Today, I attended a workshop from the Atlanta EO chapter led by the charismatic Jim Ryerson of Sales Octane on improving your sales process, through the use of a Sales Playbook. I’ll admit, I’ve always been pretty good at selling (it helps to have an awesome team and product behind you), but the Sales Playbook we have (and that went through a ton of editing today) makes it even easier.

What’s in a Sales Playbook? Ours contains things like:

• our Elevator Pitch and an extended (longer) version
• our Sales Map – a flowchart of all the steps we take to close a deal
• explanations, scenarios, scripts, and stories from items on the Sales Map
• how we prospect – what associations and networking events we attend
• how we research potential clients
• a list of the common objections (and some fodder for consideration)

Just simply writing down the process provides many benefits. I have a hard time saying no, so having a process to abide by, makes it easy to qualify (or not qualify) incoming leads. Also, since everyone at Highgroove can see the process, they know exactly how it’s done, and can help improve it. It provides a fantastic answer to a client’s question “what’s the next step?” It provides clarity to everyone at Highgroove on how projects end up ready to start iterating. It takes the pressure off the “sale” and makes it fun and enjoyable.

We even make part of our Sales Process completely transparent to clients. At the bottom of every email, we bullet point out the next steps in the process, so everyone knows what’s next.

Do you have a Sales Playbook, and if so, what’s in it?