When building a sales team, it’s important to provide the team a clear set of guidelines or roadmap similar to our vehicles GPS. Regardless of deviated routes to reach our target, this GPS (your sales play book) will ensure the team is never way off their route, completely off their path, and will always lead them to the expected end goal. This GPS is your Sales Play book.
What’s a sales play book?
A sales play book is a document or set of guidelines that outlines the sales strategies, tactics, and processes that a company or sales team uses to consistently close deals and achieve their sales goals. It may include information on qualifying leads, building relationships with prospects, addressing objections, and closing techniques, as well as information on specific products or services and target markets. The play book may be used as a training tool for new salespeople and as a reference for experienced salespeople. It is the guide which help the sales team to achieve their sales target and objectives.
To summarize the key points:
• The sales play book is a document or set of guidelines outlining sales strategies and tactics
• Includes information on qualifying leads and building relationships with prospects
• Addresses objections and closing techniques
• Includes information on specific products or services and target markets
• Used as a training tool for new salespeople and as a reference for experienced salespeople
• Help sales team to achieve their sales target and objectives
Who creates the Sales Play Book?
A sales play book is typically put together by a company's sales, sales enablement, and marketing team, but would involve input from other departments such as product development, customer service, and management. If you’re a small company or solopreneur, you can still create a sales play book yourself. It may take longer but the ROI will pay you back through increased efficiency in acquisition of new business, expand with current clients, and make your day to day easier. Not to mention, you’ll be prepared to use this guide to onboard new hires when your business eventually grows. Remember, the sales play book is a go-to guide on process, strategies, assets, processes, road map and everything else that provides consistency and focus to stay on track.
Here's a list of teams and the part they have in the creation of the sales play book:
• Sales team:
They are the primary users of the play book, so their input is essential in creating a document that is relevant, effective, and easy to use. They have experience from being in front of customers and would know exactly what would help in having better conversations. Such as using their feedback on commonly heard objections which helps create or refine battle cards.
• Marketing team:
They will provide information on the target market, the competition, and the messaging that should be used in the sales process. The sales team would contribute to efforts here. It’s a feedback loop between sales and marketing that helps in the creation and constant evolution of the sales play book. Depending on leadership, the sales team can be the primary on research of the market, target persona’s, and competition. In this event, the marketing team takes their research and writes the copy and ensures everything stays on brand.
• Customer Success or Service team:
They will provide information on customer pain points and common questions that come up. This feedback is critical to help prepare sales teams on how to best prepare and navigate challenging conversations around these identified pain points. It will all go into updating the sales play book.
• Sales Enablement team:
They would ensure consistency in the delivery and ongoing training of sales teams on the sales plays. In addition, ensure that teams are actively executing with the company approved strategies and processes as documented in the sales play book. The role in Sales and Growth enablement teams can vary company to company. With that said, it would still be safe to say that the training and ongoing assurance of adherence to approved sales strategies and processes are under this group.
• Management:
They will provide input on the overall sales strategy and objectives of the company, and ensure that the play book aligns with the company's goals.
It is important for the team to ensure that the document is accurate, up-to-date and easily accessible to the sales team. The teams should also review the play book regularly and update it as necessary based on feedback from the sales team and changes in the market.
Essentially, it takes a collaborative group of experts to build a solid play book, eliminate silos that create information gaps, and training to enable teams to stay on the right path.
We hope this helps! Good luck