Death of the Sales Playbook
Sales playbooks, looked to as a valuable resource for trained salespeople, are traditionally thought of as the be-all and end-all solution for the various customer interactions salespeople encounter. Playbooks are a guide of sorts, usually assembled by the VP of Sales to help reps navigate the buyer’s journey and sales process.
Sounds pretty handy, right? It used to be. But thanks to an increase in buying complexity, playbooks no longer get the job done.
Since their introduction, sales playbooks have been used as a manual designed for salespeople to help guide them through a sales scenario by advising which sales practice or method would be best used at that specific time. Additionally, sales playbooks contain information on the markets, competitors, positioning and value. Generally, the thought when developing sales playbooks is that they can be used to help close deals faster.
In theory, sales playbooks make sense for the old school, linear process of traditional sales.