5Keys toUnlocking aSuccessfulPlaybook

A sales playbook contains the keys to unlock sales and close deals by capturing the best practices and most

useful content for prescribed sales processes.

But too many playbooks rest comfortably on a shelf, gathering dust, while reps use whatever content they’ve

managed to pull together.

What does it take to create a playbook that is a valuable tool for closing deals? We’ve found that there are five keys

to making a playbook that works.

1 Target the Content

Contentis at the heart of the sales process, and you need a

lot of it. But only a small set of content is used for any given stage of any given deal.

A great playbook knows about the opportunity.It knows which stage of the sales process you are in.

It knows what your role is. It knows the industry,the company size – the important stuff about the

prospect and the sale.

And then the playbook highlights just what applies to that opportunity at that stage of the process.

By prospectindustry

By prospectjob title or

function

By prospectbuying stage

By productinterest

The playbook puts the content at your fingertips.

2 Score the Content

Some of your content is great and on target. Reps use it to pitch effectively, and customers get their questions

answered. Some of it isn’t.Do you know which content works?

Your playbook should.

By monitoring the way your content is used - by sales and by prospects - and by measuring engagement, a playbook is learning what happens in the real world.

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With the data, it scores the content to help reps

find what’s most effective. Marketing and sales gets the analysis they need to hone and optimize the playbook.

3 Keep it Tight

Many companies aredrowning in content. They havehundreds, thousands, or tens of thousands of documents stored all over the place. Much is out of date or flat-out wrong.

Even if you includeonly the good stuff,

there’s just too much of it.And reps are still saying,

“I know it’s probably in there somewhere, but I

don’t have time to find it.”

A great playbook includes only the top

content that has proven to work.

And the content has to stay fresh. New products or new

competitors means new content. Fast.

100%

FreshCERTIFIED

4 Pair it with a Portal

If you’ve got a highly targeted and curated playbook, you’ve honed it down to the essentials

But that’s not going to handle every situation during the sales process.

With the vast array of online information available, customers will

come up with all kinds oftough questions

that reps need to answer.

So combine your playbook with a sales portal that aggregates the information your sellers need.

The sales portal should offergreat search, powerful browsing tools,

and should adapt to the seller’s role.

The sales portal is still filled with targeted content, but with a broader scope than your playbook.

Put Content where the Reps Live5

The content that your sellers need should be instantly available

when they are working on an opportunity.

A great playbook won’t be some pdf file they got at a training program. It also won’t be a content repository

on the web with a url they can’t remember.Those are the playbooks that don’t get used.

A great playbookputs the content right in front of them,

in the environment where they live,with a user interface that’s clear,

and search that works.

Key Takeaways

Effective playbookscan be a huge asset for your sales team.

They can make sure that everyone has the best content, instantly available, at every stage of the sales cycle.

Playbooks should be available where your sellers work: in a browser, on a mobile device, and in your CRM.

Playbooks should include your best content,for each sales stage,

available where your sales team works.

That’s a playbook that reps will use every day, not one they’ll use to prop up their monitors.

Playbooks are just one part of your total solution.By combining playbooks with sales portals,

your sellers – from telemarketing to enterprise field sales – can find the best content that helps drive

revenue in their deals.

Highspot provides sales engagement software that improves the way companies engage with

customers. By surfacing the most relevant content, providing flexible ways to present it to customers,

and understanding how it performs across the sales cycle, Highspot uniquely delivers insights that drive engagement, revenue, and customer satisfaction.

www.highspot.com