Ciente > Articles by: Ciente Editorial Team

Intel to unveil details of next-gen Panther Lake laptop chips

Author: Ciente Editorial Team

Chips. AI. Efficiency. The world seems to revolve around computational prowess. Yet Intel has been largely absent from these discussions- losing market share. Could this be their turning point? Intel to unveil the next generation of the Lake chips, called the Panther Lake, their codename for Core Ultra Series 3 mobile processors. This processor promises up to 30% less power consumption and will have Intel Arc Xe³ integrated graphics. However, is this salvation for Intel and an opportunity for growth? Ever since it announced a partnership with Nvidia, Intel has been the object of speculation for many. Where does the company go? Intel has lost market share to AMD and Nvidia. Then there was the capital injection from the SoftBank group and the US government's buy-in of a 10% stake at $8.9bn. Intel has experienced a rocky road. At one point, it was the chip maker. Intel's i3 to i7 processors were the best in the market. Macs, Dell Latitudes, and hardcore gaming PCs all had Intel chips. Intel inside, went the historic copy. But no empire can stand forever. AMD and Nvidia have outpaced Intel by a huge margin- why? Many critics point out that it's because they did not capitalize on the AI hype. But perhaps the reasons go deeper. According to Reuters' report from 07th August, 2025, Intel has been struggling to launch its next-gen because of manufacturing struggles. Intel has been facing an uphill battle with changing processes, leadership, and accusations that its CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, allegedly works for China. But the tech world has been waiting for Intel to succeed. The company that once became a household name might fall into obscurity. But that would be a tragic day. For it was known for innovation and bringing the computer to each household. Without Intel, maybe the proliferation of this tech wouldn't be possible. Yet, the future seems uncertain. Let's hope the Panther Lake proves to be an advantage and not just "another competitor" to AMD's and Apple's line of chips.
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Intel to unveil details of next-gen Panther Lake laptop chips

Intel to unveil details of next-gen Panther Lake laptop chips

Chips. AI. Efficiency. The world seems to revolve around computational prowess. Yet Intel has been largely absent from these discussions- losing market share. Could this be their turning point?

Intel to unveil the next generation of the Lake chips, called the Panther Lake, their codename for Core Ultra Series 3 mobile processors.

This processor promises up to 30% less power consumption and will have Intel Arc Xe³ integrated graphics. However, is this salvation for Intel and an opportunity for growth? Ever since it announced a partnership with Nvidia, Intel has been the object of speculation for many.

Where does the company go?

Intel has lost market share to AMD and Nvidia. Then there was the capital injection from the SoftBank group and the US government’s buy-in of a 10% stake at $8.9bn. Intel has experienced a rocky road.

At one point, it was the chip maker. Intel’s i3 to i7 processors were the best in the market. Macs, Dell Latitudes, and hardcore gaming PCs all had Intel chips.

Intel inside, went the historic copy. But no empire can stand forever. AMD and Nvidia have outpaced Intel by a huge margin- why?

Many critics point out that it’s because they did not capitalize on the AI hype. But perhaps the reasons go deeper.

According to Reuters’ report from 07th August, 2025, Intel has been struggling to launch its next-gen because of manufacturing struggles.

Intel has been facing an uphill battle with changing processes, leadership, and accusations that its CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, allegedly works for China. But the tech world has been waiting for Intel to succeed. The company that once became a household name might fall into obscurity.

But that would be a tragic day. For it was known for innovation and bringing the computer to each household. Without Intel, maybe the proliferation of this tech wouldn’t be possible. Yet, the future seems uncertain.

Let’s hope the Panther Lake proves to be an advantage and not just “another competitor” to AMD’s and Apple’s line of chips.

WhatsApp Tests Out Cool New Feature to Amp Up Chatting with Status Questions
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WhatsApp Tests New Status Questions Feature – Ciente

WhatsApp Tests New Status Questions Feature – Ciente

WhatsApp is testing a new interactive feature. Could it become a fun conversation starter or end up as another clunky addition to existing features?

The amount of time we spend on digital screens has replaced what humans crave the most- community. The digitization of almost everything has contributed to elevated loneliness rates.

And no amount of advanced AI models can cure this human need. But the tech industry is finding new ways to capitalize on this aspect.

