The Power of a Sales Playbook Embedding Discipline and Best Practices in Your Sales Force

Quick! When I say "sales people", what’s the first word that comes to mind?

If you are NOT in sales and you don’t understand how hard this job can be, you are likely to respond with words like slick, self-centered, or even lazy.

Sales people have a bad reputation in the business world. With movies like Boiler Room and Glengerry GlenRoss, Hollywood has only reinforced this. Frankly, some of this bad reputation is deserved. In many companies, the sales people may be hitting their numbers, but management knows they are only operating at a fraction of their potential. Other departments frequently make comments like:

"Forget processes and procedures, the sales people just do whatever they want."

"It’s like kindergarten in that department."

"Those people are the most undisciplined group in the company. And they think they’re above working like the rest of us…."

The bottom line is that the sales group is rarely the disciplined collection of professionals that management wants them to be. Management understands that this lack of discipline is one of the highest opportunity costs in the organization.

The Power of Sales Playbook

Is there a way to put discipline into the sales function? Won’t discipline kill the spirit and motivation of a good sales team?

Good sales people are typically high-energy, relationship-oriented people with a low tolerance for structure. Their talents lie in handling the nuances of multiple relationships in an uncertain and dynamic environment. It’s hard to be successful while following strict and restrictive rules in a high-stakes game with shifting goals, fierce competition, and multiple layers of decision makers, influencers, and spoilers.

A Sales Playbook is the answer.

A Sales Playbook is not a set of policies and procedures. It is a set of best practices, lessons learned, and minimal operating procedures that help create discipline and forms the baseline for team learning. They offer the right structure for high performance and discipline, and allow the freedom to adapt and improvise as needed.

The Seven Building Blocks of Good Sales Playbook

A Sales Playbook can take many forms. Effective Sales Playbook has these common sections:

1. Corporate Information. This section discusses the corporation, areas of business, and strategy.
It needs to tie corporate strategy to a compelling “dream” that can really motivate the sales
team.
2. Sales Organization. This section covers "how things work" with topics such as territories,
marketing support, team procedures, and performance measurement. "Sales operations rhythm" is a
key topic. It defines the timing, tone, and objectives of periodic sales meetings. It also
includes the manner and method of management spot checks. Another key topic in this section
covers coaching to support their continued development. A coaching standard that includes
simple forms and steps can ensure that coaching takes place on an ongoing basis.
3. On-boarding Process. Getting the right people on the bus (and the wrong ones off) is one of the
easiest ways to improve the performance of the whole sales force. This section of your Sales
Playbook should spell out in detail how you market for new sales positions, what pre-hire
assessments you use, the interview process, structured interview questions for each step of the
process, and the hands-on skill demonstration tests that candidates must pass.
4. Tools & Technology. This section outlines the basics of your sales management software system
and is as much about data entry consistency as instruction. The important items to include here
are screenshots and how-to essentials for forecasting, contact management, report creation, and
entering new prospects into the system.
5. Prospecting. There is no one right way to prospect. Different personality styles are better at
different approaches. This section should contain all the "best practices" your team uses,
directly from the people who have been successful using them.
6. The Engagement Cycle. This section should diagram the critical milestones in your engagement or
sales cycle. It should also provide guidelines for account management. This helps everyone who
touches the customer coordinate with each other in order to win the sale.
7. Selling Tactics. This section covers how to qualify prospects, position your services, and
close business. It should include lists of questions to use at each stage of the sales cycle
and for approaching different types of buyers. It should also include closing techniques
and “how to” scripts for positioning your products and selling against competitors.

How to Create a Sales Playbook Document

Putting together a Sales Playbook document is a monumental task for most organizations, but it is worth every ounce of effort. Here are some best practices for putting one together:

1. Put together a Sales Playbook steering committee of three to five subject matter experts.
2. Gather and document the tactics and practices of your best sales people. Audio- or videotape
interviews with your best performers and use live client interaction when possible.
3. Hire a professional writer/editor to turn your raw material into well-written, usable content.
4. Don’t skimp on graphic design. Use a professional. If it looks like some dry operations manual,
no one will look at it, let alone use it.
5. Once the Playbook documents are finished, take the most important sections that discuss selling
tactics and create quick reference checklists for the team. This will dramatically improve the
adoption rate of your Playbook.

Implementing a Sales Playbook in a sales department requires stacking the deck in favor of adoption and use. You could have the best Sales Playbook in the world, but if your team doesn’t take the plans seriously, they won’t use it. People will take them seriously if they are tangible, well written, and relevant. The hardest work is gathering and documenting the tactics your best sales people use on the phone and in front of clients. When possible, audio- and videotape as much live client interaction as possible. Once you have gathered this important material, hire a professional writer/editor to turn the raw material into usable content. Use creativity in the layout. If it looks like some dry HR manual, no sales person will get anywhere near it. Use cartoons, color, and a graphic design that chunks information into interesting pieces.

When you complete your Sales Playbook document, bind it professionally. This literally gives it weight and space, which has a psychological effect on the people using it. Print, bind, and distribute it the old fashioned way; it’s worth the effort. You can have an electronic version on your intranet as a supplement, but this is not a substitute for the printed document. It will be used much more frequently when it’s physically in someone’s hands.

Making Sales Playbook Stick

Any initiative that requires people to change behavior is going to be difficult. Chances are your culture, like any system, is going to resist change. Here are some ways to make sure the changes you want to achieve with the Sales Playbook stick:

- Alignment Meetings. When you are ready to launch your Sales Playbook, hold a series of
meetings with your team to review the document. Expect resistance, but don’t succumb to it.
If you don’t communicate clearly at this point, no one will take the Playbook seriously and
you won’t establish the discipline you want to achieve.
- Everyday Usage. Refer back to the Playbook in every meeting. If an issue is not addressed in
the Playbook, add it to the document. If there are loopholes that allow individuals to take
advantage of others on the team, close those loopholes. If you have a recurring problem with
poor coordination between sales and service, send the team back to the Standards the next
time the issue comes up. After a while, people will catch on and get in the habit of
referring to the Standards when resolving issues.
- Leader Commitment. At the most fundamental level, Sales Playbook is a tool for leaders to
bring discipline and learning to the culture of the sales force. A Sales Playbook will only
be effective to the degree that the leader of the team talks about it, coaches from it, and
holds the team accountable to it.
- Make Salespeople into Heroes. One of the most powerful things you can do with Sales Playbook
is to capture the best practices of your best people and give them credit. Say, for example,
that Sam Sage has a particular technique he uses to drive business with a certain client
base. Interview Sam in detail. Document what he says, how he says it, and what makes his
technique work. Put this into the Sales Playbook document and put his picture next to it.
Call it the Sam Sage technique. Make a hero out of Sam and watch the other sales people on
the team begin to bring best practices to the forefront team. Recognition is a key motivator
for sales people. Use it. When you do, everybody wins.
- Frequent Updates. Create a Playbook review committee that meets at an interval appropriate
for your business. The committee’s role is to review and update the Playbook based on
feedback from the sales team. This helps establish the Sales Playbook as the primary
repository for best practices and lessons learned.

These tips for creating and using a Sales Playbook will go a long way toward decreasing the opportunity cost of an undisciplined sales team. Over time, you will see measurable benefits that provide a clear return on the time and energy spent on this key element of an effective sales force.

The Power of a Sales Playbook Embedding Discipline and Best Practices in Your Sales Force - To learn more about this author, visit Bryan Feller's Website.

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