The final quarter of the year is crunch time for sales teams. It‘s when you’re racing to hit annual targets, close big deals, and set the stage for a strong start to the next year. But let‘s face it — Q4 can be tough. Clients are distracted by holidays, budgets are tight, and everyone’s feeling the pressure.
That's where sales playbooks come in. I think of them as a game plan for winning more of those crucial end-of-year deals. A sales playbook is deliberate and actionable. It consolidates every successful pitch, tactic, email, and call script into one, easy-to-read document.
But here's the thing – not all playbooks are created equal. In this article, I’ll cover seven effective sales playbooks to help you and your team succeed in the final quarter. I’ll also explain how to create a playbook for top results.
Let‘s get started — and don’t forget to follow along with HubSpot's free Sales Plan Template.
Table of Contents
- What is a playbook?
- What is a sales play?
- 7 Sales Playbook Templates to Help You Close More Deals
- How to Create a Sales Playbook That Closes More Deals
- What to Include in a Sales Playbook
- Benefits of a Sales Playbook
- Sales Plays to Include in Your Playbook
- Sales Playbook Examples
- Create and Use a Sales Playbook
What is a playbook?
A playbook is a comprehensive guide that outlines the best practices, strategies, and processes for achieving specific goals within an organization.
In the context of sales, a playbook serves as a detailed manual that helps sales teams navigate various scenarios they may encounter during the sales process. It provides step-by-step instructions, proven techniques, and helpful resources to ensure consistency and effectiveness in their approach.
It generally includes elements such as:
- Sales enablement materials.
- Strategies.
- Discovery call questions.
- KPIs.
- Buyer personas.
- Sales process details.
Pro tip: While a sales play provides structure, it shouldn't be rigid. I recommend that teams regularly review and adapt plays based on real-world results and changing market conditions.
Free Sales Plan Template
Outline your company's sales strategy in one simple, coherent sales plan.
- Target Market
- Prospecting Strategy
- Budget
- Goals
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What is a sales play?
A sales play is a set of repeatable steps, actions, and best practices for sales reps to use during a specific stage of the sales process. Sales reps can use them to move deals forward without brainstorming new strategies, and customers receive consistent service as a result.
A play is a specific strategy or set of actions designed to achieve a particular objective.
In the context of sales, it’s a tactical approach that sales teams use to engage prospects, address their needs, and move them through the sales funnel. Sales plays are tailored to different scenarios, customer segments, or stages in the buying process. They are meant to provide you with a clear, actionable plan to follow.
In other words, if a sales playbook is a manual, a sales play is a specific tutorial within the manual.
Key components of a sales play typically include:
- Objective.
- Target audience.
- Messaging.
- Steps and actions.
- Tools and resources.
- Metrics and KPIs.
7 Sales Playbook Templates to Help You Close More Deals
When you're in the final quarter, every sale counts. You need structured, reliable strategies to guide your team and ensure they can handle every stage of the sales process effectively. In my experience covering sales, I’ve noticed that a playbook template is a great way to ensure your enablement materials are as effective and comprehensive as possible.
HubSpot offers its own sales playbook software integrated into the Sales Hub platform. This tool is designed to help you create, manage, and utilize playbooks effectively to improve your sales processes.
It houses various ready-to-use templates for various scenarios, such as discovery calls, qualification calls, prospecting, client meetings, and follow-ups. Below are some of my favorite templates you can add to your playbook.
Combining different types of templates allows you to create one foolproof playbook to empower your team to sell better.
1. Sales Plan Template by HubSpot
This free, customizable template allows you to work through your sales plan and playbook simultaneously to ensure they complement each other. I recommend using this template as a primer before diving into more detailed sections of my playbook. The best part is that you can change it as your playbook evolves.
Pro tip: Your sales plan should inform your plays, and your plays should directly connect to the goals outlined in your sales plan. That’s why I suggest creating one first and sharing it with your team before drilling down into specific techniques.
2. Sales Call Scripts by HubSpot
Include script templates in your playbook to ensure your team is prepared to tackle calls. This will not only create a consistent and delightful customer experience but also better prepare your sales team to nurture leads toward a closed win.
HubSpot's Sales Call Scripts provide structured templates for various scenarios, from cold calls to follow-up conversations. It includes several types of calls, including:
- Standard outreach calls.
