Use this when the way the team sells lives in a few people's heads. A good playbook turns what top performers do into something every rep can repeat, and gets updated as the team learns.
Inputs
- Interviews or notes from the two or three best reps: how they find, open, run and close deals.
- ICP, personas, value proposition and proof.
- Current stages, conversion rates and cycle length.
The play
1. Start from the best reps, not theory
Interview top performers with the same questions: who they target first, how they open, what they ask in discovery, how they handle the top objections, how they get to the economic buyer. Their patterns become the plays.
2. Define stages by buyer actions
Each stage has an exit criterion the buyer completes, not the rep. Example: "Discovery complete" means the buyer confirmed the problem, its impact and who decides. Read references/playbook-outline.md for the full outline and stage table.
3. Write one play per moment
A play is: when it applies, the goal, the steps, the assets, and what good looks like. Keep each to one page. Typical plays: inbound follow-up, cold outbound, discovery, demo, multi-threading, proposal, negotiation, close, handoff to customer success.
4. Add the messaging and objection pages
One page of persona messaging, one page of the ten most common objections with answers and proof.
5. Define the metrics
Activity and conversion at each stage, cycle time and win rate, with the current baseline and target. Reps should know which number to look at when something feels off.
6. Make it living
Name an owner, set a quarterly review, and add a "what we learned" log. A playbook nobody updates is wrong within six months.
What good looks like
- A new rep can run a first discovery call from the playbook alone.
- Stage exit criteria are buyer actions, so the forecast reflects reality.
- Each play fits on one page.
- The common mistake is a 60-page document written by someone who doesn't sell, which nobody opens after onboarding.
Rules
- MUST base plays on what top performers actually do.
- MUST define stage exit criteria as buyer actions.
- MUST name an owner and a review cadence.
- NEVER include claims, numbers or customer stories that are not approved.
Example prompts
- "Build a first version of our sales playbook from these interviews with our three best AEs."
- "Define our sales stages with buyer-based exit criteria."
- "Write the discovery and multi-threading plays for our playbook."