r/B2BSales

My background has been rooted in sales and operations - most notably sales. I moved through the corporate hierarchy at a young age and have always had a knack for consultative/value based sales. I managed district sales and operations for a multi billion dollar company and have the accolades to show my success, boot strapped a start up, and have had what I would consider a successful career thus far. Sales has always come natural to me, along with coaching/consulting/developing/training on sales strategies and programs. I was often called upon to do the latter as a testament to my successes. I enjoy that equally as much.

With that said, I am looking to build upon this passion as it would compliment my current role. As someone who has held leadership positions I would call this fractional, but am open to different positioning as I understand the title semantics. The real value I would bring is on closing, strategy, training, and as it pertains to sales, would be looking for roles with strong inbound that are searching for closers. I could help develop the funnel to get to close.

I am familiar with many of the job boards (although I will take more recommendations), but am interested in feedback or guidance from anyone who maybe walked a similar path. As a business owner I feel there is absolutely a time and place for the fractional roles, but I am not sure how other businesses view this. If you did something similar, I would love to hear your story and feedback on growing a fractional presence as far as how you got started, where you found success, etc.

Hi everyone! I work for a very large MSP and wondering, how are you getting in the door for introduction conversations. I have the stories from the customers i’ve brought in but my message isn’t landing. what’s working for everyone to bring in new opportunities?

Hey r/B2BSaaS

I recently finished a project mapping my IT services company's digital visibility and I’m puzzled: smaller competitors with fewer resources and smaller teams are far more visible online than we are. I want to learn, test, and improve, so I’m asking the community for practical, high-impact advice.

If you’ve grown visibility for a bootstrapped tech/IT services firm (or helped one do it), I’d be grateful for suggestions specifically for these areas:

Service pages: structure, messaging, SEO tactics that actually move the needle.

Review platforms (Clutch, GoodFirms, G2, etc.): how to get quality reviews quickly and ethically.

Search-result competitors: simple research hacks to spot what they’re doing and how to outrank them.

Original research: what type of data/content gets traction for B2B tech firms, and realistic ways to produce it.

Technology partner listings: how to get listed and make those pages convert.

Customer permission & testimonials: how to request them without sounding spammy and how to use them effectively.

What worked for you? Any step-by-step tactics, templates (message scripts), tools, or small experiments that gave outsized results? I’m comfortable with automation and workflows (Clay, HubSpot, etc.), so feel free to get technical.

Thanks I’ll share what we try and the results. Open to DMs for detailed follow-up.

- Daniel Carter

heyy Business owners !! one question. I want to build an AI powered platform that helps businesses or startups identify gaps in their digital tools, processes, and operations, then recommends the right technology and digital solutions to improve efficiency, customer experience, and growth. Would you use as a business owner or founder?

I just started cold calling,how many connects with decision do you need to book 1 meeting or any next step I saw on cognism it is just 4% which seems too low , i have a B2B saas really low ticket but trying to get first few users by cold calling and my ICP is really specific solo plumbers or really small plumbing companies in a specific zip code and I am getting really good connect rates and I haven't made much dials around 200 for now over last few weeks but I want to know the average benchmark that other people are getting because I saw several blogs saying 2 % dail to meeting but in the same blog they mention like 10 % connect rate and just 4 to 5 % connect to meeting rate, i dont even ask for meeting i usually ask my prospects do they want to try it out and I can assist them on any on-boarding and the free trial doesn't require a credit card , so my biggest question internally is what is even the average set rate for low ticket offers is it really just 4% connect to meeting rate when a decision maker picks up the phone so any advice or personal experience would help me

I'm trying to pressure-test pricing for a managed outbound service, and I'd rather hear the ugly answer than validate my own spreadsheet.

We originally built our sales platform for mid-market B2B teams. In practice, we found that the software was only part of the job. Someone still had to tighten the ICP, choose the right accounts, research why they might care now, oversee the outreach, handle replies, and keep the work moving every day.

Now I'm considering a version for founder-led B2B companies.

The service would work like this:

• We agree on your ICP, offer, voice, signals for identification, and boundaries.
• The platform and our team research and prioritize prospects, then engage them through your LinkedIn account, and your email, using your approved voice.
• My team oversees quality, handles replies and edge cases, and adjusts the targeting as we learn.
• We synchronize everything into your CRM, so you see and can build reporting on every interaction, engagement, and result (data driven).
• The goal is to put qualified sales conversations on your calendar, and have them both be ICP fits, AND make it to real pipeline opportunities.
• You take the meetings and keep ownership of the buyer relationship.

This would not be a contact database, a purchased lead list, or a set-it-and-forget-it AI SDR. What you'd get:

Instant removal of the recurring prospecting work without putting an outsourced rep between you and the buyer.