- Gatekeeper calls.
- Discovery sales calls.
- Referral or recommendation calls.
- Connection calls.
- Follow-up calls.
What I like: Each template explains its best use case and provides different options, depending on whether the prospect wants to chat or objects.
3. Sales Email Templates by HubSpot
Email will always remain a powerful tool for reaching prospects, and no corner is left unturned with this sales email template kit. It includes emails for every scenario you can think of, including:
- First-touch emails.
- “Ghosting” emails.
- Post-voicemail emails.
- Drip campaign emails.
What I like: Your sales team won't have to write an email from scratch again, which saves time that can be better spent researching prospects and closing deals.
4. Sales Qualification Questions by HubSpot
Qualifying leads is essential to focus your efforts on the most promising prospects. HubSpot’s list of sales qualification questions allows you or your team to discover your lead’s level of awareness and need, as well as their budget, timeline, and expected business impact from the purchase.
What I like: Including the right questions in your playbook empowers your team to nurture the most promising prospects, improving overall efficiency and effectiveness.
5. Prospecting & Objection Handling Templates by HubSpot
During every sales process, salespeople are bound to run into objections. Your playbook should include tips and methods for objection handling if and when they arise.
These objection-handling templates and best practices from HubSpot are a worthy addition to any sales playbook. I like that it provides strategies and responses for common objections. This equips your sales reps with the skills to address concerns confidently and keep the conversation moving forward.
That way, they can handle objections with politeness and empathy, while still dispelling their reservations and fears. Plus, it includes scripts for the most common sales objections.
6. Sales Battle Card Templates by HubSpot
At one point or another, your sales team will run into mentions of your top competitors as they speak to prospects. Whether the lead is currently using another solution or considering different providers, you want your team to effectively “battle against” any claims that your competitor is the superior choice.
These battle card templates from HubSpot will help your team better understand your market positioning and handle objections more effectively. They provide detailed information about your competitors, including strengths, weaknesses, and key differentiators. With this knowledge, your sales team can better position your product, highlight unique value propositions, and counter competitive threats.
Pro tip: Simply fill them out and add them to your sales playbook, and your reps can use them to increase your chances of winning deals.
7. Sales Closing Guide by HubSpot
From my experience, the most important piece of information you can include in your playbook is how to close sales. This sales closing guide from HubSpot offers a step-by-step approach to sealing the deal, including techniques for:
- Creating urgency.
- Handling last-minute objections.
- Negotiating terms.
It also offers tips on recognizing buying signals and timing your close
What I like: I appreciate that you can include this guide directly in your playbook or hand it out to your sales team as a one-time training tool. Whatever the case, it’s an essential reference that will empower your people to close deals more quickly and effectively.
Free Sales Plan Template
Outline your company's sales strategy in one simple, coherent sales plan.
- Target Market
- Prospecting Strategy
- Budget
- Goals
Download Free
All fields are required.
How to Create a Sales Playbook That Closes More Deals
Your sales playbook is unique to your business. Here are steps you can take to create a sales playbook that will boost your closing rates and help you hit your targets.
Step 1. Define your sales process.
Start by mapping out each stage of your customer's journey, from initial contact to closing the deal and beyond. Identify key touchpoints, activities, and decision-making moments at each stage.
Consider how leads move through your funnel and what actions trigger progression. I recommend that teams document the tools, resources, and skills needed at each phase. Be sure to include both internal processes and customer-facing interactions.
For instance, you can use the conversation intelligence tool to monitor your customers' voices and use this to understand their needs better.
Pro tip: Creating a clear, step-by-step outline will serve as the foundation for your entire playbook. It will ensure that your team has a consistent and repeatable approach to guide prospects through the buying process.
Step 2. Develop winning sales strategies and define your key metrics.
Analyze your top performers' techniques and successful deals. Identify patterns and best practices for each stage of the sales process. Include effective methods for prospecting, qualifying leads, delivering compelling presentations, handling objections, and closing deals.
Back these strategies with data and real-world examples to demonstrate their effectiveness. To make them more effective, consider incorporating modern approaches like social selling, value-based selling, or solution selling.
