How to Create a Killer Sales Playbook by Rich Berkman, VP Sales Enablement Strategies, Kadient at MassTLC event January 14, 2010

1. How to Create a Killer
Sales Playbook January 14, 2010
Mass TLC
Rich Berkman
VP Sales Enablement Strategies

2. Sales Playbook Workshop Agenda
Agenda Twitter: @richberk #Kadient #MassTLC
Introduction – Brief Kadient Overview
Sales and Marketing Business Challenges
Sales Playbook Overview
Case Studies / Situational Playbooks
ABLE Methodology
Assess & Build Your Sales Playbook
Launch & Evolve Your Sales Playbook
Discussion / Q & A
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3. Meet Max
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4. The Kadient Suite
Dynamic Interactive Sales
Sales Sales Performance
Content Playbooks Analytics
Integrated with
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5. Exercise #1: Assess the performance of your sales team
Sales Performance Measures How Important is it to Improve
This?
Overall win rates
Forecast Accuracy
Ramp up time for new salespeople
Length of sales cycles
Reinforce sales process / training
Drive consistent sales messaging
Average deal size
Number of deals reps can work
Percentage of reps hitting quota
New product / service offerings rollout velocity
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6. Business Challenges of…
▶ Ramping up new reps / dealing with turnover
▶ Introducing new or acquired products
▶ Increasing productivity - doing more with less resources
▶ Drive repeatable and consistent sales / prospect interaction
▶ Reinforcing sales process / methodology / training
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7. How Sales People Operate Today
prospect development CRM
external data
sales tools technology tools
battle cards
communications
sales guides
collaboration
social
content
price lists resources specialists
documents
subject matter experts
presentations
product spec field market
product market
competitive intelligence sales training
sales operations
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8. Improving Sales Performance
Buying Process
Awareness Alternatives Problem Fit Assess Risk Value
Why should I What is your How does it solve Let’s discuss with
listen to you? my problem? What ROI can I management.
solution? expect?
What does your Will it meet the How does it fit What’s your best
company do? into my Can I talk to and final offer?
following needs? business? others who have
What problems What makes it done this? Will you accept
do you solve? different? What will it take these terms?
to implement? What proof do
Who else have How much will it you have it will Who needs to
you done it for? cost? How long will it work for me? approve this?
take?
Can you send me Can you show me How will you How do we get
some how it works? Who has to be support me? started and
information? involved? when?
Discovery Qualification Solution Fit Proof Close
Sales Process
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9. What is a Sales Playbook?
▶ Playbook [ˈpleɪˌbʊk] n
 1. (Team Sports / American Football) a book containing a range of possible
set plays
 2. a notional range of possible tactics in any sphere of activity
▶ Sales Playbook
 1. Pitch book, sales training manual, sales primer, battle cards
 2. All that stuff marketing created and put in the 25lb binder on my desk
▶ Kadient Interactive Sales Playbook
 An Interactive Sales Playbook aligns situation-specific sales and marketing
strategies, content, tools, and coaching with the customer’s buying cycle,
all within a CRM system, so a salesperson is armed with what’s proven to
work for each selling situation.
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10. Sirius Decisions on Integrated Sales Playbooks
SiriusPerspective: Integrated sales playbooks are critical in an
organization’s drive to improve sales productivity.
Process/
Skills/Tools
Productivity
Efficiency (time & energy)
Increased Productivity:
o More Opportunities
o Shorter Sales Cycles
Integrated
o Larger Deal Size
Sales o Higher Win Rates
Playbooks
Sales
Portal
Home- Content/
Grown Knowledge
Activities
Effectiveness (quality & results)
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Source: SiriusDecisions

11. Interactive Sales Playbooks
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12. Exercise #2: Identify Playbook Focus
Build a Variety of Playbooks for Different Selling Situations
• Lead Management
• New Opportunity
• Retention
• Cross-sell, Up-sell
• Vertical / Industry
• Customer Segment
• Account Management
• On-boarding / Ramp Up
• Delivery / Implementation
• Proposal Management
• Many others….
