One of the first things a new sales leader (or entrepreneur running sales) should do is build a sales playbook. A sales playbook, put simply, is a central resource for tracking everything from the basics, like the elevator pitch, to the more advanced items, like differentiating from specific competitors. With more knowledge and training, sales reps speak more confidently and intelligently, helping win more deals.
To start, make a Google Doc sales playbook and include these items:
- Corporate information
- Sales pitch
- Elevator pitch
- Market space
- Recent trends
- Target customer
- Types of buyers
- Features and benefits
- List of references
- Sales process
- CRM process
- Competitors and differentiators
- Objection handling
- Glossary
Revisit the playbook on a weekly basis and ensure that the team contributes to it. With sales, the more you know, the more you sell.
What else? What are some more thoughts on building a sales playbook?
David Cummings on Startups 
I worked at a novelty import shop as a store manager. As a part of my playbook I kept a running diary of my sales month to month, and week by week. I had so many different items in so many different departments that I actually would keep a list of the 50 top selling items each month. I also would show the top sales days (and a brief summary as to any causes), and the lowest sales days (with a reason as to why). The next year I would revisit the high traffic dates, the highest selling items, and record it all over again and compare…very often the days were like clockwork.
Reblogged this on Shop Girl Anonymous and commented:
What a great tool for retail managers, no matter their tenure.