About — Richard Tengbeh · Sales Playground

Built by operators.
For operators.

A working brand built on one idea: sales is a game won in practice. Below — why it exists, who's behind it, and what we won't do.

I have spent close to a decade in B2B tech sales. I started as an SDR, moved through Account Manager and BDM seats, and run an Enterprise BDM motion now where I built the sales development function from scratch — the ICP work, the messaging, the cadences, the hand-off, the lot.

Across those years, two things became hard to ignore.

The first is the gap between training and execution. Bootcamps teach theory and disappear at week six. Agencies execute and burn the buyer's domain reputation while they do it. Almost no one in the Australian market does both at quality — and the gap costs sales leaders six-figure mistakes and costs reps the promotions they should have got two years earlier.

The second is the offshore-versus-AI false choice. Most Australian B2B firms staring down a referrals plateau are sold one of two answers: an offshore SDR pod that emails Australian buyers in a register the buyer can hear from a kilometre away, or an AI auto-SDR tool that floods inboxes until the domain is unusable. Both are worse than doing nothing. Both still get sold weekly.

Sales Playground is the bet that there is a third answer. Senior operators running pipeline. Senior operators coaching reps. One philosophy underneath both: sales is a game won in practice, and the brand that runs the practice should also run the playbook.

I'm running Pipeline Sprint as the leader-tier door — the engagement model where I do the work alongside a small senior contractor bench. I'm running Playground Academy as the rep-tier door — live coaching for SDRs and AEs who want to compound their careers in market, in seat, in this country.

Both are practice. Both transfer. Both carry the same name.

The architecture

Two sub-brands. One philosophy. Three artefacts each.

flowchart TD
    SP["Sales Playground
SALES IS A GAME WON IN PRACTICE"]:::parent PS["Pipeline Sprint
Leader-tier · DFY"]:::sub PA["Playground Academy
Rep-tier · Coaching"]:::sub SP --> PS SP --> PA PS --> PS1[Outbound Readiness Audit]:::leaf PS --> PS2[Sales Development Playbook]:::leaf PS --> PS3[The 90-day Engagement]:::leaf PA --> PA1[The Drill Book]:::leaf PA --> PA2[SDR & AE Playbook cohort]:::leaf PA --> PA3[The Promotion Sprint]:::leaf classDef parent fill:#111111,stroke:#D6471F,stroke-width:2px,color:#FAF7F0 classDef sub fill:#FAF7F0,stroke:#111111,stroke-width:1.5px,color:#111111 classDef leaf fill:#FAF7F0,stroke:#8A8479,stroke-width:1px,color:#111111

How we operate.

Seven principles · published
  1. 01

    Senior operators only.

    No junior project coordinators on a client account. The voice on the call is the voice on the website. Always.

  2. 02

    We disqualify, openly.

    Each service page has a "this is not for you if…" block. It saves everyone time. Senior buyers respect it. Reps respect it.

  3. 03

    Published pricing.

    A$4,500 setup. A$6,000 monthly retainer. 90-day initial term. Printed on the page, not gated behind a quote form.

  4. 04

    Three to four clients at a time.

    Never two clients in the same sub-niche. The constraint is the product — and the reason the work stays senior.

  5. 05

    Australian-delivered.

    No offshore. No outsourced staff. No US-export curriculum ported into AU buyers without translation. The buyer-side voice is Australian because the seller-side voice is.

  6. 06

    The playbook transfers.

    At the end of every engagement, the client keeps the messaging, the sequences, the lookalike domains, and the CRM data. The work was always theirs.

  7. 07

    No certificate-as-credential.

    Academy promotes through demonstrated work — recorded calls, scored drills, real pipeline lift. Not through paid badges.

What we don't do.

The disqualification block

Naming what we do not offer does more for trust than any logo wall. Here is the list.

  • We don't offer pay-per-meeting pricing.
  • We don't run "lifetime access" courses.
  • We don't issue paid certificates as proof of skill.
  • We don't white-label our work for resellers.
  • We don't take on pre-revenue companies for Pipeline Sprint engagements.
  • We don't offshore delivery — ever.
  • We don't run agencies-of-one for clients. Every engagement has an operator and a researcher minimum.
  • We don't write your outbound copy with AI. We use AI for research, list building, and roleplay only.
  • We don't engage in "limited-time" countdown sales for cohort waitlists.
The bench

Small bench. Senior operators only. Named, not anonymous.

For launch, the bench is small and honest about it. That is a feature, not a footnote.

The founder

I run client engagements directly. I sit on Pipeline Sprint discovery calls, write the messaging architecture, and review every cadence before it goes live. I run the Academy cohorts as the lead coach. I am the named operator on the work, not the founder who hands it to a junior team after kickoff.

The senior contractor bench

For research, list-building, and CRM operations on Pipeline Sprint engagements, I work with a small bench of named senior contractors — operators with five-plus years in B2B sales development, all Australian-based, all background-checked, all paid above market rates so they stay engaged for the long arc of a client's engagement.

The Academy second seat

As Academy cohorts grow, I bring in a second coach as a deliberate, slow expansion. The criterion is not "they did SDR three years ago" — it is "they're carrying quota now and would be a peer to the cohort."

Why I'm naming this transparently

Most Australian sales development agencies inflate their headcount on the website and deliver with juniors. It is one of the structural reasons their work is templated and their tenure is short. The brand's bet is that a small, named, senior bench beats a big, anonymous, junior one — and that buyers can tell the difference within thirty seconds of a discovery call.

Documentary portrait — Richard Tengbeh
Richard Tengbeh
Founder · Sales Playground
  • ~10 years in B2B tech sales
  • SDR · Account Manager · BDM
  • Enterprise BDM (current)
  • Built sales development functions in two firms