Is your sales team clear on what strategy to use in each step of the sales funnel? Are they familiar with who your ideal client is and what the brand’s persona is? If this all sounds a bit puzzling, then you are in good company. Let’s look at what a sales playbook is and how you can create one for your business.
What is a sales playbook?
A sales playbook is a working document which helps salespeople to be the best in sales in your company. This document will help you to onboard your new sales staff and it will be a centralised area where you can capture the best strategies that successful salespeople use in your business. Here are the five steps to creating a sales playbook.
Five steps to creating a sales playbook
STEP 1: Review your sales process
Write down how you approach your sales. How do you get leads? What do you do to qualify them? Consider all the aspects of your sales process.
STEP 2: Get your team together
When designing your playbook, it is important to involve the people who need to have a say in the creation of the book. You need to ensure you have input from your marketing team as well as your sales team. You may also want to involve subject matter experts who can give you information about the subjects they specialise in.
STEP 3: Define your buyer persona
You should have a clear idea of who will buy from you. Collect all the information about them and share it with your sales team so they know where they can find the leads and how they can nurture them to eventually buy from you.
STEP 4: Consider what plays to have
Plays are the blueprint methods used to achieve a certain objective in your business. For a sales playbook you will focus these plays on different stages in the sales funnel. You will also have general plays which can be used throughout the funnel. Some examples of plays are:
- Personalisation: How would you personalise the sales message towards the buyer persona you are engaging?
- Prospecting: This play outlines which channels, platforms and tactics can be used to target the best prospecting opportunities.
- Lead qualification: This play looks at how your sales can efficiently qualify the best leads for your business.
- Demonstrations: How can your sales team use a demo to highlight how the product or service will solve your customers’ problem? In this play, you will explain how the features of the offering satisfy the problems experienced by your customers.
- Use cases: In this play, you look at how your target audience has used your product.
STEP 5: Choose what to put into your playbook
Every business is different and has a variety of needs to be fulfilled by its sales playbook. You may not require some of the information in your playbook. Remember the playbook is designed to give your salespeople the best opportunity of closing the most sales. Here are seven sections which you may consider putting in your playbook:
- Company overview: This section will tell new hires about your company but also give seasoned employees a refresher on what is important about your company. The most crucial information you should include in this section is:
- What your company does,
- Which industry do you operate in and how do you fit in there,
- Your company’s mission and values, and
- Your long-term goal or vision.
- Industry overview: In this area, you will outline the industry and may offer links to key websites which share information about your industry which will help to keep your employees up to date on industry news.
- Sales process: Here you will highlight how you move the customer through your sales funnel. You will add information on what to do when someone shows interest, how to deal with a referral, and what to do if you have a no-show at a meeting to name a few.
- Content library: Here you will have images and messaging which salespeople can use and adapt for the different platforms they use to make contact with their customers.
- Operational best practices: In this section of the playbook, you will highlight what software and hardware should be used for different aspects of the sales process.
- Metrics: Finally, you will highlight how salespeople’s KPIs are measured. And what other sales metrics are important in your sales process.
- Strategies: You will list the different plays you found work with your buyer’s persona.
By following these five steps you will be well on your way to creating a great sales playbook which supports the sales team in converting more leads into customers.
Proudly brought to you by the NSBC