How to create playbooks that really work

HOW TO CREATE

PLAYBOOKS THAT REALLY

WORKE N A B L I N G Y O U R

C H A N N E L P A R T N E R S O N T H E R O A D T O R E V E N U E

The sales playbook

A systematic organization of all

marketing and sales assets

Each asset is mapped to the buyer’s position

in the sales cycle

A GPS for your channel partners

Spells out what to say, when to say it and how to say it

Why you need playbooks?

25% of an employee’s workday is

consumed by information search

70% of customer-facing team members

report lacking the information they need to adequately perform

their jobs

Companies with mechanisms in place to share internal sales

knowledge have win rates that exceed

50%

Just 20% of the knowledge in an

average enterprise is explicitly recorded

and shared


Mechanisms like the sales playbook can help companies enjoy closure rates over 50%

33% of lost deals could have been won if the seller had been better informed and more client-oriented

50-90% of collateral created for salespeople is never used

Over 50% of sales managers are too busy to train and develop their sales teams


Only 15% of executives say that their meetings with salespeople meet expectations

Only 7% of executives report scheduling follow-up meetings with salespeople

90% marketers are uncertain about whether their key content metrics are effective in measuring business results

Did you know that about 50% of sales teams do not own a playbook


Companies with a well-defined sales process are 33% more likely to outperform the competition

Did you know that over 50% of marketers reuse content two to five times?

Personalized marketing and sales assets can increase sales opportunities by 20%

Investment in tools that provide prospect insight help businesses enjoy more accurate sales forecasts, faster and better closure rates

What if you could clone your proven sales process?

Here’s taking a look at how you can set up a guided, repeatable sales process

How playbook can help you design a guided sales process?

Spells out every precise detail/step in

the sales process

Contains all the assets your channel partners need for each step in

the sales process

Is scalable, repeatable and dynamic

What kind of assets make it into the playbook?

Emails• Introductory emails• Follow-up emails• One-off emails• Nurturing emails• Post discovery emails• SQL emails• Final follow-ups

Scripts• Cold call scripts• Warm call scripts• Discovery call

questions

Presentations• Pre-demo sales

presentation• Demo presentation• Post-demo

presentation

Other assets• Whitepapers• E-guides• Case studies• Testimonials• Infographics• Relevant articles• Press mentions• Press releases• Videos• Brochures

The last mile• Pricing

sheets• Proposals• Client

agreements/contracts

The five steps to an effective sales playbook

• Define your sales process• Know your buyers and

tell your salespeople who they are

• Prepare a content inventory and plug the gaps

• Connect your content to the buying stages

• Monitor, measure, coach, change

Define your sales processDefine your target

audience

Define your contact touch-points

What buying stages does your prospect pass through,

typically?

Define the triggers you use to demarcate prospect journey from one stage to another

Define the timeframe of your

sales process

What happens after the sale?

What is your overall closure rate?

STEP ONEDefine your sales

process

How do you keep

prospects engaged at each stage?

Define the sales tools/best practices currently being used

Identify the linear and non-

linear sub-processes

Know your buyers and educate your salespeople about them

Who are your ideal buyers?

What business vertical do they belong to?

Study vertical background in detail

What are your buyer's core challenges or

pain points?

FAQs by prospects/buyers

Perform a competitive analysis

Who is your Competition?

What are the Common Objections

of your buyers?STEP TWO

Persona Analysis

You need:Tools that offer you a 360-degree prospect

view

What are they buying?

How much and when they are

buying

Prepare a content inventory and plug the gaps

Document all the assets you have

Decide what assets you need

Put the marketing team in-charge of

creating new assets

Consider content restructuring and

re-use at this stage

Consult with the salespersons on

their asset requirements

STEP THREEPrepare Asset Inventory

You need:An asset repository

where all your assets can be stored and a

mechanism to track asset effectiveness

Monitor, measure, coach, change

• Coach salespeople who are not using the right

assets• Train new salespeople to

use the right assets

• Gather feedback from sales team

• Update playbook dynamically

•What are the open, download, click rates for

assets in the playbook

• Is everyone using the playbook?• Who is not using it?• Reason behind not using

Monitor Measure

CoachChangeSTEP FIVE

You need:Tools offer visibility into playbook usage

and asset performance

You need:Tools that allow you

to update assets consistently, across

the board

Connect your content to the buying stages

You need:Tools that allow your salespeople easy access to all the assets in the system

• Map your sales assets to the relevant point in the buyer’s journey• Give sales easy

access to all the assets in the playbook

Be sure to personalize your playbook assets!