From Instagram Stories to Tweets, everyone wishes to be part of a conversation, even if they’re taking part in it through a screen. If Threads, Reels, Subreddits, and of course, the algorithm that drives all these features.

This false sense of community has become the social currency of today.

WhatsApp’s latest feature (in its testing period), Status Questions, is a part of this ruse.

The tech leaders and innovators are filling the gap that they’re taking away from us.

First, WhatsApp was launched as merely a communication app, one that brought people close from across countries, states, and cities. It was a logical way forward- quite easily forward-thinking.

Then, as more and more competitors started to show up, it wished to stand out. The differentiator? Now, you can chat with businesses, Status Updates, Topic-Based Channels, and Communities.

With the latest interactive feature, Status Questions, users can add ‘question boxes’ on any video or picture people post to their status updates. But what exactly is the purpose?

Again, it’s engaging conversations. To kickstart conversations where you can’t simply pose a question or answer someone else’s question. You can only post a single question at a time, and all the responses appear in a single section that the poster is privy to. And even if the answer is shared publicly on the status, then the messenger’s identity remains anonymous.

The point is simple- to make WhatsApp conversations and connections dynamic and fun.

This comes after Meta had introduced a Payments option. Although limited in its capabilities in relation to its digital payments rivals, Indians are actively using the feature.

Maybe indicating that this Status Questions feature wouldn’t contribute much to the existing user demographic is jumping the gun. It could be a small part of making chatting fun again.

For now, it’s merely available to beta testers, with a stable release planned for Android users sometime next week.

Aspire Deepens Partnership with Meta, Launches AI Instagram Discovery
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Aspire Partners with Meta to Launch AI-Driven Instagram Discovery

Aspire Partners with Meta to Launch AI-Driven Instagram Discovery

With AI steering the wheel this time, the influencer world is shifting again.

Aspire, known for connecting brands and creators, dove deeper with Meta to launch AI Instagram Discovery. It feels technical, but in reality, it’s about cutting the clutter.

If you’ve ever run a campaign, you know the mess- Hours wasted scrolling. The same creators are showing up. Spreadsheets that look like graveyards. Aspire’s new integration claims to end that, letting Meta’s AI do the heavy lifting.

It’s like having Instagram’s own brain working for brands. Meta’s AI pulls real creator data- engagement quality, audience match, content style, straight from the source. No more pretending to guess who’s “authentic.”

And that’s the key shift. Follower counts don’t mean much anymore. What matters is connection. Real influence. Yet, discovery has been the most challenging part. Everyone preaches authenticity, but most of it is surface-level. AI discovery might finally change that- moving from who looks good to who fits well.

There’s also a strategy behind the timing. Meta’s been closing its data gates, tightening privacy. Through Aspire, brands get access to first-party insight without crossing any lines. Less scraping. More clarity.

But here’s the catch. Once AI starts deciding which creators are “brand-ready,” creativity could start bending to the algorithm. The line between genuine and machine-approved might blur fast.

Still, this feels like a practical move. The influencer space is drowning in noise and burnout. Aspire’s play with Meta isn’t loud or showy; it’s useful. And maybe that’s precisely what influencer marketing needs right now.

Programmatic Advertising Platforms: The Best Picks
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Programmatic Advertising Platforms: The Best Picks for 2026

Programmatic Advertising Platforms: The Best Picks for 2026

When planning to invest in programmatic advertising, the first thing to figure out is an efficient platform to partner with. This article will help you make that choice.

Programmatic advertising allows leaders to implement media purchases and retarget customers using automated tools. Choosing the right platforms simplifies launching efficient ad campaigns, highlighting a brand’s offerings, and garnering more customers.

The various features and advantages of programmatic advertising make it a popular channel for marketers. As technologies emerge, brands must incorporate these media channels to boost ROI.

Studies indicate that in 2026, its strategic integration can contribute to an unprecedented growth of around $271 billion in ad spending in the United States alone. You can combine it with top-notch ad templates and ad inventory to improve user experience.

More about B2B Programmatic Advertising

Programmatic advertising has two main players: an advertiser and a publisher. The advertiser shows ads to the target audience, whereas the publisher uses the ad space to display them. In contrast to display ads, programmatic ads can be bought or placed on platforms using the software. The purpose is to increase a brand’s distribution and scale at a higher budget.

