Ready to start implementing your sales enablement strategy? Start by building a solid sales playbook for your sales reps to use during the onboarding process and beyond.
Table of Contents
Sales playbook sections
Playbooks should not be approached as manuals to be memorized. Rather, they should be treated as one of many valuable sales tools that offer versatile support and instruction for a multitude of real-life selling scenarios. It’s important to explain the “who, what, where, when, why and how” of the sales process to your team. Here are some core sections to include in your sales playbook.
Target audience
What is your ideal customer profile? Your sales reps will need some direction on which leads to spending the most time on. So take care to include a section in your sales playbook on your ICP, or ideal customer profile. This will help sales reps become familiar with relevant buyer personas in order to identify and engage with the most promising leads.
Strategy and purpose
This section of your sales playbook should start by including an overview of your organization’s goals. You should also include information on the challenges your company is trying to address, as well as list your company’s core values and describe its vision. Do your sales reps understand your sales enablement strategy in the context of your organization’s raison d’être? Be sure to clarify the connection between your company’s strategy and purpose to sales reps so that they can proceed with the overall mission insight.
Sales process breakdown
Newbies may have a hard remembering all the different parts of the sales process and what kind of messaging will be relevant when. Your junior reps will definitely appreciate having a breakdown of the overall sales journey in their playbooks to reference every now and then. In this section, include a thorough description of what the different stages entail as well as the particular resources that will assist them during each step. These include scripts, templates, and battlecards to facilitate sales communication during calls and emails.
Metrics
It’s pretty obvious to new sales reps that they should be paying attention to KPIs. But what is not so clear is which key performance indicators are most important for your particular team. Make sure that your playbook does a good job of explaining which metrics sales reps should be using to self-evaluate as well as how to interpret KPI measurements to understand the sales team’s progress as a whole. To help your team keep track of their growth, try Attention. Attention employs AI technology to track key metrics like questions asked, speak share, and overall engagement, enabling users to measure performance over time.
Product information
Without in-depth knowledge of your product or service, sales reps won’t be able to persuade savvy prospects in today’s competitive market. Sales reps will need to know all about each of your company’s offerings and their distinct use cases. Think about including your organization’s unique value proposition here to assist sales reps as they convince the buyer on the “why your product” question. A strong value proposition will explain both how your product will meet their needs and why your particular company’s product adds the most value when compared to comparable alternatives. The product information section should also include pricing-related questions.
Task assignments
If you want your team to get things done, you’re going to have to clarify each member’s unique role. The task assignments section should include a detailed layout of team responsibilities and a plan of action outlining when and how they can achieve key milestones.
Sales enablement content
What materials do sales reps have at their disposal to tailor sales conversations to the preferences of the ideal buyer? This part of your playbook is arguably one of the most important because it will direct sellers toward the content they need to connect with customers. Keep the content library organized, searchable, and up-to-date, and work closely with the marketing department to secure the sales enablement content your team needs to succeed.
Pay structure
As a freshly-hired sales rep, you probably have a lot of questions about compensation. Your playbook can help serve as a reference for pay-related questions and act as a buffer against awkward conversations about money with sales leaders. Sales leaders, be clear about the pay structure in your playbook to avoid misunderstandings on sensitive topics like salary, bonuses, or commission later on. Don’t forget to discuss how pay relates to specific sales goals and quota attainment.
Work in (Constant) Progress
Your sales playbook is a work in progress; it should adapt and change over time. Enlist the help of your team in updating the playbook to reflect upgrades to your product or service as well as changes in the market context. Measure what’s working and what isn’t. Have there been positive changes in important metrics like win rates, onboarding time, or sales cycle length since playbook adoption? What does your team of sales reps think about your playbook? Sharing periodic questionnaires or following up during meetings can help you find potential areas of improvement. Ask sales reps how they feel about the different sections of the playbook and work with them to incorporate their feedback into updated versions.
While creating and updating your sales playbook can be a lot of work, it will become an indispensable resource for your sales enablement team. Playbooks can help you scale information across a rapidly growing group and supplement lessons from training sessions. If your new reps are still feeling insecure or unready to lead sales conversations, consider upgrading your training toolkit. Attention is an AI-powered sales training software that offers instant feedback for sales reps. Its voice-activated sales battlecards feature is also a must-try for both fledgling and experienced sales reps looking to improve their sales reflexes during fast-paced calls. Try Attention to boost your team’s sales enablement practices today.