Content personalized to suit buyer persona

Offering

TextImages You need:

Tools that allow you to personalize your

communication to suit buyer persona and reflect

salesperson’s and company’s branding

Personalizing your playbook

PersonalizationAttributes

Interaction with company

Past purchases Visual content

Textual content

Sender’s personal branding

Title, location, gender, decision making

authority, budget etc.

Email opens, link clicks, website visits,

downloads, calls etc.

Past purchases / interactions with the

company.

Customize the graphics and layout of the content presented to the prospect

Customize textual content presented to

the prospect

Communication to reflect sender’s contact information and branding

especially important for local marketing initiatives

Remember…a sales playbook is not just for salespeople • Independent

reps, dealers, distributors, franchisees or other sales channels can benefit immensely from sales playbooks

• After all, the sales process is far more challenging in the case of indirect sales channels

Dealers, distributors, franchisees, VARs, franchisees and other channel partners

Brokers, independent sales reps and advisors

Direct sales agents and account managers

Playbooks created at

corporate level

A sample sales process

PostDemo

Presentation Demo

Discovery call

Getting a Discovery Call

Getting Started

Do identify clearly, the linear and non-linear sub-processes to your sales process

Getting started

Foundation

Common objections

Vertical background

Persona analysis

Here’s what you need to do at each step when

setting the foundation for your sales playbook

SAMPLE SALES

PROCESS

Getting a discovery call

Send intro email

Cold call script

Follow up email

Call Emails

CallEmail

Nurture

Email linked

to video

Cold call script

LinkedIn request

Follow-up email with e-guide

Warm call script

Follow-up emails linked to e-guide

Call script for follow-up

call

One-off follow-up

email

Vertical centric MQL email drip

Here’s a list of assets you need at each step when

trying to secure a discovery call

SAMPLE SALES

PROCESS

When documenting your sales process and mapping assets to the

various stages, remember that some

processes may be non-linear

Discovery call

Here’s a list of assets you need at each step during

and right after a discovery call

Get to know the prospect

Discovery call questions

Post discovery email

External Playbook

with Assets

Post-discovery

emailSAMPLE SALES

PROCESS

Presentation-demo

Presentation/ Demo

Post-demo

SQL nurturing

Sales Deck / Presentation(s)

Here’s a list of assets you need at each step during a presentation or demo

to the prospect

Post demo email to deck &

Implementation methodology

SQL nurturing templatesSAMPLE SALES

PROCESS

Post presentation-demo

ProposalFollow-

up

ContractProposal Template

Here’s a list of assets you need at each step after a presentation or demo to

the prospect

Follow-up email

ContractSAMPLE SALES

PROCESS

It’s a sales playbook…so where does marketing fit

in?• The playbook will be used by

sales, but created by marketing, so marketing plays a key role

• Marketing needs a solid understanding of—– The sales process and the buyer’s

journey– The buyer’s position in the sales

cycle in real-time– The recipient’s response to

content– Which playbook assets really work– Whether the playbooks are really

being used

More Tips For A Killer Playbook

• A playbook is more than just a collection of sales assets

• Include any additional assets that may be of use to the salespeople such as FAQs, training materials, product updates and more

• Playbook is not a high-level handbook

• Include every detail in your playbooks...every minor situation or milestone that's a part of your buyer's journey should make it into the playbook

• Don't straitjacket your salespeople

• Encourage your salespeople to stick to the playbook, but allow them some room to experiment and create 'new' best practices

Have the right tools in place • Tools that help you monitor

prospect activity • Tools to measure the

effectiveness of the sales assets

• Tools to personalize the sales assets

• Tools to monitor your salespeople’s action and interaction with the playbook

• Tools that make sales playbooks accessible to your salespeople, even when they are not in the office

How Mindmatrix helps?

• Our sales enablement platform aligns sales, marketing and asset management to help you design winning playbooks

• With Mindmatrix, you get– Access to tools that let you document every

step of the sales process with visual workflows so your sales process is well defined

– 360-degree prospect view to define your buyer persona and behavior clearly

– Personalized sales collateral creation to design impactful sales materials

– Template based approach to collateral creation, so your playbook can be updated dynamically across the board

– On-demand access to marketing and sales collateral so your salespeople actually use the materials you provide them

– Visual and easy-to-use playbook creator to map the right assets to the right stages of the buyer’s journey

– Detailed asset reports so you know whether your playbooks are being used and if they are working

Thank you

Mindmatrix2403 Sidney Street, Suite 150, Pittsburgh, PA 15203

Phone: 412.381.0230, Fax: 412.774.1992