How to Build Your Sales Playbook

Cassandra Anderson, vice president of channel, sales operations and marketing at Crexendo, shares her thoughts on sales playbooks.

So much has been written about sales playbooks, and most of it sounds great. After all, a guide that walks you through the steps necessary to seal the deal has got to be a good thing, right?

In practice, that answer is sometimes yes and other times no. Much depends upon how well the playbook is kept up to date, how closely it reflects the needs of the end customer, and how well it runs parallel to the comfort zones and rationales of the salespeople who are actually using it. These people also need to see how the playbook might actually raise their game, given that they live in a world of escalating quotas. Each time their number goes up, they need to either sell more through existing relationships, sell more by creating new relationships, or pop an antacid pill and passively hope for the best. In many cases, the approach will be a combination of all three, though we need to acknowledge that hope is not a strategy.

What’s In It For You?

Ideally, your playbook is the go-to tool that enables your sales teams to earn more business. It is a repository for information on how to win. It may point to other resources. Like the playbook for a football team – from which the IT industry stole the term – the document should be used to ensure that all of the players on your sales and support teams are doing everything necessary to drive the ball forward, conveying the value proposition, solving the customer need, arriving at a fair price, and deploying the technology in an effective and efficient manner.

What’s in the Playbook?

Step two is to sketch your process, which might include:

• Prospecting; including list development, scripts and scheduling.
• Discovery and demonstration; focusing on pain points and solutions.
• Proposal development.
• Closing the deal; including responses to objections and sales paperwork.

Your process might look very different, depending on your circumstances. Your playbook should also be a living document that evolves with your strategy and the dynamics of the market.

My own company’s playbook began with a customized template from CompTIA providing a high-level look at our sales process. We then extended to a more tactical version that included checklists and success tips. Version three was unveiled as a digital Web tool with sample call scripts, marketing emails and social media posts and links, all of which have been updated frequently. Finally, the next version, currently in development, will include gamification and rewards for completing the various steps, sales training, links to deal registration and a Web-based configurator.

Request that partners review and provide feedback from the beginning of the playbook development, especially in draft. If you have direct representatives, beta test your document with them, making necessary adjustments until the document is ready for roll-out.

Once your playbook is in place, sales people and channel partners will just naturally gravitate towards it, right?

Wrong! Not if it’s just another document in the portal. Effective promotion will be key. It’s also important to ask for feedback from your sales people and partners using it once it’s in the field. What is working well? What needs to be fixed? You’ll hear different needs from different teams. Build your playbook to meet the needs of the various constituents.

Finally, measure adoption. Don’t get discouraged if it’s low at first. Simply have your team reinforce the benefits during the partner meetings. Have them be an example and use the tool during joint sales calls.

Enjoy the journey of building your playbook. The exercise might also help you to identify new value propositions or even known value propositions that have not yet been fully marketed.