Don't forget to outline strategies for different buyer personas and scenarios. The goal is to provide your team with a more tailored toolkit of proven tactics to boost their success rates.
Additionally, determine the key metrics and KPIs that will help you measure the success of your sales efforts. This could include conversion rates, average deal size, sales cycle length, and customer acquisition cost.
Step 3. Outline your sales playbook goals.
Use the data from the previous step to identify specific, measurable objectives that align with your overall sales strategy. These goals should address key areas such as increasing revenue, improving conversion rates, shortening the sales cycle, or enhancing customer retention.
Once you have that figured out, define your short-term and long-term targets and ensure they are realistic and achievable. Your goals should also reflect the unique challenges and opportunities of your remote sales environment.
Pro tip: Your goals should clearly illustrate targets for individual performance, team collaboration, and overall organizational growth.
Remember, these goals will guide the content and structure of your playbook, so make them count.
Step 4. Align your sales team with your marketing team.
Data shows that 90% of sales and marketing professionals feel they are out of sync in terms of strategy, process, content, and culture. Moreover, 60% believe this misalignment hurts financial performance. This can hurt your sales strategy.
So, as part of developing your sales playbook, you need to ensure that your teams are in sync. It all starts with accessibility — whether your playbook is in HTML or PDF, the format, locations, and access guidelines need to fit both the team’s and the organization’s needs.
This approach fosters a culture of mutual support and shared responsibility to create a more cohesive and effective revenue-generating machine. Proper alignment can lead to significant benefits, including increased revenue growth, improved efficiency, enhanced lead quality, and a shortened sales cycle.
Good collaboration between the two teams results in a better understanding of your ideal customer, clearer mapping of the customer journey, and a more consistent message throughout the buyer's experience.
More importantly, you will need input from both teams to create a winning sales playbook that addresses the needs and challenges faced by each department.
Step 5. Pick a team.
Determine who should be involved in the sales playbook creation process so you can invite them to join collaborations.
Some of the teams I recommend tapping when building a playbook include:
- Sales reps.
- Sales VPs, directors, and managers.
- Marketing team members (specifically, marketers who work on content, product, and sales enablement materials).
- Customer service staff.
- Subject matter experts.
This ensures the playbook reflects various aspects of the customer journey and sales process.
I also recommend identifying directly responsible individuals (DRIs) for creating the sales playbook so that other team members know who's leading the effort and who they can reach out to with questions and comments.
Step 6. Develop a sales playbook.
This step is the climax of the whole process. Use all the data and insights you have gathered to put together your sales playbook. Remember those templates we talked about earlier? They're going to be your secret weapon here.
For instance, the Sales Plan Template will help you lay out the big picture of your sales strategy. As you‘re working through it, think about how you can tailor it to your specific product and market. Don’t be afraid to get creative and make it your own!
Remember, these templates are just starting points. The magic happens when you infuse them with your company's unique voice, experiences, and best practices.
Step 7. Provide product and feature training and education to reps.
From my experience, no matter how good your sales playbook is, your reps will only be able to apply it effectively if they have a deep understanding of your product, its capabilities, and its features. They need to understand its ins and outs, including how to use customer voices for success.
That‘s why I recommend hosting training sessions for my sales reps. They attend sessions with our company’s product teams and even test out products like customers. I suggest brainstorming ways you can get your team more familiar with your products so they know them inside and out.
Step 8. Make the playbook easily accessible.
To ensure your sales playbook is a valuable tool for your team, it must be easily accessible. This means storing it in a centralized, digital location where all sales reps can quickly find and use it. My team hosts these documents on a company Wiki. In the past, I’ve seen teams store this information on Google Drive and Atlassian.
Also, ensure that the playbook is mobile-friendly for on-the-go access and send regular email updates with direct links. This approach ensures everyone is well-equipped to follow best practices, practice consistent messaging, and maintain the efficacy of the playbook.
Step 9: Implement a feedback loop.
A robust feedback loop ensures your playbook remains a living, breathing document that evolves with your market, products, and team's expertise. It allows you to quickly identify and address gaps in your sales strategy, adapt to changing customer needs, and capitalize on emerging best practices.
This continuous improvement cycle can significantly boost your team's efficiency and effectiveness and, ultimately, your bottom line.