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14. Kadient Sales Playbook Template
Playbook Type/ Name: ______________________________________
Stage Stage Stage Stage Stage Stage
1 2 3 4 5 6
__________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________
Activity / Content
/ Link
___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________
Activity / Content
/ Link ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________
Activity / Content
/ Link ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________
Activity / Content
/ Link ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________
Activity / Content
/ Link ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________
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15. PLAYBOOK DESIGN
CASE STUDIES

16. Support a highly collaborative sales cycle
Consulting Services Firm
Challenges? Results Achieved!
• Lots of content, knowledge repositories, case studies, • Playbooks allow them to access content no matter
etc that needs to be available to their employees where it resides (currently have LOTS of repositories)
• Realize playbooks can enforce their sales process, and • Facilitates their collaborative sales process which is so
link to critical content to support sales efforts integral to their deal process
• Use playbooks internally and also sell/implement
Playbooks with their customers
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17. Reinforce a Newly Launched Sales Process
Our internal Opportunity Playbook to
assist our salesreps with net new
opportunities.
Software Company
Challenges? Results Achieved!
• Provide the reps with new/continually changing sales • Continually provides the latest information to salesreps on
tools and information proof points, whitepapers, case studies in support of new opps
• Increase the confidence of the reps in selling new • Provides analytical reports to supplement current sales
solutions operations reports
• Understand what’s working, what’s not working in the
sales process
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18. Move from Product Focus to Consultative Focus
Online Media Services
Challenges? Results Achieved!
• Dramatic shift over the last year from print basis, • Armed reps with new content/terminology to sell online
to the on-line distribution (reps need to ramp-up) services vs. print media
• Focus is on Consultative-Selling/Relationship • Created playbooks to outline new sales process (can’t
Selling; moving away from feature sales process depend on old sales techniques)
• New marketing department; lack of consistency in • Put a lot of new imaging & content into the reps hands
content/image being presented by the reps • Parsed the information out to less experienced reps in the
context of the deals they are working on
• Gave management the analytics they need to determine
pipelines/probability on a more timely basis
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19. Increase Conversion of Leads to Opportunities
Software Company
Challenges? Results Achieved!
• Provide access to a newly designed call script • Increased the conversion rate as reps use the newly
• Link in a ‘Champion Kit’ for reps to follow-up with prospects presented sales tools
• Track where leads are converting and average length of time • Increased the throughput of lead processing by putting all
to convert the key lead mgmt tools in one playbook at their
fingertips
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20. Need new reps to hit the ground running
MRM SaaS Company
Challenges? Results Achieved!
• The company has grown rapidly over the past 2 years; • Delivered just-in-time information to the fingertips of
high number of new sales reps that need information their salesreps
• Complex sales organization/hierarchy that has evolved • Facilitated their highly collaborative, virtual sales teams
over the past 5 years working opportunities w/interactive playbooks
• Long, complex sales cycle with heavy competitive • Replaced their existing reliance on analytics being
pressures produced by their CRM plus Excel with analytics from
Kadient
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21. PLAYBOOK DESIGN
BEST PRACTICES

22. Four Simple Steps to Create Your Sales Playbook
Assess
• Identify recurring selling situations
• Profile winning sales engagements
• Look for patterns, align with sales process
Build
• Identify playbook stages and activities
• Assign content, tools, and media to activities
• Add coaching tips for stages and activities
• Identify and fill information gaps
Launch
• Start with pilot group, get feedback
• Roll out to sales team with support from cross-
functional management
Evolve
• Monitor usage
• Measure impact
• Leverage analytics to find opportunities to
optimize playbooks
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23. Structure of Sales Playbooks
Content
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24. Primary Playbook Considerations
• Who are the playbook users?
o Reps - Experience Levels / Direct vs. Indirect
o Sales Teams – Collaboration
o Subject Matter Experts
o Delivery or Engagement Team Resources
o Biz Dev or Call Center staff
o Partners or Channels
…..anyone that touches the account?