You would be building your OWN network, your own connections in linkedin, your own visibility and brand.

Our collective goal isn't to book meetings, it's to build pipeline. Validated, accepted potential deals/opportunities.

If you’re a founder who still owns sales, I'd love your unfiltered answer. If the answer is $0, that’s useful too.

1. Are you bootstrapped or funded, and what stage are you at?
2. What’s your typical customer contract worth?
3. How are you generating outbound pipeline today?
4. What would this need to produce each month to be worth paying for?
5. What monthly price would be an easy yes, require proof, and be a hard no?
6. What would make you hesitate most: price, account access, brand risk, lead quality, or something else?

Actual numbers are much more helpful than "it depends." I'm not asking for DMs or trying to close anyone from this post. I just want to understand how founders think about the tradeoff.

I own a small Digital Signage and AV company. The past year our calls have dropped so much it feels like only bots call us now. Anyone else dealing with this and what was your solution?

anyone in here found success with cold email outbound to contractors? obviously more known methods of cold reach are like cold calling cold SMS but I wanna know if anyone in here has done cold email and seen success with getting clients to do their marketing. I’m trying to diversify my acquisition methods. And advice would be much appreciated.

Ps: already do cold calling and it Works. I’ve gotten two clients from cold calling looking for more passive outreach strats

Hello

I have “LEADS” (not just a list of data) of companies that have just received a round of FUNDING – meaning that they have just received money to invest & spend on their business. These “Leads” are companies that have just secured funding in the “PAST 7 DAYS” ensuring every contact has confirmed budget, growth intent, and immediate need for B2B services.     

\*\*LEADS/SOLUTIONS FOR:\*\*

\* SaaS Companies
\* Sales Teams
\* Start-Ups
\* Staffing Agencies
\*  Recruiting Firms
\* Software Agencies

Let me know if anyone is interested, maybe there is something we can do with them. Open to suggestions!
I am more than willing to send a sample/test list to see what “Fields” they are broken down.

Thanks

Hey guys Im a student strating in College. I was wondering how marketing agencies start finding and approaching clients. Besides running ads for your agency and an SEO strategy for you website which is the best way to find and be discovered by possible clients?

After that what is the best way to apprach them?

I’ve recently purchased a small commercial laundry business that washes and delivers uniforms, mats and tea towels to B2B customers.

I’m looking to grow the customer base and would appreciate advice from people in the industry.

What has worked best for you — online marketing, cold calling/walking into businesses, networking, or employing a salesperson?

I’m particularly interested in what worked when you were starting from a relatively small customer base.

Appreciate any advice.

Best books you recommend for consultative selling on discovery calls for contractors?

selling services like coaching/consulting. not produsts.

I've been building my own marketing studio for the past while, mostly working with small local businesses. In my experience they don't have a lot of money to pay for marketing services and/or don't trust me because I don't have a big portfolio, I look kinda young and I'm very generous (often too generous...).

Before I started this, I was side hustling for about half a year as a social media manager and didn't find any success in that either. I used to get clients through cold calling and cold emailing which got me to the wrong clientele, since they always thought they could act however they want with me and my small business.

Now I'm trying to build trust via social media (Instagram mostly) in hopes to getting better clients there. This takes a long time though and I suppose it could be way faster than this. To get to revenue quicker I built a digital product as well, which trusted viewers could invest in.

I really think I'm doing something wrong tho, because it seems like everyone else gets their first few good clients through warm contacts for example, and can then scale up more or less quickly. I don't really have warm contacts which I could ask: everyone around me knows what I'm building, and I always ask if they know someone I could help out but they don't :/

Btw I'm conscious about not being able to build this quickly but I'm starting to get really frustrated because I tried so many things and always end up at the same point. It takes up so much energy to plan, build and scale each idea, especially when trying to make it perfect (even tho I know, it'll never be perfect).

If someone knows what might help in this situation, I'd be super glad.

Thank you for reading and supporting 🙏

This is probably a long shot…

I’ve spent the last **9 months** building and beta testing a pretty unique AI SaaS product, and it’s finally getting to the point where it’s time to start selling it.

The problem is… I honestly think I suck at sales.
I’m an introvert, and my brain naturally gravitates toward improving the product, solving problems, and building new features. Cold outreach, networking, and closing deals? That’s just not where I shine.

So I figured I’d throw this out there.
If you’re the kind of person who genuinely enjoys B2B sales, building relationships, and talking with business owners, I’d love to chat.

I already have a solid list of qualified prospects ready to go. I’m not looking to hire an employee—I’m looking for someone who wants to own the sales side while I continue building.

