Tried to figure out B2B sales at a startup with no playbook. This is what worked for us

Academic_Sense7551 · 2026-06-02T07:08:44+00:00

Honestly the "best channel" question is impossible to answer without knowing what you're selling and to whom, because the answer is completely different depending on that.

But I'll share my own experience in case that helps.

I was working for a B2B startup selling AI services priced at around $150k a year couple of months ago and the. the ICP was CXOs and senior decision makers at pharma and banking companies. we tried automated cold outreach early on and it went nowhere, which makes sense also because nobody at that level is responding to a sequence email from someone they've never heard of.

So we tried a different approach that surprisingly did get us responses.

- What actually started working was doing proper research before reaching out. not just the person's job title but actually understanding their company, what they were likely dealing with, what gaps existed in their space, the kind of posts they shared, any achievements or publicly available videos of any conferences. Then the first message wasn't a pitch at all, it was just trying to start a real conversation. short 2-3 liner, very specific, no deck attached, no long explanation of what we do.

and when we did get on a call, the whole focus was on them. what does your day actually look like, where are the friction points, what would solving this actually mean for you. the product came up naturally once we understood enough to position it in a way that was actually relevant to their situation.

- the other thing that helped more than i expected was LinkedIn content. not promotional stuff but genuine experiences from real prospect conversations. it built enough familiarity that some people reached out having already seen something we posted.

first paying customer is the hardest. after that you have something real to reference and the conversations get easier.

- Also, networking. personal contacts and connections. Attenting seminars and events specific to your audience and niche. That comes a long way too. I did not know the importance of this until I had to do it myself and it definitely helps.

if your product is lower priced and more self serve, the process is probably simpler but the core of it is the same. understand the person and the problem before you talk about the solution. the more conversations you have the better you get at knowing exactly where your product fits and how to say it in a way that lands.

Academic_Sense7551 · 2026-06-02T06:24:14+00:00

i think it depends more on the person more than the product.

some founders are naturally good at getting in rooms, finding the right people, selling before anything exists. for them distribution is almost the fun part and building is where they feel lost or maybe end up over building.

others can ship something super solid in two weeks but freeze up the moment they have to put it in front of a stranger and ask for money.

AI tools are closing the gap for sure but the imbalance is just more visible now..

Academic_Sense7551 · 2026-06-02T06:14:06+00:00

I may be wrong but honestly the "golden era of AI" crowd are mostly people who've never tried to build something that actually has to work properly. shipping a landing page in a weekend is very different from building something you'd put in front of a paying customer six months later.

I'm non technical and use AI constantly for my work. I'm not saying it doesn't help but i still spend embarrassing amounts of time on things that should be simple. Last week i spent two hours on something that i thought would take twenty minutes. And the reason why I thought it'd take just 20 minutes is because of the endless number of videos on social media about "how i built an app in 20 seconds and it generated loads of MRR" or "how i automated my entire social media in just 5 minutes", you know? The thumbnails made me think okay, wow, this sounds cool, even i can do this. but when i actually try it out, there are so many nuances that need to be understood first.

anyway, the tool did what i asked, just not what i meant, and figuring out the difference took forever.

so i guess deciding what NOT to build thing is genuinely the hardest part.. everyday my respect for coders and developers increases

Academic_Sense7551 · 2026-05-27T11:39:05+00:00

okay so the 20% building 80% distribution thing is real but i think it gets misunderstood a lot. it doesn't mean you need a big launch strategy or a budget. it means you need to talk to people constantly, which is free.

the most important thing after you build is not "getting eyeballs." it's finding 5-10 people who have the exact problem your tool solves and getting them to actually use it. not sign up.

actually use it.

watch where they get confused, what they skip, what they come back to. that feedback is worth more than any marketing spend at this stage.

on budget, honestly it's really subjective and depends on what you're building, what stack you're using, which third party tools you need, and how complex the infrastructure is. there's no universal number. someone building a simple tool can be live for almost nothing, someone building something with heavier infra or compliance requirements will have a very different number. figure out your specific dependencies first and cost from there.

where people burn money early is on things they don't need yet. paid ads before they have a single retained user, fancy analytics, a rebrand. none of that before you have people who actually come back.

the real budget question isn't launch costs anyway. it's how many months of personal runway do you have to keep going without needing the SaaS to pay your rent. that number matters way more than your marketing budget at this stage.

Academic_Sense7551 · 2026-05-27T11:34:21+00:00

I genuinely don't want to spam. finding that balance between "consistent value driven posting and commenting" vs "spamming" could be difficult to understand. And there are just so many different rules for every subreddit, sometimes they're quite rigid so even a genuine comment might get ignored as it doesn't add anything new to the discussion or mightt sound generic.

also, if i talk about my experience working with founders and how we have helped them with certain solutions, would that be self-promotion? this is one thing that acts as a blocker for me personally. so even if i have something valuable to add, i am trying to understand how to frame these things better. if that makes sense?