With programmatic advertising, brands can give digital advertisers the benefit of the doubt for buying and selling ad inventory from publishers. You can leverage these platforms to buy the ad space of choice, manage ad campaigns, and optimize them using data.

There are six critical components involved in programmatic advertising’s automated process:

Demand-Side Platform (DSP)

DSP is an automated buying platform that is fitting for purchasing digital ad inventory. It allows you to buy ad space in exchange for advertisements at a pre-determined cost. When you launch ads with DSP, you can target audiences based on location, age, and online presence.

Supply-Side Platform (SSP)

This tool is perfect for including an ad inventory in an ad exchange. Typically, SSP can be managed before the onset of programmatic bidding.

Ad Exchange

An ad exchange is like the trading floor where actual bidding occurs. After an inventory is available, the ad space can be sold to the highest bidder. This process resembles an auction setting— the only difference is that it takes place through algorithms.

Real-Time bidding (RTB)

RTB offers clarity about what the target audience is seeking and how much they are willing to invest to reach them.

Private Marketplace (PMP)

Also known as a private exchange, it gives ad publishers more control while choosing what’s best suited to purchase their ad space. Publishers will provide inventory to a handful of advertisers.

Programmatic Direct

This ad platform allows publishers to sign one-on-one deals with advertisers beforehand. The pre-planning helps gather impressions at a guaranteed price. However, the actual process of publishing ads to the target audience happens through an automated system.

What Goes into Programmatic Advertising?

This process involves six steps:

Step 1: When customers visit a website displaying a programmatic ad, the site first shares client details with an ad exchange.

Step 2: The ad exchange then assesses user data. This detail is shared with advertisers in real-time. All this is followed by the initiation of an auction.

Step 3: With the help of DSPs, advertisers review the information, evaluate the value of serving their ads, and then place a bid accordingly.

Step 4: After the bidding process is completed, the ad exchange selects the best bid, and the winning advertiser gets the ad space.

Step 5: Soon after, the selected ad gets uploaded to the user’s webpage.

Step 6: Once an ad has been published, you can evaluate its performance using metrics like clicks, impressions, and conversions.

Want to read more about programmatic advertising? Please refer to some of our other blogs on this topic. (link)

Benefits of Using Programmatic Advertising Platforms

Why must you leverage diverse programmatic ad platforms? The answer is quite straightforward. It’s an informed and smart strategy. And an integral component of intelligent decision-making.

However, this isn’t all there is to leveraging different programmatic ad platforms.

They add an edge to your ad campaigns, elevating their visibility and reach. And this is why shifting from traditional digital marketing methods to programmatic ones is imperative to maximizing your ROAS.

What can optimized and automated ads actually do for your business?

1. Offers real-time data insight.

Tweaking and optimizing ad campaigns in real-time is a modern ad demand. While AI and automation have made it possible, few marketers usually understand their benefits.

Imagine being able to analyze PPC data after a whole day of running ads on the Google Ad Network? You can draw parallels between the huge volumes of real-time user data. It becomes much easier to draw insights at the very moment when users are interacting with your ads.

Your team receives insight into what’s working and what’s not. The data is presented, not in numbers, but in pie charts, metrics, and graphs using Google Analytics (or other integrated analytics software).

After which, these programmatic ad platforms allow you to make real-time adjustments. And the result? Elevated efficiency and speed. You no longer have to wait for the collated data at the end of the ad campaign and wonder if you can improve upon it next time.

2. Instills transparency into the reviewing and buying processes.

The truth is that you can’t improve upon what you can’t see or measure.

Programmatic ad platforms have elevated the visibility into ad campaigns, removing a significant amount of the black box. The most crucial one is an insight into automated ad buying and selling, especially in real-time.

Traditional advertising never offered advertisers or publishers so much information in the ad process. Behind the curtains, it’s never easy to understand where the disconnect could be. Think of billboard ads in a busy area, such as Times Square. You know the reach is enormous, but what are the exact numbers? Is your reach moving beyond vanity metrics?

Running an ad across the Google Ad Network is substantially different. You don’t just track impressions, but other value metrics that’ll help marketers make better decisions regarding ad spend.

3. Improves audience reach and targeting on multiple intricate levels.

Oftentimes, reach is misunderstood. It’s not a vanity metric, but a proof of your brand’s faring. This way, it’s directly linked to your business’s growth.

