How to structure a B2B sales playbook with no sales experience?

Question

Building an AI startup with real inbound demand, but I'm technical and have 0 sales background.  People sign up, poke around, and I've got no repeatable way to take them form interested to paying.  Don't want to kill the momentum while I figure it out.

For founders who built a B2B motion from scratch, where did you actually start?

Daniel Ochoa · Answer

Talk to everyone who said yes first and figure out why they bought.  That’s your playbook.

Then figure out who this is for, whats happening in their world that makes them need you, and stay on top of follow ups (key).

No sales experience early on is a good thing, you’ll just have real conversations.

Juan Francisco Verhook · Answer

Don't build the whole playbook upfront, you'll guess wrong.   Run 10 calls first, take notes on what lands and what kills the deal, then write it from real data.  Sell first, systematize second.

Andres Gomez · Answer

Keep it stupid simple early: who exactly it's for, what makes them need it now, and relentless follow-up.  Most B2B deals die in the follow-up, not the pitch.   That's where no-experience founders lose momentum.

Joe Berrizbeitia · Answer

Pick one ICP and go narrow.  B2B Saas, 10-50 people, just raised.  Tight focus means your pitch actually lands and your follow-up knows who it's talking to.   You can expand later.

Henry Waltz · Answer

Write down every objection you've heard and your honest answer to each.   That doc is your playbook.

Update it after every call.  In a month you'll have something no consultant could've handed you.

Angel & Advisor, Coral Gables, FL · Answer

Inbound is a gift most founders never get, so don't overthink it.  The single highest leverage move: get on a call with every signup, fast, while interest is hot.  Don't pitch, just ask what problem made them sign up.  You'll hear the same words over and over, and those words become your pitch, your pricing, and your follow up.

CPO, New York, NY · Answer

Treat it like debugging.  Every person who signed up and didn't pay is a failed test case.  Go talk to 10 of them and ask what stopped them.  The pattern is in their answers and that's your playbook.  You're not bad at sales, you just don't have the data yet.  Sales is a system.

Angel & Advisor, Coral Gables, FL · Answer

Use Claude to interview your top 5 paying customers.  Ask what made them sign vs what made them hesitate.  Claude extracts patterns.  Build your playbook from those 5 conversations, not theory.  Then test it: call 10 signups with your playbook, track what works.  Iterate weekly.  You'll find your motion in 4 weeks.

Founder & GP, New York, NY · Answer

Structure it super simple.  Sign up -> email day 1 with one step.  Call within 48 hours if they opened -> ask one question: what do you need to solve? -> propose a call based on their answer.  Use Pipedrive to track this.  Automate emails with Clay.  You're not selling, you're qualifying.

Founder & CMO, Coral Gables, FL · Answer

Stop building a playbook.  Talk to 5 people who did not buy.  Ask them why.  Then talk to 5 more who did.   Find the delta.  That's your playbook.  Write it down in Notion.  Now you have a system based on real behavior, not what sales books say should work.

How to structure a B2B sales playbook with no sales experience?

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