The Common Thread in Inconsistent Sales Teams: A Missing Playbook
A sales playbook?serves as a GPS for your sales team. It keeps them on course, minimizes unproductive detours, and leads them to close more deals.
Salesforce found that "companies with a playbook are 33% more likely to be high performers."?Despite that encouraging data, not every team has a playbook to rely on.
40% of sales teams are operating without a playbook, meaning they lack?a clear and comprehensive roadmap for engaging with potential customers and closing deals.
The value of a playbook lies in its ability to guarantee consistency in approach, messaging, and sales processes, so you leave a memorable impact on your potential clients.
Without a sales playbook, you likely face the following challenges:
???Your sales process will lack clarity and consistency. You risk misalignment with your company's goals and objectives, leading to inconsistent messaging with potential clients and poor sales performance.
???It's harder to identify areas for improvement, which makes it difficult to refine sales techniques based on data and feedback. Your team could waste time on guesswork and unproductive tasks, reducing overall efficiency and productivity.
???The average onboarding period for an SDR is four and a half months, and it takes at least 12 months to make them top performers. This time frame could elongate?without uniform procedures and practiced strategies commonly found in a playbook.
A typical playbook includes information about your company and the product, value proposition, and common objections. But only?great playbooks include:
1?? Pain points & solutions based on different personas
Each target persona faces unique challenges, which is why your playbook should define all possible personas you may encounter.
A well-crafted playbook covers these various pain points by persona, so your SDRs can tailor your product’s solutions and selling points to each decision-maker in their messaging.
2?? Target leads
Targeting isn't just about pinpointing who to contact. Your playbook should detail your ICP, the relationship between the company, title, and authority, outreach strategies for each target type, and the qualifications that define a viable prospect.
Rather than calling everyone (and thus no one), a well-crafted playbook narrows the field so your SDRs only contact qualified leads.
3?? Outreach cadence
A robust playbook offers sample scripts for SDRs, designed for various outreach methods and scenarios. That includes, for instance, email templates for follow-ups, referrals, callbacks, and rescheduling. These scripts give your reps a launch point from which they can iterate their message, thus ensuring?a consistent outreach strategy.
4?? Industry lingo & terms
The right verbiage will take your team farther in their sales conversations. When potential clients hear familiar language over the phone, they’re more likely to trust the expertise of the sales reps contacting them.?
A qualified playbook incorporates industry-specific jargon and terminology, complete with definitions, so reps can familiarize themselves with the relevant language before reaching out to leads.
The multitude of benefits your business can enjoy proves it’s worth investing in a top-notch playbook. Its creation requires expertise within your industry and decision-makers, though; excellence isn't the result of mediocre effort.
Tips You Can Use Today
If you decide to outsource your sales program, take the creation period into consideration. Your playbook doesn't need to be rushed together. In fact, it's advisable to take a longer period to gain insight from multiple stakeholders, iterate your messaging, and ensure your reps are comfortable with the subject material.
We conducted a poll on LinkedIn asking about which playbook is likely to be a company’s gold standard:
83% of respondents said taking more time to craft a comprehensive playbook is how to build a more successful sales program.
Some companies believe the quicker they complete their playbook,?the better. However, the worst business investment you can make is to send your sales development team onto the phones?with a mediocre playbook.
领英推荐
A solid foundation will help you construct a robust pipeline. Here's what Terence Lee , the VP of Sales at Protecht, said about the playbook SalesRoads created for his team:
“The process was a bit of a pleasant surprise ... SalesRoads drafted the playbook within three weeks with multiple personas across a very complicated vertical market, and it became the gold standard for our company. It is shared with the other regions around the world to be a blueprint for how they could structure and execute inside sales activities.”
You can watch the full interview with Terry here.
Extra, Extra, Read All About It!
Dive deeper into our B2B Sales Standup: Replay.
We're enriching our previously released email newsletters with added polls, statistics, and more, offering you a unique five-month look back. Get ready to explore our content in a whole new way!
P.S. We are dedicated to delivering top-notch content to expand your horizons - be sure to keep an eye on your LinkedIn notifications for our monthly newsletters.
SalesRoads is an award-winning #b2bsales #outsourcing firm providing #appointmentsetting and #leadgenerationservices. We empower businesses of all sizes to reach their goals by providing targeted leads, a predictable pipeline, and stronger revenue.
?? OUR INDUSTRY FOCUS:
?? Manufacturing Tech
?? Industrial SaaS & Tech
?? Logistics
?? Construction
?? Transportation
?? SLED Market
?? OUR RESULTS:
??16+ Years in Business
??500+ Happy Customers
??Over 100,000 Appointments Set
??The Best SDRs
??The Leader in the Industry
??Clutch Global Top 1000 Companies 2021
Say ‘No’ to zero-data campaigns, spammy practices, and anonymous SDRs. Scale your company faster and skip the prospecting process with SalesRoads. ??
Sales Repeatability | Founder @ The Closing Foundry & LiveGuru | Strategic Selling Expertise
5 个月This maybe useful for anyone looking to revamp or create a new sales playbook https://liveguru.io/practitioners-guide-b2b-sales-playbooks
Driving business process automation and driving technology adoption across the enterprise that solves real problems for real people!
7 个月This is great information for founders to understand and they need to know they are critical to helping create this - no one knows the solution like they do and while they're figuring out "process", they're still learning about the product and how it's being received in the market. It can't just completely be "outsourced" in the early stages. "Doing the work" will save them a lot of headaches when they are ready to make that first sales hire! I appreciate you sharing, SalesRoads! ##BeImpactful #DoTheWork #TeamworkMakesTheDreamWork #FounderSales #HereComesTheSUN #StayAwesome