Therefore, encourage your team to share what‘s working and what’s not and suggest updates to the playbook. Regular reviews and updates will keep your strategies fresh and effective.
Pro tip: Incorporate feedback into your playbook as part of your regular team meetings. This creates a culture of continuous improvement and ensures everyone is aligned with the latest strategies and practices.
Step 10. Measure the impact and optimize your efforts.
Finally, measure the impact of your sales playbook on your sales performance. Analyze the key metrics and KPIs to determine their effectiveness. Use this data to optimize your sales strategies and make necessary adjustments to the playbook.
Continuous monitoring and optimization will ensure that your sales playbook remains a valuable tool for closing more deals.
Free Sales Plan Template
Outline your company's sales strategy in one simple, coherent sales plan.
- Target Market
- Prospecting Strategy
- Budget
- Goals
Download Free
All fields are required.
What to Include in a Sales Playbook
It's crucial to include specific components that address every aspect of the sales process to ensure your sales playbook becomes an indispensable resource for your team. In my research, I found that the following elements were most common in sales playbooks.
1. Company Overview
Provide a company overview and discuss the sales organization in detail. Include information about how the sales organization is constructed, who manages each team, which targets reps and teams are expected to hit, and so on.
2. Selected Plays
Identify which plays will be used for each playbook you create to clearly define the playbook's purpose for reps.
Ensure that each play is aligned with specific sales goals and scenarios your team encounters. Regularly review and update these plays to reflect new strategies and market changes, keeping your team agile and informed.
3. Product/Service Overview
Cover every product or service reps are responsible for selling. Mention price points, use cases, core value offerings, buyers, end-users, and related industries or verticals.
You may choose to create one sales playbook for each product you sell if they're all fairly different, require radically separate buying processes, have different buyer personas, or are sold by different members of your sales team.
4. Sales Process
Explain each step of your sales process from first touch to close. You might just link to your sales process document here so reps and sales managers can easily refer to it.
5. Playbook KPIs and Goals
Define the metrics that matter most for measuring success, such as conversion rates, average deal size, and sales cycle length. Set clear, achievable goals for each KPI.
Also, ensure that guidance is included on how to track and interpret these metrics and how they align with overall company objectives. This section should also outline any incentive structures tied to these KPIs.
Pro tip: Use data visualization tools to highlight key metrics and performance trends in your playbook. Visual aids can help your team quickly grasp important insights and make data-driven decisions more effectively.
6. Buyer Personas
Include detailed descriptions of your target customers, including:
- Demographics. Age, gender, location, profession, etc.
- Pain Points. Common challenges and issues faced by the personas.
- Motivations. What drives their purchasing decisions?
- Objections and solutions. Typical objections and how to address them.
- Marketing messaging. Tailored messages that resonate with each persona.
This information helps your team tailor their approach to each prospect.
7. Lead Qualification Criteria
Include lead qualification criteria so reps can refer to them in tandem with buyer persona information. For instance, maybe a qualified lead at your company means the lead is ready to buy in the next three months, or already has sufficient budget to make a purchase.
Expectations regarding prospecting and follow-ups should be included here, too. Guidelines should be provided regarding when to pursue opportunities and when to let them go.
8. Resources and Sales Enablement Materials
To create an effective sales playbook, you need to have ample resources and sales enablement materials for your reps. This requires a strong relationship between the sales and marketing teams, which you can define in this section.
This also means reps must be educated about available resources and materials (e.g., case studies, product pages, social content, demo videos, CRM, sales software, sales technology, etc.). List those resources in this section, too.
Benefits of a Sales Playbook
From my experience covering sales, I know how much time and effort goes into creating a sales playbook, but it's worth it — and you’ll start seeing results almost instantly.
Some of my favorite advantages of a sales playbook include …
1. Improved Efficiency and Productivity
It helps streamline the sales process by providing a clear roadmap for sales representatives to follow. This structured approach allows them to spend more time actively selling and less time figuring out what to do next.
Additionally, having all the necessary information and resources readily available allows your sales reps to work more efficiently and handle a higher volume of leads.
2. Consistent Sales Approach
A sales playbook codifies your most effective strategies, ensuring that every team member has access to proven techniques. This standardization leads to more consistent performance across your sales force.
