The Playbook Agency

Growth Partner for SaaS, Web3 and Enterprise B2B Companies.

Co-Founder

Bolt Cover

Angel Investor

Antler

• Selected as the top ~2% from 2500+ for Antler’s 7th UK cohort to start a globally important company.

• Antler is the world's most active early-stage investor with over $2 billion in combined portfolio value. 

• Antler invests in high-potential individuals to help them meet their co-founders, develop their ideas and raise capital from leading investors in less than 3 months

First Start Up Attempt: Tracking and Updating Job Changes for HubSpot. 

The Pilots Landed: 

- Beauhurst
- GWI
- Strativo
- Bowimi

Cohort 8

Sales flow - AI-powered Sales Engagement Platform

Achievements:
- Built revenue function from $0 - $4M ARR.  
- Recruited and managed a global team of 4 SDRs, 1 SDR Manager and 4 Account Executive.
- Highest quarter in company history (Q1, 2022)
- Managing the sales enablement and sales operations function (Hubspot CRM, Apollo.io, Sales Navigator, Lusha, RingOver,  Sales Impact Academy etc)
- Built and managed agency programme.
- Landed largest agency client and commercial team.

Head of Sales

Senior Account Executive 

Sales Development Representative

Co-Founder @ The Playbook Agency | Implementing AI into the Revenue Teams of Series A-C Companies Successfully |

Resist change to stay comfortable, embrace change to move forward.

16 million sales touch points were analysed for this post.
 
Email vs LinkedIn vs Cold call let's settle the debate...
 
📧 EMAIL: The Volume Play
 
✅ Highlights:
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Scales infinitely at pennies per send
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 SMBs reply 2x more than enterprise
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Sweet spot found: Under 200 words, 6-8 sentences
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Still reaches 98% of professionals daily
 
❌ Lowlights:
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Reply rates DROPPED 13% YoY to 5.9%
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Open tracking now HURTS deliverability (-3%)
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Personalization barely moves needle (7% vs 3%)
 
Best for: SMBs, volume plays, initial awareness
 
💼 LinkedIn: The Quality Play
 
✅ Highlights:
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 9.36% reply rate (connection + message)
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 C-suite responds 3x MORE than email
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 AI openers get 61% replies
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Less saturated (for now)
 
❌ Lowlights:
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Doesn't scale like email
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Platform volume limits
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Connection without message: only 5.44%
 
Best for: C-suite, enterprise, relationships
 
📞 COLD CALL: The Closer
 
✅ Highlights:
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Immediate feedback loop
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Builds real rapport
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Handles objections in real-time
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Fastest path to yes/no
 
❌ Lowlights:
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Most expensive per touch
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Requires skilled reps
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Connect rates declining
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Can't scale efficiently
 
Best for: High-ACV, complex sales, urgent decisions
 
THE VERDICT: Single channel = leaving 40% of replies on the table Multi-channel sequences = 65% better response rates
 
The Winning Formula:
1️⃣ LinkedIn warms them up
2️⃣ Email educates at scale
3️⃣ Call books the meeting
 
The debate was never Email VS LinkedIn VS Call. It was always Email AND LinkedIn AND Call.
 
Right order, right person, right time.
 
Data: Belkin, Expandi, Nooks & Reply
 
What's your take?
 
__________
 
Leo Branica | Founder, The Playbook Agency
 
We solve 1 major problem via AI & Automation: Too many of your reps doing too little selling to too few good prospects (Pipeline death!)
 
Supporting $2.4+ billion in SaaS revenue since 2023

Leo  Branica

GTM leaders ask me: "How do you know when to kill a campaign vs. optimize it?"
 
Simple: You set kill criteria BEFORE you launch.
 
Here's my personal framework (I included opens - but we don't track this anymore)
 
EMAIL BENCHMARKS
 
🔴 Kill: <2% reply, >5% bounce
🟡 Monitor: 2-5% reply, 30-50% open
🟢 Scale: >5% reply, >50% open
 
LINKEDIN BENCHMARKS
 
🔴 Kill: <1% reply (single touch)
🟡 Monitor: 1-3% reply
🟢 Scale: >6.5% reply
 
CAMPAIGN MULTIPLIERS
 
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 AI openers: 4.19% vs 2.60% generic
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Personalisation: 20% increase in response rates
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Multi-touch: 5x the response rate (Anything above 5 touches is ineffective 3-5 is the sweet spot)
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Content / Lead Magnets: 10x the response rates (This is the hack for 2026)

Most sales teams have zero kill criteria.
 
