Industry Magazine Get JACK'D Magazine Fall 2017 | Page 30

SALES PL AYBOOK
Dan Larson
BUILDING A
GAME-WINNING
SALES PLAYBOOK
THAT WORKS
IF you were the head coach of a sports team, would you put your
team into the game without practicing? Without everyone knowing
the team’s best plays to win? What results would you expect if you
operated without a playbook? And if you’re not building and using a
Sales Playbook with your sales team, how do you expect your team
to succeed? If the coach of a sports team at any level did this, it
would be utter chaos on the field!
Why do sports teams run better than most sales teams?
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Coach - They have a dedicated coach focused on increasing
the team’s talent.
Playbook - They train using their playbook so they are ready
to execute the best plays.
Practice - They practice before every game.
The Sales Playbook
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Winning in sales depends on building a Sales Playbook that
gets used. I’ve developed some tools to get you started on
successfully building and using a Sales Playbook:
Use the Sales Playbook Summary as a guide to get you
started (leveragesalescoach.com/summary).
Use the Sales Team Performance Diagnostic tool to identify
the weak links in your sales chain (leveragesalescoach.com/
diagnostic).
Use the Components List (page three of the Sales Playbook
Summary) to choose your top priorities in people, processes,
and practices for sales and sales management.
Dan Larson is the CEO and founder
of Leverage Sales Coaching, which
works with CEOs, managers, and
sellers to build and use a Sales
Playbook to grow results. He is also a
best-selling co-author with Jack Daly
of The Sales Playbook for Hyper
Sales Growth. Dan has, 14 years of
coaching experience and over 30
years of business achievement. He
has helped clients achieve significant
growth in many diverse industries.
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pages 29–37). Measure success and follow up for accountability.
Differentiate. Define what makes you unique (see The Sales
Playbook, pages 56–59). Create your competitive advantage
message, practice it, and use it at every touchpoint.
Scope of Sales Playbook
Finally, consider the scope of the Sales Playbook that best fits your
team’s needs. A narrow scope works well for sales teams with a simple
sales cycle and sales process. It also fits a company that has limited
time and resources to build a more thorough playbook. A broader scope
works well for sales teams that have a longer selling cycle and a more
layered sales process. Companies with more time and resources to
devote to a broader Sales Playbook should do so.
Remember, the sales manager is the leader that makes sure the
Sales Playbook gets trained, practiced, and used. This is why effective
sales management is a full-time, hands-on job!
Prioritize Your Success
Your Sales Playbook should address high-priority items that you
have identified as the key to your sales team’s success. Consider
these common areas of high priorities:
• Talent and Recruiting. Create job profiles for each position.
Measure how well your sales team members and recruits
match their profiles. Use the book that I co-authored with
Jack Daly, The Sales Playbook for Hyper Sales Growth,
to rank your existing team (pages 20–21). And remember,
recruiting needs to be an ongoing process.
• Prospecting. Define your high payoff targets, top methods
of contacting them, and high payoff activities (HPAs) for
each method.
• Sale Processes. Enumerate your sales process steps and
the HPAs and best practices for each step (see The Sales
Playbook, pages 37–39). Adjust your training accordingly.
• Goals and Results. Define a goal achievement plan for the
sales team and individual members (see The Sales Playbook,
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