Programmatic media buying solves this curious case of audience reach for you.

Programmatic ad platforms are the chosen way to reach the maximum number of audience segments. And ascertaining that the ad hits the target just right. It fulfills the entire purpose of an ad, making people see it.

And with multiple networks and exchanges, the potential reach is quite significant. This is why most modern brands are opting for programmatic ad platforms. You don’t even have to concern yourself with your display ads or how to monitor and adjust them. These platforms help you consolidate and unify your running ads from a single location.

You can curate customized ads for different geographies to appeal to the local market and elevate conversions. From informed targeting to cross-device reach, these platforms do it all, emerging as a top-notch solution to traditional adtech limitations.

4. Scales campaigns for flexible resource allocation.

Scaling is a gemstone for businesses to remain competitive. But it’s not without its own risks and inefficiencies. How do you scale campaigns quickly and still ensure all the goals are achieved?

Programmatic ad platforms facilitate scaling depending on how much is invested in the campaigns. This makes programmatic an efficient solution for both large enterprises and small businesses.

For example, Google Ads ensures scalability by allocating average daily campaign budgets. Then it looks over when to best use the budget on a day-to-day basis. The amount spent substantially depends on the campaign’s potential ROI. This means that an advertiser can opt for the programmatic ad platform to reallocate a chunk of the budget during customer peak times.

The ad platforms ensure that advertisers can capitalize on opportune moments and increase effectiveness. And the most vital thing to note here is that the scalability that programmatic ads deliver is really agile. Your team can scrunch or increase the budget according to your campaign directives.

5. Improves your access to a rich media mix and enhances the creatives’ quality.

Programmatic ad platforms help choose the right media mix that suits your campaign best. It hosts a plethora of ad formats and channels to reach your audience in the most engaging way possible, from video ads to audio and connected TV.

This diversification adds edge to your campaign, retaining freshness in your campaigns. You can rotate between ad formats and experiment with multiple creatives at multiple touchpoints.

But always ensure that the content isn’t generic or static. Instill creativity across all assets to establish a direct understanding and empathetic communication line to your target audience. Leverage content that ties to the viewers’ pain points and offers value in return.

Don’t just invite your audience to look at your ad. But engage with it, and truly grasp what your brand can do for them. Creating more personalized creative assets might do the trick. And if it’s shareable? Your creatives add more bargain points to your ad campaigns.

This is what programmatic ad platforms afford advertisers- not just the technical structure, but also creative enhancement.

Choosing the Best Programmatic Advertising Platforms in 2026

Don’t just follow market trends or base your selection on the coattails of the market leaders. Given that programmatic is highly technical, you must opt for the best one- one that actually aligns with your business requirements.

The right platform will help you zero in on your campaign goals, factor in the funnel stages, and segregate audience data smartly.

Every brand entails a USP and unique customer journeys; the programmatic ad platforms you finally opt for must consider these aspects to enhance your activation strategy.

But choosing one isn’t as straightforward as you might think.

Let’s see which ones are making all the noise in the market currently.

Best Programmatic Advertising Platforms for Your Business

With several efficient ad platforms within the market, it can seem like a real challenge to decide which would be ideal for your brand.

We’ve prepared a list of top picks to help you integrate the leading programmatic advertising channels.

1. Publift

Publift is a Google Certified Publishing Partner specializing in ad tech, startup strategy, and optimization. Their high-quality custom solutions and customer service have earned them a high reputation.

Publift easily provides access to features like premium demand sources, real-time bidding optimization, and data-driven yield management. It’s a perfect choice for driving a significant increase in publisher revenue.

Publift is ideal for brands looking to deliver structured reporting and analytics to track ad campaign performance. The core objective is to push informed decision-making with these ads and optimize them.

2. Google Ad Manager

As a leading programmatic advertising platform, Google Ad Manager allows brands to target large publishers, thus generating traffic and revenue. Its equipped tools make ad optimization a smooth process.

Google Ad Manager’s ad exchange platform contains automated optimization and dynamic allocation. Features like this enable companies to modify campaigns based on performance indicators such as cost per action or click rate.

3. Adobe Advertising Cloud

One of the highlights of this platform is that you get the combined benefits of both Adobe Marketing Cloud and Adobe Analytics Cloud. This offers flexibility, supporting various programmatic ads across channels, such as display, video, social media, and so on.

