The playbook is dead, long live the playbook.

A play on the phrase from olde England. When one monarch passed, and the heir to the throne took their place, it was an announcement that the (current) Queen (or King) is dead followed by a wish that the (new) Queen (or King) lived a long time.

Now that's cleared up...moving on...The first time I heard of a sales playbook I was introduced to it by someone I competed with and later collaborated with. They made a grand claim that they'd written a playbook that a much larger company hijacked and propelled them to success. Massive overstatement, but whatevs. At the time I was too dumb to ask the obvious question which was and remains “what is a sales playbook?” When I eventually did ask the question and got to see one, I was disappointed to say the least. All it was, and what most sales playbooks were, is pages of overcomplicated hard to read, word salad, mumbo jumbo. The word playbook was used loosely in the extreme.

It wasn't until a few years later that I'd actually saw a real football playbook and realized how the two couldn't be more different. Which explains the lack of success of sales playbooks despite their fashionable and popular status. But fortunately, we can see the end of the playbook era. Let's explain that.

Origins and Evolution

The idea of a sales playbook (as mentioned) is inspired by the concept of a playbook in sports, where coaches develop a series of predefined plays or strategies that players can execute during a game, given an intent and set of circumstances. Similarly, sales leaders create playbooks to equip their teams with predefined sales strategies, tactics, and actions given an intent and set of circumstances. According to TechCXO: “this approach has evolved over time with advancements in technology and data analytics, allowing for more dynamic and adaptive sales playbooks that can be updated in real-time to reflect changing market conditions and customer needs​.”

What is (or was) the sales playbook?

A sales playbook is a strategic document or toolkit designed to guide sales teams through various aspects of the sales process. It includes a compilation of best practices, strategies, messaging, and tools that sellers can use to effectively guide their engagement with prospects. It was designed to help answer the question “what do I do next?” The playbook typically outlines the following components:

1. Sales Processes: Detailed descriptions of each step in the sales process, from prospecting to closing and beyond.

2. Sales Strategies: Specific strategies tailored to different customer personas and sales scenarios.

3. Messaging: Key messages, value propositions, and objection-handling techniques.

4. Tools and Resources: Templates, scripts, and other resources that sales reps can use during their interactions with prospects.

5. Metrics and Benchmarks: Performance indicators and goals to track progress and effectiveness.

6. Training Materials: Content designed to help salespeople improve their skills and stay updated with the latest techniques.

It's getting complicated - right?

What was the Idea Behind Sales Playbooks?

The concept of sales playbooks is rooted in the idea of providing a standardized approach to sales that can be replicated and scaled across an organization. The primary goals of a sales playbook are to:

• Ensure Consistency: By standardizing the sales approach, companies tried to ensure that all sales representatives behave similarly in given sales stages. They are supposed to deliver a consistent message and follow a process. Literally an attempt to get everyone on the same page!

• Increase Efficiency: With a structured guide, sales reps could quickly access the information they need, reducing the time spent on planning and increasing the time spent on selling (not).

• Improve Performance: By incorporating best practices and successful strategies, playbooks aim to improve the overall performance of the sales team.

• Facilitate Training and Onboarding: Playbooks serve as a valuable training tool for new hires, helping them to get up to speed quicker with the company’s sales processes and methodologies.

Why sales playbook’s fail(ed)

Despite their benefits, traditional sales didn't help much:

• Static Nature: Many sales playbooks are static documents that do not evolve with market changes, making them less effective over time. They get “developed once – used seldom.” The only place they “evolve” to is from being a printed doc, sitting on a desk, lonely and ignored, to a printed doc sitting on a bookshelf, feeling equally lonely and ignored.

• Time-Consuming: to create and maintain. And too complicated to use. A comprehensive sales playbook takes time and people. Time we don't have and people who are generally unwilling or unable to do maintain them or use them.

• Low Adoption: Sales teams never consistently use playbooks. They find them generic, rigid, over complicated or irrelevant to their daily activities. They’re un-engaging and boring. They can’t talk back!

So what does “long live playbooks” actually mean. Remember the definition. A playbook is a “document or toolkit designed to guide sales teams through various aspects of the sales process.” The next incarnation (just like the new Monarch) is the latest version. In this case sellers still need guidance and mentoring, there are simply far better ways of doing it these days. Ways that don’t suffer the shortcomings of the “olde” sales playbook idea. Ways that are dynamic, fast, and interactive. Ways that are agile and can adapt to the thrills and spills, ups and downs and ebbs and flows of the sales pursuit. So we salute the olde sales playbook, say thanks and God’s speed, and usher in the age of a new solution that really answers the question “what do I do next?”