• What are the playbook goals?
o Reinforce a Sales Process, Methodology
o Accelerate Sales Cycle, Less Admin Work
o Knowledge Transfer, Propagation of Best Practices/Winning Techniques
o Brand Messaging, Consistency of Content
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25. Exercise #3: Structure of a Sales Playbook
Stage Stage Stage Stage Stage Stage
1 2 3 4 5 6
__________ __________ __________ __________ __________ __________
Identify the Stages of your Sales Playbooks
Playbooks are made up of Stages and Activities. Stages are the first level you
define in a playbook. For example, here are a sample of 5 stages that might be
set up for an opportunity playbook:
- Stages represent the major phases or milestones of a selling cycle
- They can be used to represent any sequence of activities where you are trying to drive repeatable behavior
- They can also simply be categories or containers of information to support a sales activity
- They can reflect the stages of a standardized sales methodology (e.g., The Complex Sale, CCS, SPI, etc…)
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26. Best Practices for Identifying Stages
• Identify 5 or 6 major sales stages for your sales playbook.
• For example, Qualify , Define Solution, Propose, Negotiate….
• Begin to think about the activities that group under stages to create focus.
• Use internal terminology that will resonate with your sales team.
• Identify factors that help determine when a stage is complete:
o The sales person is making the decision to proceed or not proceed.
o The deal is moving to a whole new level of interaction with the buyer.
o The sales person is bringing in a new set of resources (SMEs) to move the deal along.
o The deal is requiring a bigger commitment (time/content) - you & the buyer.
• If you use a sales methodology, leverage it to frame your stages
• Consider the stages you have in your SFA/CRM.
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27. Exercise #4 Structure of Sales Playbooks
Activity / Content
/ Link
___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________
Activity / Content
/ Link ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________
Identify the 3-5-8 primary activities within the stages of the playbook
Within each of the stages, you can have a variety of Activities. For example:
These would be the activities within
the “Discovery” Stage
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28. Best Practices for Identifying Activities
• Identify repeatable activities sales people are currently doing/need to be doing.
• Push and automate non-value-added, administrative, data-entry activities for the rep.
• Focus on your target buyer needs and marry them to sales process activities
• Activities should begin with an action verb
(e.g., Research Prospect, Conduct Discovery, Prepare Proposal).
• Incorporate activities that have specific content or tools that you want sales to use
(e.g., research links, brand-enhancing / company sanctioned collateral, latest case
studies or references).
• Introduce activities where you can promote best practices and coaching tips from what
your best reps are doing or sales methodology
(e.g., How to negotiate with procurement, getting appointments with C-level execs).
• Add activities where you would like to obtain analytics, such as key milestones /
compliance actions they must complete or to understand usage.
(e.g., How many times has a custom demo led to a winning deal?).
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29. Exercise #5: Structure of Sales Playbooks
Identify examples of supporting content, and websites or other tools and
workflows for the playbook
Activities can have ‘content’ linked to them. Content can be any type of Word
doc, PPT, Podcast, Video, URL Link, or Tactical Coaching Tips.
This activity might have sample research steps for the salesrep
to perform to get ready to meet with the prospect
This activity might contain the Discovery Questionnaire that the rep would
follow to begin scoping out the project
This activity would contain a sample war book template that
the rep would fill out for this opportunity
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30. Content Examples for Your Sales Playbook
Activities and their Content
Some other examples of types of content that are linked to activities:
• Case studies and Business Case Scenarios
• Presentations, Product, Service or Solution information
• Podcasts (e.g., Coaching, Objection Handling, etc..)
