This is the seventh blog in a series covering the 12-Point Prospect-Experience Transformation process. Ultimately, there will be four blogs about your market, four more covering your message and the final four will cover metrics.

Most of the Sales Development Rep (SDR) managers I talk with agree that developing playbooks to guide and govern the SDRs’ work is essential. Where they disagree is on the playbook content.

I used to work for someone who had a funny expression. He said, “even a man lost in the woods knows where he wants to go.” This is often not the case with playbooks. Frequently the objective of the playbook is not identified, and this is a critical first step. Before we get to my recommended playbook table of contents, let’s address a few critical factors in developing a successful playbook:   

Identify the Pain, Priority, Process, Environment (Three P’s and an E)

All stakeholders in a playbook should understand and agree on results of using the playbook. My job is to ensure that everyone understands:

The level of pain (relating to the product or solution) for each targeted prospect at his/her level in the prospect organization

How important it is for the prospect to do something and why it is important

The process that will be used to make decisions about actions (escalation, as an example)

The current environment (i.e. what technology is in use; the probability that a prospect will take an action such as outsourcing some part of their process)

“Three P’s and an E” lets you formulate an agreed upon lead definition.

Don’t Use BANT (or any of the other alphabet soup lead criteria)

Companies that sell a complex solution and disqualify based on the lack of the right BANT criteria (budget, authority, need and time-frame) are ceding great – maybe the best – prospects to more agile competitors.

“Three P’s and an E” is a superior way to qualify (or disqualify) without giving up on valuable prospects. Eliminating prospects because they cannot provide the budget right now and/or don’t have a specific enough time frame disqualifies incorrectly. The internal process a prospect describes for “making a decision” will uncover how budgets are established. The priority to do something about a pain determines time frame. Once you have established qualifying criteria you can write the playbook to the specifications that define a high-quality prospect.

Reasons to Spend Quality Time Creating the Playbook    

SDR’s armed with the right story and executing the right process generate more revenue. The playbook provides SDRs’ with the messaging and tactics to perform as a top player. Playbooks replace chaos with kick ass.

Without the insights, messaging and the right processes, SDRs either hesitate to make calls or have continuous questions for guidance and confirmation that they are doing a good job. 

A well written playbook makes the SDR team more effective and allows other team members to stay focused on the highest value activities.

Great field reps do everything they can to stay out of communication with their boss. Great SDRs will be in your face. A good playbook will reduce some of the interaction – but overall great SDRs need lots of attention. It’s the nature of the job… lots of rejection and lots of touches without feedback force SDRs to seek communication internally.

Don’t over-complicate the call flow. Good conversations are a product of a straightforward approach. The call flow always has three parts. The opening; the dialog and the close. Each of these three parts has a goal – first, creating interest; next, establishing need; and finally, satisfying that need. Most scripted calls are not effective. Reach out to me if you want to discuss this in more detail.

The viewpoint that playbooks allow you to hire relatively young, inexperienced SDRs who “paint by the numbers” (using the playbook) doesn’t really work well. The SDR needs to be able to carry on a high-level conversation with the targeted decision-maker(s) – most young, inexperienced SDRs can’t do that.

It is true that more experienced and knowledgeable SDRs can be guilty of taking the conversation too deep. Focus SDRs on the “Thee P’s and an E” qualifying criteria. Convince SDRs that they will get in trouble and lose leads if they get into the weeds. Manage the transition of the lead in a way that encourages and rewards the appropriate level of detail in a lead write-up, but without too much information.

Creating a playbook doesn’t happen overnight (in fact the work is never done). It can be painful as management grapples with difficult questions around the market, the message and the media. However, investing time and money in a playbook is chump change as compared with the cost of hiring, training and deploying SDRs.  

Why are there SDRs?

