Playbooks and partner shortlists.
For software development agencies, IT companies, and consulting firms trying to compound pipeline across organic search, AI answer engines, outbound, and positioning.
If you know which motion is broken, start by service. If you want everything written for firms like yours, start by firm type.
15 channels · 60 playbooks · 52 shortlists
SEO & Digital Visibility
4 channelsOrganic search, AI answer engines, and the authority signals that feed both.
SEO
Search still pulls the highest-intent buyers, but the shape of the channel is changing. 6 playbooks · 6 shortlistsContent Marketing
Most B2B content is written for search engines that no longer click through. 4 playbooks · 5 shortlistsDigital PR
Trade publication coverage is the single highest-quality input into both search rankings and AI citation pools, and no longer an ego exercise. 2 playbooks · 4 shortlistsAI Visibility
Buyers now ask AI assistants for agency shortlists before they ever land on a website. 5 playbooks · 0 shortlistsLead Generation & Outreach
7 channelsOutbound, paid, and account-based motions that book qualified conversations.
Lead Generation
Lead generation for services firms is a system, not a channel: target the right accounts, reach them through three coordinated touchpoints, and follow up before the warm window closes. 7 playbooks · 11 shortlistsDemand Generation
Only 5% of your addressable market is in-market at any given time. 5 playbooks · 2 shortlistsOutbound
The gap between outbound that books meetings and outbound that gets marked as spam comes down to infrastructure, list quality, and whether the first sentence acknowledges the reader is a person. 3 playbooks · 4 shortlistsEmail Outreach
Most email outreach fails at inbox placement, before anyone gets the chance to open it. 5 playbooks · 0 shortlistsPaid Ads
Paid media for B2B services looks nothing like paid media for B2C. 2 playbooks · 2 shortlistsABM
Account-based marketing is a commitment rather than a campaign type: treat a small number of accounts as the whole pipeline, and orchestrate content, outreach, and media around each one as if it were a market of one. 1 playbook · 3 shortlistsMarketing, Positioning & Brand
4 channelsStrategy, differentiation, and the narrative work that makes every channel convert harder.
Marketing
Most services firms have an allocation problem rather than a marketing problem. 6 playbooks · 7 shortlistsPositioning
Positioning is what you say, who you say it to, and who you deliberately leave out. 4 playbooks · 4 shortlistsBrand
Brand for a B2B services firm is the accumulated impression a buyer has formed before they ever speak to you, not a logo. 3 playbooks · 0 shortlistsThought Leadership
Thought leadership done properly is the highest-leverage marketing investment in a services firm. 4 playbooks · 3 shortlistsInsights
Field notes from scans, probes, and operator calls, posted when there's something real to say, not on a calendar.
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August 30, 2026Proof for Websites: Trust Signals That Build B2B Pipeline
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August 18, 2026Listen Notes Podcast: A Playbook for Dev Agency Outreach
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August 13, 2026A Curated List of VC Firms for Dev Agencies (2026)
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May 28, 2026Scale AI Competitors 2026: 10 Vendors Compared by Fit
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May 5, 2026Optimizing Your Sales Organization Structure for 2026
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April 30, 2026The Agency Niche Authority Index: A Framework for Scoring Your Niche Position
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April 21, 2026Managing Sales Leads: A System for Dev Agencies
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April 16, 2026B2B Data Enrichment for Software Dev Agencies
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April 9, 2026A Guide to Competitive Intelligence for Dev Agencies
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April 4, 2026Strategic Account Planning Template for Dev Agencies
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April 3, 2026- What is the difference between a playbook and a partner shortlist?
- A playbook teaches the method: the framework, the failure modes, the sequencing. A partner shortlist is a curated list of firms that execute that method credibly: SEO agencies, demand-gen shops, fractional CMOs, and specialist partners that serve software dev, IT, and consulting firms. Playbooks compound over months; shortlists refresh every 60 days to reflect what AI assistants are actually citing.
- Who are these resources for?
- Founders, heads of growth, and marketing leads at 40-300+ person B2B services firms (primarily software development agencies, IT companies, and consulting firms) who are past the "we figure it out as we go" phase and want a system, not another tactic.
- How often are pages updated?
- Hub definitions and frameworks refresh when the underlying thesis shifts (roughly quarterly). Partner shortlists refresh every 60 days via automated probes of Perplexity and ChatGPT. We do not bump timestamps without a real change; every update corresponds to either a content edit or a verified citation shift.
- Why run a scan instead of just reading the playbooks?
- The playbooks explain the system. The scan shows where your firm specifically breaks it: what your homepage claims, what AI assistants cite when asked, what competitors are positioned on that you are not.
- How do AI citation checks trigger page updates?
- Every 60 days, automated probes query Perplexity and ChatGPT for the commercial-intent queries each hub and shortlist targets. When the top-cited partners shift meaningfully, the affected pages get re-edited and their timestamps bumped. Details are logged publicly.
See where you stand before you read another playbook.
Playbooks explain the system. The scan shows where your firm specifically breaks it: what your homepage claims, what AI assistants cite, what competitors own that you don't.
Enter your website URL, e.g. your-agency.com
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