They optimize campaigns that were DOA from day 1. Set thresholds before you launch, not after you fail.
 
____________
 
Leo Branica | Founder, The Playbook Agency
 
We solve 1 major problem via AI & Automation: Too many of your reps doing too little selling to too few good prospects (Pipeline death!)
 
Supporting $2.4+ billion in SaaS revenue since 2023

Diagnosing Campaigns

At TPBA, we manage a team across 6 countries 🌎
 
We also have 47 digital tools at The Playbook Agency
 
Running a distributed team is amazing - but it comes with it's own challenges
 
Sometimes Slack and constantly being a slave to the red notifications can drain the team from the ability to do deep meaningful work.
 
⚬ Morning: 47 unread messages
⚬ Lunch: Another thread about that thing
⚬ Evening: "Sorry, just seeing this now"
 ⚬Weekend: The anxiety of that red notification badge

We built The Playbook Agency across 6 countries thinking async was the answer to everything.
 
UK → Dubai → Macedonia → Philippines → Kosovo → Nepal
 
It mostly works. Until it doesn't 🤦🏻‍♂️
 
Today's tooling was a 1 euro coffee (best in the world) & a whiteboard after I met Albin Beqiri in Kosovo
 
Sometimes you need:
✎ Bad whiteboard drawings
☕ Cheap coffee
✈️ Expensive plane tickets
😵‍💫 The ability to say "that face you just made - THAT's the problem"

Remote work is the future. But the future still needs whiteboards.
 
Need to get to Macedonia, Philippines and Nepal too!
 
_____________
 
Leo Branica | Founder, The Playbook Agency

We solve 1 major problem via AI & Automation: Too many of your reps doing too little selling to too few good prospects (Pipeline death!)

Supporting $2.4+ billion in SaaS revenue since 2023

You should fire any sales leader that isn't taking AI or automation seriously
 
They're running up your CAC, decreasing your exit value and destroying your next rounds terms
 
If I became your Head of Sales tomorrow, here's exactly what I'd implement on Day 1:
 
Step 1: Kill the Chaos

󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Audit current stack (probably 10+ tools doing 20% each)
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Cancel: ZoomInfo, Cognism, Outreach, Fuzzy nice to have intent data platforms → Anywhere we're spending over the top amounts
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Document: What's actually working vs what's just expensive
 
Step 2: Build the Machine

Foundation Layer:
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Clay - Your entire GTM brain ($800/month)
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 50 domains + 100 inboxes via Zapmail/Hypertide.io/InboxKit
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Dialer (Doesn't need to be a power dialer) - $50/seat/month

Intelligence Layer:
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 OpenAI API for research ($200/month)
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Anthropic API for personalisation ($100/month)
 
Execution Layer:
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 HeyReach.io for LinkedIn automation ($200/month)
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Make for workflow automation ($200/month)
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Smartlead for orchestration ($94/month)
 
Step 3: Map TAM and key accounts 

Using Clay, I'd create scored workflows that feed lead lists to the BDR's
Each territory would be mapped, and key intent pieces mapped out with a GTM engineer
 
Step 4: Connect Everything

󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Clay pulls from 20+ data sources
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 AI writes genuinely personal first lines
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Smartlead manages 15,000 sends monthly
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 HeyReach.io runs 800 LinkedIn touches
󠁯•󠁏󠁏 Team cold calls the top 10% of accounts that land on their desk every morning via Slack / Clay connection
 
The future of sales isn't more people. It's better systems.
 
Think it's unrealistic? Happy to show how we've transformed 50 GTM functions this exact way - shoot me a DM!

___________

Leo Branica | Founder, The Playbook Agency

We solve 1 major problem via AI & Automation: Too many of your reps doing too little selling to too few good prospects (Pipeline death!)

Supporting $2.4+ billion in SaaS revenue since 2023

If I were a Head of Sales

AI is going to mess up everyone's work for the next 5 years.
 
