Sales plays focus sellers on a set of activities, enablement, and coaching guidance within a prioritized time period to optimize deal velocity and sales conversions. Sales plays help reps prioritize their time and energy where it’s most likely to pay off. An effective sales play accomplishes that by including these three components:
Sales plays are time-bound
All reps have been on the receiving end of open-ended and vague requests by managers and executives to be more solution-oriented in their approach or to spend more time on a promising vertical. Let’s face it, these requests are easily ignored because they have no specific deadline and we already know that reps have plenty of other tasks to fill their days. A good sales play has a timeline of between 60 and 90 days. Less than 60 days risks not giving reps enough time to accomplish all the activities you want them to complete. More than 90 days can dilute the momentum and focus that a good sales play needs to generate enthusiasm and results.
Sales plays are outcome focused
Successful sales plays must also include a measurable objective. For example, the outcome of a sales play could be to schedule 25 meetings with CFOs where a rep leads a whiteboard conversation. A specific outcome is critical to the success of a sales play because it provides direction to reps and leaves no room for confusion about how to prioritize their daily activities. A specific, defined outcome is also important for managers and leaders because it provides structure to their coaching and assessment activities.
Sales plays come with a complete toolbox
The final ingredient of any good sales play is a complete package of the content, tools, and best practices reps need to go out and execute. If you’ve already done the good work to develop a modern sales playbook, you likely have everything you need to run a great play: email and phone scripts to land a meeting; persona insights and industry information to prepare for the meeting; and actual talk tracks to lead the meeting and handle any objections. Too often, sales managers and enablement leaders assume that good reps instinctively know the right tools to use to secure, prepare for, and run a meeting. That may be true with individual reps, but being proscriptive drives consistency across the entire sales team. Which is not to say a sales play is meant to create a team of robots devoid of personality or style. Every person running a play will use the tools and resources provided to support the play in their own distinctive way. And that’s a good thing.
Equip your reps for success
With an interactive and living sales playbook you are in complete control of what your reps are focused on and how to best prepare them for success. vPlaybook makes it easy to add new sales plays as well as coach your reps on new plays that are introduced. Contact us today to see examples of a sales playbook and sales plays that would work for your team.
[av_hr class=’default’ height=’50’ shadow=’no-shadow’ position=’center’ custom_border=’av-border-thin’ custom_width=’50px’ custom_border_color=” custom_margin_top=’30px’ custom_margin_bottom=’30px’ icon_select=’yes’ custom_icon_color=” icon=’ue808′ font=’entypo-fontello’ av_uid=’av-427g90′ custom_class=” admin_preview_bg=”]