• Pricing Forms and Worksheets
• Coaching Tips on How to Setup Face-to-Face Meetings
• Agreements and Contracts
• Sample Letters and Email templates
• Organizational Charts
• Graphics
• Sample Winning Proposals
• Marketing Brochures
• Links to Internal Marketing Calendars
• Executive Bios and Resumes
• Company History Presentations
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31. First Draft of Playbook Complete
• Go back through the stages and activities to determine if you:
o Can consolidate any activities within a stage
o Missed any activities that need to be there
o Placed activities in the appropriate stage
o Have gained better utilization of ‘people’ resources
o Incorporated all the mandatory compliance activities
o Need to make some of the activities ‘required’ or simply recommended
o Will get the ‘analytics’ and insight you are planning on obtaining
o Maximized your ability to meet your original playbook goals for the sales person
• Review with others within your organization for feedback.
o New and Experienced Sales People o Sales Operations
o Marketing Executive(s) o Training
o Sale Manager(s) and Executive(s) o Implementation
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32. Launch Considerations
Begin your roll out with a pilot team
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33. Keys to Planning a Successful Launch
▶ Form a cross-functional team to plan and support the launch
▶ Put executive muscle to work
▶ Start with a pilot/early adopters launch
▶ Educate your internal stakeholders about sales playbooks
▶ Think about your end users and make it fun, quick and painless
▶ Drive home the value of playbooks with each type of
user/stakeholder. Your messaging will be most important!
▶ Engage education resources
▶ Run a teaser campaign leading up to launch
▶ Anticipate change management issues
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34. Evolve: Analytics from Sales Playbooks Spotlight What to do Next!
What are Playbook Influenced Sales Performance Analytics?
Kadient provides unique actionable insights that help your sales team close business at each
stage of the buyer process.
How are these Sales Performance Analytics different from what I already get from
my CRM?
Sales Playbooks deliver new insight into how your sales activities impact the sales cycle
allowing various stakeholders to take immediate action to improve sales performance.
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35. Evolve: Greater Visibility, Metrics Not Hunches!
• How can I improve my confidence in forecast
accuracy?
– Spotlight which deals are real by opportunity
– Compare what a rep reports to actual events
• How can I identify the choke points in deals and
the sales process?
– Analyze activities that cause a deal to stall
– Compare velocity of playbook stages to
forecast stages
• What value and impact are the content, tools
and other resources having on sales?
– Marry activity usage with deal outcomes
– Highlight activities that advance and drive
deals to close On average, over 50% of forecasted
deals don’t close and more than 40% of
– Eliminate ineffective sales activities sales reps fail to hit quota.
CSO Insights 2008 Sales Performance
Optimization Survey
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36. Improve Sales Performance
• How can I improve overall sales team and
process performance?
– Identify what A players do to
consistently win deals Sales reps
– Identify and take action to improve
sales velocity 43%
• How can I better coach my sales reps to
improve sales performance?
Below quota Above quota
– See details for what goes on inside Performance
an opportunity
– Identify situational coaching
opportunities
– Reps pointed to the next activity that
advances a deal The top 20% of sales reps is contributing
more than 3X their share of revenue.
CSO Insights 2008 Sales Performance
Optimization Survey
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37. Get Your Sales Playbook Effort Started Today!
• What would it take to get a playbook effort going in your
organization?
• Target a specific sales initiative
• Create a draft playbook
• Share it and gather feedback from key stakeholders
across your organization
• Determine best way to push and embed with CRM
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38. Contact Info
Kadient, Inc. Rich Berkman
VP Sales Enablement Strategy
175 Cabot Street, Suite 210
rberkman@kadient.com
Lowell, MA 01854 978-703-7694
USA Twitter: @RichBerk
Phone: +1 (877) 523 4368 Tweet Event #MassTLC #Kadient
Fax: +1 (978) 703 7631
Download Guide “How to Create a Killer
Email: info@kadient.com Sales Playbook” and other resources:
http://www.kadient.com/form.aspx?id=621
http://www.kadient.com
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