You have an all-in-one platform that enables you to reach an audience through different ad formats. And it’s user-friendly, streamlining ad campaigns plus having the right tools for optimizing performance. You receive holistic information on customer behavior and preferences.

Adobe Advertising Cloud’s real-time analytics will help adjust bids and budgets, amplifying the ROI cycle.

4. Trade Desk

The features of Trade Desk can improve audience targeting and streamline omnichannel marketing. You can access RTB, private marketplaces, budget management, and more using the same tool.

What’s more, it exposes you to a data marketplace that gives advertisers access to high-quality data to enhance targeting efficiency. This platform enables brands to reach the right audience using the right message at the perfect time.

5. Xandr

Xandr is a Microsoft-owned platform that helps brands streamline the buying and selling of digital advertising. What makes it stand out is that it is very adaptable. Xandr’s striking blend of automated tech, data, and identity solutions makes it an asset for brands wanting to engage their target audience.

The differentiating feature of Xandr is its efficient audience analysis tool, providing insights into customer interests and preferences. Brands can use these details to customize ad campaigns to connect with customers and accelerate the sales pipeline.

6. PubMatic

PubMatic offers you the seller’s perspective. Brands can choose from an array of solutions that it offers, ensuring ad quality and monetizing the ad space. It also allows you to access a private marketplace, analytics tools, and tools to manage ad fraud.

Businesses can use the media buyer console plan in PubMatic to manage campaigns across multiple channels. The best feature of this platform is its scalability, making it accessible across various budget options.

7. MediaMath

Launched in 2007, MediaMath is an established platform integrated with cutting-edge programmatic buying technology.

The Gartner Magic Quadrant for Ad Tech listed it as a leading platform. MediaMath’s combination of catchy video and first-party data provides a complete end-to-end solution that promotes simple yet efficient omnichannel advertising.

This programmatic advertising platform is an ideal choice for omnichannel campaigns across mobile, display, video, and audio.

8. Criteo

Criteo is a genius at retargeting.

How often have we noticed users browsing through a website, or adding products to a cart, and then abandoning it? Criteo is an expert at delivering relevant and personalized ads that encourage these visitors to re-engage and complete their purchase.

It uses a hybrid approach, leveraging both audience data and algorithms, to track behavior and drive out data-driven, accurate insights. This way, their ad targeting strategy remains dynamic and contextual.

And in today’s landscape of ad fraud and lack of data security, Criteo moves away from deceptive incentives that encourage third-party clicks. This is what makes this platform the most accessible platform for publishers with mid-level website traffic.

9. AdPushUp

AdPushUp is known for its user-friendly interface. Started in 2014, this is a revenue optimization platform for website owners and online publishers. It facilitates publishers and advertisers to experiment with their creative assets by applying A/B testing.

It isn’t merely about publishing ads and generating revenue, but also about enhancing the overall campaign. AdPushUp fosters an environment of testing and choosing the ad configurations that work best for their brand.

Its standout feature isn’t this flexibility to experiment, but its capability to integrate with popular ad networks. This increases publishers’ access to ad demand sources and helps them make informed monetization frameworks.

Choosing the Right Programmatic Ad Platform is All About Choosing Brand Safety.

Brand positioning remains significant in marketing, irrespective of a company’s size or year of establishment. The boom in technology demands a strong digital image. But for that to happen, brands must be available on the correct channels in front of the right audience. Embracing this change with open arms will do wonders for your brand.

Programmatic platforms will help elevate your digital advertising efforts. So, it’s crucial to understand what these platforms offer and choose the best fit.

OpenAI and AMD Sign A Multi-Billion Dollar Chip Deal: What Could Be the Stakes Involved?
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OpenAI, AMD Sign Multi-Billion Chip Partnership – Ciente

OpenAI, AMD Sign Multi-Billion Chip Partnership – Ciente

OpenAI set to build one-gigawatt worth of AI facility using AMD’s upcoming MI450 chip series next year.

The first step towards AI innovation was the introduction of low-level reasoning models that helped users generate content and conduct in-depth research. It was a tool or an assistant that helped with the most mundane of human-led tasks.

But it’s barely the first step, and not precisely what AI visionaries have in mind.

For the next phase, business leaders and developers are playing around, testing the market waters. They are advancing and building on existing models to advance their capabilities.