But not how you think.
 
Most sales leaders are asking the wrong question: "How do I use AI to replace my team?"

The right question: "How do I use AI to make my current team 10x more effective?"
 
Here's what's actually happening:
 
The problem: Your reps spend 66% of their time on sales admin.
 
⚬ Manual list building
⚬ Research and qualification
⚬ Data entry and CRM updates
⚬ Follow-up scheduling
 
The AI opportunity: Automate the admin, amplify the selling
 
At TPBA, we use Clay to:
🟣 Automatically score and qualify leads
🟣 Research prospects at scale
🟣 Generate personalized outreach reasons
🟣 Track engagement and optimize timing
 
The result: Reps spend 80% of their time actually selling, not 34%
 
The reality check: Most companies are implementing AI wrong
 
❌ Buying expensive tools without process design
❌ Automating chaos instead of fixing workflows
❌ Expecting magic instead of doing the work
 
AI amplifies what you already do.
 
If your current process is broken, AI makes it broken faster.
 
The Winners: Technical revenue leaders who understand:
 
✅ AI is a productivity multiplier, not a replacement
✅ Process comes before technology
✅ Human insight still drives deals
 
 
________
I founded The Playbook Agency, wherein we use AI and automation to make the best sales systems for SaaS, Web3, and Tech B2B

I've been saying this for months...
 
Had a conversation with a founder (3M ARR SaaS company) yesterday.
 
He said something that validated what I've been preaching:
 
"The new sales leaders need to be more technical than ever."
 
Here's why he's right:
 
→ Buyers are more educated
→ Sales cycles are longer
→ Technical questions come earlier
→ Process automation is table stakes
 
The revenue leaders winning today?
 
🟣 They understand the tools.
🟣 They build the systems.
🟣 They speak the language.
 
If you're leading sales in 2025 without technical chops...
 
You're already behind.
 
_______
 
I'm Leo Branica co founder of The Playbook Agency
Building, fixing, and automating inbound and outbound sales systems for SaaS, Web3, and Tech B2B

97% of SaaS companies can't answer: "Who actually buys from you?"
 
They think they know their ICP. They're targeting who they WANT to sell to. Not who ACTUALLY buys.
 
Here's how we expose the truth:

📊 Step 1: Export your closed-won + churn data
Not your wishlist. Your actual customers.

🔧 Step 2: Fill the gaps using Clay
Enrich missing firmographics, technographics, intent signals.

🤖 Step 3: LLM analysis for patterns
Find the hidden correlations humans miss.

📈 Step 4: Dashboard the reality (using Lovable) 
Visual proof of who you REALLY sell to.
 
What we typically discover:

- Your "enterprise ICP" → 70% are actually mid-market
- Your "VP Sales" target → 60% of buyers are RevOps
- Your "US-only" focus → 30% of revenue from EMEA
- Your "Series B+" criteria → Best customers are Series A

Your ICP isn't who you want to sell to. It's who can't live without you.

SaaS founder or GTM leader? DM me
 
I'll analyze your real ICP and send a report within 72 hours. No cost, just curious about the patterns and to show off our very cool ICP workflow!
 
_________________________________

Leo Branica | Founder, The Playbook Agency

We solve 1 major problem via AI & Automation: Too many of your reps doing too little selling to too few good prospects (Pipeline death!)
 
Supporting $2.4+ billion in SaaS revenue since 2023

While your team spends 6 months "figuring it out"
 
Your competitors are:
 
→ Reaching 10x more prospects
→ With better data quality
→ Using AI personalization
→ Converting at higher rates
→ Building bigger pipelines
 
Time to market matters ⏳
 
In SaaS, 6 months is 2 quarters.
 
2 quarters behind is often game over.
 
What successful teams do differently:
 
🟣 They treat Clay like critical infrastructure
🟣 They hire specialists (internal or external)
🟣 They implement systematically They see results in weeks, not months
 
The math is simple:
 
🔻 DIY approach: 6+ months, low success rate
🚀 Professional implementation: 8 weeks, proven frameworks 
 
_____________
 
We build, fix, and automate inbound and outbound sales systems for SaaS, Web3, and Tech B2B
Leo Branica, co founder of The Playbook Agency

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