I’m willing to share **25% of the recurring revenue** from every customer you bring in. If you’re as good at sales as I hope you are, I honestly think we could make a lot of money together.

If this sounds like something you’d be interested in, send me a DM. Worst case, we have a good conversation. Best case, we build something pretty special together.

I’ve been building a small data/BI consulting business focused on helping companies clean up messy reporting environments, automate manual reporting, improve Power BI/data models, and generally make better use of the data they already have.

The delivery side is the part I know well.

The part I’m still figuring out is consistently getting in front of the right businesses.

For anyone who has built a consulting business, agency, or B2B service company before, what actually worked for you when it came to finding those first few clients?

Cold email? Partnerships? LinkedIn? Local businesses? Referral arrangements? Something else entirely?

I’m especially interested in hearing from people who have experience with B2B lead generation, appointment setting, partnerships, or helping technical founders build a pipeline.

Would love to compare notes. Feel free to DM me if you’ve done something similar or may be interested in sharing your wisdom!

Hey everyone,
I’m relatively new to the insurance business and I’m trying to figure out the best way to build a book of business without just buying random lead lists or burning through money on ads.
I’m currently focused on **group health/employee benefits for small businesses**, but I’m also working with individuals on **life insurance**.
I have a pretty strong background in project/account management and working with businesses, so I’m comfortable talking to owners and building relationships. The part I’m trying to figure out is consistently getting in front of the *right* people.
For those of you who have been doing this for a while:
• What lead sources have actually worked for you?
• Cold calling/emailing local businesses?
• LinkedIn?
• Networking?
• Referrals?
• Buying leads?
• Reddit/social media?
• Something completely different?
I’m not looking for a magic button. I’m willing to put in the work. I’d just rather spend my time doing things that actually have a chance of producing results.
Would really appreciate hearing what worked for you when you were starting out, especially if you’re an independent broker.

THANKS!

I have a marketing agency. Just started the agency. I want to do cold email outreach. I'm getting really desperate for leads. Can you give me some suggestions on how to get free, automated, qualified leads so that I can get a lot of leads at once?

For founders who have already gone through this:

What was your biggest challenge?

Finding the right prospects

Getting people to reply

Getting meetings

Converting meetings

Building trust

Finding a repeatable acquisition channel

I'm especially interested in hearing from B2B and SaaS founders.

What worked eventually, and what did you waste time on?

Hi everyone,

I’m new to B2B and recently built a B2B services business. We’re getting some decent traction so far, but I’m not sure how to consistently generate sales.

From my initial research, I’ve come across a few options:

• LinkedIn Sales Navigator and InMail
• Tools like Lusha for finding emails from LinkedIn
• Email-finding tools such as RocketReach
• Outreach platforms like ReachInbox
• LinkedIn ads
• SEO and content marketing
• Ebooks, lead magnets and other resources
• Cold email and social media ads

The problem is that I’m not sure where to start.

Should I:

• Build a targeted prospect list and start sending cold emails?
• Focus on LinkedIn outreach first?
• Run LinkedIn or social media ads?
• Create ebooks or lead magnets?
• Invest in SEO?
• Collect market data and use it for email campaigns?

I feel like I’m looking at too many options and getting confused. I’ve also read that it’s better to focus on two or three channels first instead of trying everything at once

If you’ve built a B2B business or handled sales for one before, I’d really appreciate your advice:

• What channel worked best for you in the beginning?
• What would you avoid if starting again?
• Should I focus on outbound sales first or build inbound marketing?
• What tools or processes helped you get your first consistent leads?

Any practical advice would be really helpful

Hello,

We offer a cybersecurity compliance managed service. We get out leads three ways: SEO / our website, partner referrals, and client referrals. These three have allowed us grow our business and meet our growth targets. We don't currently have an outbound motion. I'd like to build outbound as a fourth pillar of our lead generation strategy. I'm having trouble finding a solution that works today.

I built and managed sales teams pre-pandemic using a playbook I'm not sure works anymore in a remote world. I'm not sure if hiring a sales person will yield results. Are they supposed to cold call? How do you even reach someone on the phone now?

I tried an "AI enabled" email service. It didn't generate any leads. I'm skeptical of this these "AI SDR" services that spam billions of mailboxes to hope that you get leads through volume. I've got some campaigns set up in Apollo, but those don't seem to do much either. It seems like email is too saturated to work. LinkedIn is getting there.

What are small business owners doing to generate leads that actually works? Or, am I already doing it? Customers are finding us via our website and referrals. We just have a hard time finding them. I'm worried about missing the universe of customers that need what we offer, but we didn't show up on their radar for whatever reason.

Thanks for the intel!