3. Make New Hire Training Quicker and Easier
From my experience, training new salespeople is far quicker and easier when you have clear, explicit explanations of who your customers are, how they buy your products, what pain points they experience, what to say to them, and more.
Without a sales playbook, your reps are forced to learn this information ad hoc.
4. Adaptability to Different Sales Scenarios
A well-designed sales playbook includes various “plays” or strategies for different sales situations. This adaptability allows sales reps to navigate complex sales scenarios with confidence, whether they're setting up an initial meeting or restarting a stalled proposal.
It provides guidance for multiple scenarios and empowers your team to handle diverse challenges effectively.
5. Free Up Valuable Time for Reps
According to HubSpot's 2023 State of Sales Report, sales reps spend only 21% of their day actually selling.
When sales reps spend too much time searching for or creating content, they can’t focus on nurturing deals and closing sales. That's the power of a playbook; it frees up time for selling.
Rather than having each rep develop their own messaging, questions, and resources to use with prospects, give them ready-made content — a.k.a, focus on sales enablement. This will give your reps more time to sell.
6. Improved Collaboration
With a centralized document outlining the sales process, team members from both sales and marketing teams can collaborate more effectively. The playbook fosters a shared understanding of goals and strategies, enabling sales reps to work together seamlessly. This collaborative environment can lead to more innovative solutions and a stronger, more cohesive sales team.
7. Reliable Performance Metrics
A sales playbook provides a framework for tracking and analyzing key performance indicators (KPIs). You can quickly use this data to identify areas for improvement, measure the effectiveness of different strategies, and make informed decisions to optimize the sales process.
This data-driven approach ensures that your team is always working towards the most effective methods for achieving their targets.
Free Sales Plan Template
Outline your company's sales strategy in one simple, coherent sales plan.
- Target Market
- Prospecting Strategy
- Budget
- Goals
Download Free
All fields are required.
Sales Plays to Include in Your Playbook
I've seen themes create sales plays for a specific stage of the sales pipeline. I've also seen plays just for demos, which has helped reps with presenting, asking the right questions, and handling objections. These are some examples of plays that you may choose to focus on.
- Personalized content play: Focus this playbook on how reps can personalize and tailor the buyer's journey to specific leads and prospects through their interactions and the content they share.
- Lead qualification play: Focus this playbook on how reps can efficiently identify highly-qualified leads to reach out to.
- Demo play: Focus this playbook on how reps can effectively demo specific products and even features to their prospects.
- Use case play: Focus this playbook on a specific use case that many members of your target audience experience.
- Prospecting play: Focus this play on how reps can prospect on a certain platform or channel or specific tactics they can follow to identify ideal prospects.
- Closing play: Focus this play on how reps can move a lead who‘s late in the buyer’s journey into the closing phase in a way that feels natural, professional, and effective.
- Follow-up play: Focus this playbook on how and when reps can follow up with leads at different points in the buyer's journey.
Sales Playbook Examples
While sales playbooks are typically internal documents, some companies publish their playbooks. Check out a few of my favorites below.
1. HubSpot and Join.me Sales Meeting Playbook
This two-page playbook was created in a joint effort between HubSpot and Join.me. It outlines what a rep should do before and during a sales meeting to increase the chances of closing the sale.
The playbook is divided into seven sections in the sales playbook software — but don’t let that number fool you. With its clear headings and easy-to-scan checkboxes, the seven sections fly by quite quickly. In order, they are as follows.
- Research prior to meeting: Offers guidance on exactly what sales reps should research before the meeting.
- Set the agenda: Includes an example of how sales reps can set the agenda for the meeting.
- Discovery phase: Lists out a few questions reps can ask to uncover information about the prospect’s business, as well as their needs.
- Assess the need: Includes additional questions to diagnose the problem and understand what can be improved.
- Define their buying process: Includes more questions sales reps can ask to understand the client’s purchasing process.
- Demo: Offers a few tips on how to carry out a demo that closes the deal.
- Close: Shares an example of what sales reps can say to finish the conversation and win the deal.
Why This Sales Playbook Works
The power of this playbook lies in its length. It shows that you don’t need to write a 27-page-long manifesto. With just a few quick bullet points, you can still guide your reps to success. Most importantly, I love that the playbook provides examples of what sales reps can say.
