What Goes in a Playbook
A Playbook defines how you want a repeatable type of sales conversation to go and what you and your team are coached toward. It should be specific enough to guide practice without trying to script every word.
Practice Guide
Section titled “Practice Guide”The Practice Guide is the guidance you can reference while practicing. Use it for the methods, sequence, questions, examples, and reminders that help someone handle the conversation well.
A useful Practice Guide can include:
- The purpose of the conversation.
- The stages or decisions that matter.
- Questions worth asking.
- Important points to explain.
- Common mistakes to avoid.
- Language or examples your organization wants people to use.
Put guidance here when it should apply across every Scenario in the Playbook.
Scoring Rubric
Section titled “Scoring Rubric”The Scoring Rubric defines what strong performance looks like. Sales Coach Pro uses it as a coaching standard when it analyzes the conversation and prepares feedback.
Write observable criteria. Describe what someone should ask, explain, acknowledge, confirm, or avoid. A useful criterion should make it possible to recognize whether the behavior happened in the conversation.
For example, “Build rapport” is difficult to evaluate. “Acknowledge the person’s concern before explaining the recommendation” is more specific and coachable.
Scenarios
Section titled “Scenarios”Scenarios live inside the Playbook. They provide the people and situations where you practice applying the Playbook’s guidance.
Keep repeatable guidance and scoring standards in the Playbook. Put details about one person, account, objection, product, or upcoming conversation in a Scenario.
Ask Coach to help
Section titled “Ask Coach to help”You can give Coach an existing guide, describe how you want the conversation to go, or ask it to learn from relevant past conversations. Try:
Help me create a Playbook for our second discovery meeting. We want people to understand the customer’s current process, clarify the cost of the problem, and agree on the next decision.
Coach can prepare a draft for you to review and refine before you save it.