Now the leaders know what exactly they want and how to acquire it: superintelligence.

OpenAI’s latest partnership with AMD is a step toward transforming this vision into reality.

Developing the first set of models was an experimental process, and the market’s positive response was a significant boost that the AI companies truly needed.

However, the AI industry’s appetite is a sinkhole that few were aware of. It’s hungry for more and more computing power as every large tech name joins the race to be the first one to inch closer to AI models that equate to or exceed human intelligence. That’s the final feat.

Given this insatiable need, investments and partnerships are flooding the market. More computing power? = More chips and software.

Sam Altman has previously stated that the biggest hindrance to developing advanced AI models is limited computing power. It’s why OpenAI has been able to take another transformative step with ChatGPT.

The solution is AMD.

OpenAI and AMD’s alliance is also a vote of confidence in AMD’s chips and software- their quality and functionality. This agreement has also opened up an option for the AI leader to buy a huge stake in the chip maker.

And since then, AMD’s shares rose 30%, while its market capitalization increased by $80 billion. OpenAI has substantial influence in the market, and this partnership will only impact the broader ecosystem.

It’s only an upside for AMD as the agreement could add tens of billions of dollars to its annual revenue, attracting similar potential investments from industry giants.

Outbound Sales Playbook: A failing strategy or a misused tool?
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Outbound Sales Playbook: A failing strategy or a misused tool?

Outbound Sales Playbook: A failing strategy or a misused tool?

Are playbooks really working for your sales team? The data is anecdotal and confusing. Perhaps it’s time for a new perspective to arise.

Sales is frenetic.

There’s energy everywhere, and the conversations are hypnotic to a certain degree. No wonder the outbound sales playbook plays such a pivotal role in the conversation, because like sports, sales is nothing short of an enchanting game. (And the stakes are at their highest.)

It’s like a game of American Football, a mirror of war. Because after all, sales is a battle of human wills.

“Here’s what we have. Can you buy it? You need it and here’s why.”

Then the buyer plays their own game to win- whatever winning might be for them.

But for sellers, it is relatively simple: to get the sale. So it would be natural to think of strategies and playbooks because they exist in football and other strategy games. There’s always the right first move.

And these playbooks sell for what? $1200-1300 a piece?

How many of these playbooks have worked in your favor? Surely, the answer depends on organization to organization. But that’s too ambiguous.

The popular theory is that playbooks do work, and the reason for that is simple: the sales leaders and reps who use these playbooks are already good at their jobs, and the playbook introduces new ideas for them to work with.

Caught between ‘the old playbooks are dead and the new playbook is in loop’, let’s talk about a simple idea.

What if you could escape this loop? No, not matrix style, but by observing where you stand in your own context.

What is a sales playbook?

This small section is for those who need a formal introduction.

A sales playbook is a set of strategies, buyer pain points, personas, and possible scenarios encountered by SDRs on call.

The playbook helps the sales rep navigate the uncertainty that the buyers may throw at them. The playbook has everything they would need to deal with the buyers and their objections.

Yes, it is a document. Ideally, a living document- one that changes shape as it grows.

But there is a problem with this. Playbooks are notorious for being shelved and never being used. Or they are too complex for teams to use- there is just too much there, and very few insights that can be used.

Why do businesses get playbooks wrong?

There is growing skepticism around playbooks. First, they are expensive to buy and time-consuming to create.

Second, these playbooks don’t offer much. Even though teams report a 30-40% increase in efficiency, these numbers are anecdotal and don’t offer a complete view. There are as many teams that say the playbook doesn’t work and is an expensive piece of content that remains on the shelf.

Or it isn’t used by their SDRs because there’s just a lot to unpack there. And of course, what else could it be?

There’s a vast disconnect between the playbooks and the players- sales is a dynamic game where buyer sentiment changes, and unlike football, there’s no real way to monitor it in real time.

This is what playbook creators and adopters falter- they think the buyer might give them real-time updates before a relationship can be established.

The outbound sales playbook is not what you imagined.

Of course, you want your sales team to be successful with as few resources as possible. Ideally, the math is simple: down go the costs and up go the profits.

And efficient communication with the prospects is part of this arithmetic. In as few calls, emails, and touchpoints as possible. After all, the CAC: CLTV ratio must be in balance. If CAC rises and CLV falls, that’s a huge problem.

