B2B Sales Playbook for Creating Sustainable Revenue & Enduring Brand Value

I've spent over 20 years in revenue and marketing leadership roles for large corporations, start-ups, and agencies. I created this playbook because I noticed that traditional marketing and sales tactics fail to educate and inspire, and cold-contacting prospects does more to harm your company's reputation than to inspire action.

This is why I wrote this playbook. To highlight the pre-sell areas in the sales process that focus on community building, education, and inspirational content that generates demand for your solution.

This isn't simply a list of best practices; these are essential steps that led to the creation of King Street Ventures, which has rapidly evolved into the world's foremost innovation community. We established KSV to address the flaws in the sales model for high-tech solutions, and we are sharing our insights with you.

Summary:

1) Build a community around an idea bigger than your company and they will be your advocates and buyers when it's time to start the sales cycle.

2 ) Education is the first step when selling a new technology product. You must level-set the buyer, before you can make a persuasive case.

3 ) Inspire potential buyers with Success Stories of well-known and trusted brands who have achieved positive outcomes with your product.

Community Is The New CRM

Forget lead lists, cold calls, and spamming unsuspecting prospects. If you're pitching your service to an executive who has never heard of your company before reaching out with an offer, your chances are essentially zero. This is why community building is so important. It gets executives to know who you are and what you're about, long before the selling process begins.

1 ) Identify a cause that's bigger than your company.

Successful brands know their "why" and it's not to sell a product or service. It's the value you add to society and what you stand for. This is exactly what your community should be designed to do... communicate and rally people around your why. Design this correctly and your products will be the heroes that march in to save the day (when the time is right).

? KSV Proof Point: We created our own community (Corporate Council) to build trusted, ongoing relationships with corporate leaders around our own "why" which is to solve the problem of helping corporate executives navigate emerging technologies.

2) Provide real value to your community members.

To have a successful community, you need to provide your members with value. Ask yourself; what do they want or need (professionally, personally, and at their company?). Addressing all three of these "hats" will help you determine where your company can add value. If you don't already have buyer personas, creating them is a great way to workshop answers to these questions.

? KSV Proof Point: Our buyer persona is a corporate technology leader of a Fortune 500 company. Professionally, this individual seeks to stay educated about transformational technologies and grow their professional network and brand. At their company, they are tasked with exploring new solutions that will help them achieve their technology transformation goals and maintain competitive advantage. Personally, they are excited to learn from startup founders and make angel investments in promising companies.

In our Corporate Council we help a corporate leader achieve all of these goals, which is why we have the fastest-growing and most prolific global community of corporate technology and marketing innovation leaders in the world.

Create Demand Through Education

Technology is changing rapidly which means that you cannot assume that your buyer is educated on the technical nuances of your solution. This is even more apparent in the startup world. At KSV, we help our startups tell compelling "Success Stories" which leverage a simple and powerful framework (described below) to generate demand while educating.

Tell a Success Story

Let your customers do the selling. Testimonials are often shuffled to the back of sales collateral, and it's a genuine shame! The most impactful and persuasive case you can make to a potential client is to tell a simple story about how you helped a well-known category leader achieve breakout success with your solution. Do this in coordination with your client and it's a recipe for a highly-attended webinar or eye-catching paper.

Let your customers do the selling. Testimonials are often shuffled to the back of sales collateral, and it's a genuine shame!

? KSV Proof Point: Our webinars are life-changing experiences for our startups. Because we insist upon case stories with well-known brands, our content attracts executive leaders of the biggest companies in the world. Our brand (KSV) is built upon the big idea of "Innovation Happens Here" and we carry-out this brand promise through our content. See who attends for proof of the Success Story formula.

Engage Your Audience

Your first meeting with any prospective buyer is an opportunity to listen, learn, and ask questions. This is not a chance to present your capabilities and soak-up every last drop of oxygen in the room (unless explicitly requested). With the three buyer persona "hats" that I described above, this is your chance to build a personal and professional connection. Your entry-point is often not your end-buyer, so use this time to create an internal champion and gain information about how to properly tailor and position your offering during a second meeting with a larger group of stakeholders.

1) Let them speak first.

Ask the prospect how they would like to use the time. Have a list of qualifying questions in mind, a presentation ready, and an eye on the clock to ensure 15-20 minutes of Q&A. This is your Discovery Call, so use the time to ask questions, educate the prospect (if needed), and to qualify the lead.

2) Get to the heart of the issue.

In a second meeting, it's your chance to understand the dynamics working inside of the company. Emerging technologies face an uphill battle, with structural and cultural friction points that include legacy technology systems, data handling & security compliance, and employees who are resistant to change.

? KSV Proof Point: Because we meet with corporate leaders everyday in confidence, we understand their transformation priorities, focus areas, and concerns. We intentionally create a barrier between ourselves and technology companies in our network in order to allow for executives to share freely with us. This allows us to only recommend solutions that are right for their brand and business, resulting in hundreds of meetings and commercial partnerships every year.

3) Speak to the c-suite

In nearly every case, focusing on the resulting benefit of your solution rather than nuances of your technology will yield a better outcome. Technical jargon will land well with middle-level executives who are often tasked with the implementation of new solutions, but to make your solution a priority, you must keep the attention of the c-suite by focusing on the benefit you bring to an organization.

??Pro Tip: Research the business goals of the organization before taking a meeting. Shareholder reports, recent speaking engagements, and press releases can provide your team with valuable cues on how to connect your solution to the goals of the company.

4) Land & Expand

Once you're "on the inside" (ie: you've sold your first piece of business) an entirely new form of sales is required. Account-Based Marketing & Sales won't be covered here, but at the earliest possible moment that a current project appears to convert, you will want to assign a very capable account lead. Your sales team is far from finished as well, as they should work in tandem with the account lead to uncover more entry-points within the organization.

When selling inside of a Fortune 100 Company, it's highly likely that there are other business units, geographies, departments, and more where your solution is also needed. Map the organization and plot a "land and expand" strategy.

??Pro Tip: An all encompassing, Global Master Services Agreement with a Fortune 100 can feel like a huge barrier to entry, but it's actually your golden ticket. Don't let this daunting process scare you... it's an opportunity for long-term growth with dramatically lower internal friction once signed.

??Beware of Red Flags

Iconic brands and companies have the power to create a life-changing event for your startup or tech company. Unfortunately, they know this all too well, and may use their reputation to wield unfair terms during negotiations.

Beware of doing free work (unpaid pilots) broad exclusivity terms (being blocked-out from working with entire industries) revealing too much of your trade secrets (they might just try and build your solution in house) or working with innovation teams that are too far removed from the organization's own goals.

For corporate leaders, there are also red flags to be mindful of. Your job is to validate the claims made by a Founder or tech solution as quickly and efficiently as possible, to determine that what they shared in their sales materials is actually true. One green light is a vendor who is open and honest about the current limitations of their product. When assessing the solution, bucket their capabilities into three areas: 1) what capabilities have been proven with other clients, 2) what capabilities are ready today, and 3) what is on the roadmap (and when those additional capabilities will be rolled-out).

Make Your Marketing Evergreen

Products come and go, but communities are built to last! This is why your community is defined by a bigger purpose, and your marketing should be evergreen in nature.

By creating enduring marketing programs that can be reused every year, you are able to take advantage of the true magic of community building - compounding network effects.

? KSV Proof Point: At KSV, we know that technologies come and go, but what remains? Our global network and guiding voice that "Innovation Happens Here". Our events take place every single year, building momentum and growing in both attendees and corporate sponsors. Take a look at our 2025 events and experiences below and join our fast-growing network today.

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