Playbook index

Last reviewed: 2026-09-03 · Reading edit: 2026-09-12

You can start with one problem and come back for the rest. Choose a chapter below, or follow a short path with a guide, a working file, and a filled example.

If you are not sure where to start, try a short reading path. You can also browse tools, working files, or reading sources.

Start with a practical task path if you want a guide, a template, and a worked example together.

Fast finder

What you need help with	Open this chapter
Choose your first customers	01 · Strategy & buyers
Explain why someone should choose your product	02 · Product marketing
Write or share something useful	03 · Brand, story & content
Reach the people your work is for	04 · Channels & distribution
Start a relevant conversation	05 · Outbound & prospecting
Work with accounts, events, or partners	06 · Account, field & partner marketing
Help visitors understand and buy	07 · Website & conversion
Help customers get value and stay	08 · Lifecycle & customer marketing
Make plans, records, and numbers useful	09 · Operations, pipeline & measurement

The full article lists follow. Familiar with a topic already? Jump to the guide that answers your next question.

01 · Strategy & buyers

Decision: Where should the company compete, which organizations and people matter, and how do they buy?

Guides in this chapter:

• Idea discovery

• Idea validation

• Ideal customer profile

• Wedge

• Buying committee

• First ten customers

• Product-market fit

• Four Fits

• Market research

• Segmentation

• Buyer journey

• Jobs to be done

• Category entry points

• Competitive alternatives

02 · Product marketing

Decision: What should the market understand, believe, compare, and buy?

Guides in this chapter:

• Positioning

• Messaging

• Competitive intelligence

• Product launch

• Pricing and packaging

• Sales enablement

• Demo

• Change friction

• Value proposition

• Proof and claims

03 · Brand, story & content

Decision: How will future buyers remember, trust, and learn from the company before they are in market?

Guides in this chapter:

• Content strategy

• Founder story

• Case study

• White paper

• Brand strategy

• Brand narrative

• Thought leadership

• Newsletter

• Webinar

• Podcast

• Video

• Community-led growth

04 · Channels & distribution

Decision: Where and how will the market repeatedly encounter the company’s ideas and offers?

Guides in this chapter:

• Channel strategy

• SEO and AEO

• Community

• Creator partnership

• Product Hunt

• Content syndication

• LinkedIn organic

• Paid media

• Review sites

• Paid search

• Paid social

• Retargeting

• PR and media

• Content distribution

• Content repurposing

05 · Outbound & prospecting

Decision: How will the team create relevant conversations with accounts that have not raised a hand?

Guides in this chapter:

• Account research

• Buying signals

• Message-market fit

• Cold email

• Multichannel sequence

• SDR onboarding

• Contact data

• Cold call

• LinkedIn outbound

• Contact research

• Email deliverability

• Reply handling

• SDR handoff

06 · Account, field & partner marketing

Decision: How will marketing and sales coordinate around high-value accounts, physical access, and ecosystem leverage?

Guides in this chapter:

• Event marketing

• Trade shows

• Executive dinners

• Ecosystem

• Account planning

• ABM strategy

• One-to-one ABM

• One-to-few ABM

• Direct mail

• Partner marketing

• Affiliate program

• Channel marketing

• Co-marketing

07 · Website & conversion

Decision: How will owned digital experiences help buyers understand, evaluate, and take the next step?

Guides in this chapter:

• Homepage

• Comparison page

• Pricing page

• Demo request

• Landing page

• Forms and chat

• Website strategy

• Product page

• Documentation and resource center

• Lead magnet

• Conversion-rate optimization

• Self-service buying

08 · Lifecycle & customer marketing

Decision: How will the company educate, retain, expand, and mobilize customers after initial interest or purchase?

Guides in this chapter:

• Customer success

• Customer onboarding

• Onboarding communication

• CS-leadership ramp

• CS workspace

• Revenue churn

• Lead nurture

• Expansion marketing

• Renewal marketing

• Lifecycle email

• Customer education

• Customer community

• Customer advocacy

• Referral program

• Review program

• Win-back

09 · Operations, pipeline & measurement

Decision: How will data, process, technology, and measurement make the marketing system repeatable?

Guides in this chapter:

• Sales compensation

• Forecasting

• Lead scoring

• GTM planning

• Budget and planning

• Marketing org

• Sales-leadership ramp

• CRM data model

• MarTech governance

• Sales operating cadence

• Company cadence

• Incentive timing

• RevOps compensation

• Experimentation

• GTM AI maturity

• AI use-case selection

• AI workflow

• Measurement model

• Funnel model

• Pipeline model

• Lifecycle stages

• Account scoring

• Routing and SLA

• Attribution

• Dashboards

• Privacy and compliance operations

How to use the guides

Start with the situation and the example, then use the steps and checklist for your own work. The suggested scores and thresholds are starting points to test, not universal benchmarks. Each guide includes sources and a next reading link.

Architecture rationale

• Long-term demand creation and short-term demand capture require different methods and measures. See the LinkedIn B2B Institute.
• B2B buyers move across digital, remote, and in-person touchpoints, so channel playbooks must connect to one buyer journey. See McKinsey’s 2026 B2B Pulse.
• Account-based marketing coordinates marketing and sales across channels around selected accounts. See Demandbase’s ABM orchestration guide.

Third-party links use ref=b2b-playbook for referral-source identification only. The parameter is not an affiliate code or an endorsement signal.

This library focuses on marketing and the revenue work closely connected to it. Detailed contract negotiation and procurement execution are outside its scope.

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Copyright © 2026 Ivan Xu. All rights reserved. See the copyright and reuse terms.

Canonical source: github.com/weilun88313/B2B-Playbook