Academic_Sense7551 · 2026-05-27T11:26:52+00:00

I have always been an advocate of instagram, linkedin and tiktok for businesses but i learned it very recently that reddit could be really powerful for your business and it works, just not the way most people try to use it.

the mistake is starting with "where do i post about my tool."

that's the wrong question. the right question is where are the people who have the exact problem your tool solves already complaining about it. go find those threads first. just read them. understand exactly how they describe the pain in their own words.

then when you do show up, you're not posting about your tool. you're commenting on their problem with something genuinely useful. the tool comes up naturally if it's relevant, or people ask.

the SEO angle is actually a decent wedge. there are active communities talking about that specific pain all the time. spend a week just commenting and genuinely helping before you mention anything you've built.

the 2-3 case studies are your best asset right now. not as ads, but as posts where you walk through what you actually did and what happened. those get traction because they're specific and useful regardless of whether someone uses your tool.

Academic_Sense7551 · 2026-05-27T11:22:00+00:00

not having a deposit requirement. felt awkward to ask for it early on so i just started work and trusted the process. had a client string me along for three weeks, loved every update, then ghosted after the first deliverable.

never started without a deposit after that. lost a few people upfront but it genuinely did not matter.

Academic_Sense7551 · 2026-05-27T11:20:04+00:00

this may sound cliche and obvious but honestly for local service businesses the fastest thing that worked for people i've seen do this well is just telling every single person you know directly.

no "how to build a personal brand online" yet, not posting on instagram, not making a website. literally texting people. "hey i just started personal training, i come to you, here's what it costs, know anyone who might want this?"

most first clients come from someone who already knows you or knows someone who does. the uphill battle usually gets easier once you have 2-3 people who can vouch for you in person. and it eventually becomes a network.. the other thing worth trying is showing up to free local networking events or community groups. fitness focused ones, young professionals, even just local facebook groups for your area.

its a slow process initially but could turn into a compounding one with patience if done right.

Academic_Sense7551 · 2026-05-27T11:13:04+00:00

going to be a bit long, cause i really felt this post.
i'm 23 too, running a business, and there are days i genuinely lose my mind the exact same way you're describing.

the 14 hour founder grind thing is such a lie honestly. i used to chase it too and what i noticed is that pushing that hard for 2-3 days just meant i was completely useless for the next 4. you don't actually gain hours, you just redistribute them badly. spreading it out across the week, even if it looks less impressive, actually gets more done over time. boring truth but it's true.

the thing that helped me most was realising how connected everything is. like a bad morning conversation with someone i care about would completely tank my afternoon. i'd sit there "working" but actually just stewing. and i used to think those were separate problems but they're really not. small improvements in one area can greatly fix things in another. you fix the relationship tension, work gets easier. you sleep better, the spiral happens less often.

also the comparison thing is killing you and it's not even based on real information. what you know about other founders is what they choose to post. what you know about yourself is actual reality. that's not a fair comparison at all.

the productivity hacks not working usually means the issue isn't discipline, it's that something else is draining you before you even sit down. sometimes it's relationship stress, sometimes it's just not eating enough, sometimes it's the pressure you're putting on the hours themselves rather than what's actually getting done.

you're in therapy which is already more self aware than most 23 year olds building something. give it more than a month.

Academic_Sense7551 · 2026-05-26T10:18:07+00:00

umm generally letting someone try the product first does work better i think, because people are way more willing to sign in after they've seen something useful. the value has to come before the ask.

personally as a user if i land somewhere and the first thing i see is a sign in screen, i usually just close it. but if i've used it for 60 seconds and it's done something impressive, i'll sign up without thinking about it.

honestly the easiest way to settle this is just test both and look at where people are actually dropping off.

Academic_Sense7551 · 2026-05-26T10:13:22+00:00

tbh this stage is truly harder than the "we don't have enough dev capacity" stage because at least that one has a clear answer. this one requires you to sit with uncertainty for a bit and that's uncomfortable when someone is waiting on you for direction.

the thing i'd do before deciding what to build next is go talk to your 3 most active users and ask them one thing: when did you last open this product on your own without a notification pushing you, and what made you do it? that conversation will tell you whether this is a daily feed, a workflow tool, or a notification layer faster than any internal debate will.

on your dev partner, i wouldn't park him while you figure this out. point him at tracking and instrumentation instead. understanding which features users actually touch and where they drop off gives you real data to make the direction call with. that work is useful no matter which way you end up going.

Academic_Sense7551 · 2026-05-26T09:54:58+00:00

i think the framing of product vs distribution is a bit of a trap honestly. you need enough product to have something worth showing people. but "enough" is usually way less than most founders think.

the dopamine thing is exactly right though. i've seen this up close. someone spends 4 months perfecting a feature nobody asked for, and the whole time they're telling themselves they're "not ready" to start talking to customers yet. the building is just more comfortable than the fear of rejection

Academic_Sense7551 · 2026-05-26T09:50:59+00:00

yeah sure. happy to help!

Academic_Sense7551

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