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Guide10 min read

Building Your First Sales Operations Playbook

Why Most Sales Teams Fail

Without a playbook, every rep reinvents the wheel. They use different messages, follow different processes, and produce wildly different results. A good playbook changes everything.

The Anatomy of a Sales Playbook

1. Foundation Elements

Ideal Customer Profile (ICP):

  • Industry and vertical
  • Company size (employees and revenue)
  • Technology indicators
  • Growth signals
  • Budget indicators

Buyer Personas:

  • Decision makers
  • Influencers
  • Champions
  • Blockers
  • Economic buyers

Value Propositions:

  • By persona
  • By industry
  • By use case
  • By competitor
  • By objection

2. Process Documentation

Lead Qualification:

  • BANT criteria
  • Scoring model
  • Routing rules
  • SLA definitions
  • Handoff processes

Sales Stages:

  • Discovery
  • Qualification
  • Demo/Proposal
  • Negotiation
  • Close
  • Handoff

Activity Requirements:

  • Calls per day
  • Emails per day
  • Meetings per week
  • Pipeline coverage
  • Follow-up cadence

3. Execution Templates

Email Templates:

  • First touch
  • Follow-ups
  • Objection handling
  • Proposal
  • Break-up

Call Scripts:

  • Cold call opening
  • Discovery questions
  • Objection responses
  • Closing techniques
  • Voicemail scripts

Demo Framework:

  • Agenda
  • Discovery questions
  • Feature mapping
  • ROI calculation
  • Next steps

4. Measurement Systems

KPIs to Track:

  • Activity metrics
  • Conversion rates
  • Cycle length
  • Deal size
  • Win rate

Review Cadence:

  • Daily huddles
  • Weekly 1:1s
  • Monthly reviews
  • Quarterly planning
  • Annual strategy

Implementation Roadmap

Week 1-2: Research & Documentation

  • Interview top performers
  • Analyze winning deals
  • Document current process
  • Identify gaps

Week 3-4: Creation

  • Write ICP and personas
  • Create templates
  • Build scripts
  • Design processes

Week 5-6: Testing

  • Pilot with one rep
  • Gather feedback
  • Iterate and improve
  • Measure results

Week 7-8: Rollout

  • Train team
  • Implement tools
  • Set expectations
  • Monitor adoption

Common Pitfalls

Too Complex: 100-page documents nobody reads Too Simple: Missing critical details Not Updated: Becomes outdated quickly No Buy-in: Created in isolation No Enforcement: Optional vs. mandatory

Tools You'll Need

CRM: Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive Engagement: Outreach, SalesLoft, Apollo Intelligence: Gong, Chorus, ExecVision Enablement: Showpad, Seismic, Highspot Analytics: Tableau, Looker, Excel

Measuring Success

Leading Indicators:

  • Playbook adoption rate
  • Template usage
  • Process compliance
  • Activity levels

Lagging Indicators:

  • Revenue growth
  • Sales cycle reduction
  • Win rate improvement
  • Rep ramp time

Your Next Steps

  • Start with one process
  • Document what's working
  • Test with willing reps
  • Iterate based on data
  • Scale what works

Need help building your playbook? We'll create it for you based on proven frameworks.