Suppose you’re to describe the qualities that would distinguish a top-performing salesperson. You may say they’re confident, assertive, persuasive, competitive—any strong qualities may come to mind. But it takes more than simply the perfect set of abilities to be a successful salesperson. These attributes are crucial, but they’re not the only deciding elements in the success of a sale.
Selling is a process, and you must treat it as one if you want to succeed. And for you to get the process right, you need a sales playbook. This document describes how you want your sales process to be—from the moment you meet a prospect to the time you close the deal. If you want to know how to create a winning sales playbook, here are five tips to follow. (1)
1. Pick your sales playbook writers wisely
You need people in your playbook writers’ team who are driven to achieve corporate goals and well informed about current sales process trends and selling methods. This will help you create a playbook that wins sales. Based on the nature of your business, your sales playbook development team may be composed of the following people:
- Sales representatives: Leading sales reps can help you create a playbook that’s easy to use and tailored to the specific requirements of your sales team since they’re active sellers. Their expertise may help less-experienced sales reps to increase their success rates.
- Marketing team: Your marketing department will be your source of information when it comes to marketing content, such as videos, blogs, and customer profile data.
- Business specialists: You need to include your internal experts to provide a wealth of knowledge about your products or services. This includes background information on your offerings, performance, and technical aspects.
- C-suite team: Involving your C-suite team ensures your sales playbook aligns with your business’s objectives. The entire process would also need the backing of the C-suite team to succeed.
2. Define your business goals
The success of your sales playbook hinges on the clarity and inspiration of your goals. You need to know what you’re looking to achieve with your sales playbook. Your goal may be to increase your customer base or profit margins. However, you could also have a specific goal, such as to enhance your product demonstrations. Ultimately, you need to have a defined goal when creating a sale’s playbook.
You can also add a conversation intelligence tool to your sales playbook to capture customer interactions and feedback. With this software, you can pass important information derived from client conversations to all the members of your sales team. A conversation intelligence tool ensures all communications with your customers are uniform, and it’s likewise useful for coaching your sales team.
3. Identify your ideal customer
A good salesman is usually the one who could sell any product to any customer. But this was in the past. In this modern-day business, customers, and sales process, this concept is a basic sales mistake. Your offer isn’t for everyone, and your sales playbook shouldn’t be either. So ask yourself these questions:
- Who is most likely to profit from your offering?
- What’s their age, profession, income, and primary needs?
The answers to these questions will help you build your ideal customer. If you don’t have answers to these, it’s time to sit down and figure out whom you’re creating your sales playbook for. Make a detailed character sketch of the ideal customer you’re trying to reach and then include it in your sales playbook. (2)
4. Research your competition
There are several reasons doing research on your competition is an essential phase in your sales playbook. It’s inevitable for your business not to fight with other businesses for the same audience—no matter what you do. This means you need to know the level of competition you’re up against.
This entails doing a comprehensive competitor study and analysis to understand what other businesses in your niche are up to. Determine their market share and how you can manage to stay ahead of them. Take a closer look at the processes of your top rivals and learn from them. Research their offerings to discover what sets them apart. (3)
Analyze their search engine optimization strategies, content, and social media activity. Make a side-by-side comparison of your business and your rivals’. That’s how you discover your unique selling proposition and distinguish yourself from the competition.
5. Find a working sequence
Every person in your sales team is different. While some prefer to communicate through phone calls, others are more comfortable with messaging. Some are great at closing, while others are better at presenting a story or dealing with objections. When defining your sales sequences, you must consider all these issues.
Everyone in the team should devote their time and energy to the things they excel in. This is how you combine the individual talents of each salesperson to get a strong, synergetic result. This phase may need a lot of experimentation. Testing various sequences and comparing the outcomes is the only way to discover your winning formula.
Conclusion
When it comes to growing your sales force, creating a sales playbook might be one of the best business decisions you can make. It effectively allows your sales team to achieve its highest level of success by eliminating guessing and inefficiencies. It’s never too late to create a playbook. You can do it now by following the tips shared above.
References
- “What is a Sales Playbook and Why Do I Need One?”, Source: https://www.business2community.com/sales-management/sales-playbook-need-one-02006008
- “The Importance Of Identifying Your Ideal Customers And How To Do It”, Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2020/02/12/the-importance-of-identifying-your-ideal-customers-and-how-to-do-it/?sh=43163f8e1d09