at 5am for that. I feel privileged, not entitled, to do this.)

Marketing & sales is all about how the human brain works. Nail these 9 Must-Know Neuromarketing Tricks to scale: 1/ Framing: How you say something changes how people see it. 2/ Affordability Illusion: Break a big price into small bits, it feels better. 3/ Rule of 3: When given 3 options, most people skip the cheapest. 4/ IKEA Effect: We value things more when we put in effort. 5/ Power of Free: People love free stuff, even if they don’t need it. 6/ Contrast Effect: "Create" an expensive offer to sell your key offer 7/ Choice Paradox: Too many options? People freeze & buy nothing. 8/ Anchoring: The first price people see sets the tone. 9/ Endowment Effect: Once you feel like you "own" it, you want it more. Big shout-out to Tom Pestridge for these amazing visuals! ♻️ Repost to help your network nail neuromarketing. And follow Tom & Manuel Hartmann for more content.

ARRtist Circus was and is #1 B2B SaaS event in DACH in Q1/Q2. 5 reasons why this was definitely true in 2025 (again!): 1/ 0 screens, 100% human conversations We all get enough presentations & PDFs every day. AI is digital. Humans are physical. If meeting in person. 2/ World-class dialogue with partners & thought leaders Meeting "legends of the GTM agency sport" like the founders of ColdIQ, Expandi, Scripe so many more 3/ Most lovable event organizing committee I know So much ❤️ for Julius Göllner Dominic Klingberg Julia André Diana Chorram Lea A Buecker Jannis Bandorski Matthias Ernst & everybody that made this event happen - THANK YOU so much, you are amazing! 4/ Weighted Pipeline x "SDR Manu" Honestly, adding (mid-)5-figure weighted pipeline in <24h is cool. I started my sales "career" in 2009 pitching 200x a day in person. Now it feels like 10% pitching, 90% helping. Sales is Serivce, at least it should be. 5/ "Feeling" the ecosystem I struggle to put this one in words. There is no KPI, no dashboard for this. But if you get 500 GTM people in a room, you can feel things. You somewhat "feel" what people want, need, crave, feel & simply are. So thank you very much to all the people who took time for human dialogue (non-exhaustive-list!): Marco Bartoszewicz Christian Korda Martin Twellmeyer & Isabel Milbert Lukas Baumann & Rene Rather Gerald Zankl Michel Lieben 🧠 & Alex Vacca 🧠🛠️ Stefan Smulders & Glenn Miseroy + Carmen Jenny & Eva Johanna Egg Robert Anders Renke Haverich Robert Borchert Corinna Hahnefeld Giulio Segantini Yurii Veremchuk Thibaut Souyris Elvin Kingma Richard Hoffmann Mafalda Johannsen Philip Olesch Michael Jezela Lara Acosta Joshua Thanner Philipp Schrader Michael Rap Jan Benedikt Mundorf How was your "day in the circus"? And see you again at ARRtist Summit?

Most B2B software entrepreneurs will fail to hit their pipeline targets. Because they still rely on early 2020s playbooks, not Allbound. Most founders, marketers & sales reps still rely - and fail - with this: ❌ Generic automated outreach lacking personalization & relevance ❌ Not leveraging personal brands and intent signals systematically ❌ Inefficient manual list building instead of evergreen campaigns ❌ Poor lead quality and targeting, causing low engagement rates ❌ Not leveraging existing relationships systematically   To make things harder, these 3 shifts happened: ✅ Being a trusted expert in your field is a must-have. ✅ You need to do more with less. Less SDRs, less ads, less time. ✅ “Spray and Pray” got replaced by Allbound (Inbound + Outbound)   Florian Lussi took 100+ hours to craft this 75+ page guide for you. And yes, we spare you the "Comment Below BS". Just take the guide, execute day & night, be awesome. But if you lack the clarity, capacity or capabilities to do so: DM? ♻️ Repost this if you find it useful? ----- Thanks also to our awesome partners on this guide: ARRtist for involving us since 3+ years as Founding Partners Julius Göllner Matthias Ernst Jannis Bandorski Dominic Klingberg Julia André & so many more HubSpot for being the #1 CRM for B2B firms with 5-500(+) FTEs Fabian Hartmann Franziska Kolbe Jens Leucke Yusuf Bulan Regina Umbach Andreas G. Alexander Erdmann Allison Ziehr & so many more Winning by Design Mike Boogaard Dave Boyce David (DG) Gordillo Jacco van der Kooij Harold Roegiers Boris Bedzent 🧩 💬 🌱 🚁Roee Hartuv Rachel Charlop-Powers, PMP Roelof Hengst & so many more session for being the best hands-on early-stage B2B entrepreneur supporters I know Jeremias Meier Philippe Bubb Martin Altorfer

I love it when prospects cancel calls with notice. Thank you for buying me "Manu goes play Metallica now-time." Here is how I honestly see call cancellations: A) Cancel with 24h+ notice? → your kid got sick, you close a 6-figure deal, you want to prepare better? → you value my time, I value yours → life happens, no problem B) Cancel last-minute, no reason? → you just self-disqualified → not a fit for how we work → I get time back, you lose trust C) No-show, not even a message? → You just made my day: I grab my guitar, play 15min, recharge → Or I "GSD" (Get Shit Done) and do high-value work - Create useful LinkedIn content in batches - Call 3 of my TO 20 Target Accounts - Help a team member or client out Honestly, I prefer to win back an hour... ...than chase someone who doesn’t respect calendars Every cancelled call is a chance to move the needle elsewhere. Or just play 15min of guitar in your home office. 👉 Short-term call cancellations in 2025? Pain or gain?