what is a sales playbook?

WHAT IS A

SALES PLAYBOOK?

© 2015 The Sales Way Ltd

The Sales Playbook Enabling more valuable, credible and consistent customer conversations.

We understand it can often be

difficult to take a complex,

technical solution and turn it into

a proposition that resonates with

customers.

That’s where The Sales Way can

help.

Our Sales Playbooks are designed

to include everything your sales

and channel teams need to know

in order to effectively position

your solutions with clients.

www.thesalesway.com | [email protected] | 0161 818 8600 |Warrington Business Park, Long Lane,Warrington,WA2 8TX

Selling Today Selling complex IT solutions is very different today than it was even ten years ago. This impacts how you take your messages out to clients. Some of the changes we are seeing are:

There is more choice for buyers within the industry as the number of suppliers increases (and the

range of offerings from each supplier grows).

It is more difficult than ever to differentiate between suppliers, with many providers offering similar

solutions.

Marketing propositions of technology providers are converging.

The buyer is knowledgeable and sophisticated - with a wealth of information at their fingertips to

help them reach a decision alone.

Products and services in the technology industry are becoming more and more complex - making it

more difficult for teams to get skilled up on quickly.

Buyers are purchasing complex IT systems online without interacting with suppliers.

The effects of the recession mean that vendors are refraining from large scale product launches.

What This Means For Suppliers So how do these changes affect suppliers and their sales and marketing processes?

It is difficult to convince customers why they should choose you and your solution.

It is harder than ever to get your message and strategy across to customers.

Sales people have to demonstrate their credibility to clients - they have to show that they can deliver

value to the client.

Buyers are not satisfied with product feature lists - they now want to see how solutions will impact

their business.

There are less resources available for suppliers to dedicate to product launches and sales

enablement.


How Can Suppliers Adapt How are suppliers starting to respond to these challenges in a new selling environment?

Develop larger telesales departments for servicing a wider range of clients as products become

more commoditised.

Form new marketing plans that encompass sales, marketing and product development teams.

Use mobile training initiatives to reduce the time spent in classrooms and associated travel costs.

Encourage more self-directed learning which is available whenever and wherever so travelling

sales representatives can access sales training on the go.

Ensure that all product and service training is customer-focused rather than feature-focused.

Develop a continuous improvement process for sales enablement by creating collateral, gathering

feedback from customers and republishing content regularly.


What Do We Do?

Playbooks provide a central resource for all of your sales information.

Share however you need to - digitally, paper copies, or as part of training courses.

Consistent approach ensures your message has maximum impact.

Doesn’t require long training sessions - can be used when and where they are needed depending

on the customer scenario.

The Sales Way translates your messaging into effective sales enablement collateral for your

sales and channel teams to use in their customer conversations.

Our playbooks ensure your sales teams have credible, valuable and consistent conversations

with customers.

Quick to learn and easy to digest - visual and clear.

Enables business level conversations - demonstrating industry awareness.

Takes your core message and translates it across the entire organisation.


What Is In A Sales Playbook

A sales playbook can be anything you need it to be, and depending on the solution and

audience it can take many different forms.

Here is what we usually recommend to get started with creating a sales playbook:

Your customer’s market and their business challenges

How your customer might be responding to these

challenges and potential business initiatives

How your solutions help customers to overcome these

challenges

Solution overview and detail that your sales teams are

expected to articulate

How to spot a sale and target customers

Objections and how to overcome them

Qualification questions

Buyer profiles and how to sell to different customer

contacts

Case studies

Closing the sale and next steps


Common Objections There are many different approaches when it comes to sales training. We still think our

Playbooks are the best solution. Here’s why:

OBJECTION No. 1

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GET ACROSS ALL SOLUTION

POSITIONING INFORMATION IN ONE DOCUMENT.

Our playbooks combine all of the information across your organisation

that is vital to positioning your product or service. We take ideas,

effective elevator pitches and solution detail to create a playbook that can

be used across your organisation, ensuring a consistent message every

time.

OBJECTION No. 2

WE DON’T HAVE TIME FOR

TRAINING

That’s why you need our sales playbooks! Our playbooks don’t rely on

your sales teams spending days being trained on product features in

classrooms when they could be out with clients. They are easy to share

and the information is in one place, ready to be used when needed.

OBJECTION No. 3

OUR SALES TEAMS ARE VERY TECHNICAL AND

SPECIALISED - THEY DON’T NEED TRAINING.

The IT industry is an incredibly technical sector with many highly

specialised sales and presales teams, however many skills are not spread

consistently across the overall organisation. This leads to inconsistencies

in the customer experience. Instead, our playbooks ensure that the

technical knowledge employed by your best sales representatives is

available to your wider sales and channel teams. Additionally, our

playbooks encourage your technical teams to relate the solutions they sell

back to the business benefits and outcomes for their clients.


Is It For You? Could a sales playbook work for your organisation? Here are a few challenges that our

customers often cite as reasons for choosing playbooks for their sales teams.

Do you find it a struggle to get everyone to sell at the same level across your organisation?

How well can your channel partners articulate your strategy and messaging to clients?

Is traditional sales training too expensive (in terms of both time and cost) to carry out regularly?

Do you often feel that products have been superseded by a new solution by the time your teams have been trained up?

Is sales training information usually forgotten within days of being delivered?


Get In Touch

Web: www.thesalesway.com

Tel: 0161 818 8600

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @TheSalesWay