But the traditional playbooks don’t look at this: they are focused on the quantity of the calls and extracting as much information out of the prospect as necessary. And the new playbooks are too marketing-centric.

It’s a conundrum. And the conundrum conveniently hides a crucial fact: sales is complex.

Sales Playbooks, new and old, don’t acknowledge complexity.

Does anyone believe sales are easy? Although it cannot be categorized as difficult, it is complex. There are a lot of moving parts involved- there’s the committee and the buying list.

These two elements make it difficult for sales reps to connect with their prospects. And the buyers are feeling this effect- they believe most of their sales calls are transactional. And they are irritated by it.

Think of all the calls you get with the same script, doesn’t it feel like a waste of your time?

Who would you rather listen to: the person who wants to solve your problem and understand it, or the person who is reading a script that someone else has created for them?

That’s the problem with these playbooks: they try to codify dynamic human behavior by assuming each segment will behave the same across events.

When has this happened? Never. And this thinking boxes the SDRs into a repetitive pattern, dulling their conversational instincts, something that a sales rep always needs to sharpen.

These playbooks, with their overreliance on data, reduce the prospect to a bunch of past-based predictions.

Does your organization need an outbound sales playbook?

That brings us to a vital question: must you invest in a playbook?

Let me give you a few likely scenarios: –

  1. It will increase efficiency
  2. It will eat dust in your SDR’s corners
  3. It will be removed from reality.

Option C is the most likely one. Why? Because buyer behaviors change rapidly.

Think of this, one prospect whom you have cold-called, accepts to sit for your demo. Your engineers and sales director are ready to explain everything, and the prospect never shows. And when you send an email to them, they say: –

“Hey, I am not going to sit for any call. What is this about anyway? I don’t remember any call.”

Down goes all the plays. The playbook didn’t account for the fact that nurturing is a vital component. Or the indifference of the buyer.

Yet it should have. But that’s when complexities arise. Think of all the ifs, buts, and if-else scenarios your SDRs will have to deal with. Can a single document capture all of that?

Even the blueprint of this framework and playbook might be too complex. But there needs to be a north star- something to guide the generation of SDRs. With more empathy, active listening, and that frenzy that makes sales so addictive.

How to create a sales playbook?

This part is a bit misleading on our part. To create a sales playbook, you could capture every best practice in history and fuse it with your organization’s context.

But that won’t do much if you think the playbook is the gospel and ask your team to follow it to the T.

They will fail.

The previous sections are clear. Outbound requires a deep understanding of the prospects, and that can happen on a call. Yet the pitches that SDRs give are so disconnected from the person- no wonder they aren’t responding positively.

But hey, that’s okay. In B2B, it’s the quantity that matters. Call 1000s and close 2, you have more than enough to run your ship.

Who cares about quality anyway?

But the market is always looking for a vendor that they can trust explicitly. And those 2 buyers that you got are about to churn for someone with better processes than you.

And this is where you have an answer: the process.

So the real question is: how to create a sales process?

The sales playbook, with its complexity, can actually be managed if we think of it in terms of systems and processes.

The guiding principles behind these processes must be: –

  1. Consultancy on overselling
  2. Identifying leverage through conversation
  3. Approaching sales with a multi-thread strategy
  4. Nurturing

If you look closely, all playbooks actually tell you to do this, but complicate it in a branch of conversations. Your prospects’ engagement in going to be based on what they think of the SDR, anyway.

Why not give the prospects time to breathe and connect with the person they will talk to?

This is the crux of the sales process. Yes, some of your playbook will help onboard new SDRs. But if an organization wants to grow, it has to make sure its employees grow with it.

It’s altruism based on mutual growth.

However, these processes require honesty that is lost in most B2B transactions.

Many sales leaders and consultants advise on playing on strengths and weaknesses because every organization has its inherent strengths.

A start-up can pivot quickly and take risks.

While mid-sized organizations build on trust.

And enterprises have resources.

There’s a lot of talent to go around, but companies falter when they don’t align their sales process to their organization’s context. I.e.: –

  1. The problem they are solving
  2. Their headcount
  3. Their resources and availability.

Often, this is why some organizations, even large ones, make promises and don’t do better on them. In a bid to survive and gain, they lose trust.

The playbook is a relic of the past.