2. Global Telecom Solutions Partner Playbook
Global Telecom Solutions uses this well-structured sales playbook to provide discovery questions and tips to their solution partners.
It isn't too prescriptive, which is why it’s so effective. Every spread is dedicated to one type of customer, and each has four noteworthy sections.
- Discovery questions: Includes the questions each sales rep should ask prospects in that specific industry.
- What to listen for: Lists a few keywords and terms sales reps should listen for in the prospects’ answers.
- Contacts: Outlines who sales reps should reach out to at the target businesses.
- Did you know? Includes pieces of information that emphasize the importance of GTS’s solutions.
Why This Sales Playbook Works
I like that the structure is easy to follow, with every spread dedicated to a different type of customer. It also provides useful goalposts but isn’t overly prescriptive, allowing sales reps to shift gears if need be.
3. Cobalt Iron Partner Playbook
Cobalt Iron’s playbook for its partners is a classic example of a well-executed playbook. It provides an overview of the company and the product, then shares several elevator pitches that partners could use.
It also provides information on the state of the industry so that partners can understand where the product falls in the current landscape.
Notable sections include the following.
- Elevator pitch for customers: Outlines common issues that customers face and reasons why customers should adopt the solution.
- Customer challenges: Gives further insight into the customers’ needs, then goes into specific challenges as they relate to the product.
- Target customer profile: Outlines the characteristics of a customer who needs the product.
- Buyer profile: Offers more details on specific buyer personas at prospective businesses.
- Managing objections: Share common objections and ways to respond to them.
- The competition: Includes easy-to-scan bullet points on how to compare the product to competitors’ offerings.
- Conversation starters: Offers a few questions solutions partners can use to get the conversation rolling.
Why This Sales Playbook Works
I like that this playbook is thorough, comprehensive, and well-thought-out. It includes extensive information on the state of the industry and the challenges that prospective customers face. It‘s on the longer side, but there’s a good chance your reps won't mind if it helps them meet the quota.
4. Sales Datanyze and HubSpot Sales Development Playbook (SDR)
Datanyze and HubSpot created a playbook for Sales Development Reps (SDRs) to become more efficient at account development and outreach. This SDR sales playbook acts as a guide to help SDRs combine automation and advice from seasoned professionals to provide reps with best practices on how to seek out ideal clientele at higher success rates.
This playbook provides several examples of prospect exchanges across email and calls to better equip SDRs for taking sought-after prospects down the sales funnel.
Notable sections of this playbook include the following.
- Account development: Guides SDRs on how to create and manage a named account list for ideal buyers.
- Research and prospecting: Covers how to perform targeted research and find the right contacts.
- Cold emailing: Shares insight on how to humanize emailing and break through cluttered inboxes.
- Calling tips: Demonstrates how to use modern calling tips in outreach strategy.
- Call mapping: Outlines who to conduct calls without jumping into the pitch immediately.
- Objection handling: Lists common objections and how to tactfully approach them.
- Reporting: Emphasizes the importance of tracking performance metrics to gauge effectiveness.
Why This Sales Playbook Works
In my opinion, this playbook is the right mix of technical instruction and anecdotal advice to create an easy-to-understand guide to client outreach. It allows SDRs to think about how their interactions can organically and inorganically nurture target audience members. The team can then reel them in with personalized experiences at every step.
Create and Use a Sales Playbook
The key to success in the last quarter of the year lies in preparation, adaptability, and strategic execution. A robust sales playbook can help increase efficiency in your team and improve close rates across the board. Thankfully, good sales playbook software can help you simplify the entire process of creating a playbook.
Once created, don’t let the document stagnate. Stay flexible and be ready to adjust your approach based on real-time feedback and results. Keep a close eye on your metrics, and don‘t be afraid to pivot if a strategy isn’t yielding the expected outcomes.
You can refer to and use the steps we covered and the template we provided to help you along the way. Remember, the goal isn't just to close out the year strong but to lay the groundwork for sustainable growth.
Free Sales Plan Template
Outline your company's sales strategy in one simple, coherent sales plan.
- Target Market
- Prospecting Strategy
- Budget
- Goals
Download Free
All fields are required.
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