Despite what you may read about outbound marketing, it works. Instead of asking whether you should support field sales with inside sales support, you should be asking how many SDRs you need and how you will ramp SDRs to match increases in the field sales team. Estimate what percentage of the needed revenue can be driven by the inside team rather than by waiting for the field team to find their own deals. A good hunter, or closer, is too valuable and expensive a resource to focus them on beating the bushes looking for potential prospects.  

Why do SDRs Need a Playbook?

Most marketing teams create an overwhelming amount of information about their company’s products. There are positioning papers, FAQ’s, PowerPoint presentations, white papers, case studies… This mountain of often duplicated information needs to be distilled into a concise, specific and actionable document called a playbook.

Some other benefits of a playbook:

1.       It controls the consistency of the delivered message

2.      It enables processes to be tested and then scaled

3.       It allows your team to ramp more quickly

4.       It permits a person-by-person comparison so that benchmarks can be documented, and individuals can be coached or counselled as needed

Any playbook is a work in process. It is the single source for best processes and practices.

Don’t Clutter up the Playbook. The Following Belong Elsewhere – Not in the Playbook:  

• The company value and vision. While an important part of on boarding new employees, the information does not belong in the playbook.

• Organization charts. These, or something even more important, will get lost if you weigh down a playbook with data that belongs elsewhere.

• The role of the SDR. That is a job description with KPIs. It is employment related, not client/playbook related.

• Compensation or other structural details. These are HR on-boarding issues, not suitable for a playbook.

Playbook Table of Contents

Every company is different, but here is a summary of the chapters I recommend for most playbooks:

1.       Company overview: Not the history of the company. This is where you state the company’s reason for being as it relates to the specific product and/or service covered by this playbook.

2.       Offer: An offer is comprised of a product and/or service, the price and the delivery mechanism (“how does that work?”) The delivery mechanism is always the most difficult for the market to understand. Common questions: “how do you charge?”; “when will I see results?”; “who owns the data?”

3.       Market: What is the total addressable market (TAM)? At what level do we want to engage? How many roles or functional areas will we need to reach out to? If you use personas, they belong here. Personas can be so “cutesy” that they are useless. The most important information to convey in the playbook is what is that role or functional area worried about, how can you help and why you and your solution vs. the competition (as it relates to the person)?

4.       Research requirements: LinkedIn, website, competitive website, analyst reviews, misc. other.

5.       Positioning: How is our offer positioned in the marketplace, how does that compare to the competition and what are the relative strengths and weaknesses of each offer (including our own)?

6.       Lead Qualification Specifics

o   Pain – what is the pain or need? How does that pain or need map to your solution?

o   Priority – when will it be a priority to do something about the pain or need?

o   Process – what is the process to evaluate and act on doing something about the pain or need?

o   Environment – what important factors about the environment (technology, organizational structure…) help qualify or disqualify a prospect?

7.       Message Outbound: Call flow(s), voicemails, emails, direct mail (if used), list of assets to use

8.       Media/Cadence Outbound: touch cycle, timing, outcomes or dispositions

9.       Message Inbound: Call flow(s), voicemails, emails, direct mail (if used), list of assets to use

10.   Media/Cadence Inbound: touch cycle, timing, outcomes or dispositions

11.   Lead Processing: Distribution, method, timing, process for acceptance

12.   Day-part Structuring: Touch cycle time, research time, meeting time

13.   Metrics: Dials, voicemails, emails, dispositions (outcomes) vs. standard, leads, pipeline, total qualified, results by list segment and list priorities

14.   Reporting: Weekly, to be determined during on boarding

15.   Weekly Conference Call Agenda: Lead Review, Pipeline Review, Digital Audio File Comments/Questions, Q&A

16.   Contact Information: For all key stakeholders (and roles) – you want at least one escalation contact on both sides that is senior and accessible.)

Remember that a playbook is a dynamic document. Expect changes. Make sure that every department with input into the playbook signs off on changes as they occur.

Let me know what you would add to or subtract from the playbook and if you want to talk about building a playbook for your team just reach out and I will help you in any way that I can.