If you want to create sales Playbooks™ that don’t spend their lives as a dusty old pile of papers, there’s a secret: fill it with good content. 

Content your reps can find in an instant. Snippets that help them sway a prospect to your side. Nuggets that answer their burning questions. Tips and resources that close the deal. All killer, no filler.

But where, oh where, does that good content come from? After all, sales teams are busy teams. They just don’t have the time to create entire sales Playbooks™ from scratch, from new member onboarding to closing top sales.

Time for another secret: You don’t have to start from scratch at all. Most of your content is already written down – and the rest is close at hand. You just need to reach out and grab it. 

Sales-ready Playbooks™ resources, at your service

First thing’s first. When we say “Playbooks™ content,” we’re not talking about copy-and-pasting prosy paragraphs and dense documents. We’re talking micro-content: just the most important bits that help your sales reps do their jobs more effectively. 

It could be short lines of content, helpful images, links to online resources, fill-in-the-blank email templates, 10-second audio clips, or quick-hit videos – whatever gets right to the point and serves your reps with the information they need the most, when they need it. 

And here’s where you’ll find the stuff you already have:

Your company info

Poke around your intranet or HR documentation and you’ll find a treasure trove of important information, from your company mission, values and vision to organizational charts that show your overall structure – a fantastic resource if a rep needs a contact from another department, information on how you operate or a refresher on what you stand for as a business.

Your reps’ emails

Somewhere buried in a rep’s inbox is an absolutely killer email that won over a difficult or important client. The best part: those winning emails have already been written, and are just waiting to be turned into templates that everyone can use with their own clients. All you need to do is ask for them.

Your reps’ calls

Reps do a lot of emailing, but they do a lot of calls and demos, too. Recording your top performers as they pitch to prospects, walk through discovery questions, handle objections, and close their sales – and sharing the most important clips – shows your entire team what’s possible.

Your customer stories

Chances are, you’re already collecting customer feedback, testimonials and case studies. They’re chock-full of compelling insights that sales reps can use to show prospects how your product or service can help, or shed light on why you win compared to your competitors. (Hey, that’s perfect information for your battlecards!)

Your marketing materials

Think of all the videos, blogs, infographics, ebooks, podcasts and more that marketing has worked hard to create – perfect for finding the right positioning at the top of your funnel and sharing with prospects as resources as they advance through your sales cycle.

Your reps’ fave resources

What podcasts do your reps listen to? What videos do they watch? What blogs do they visit? What sales pros do they follow? What browser extensions make their jobs easier? Not only can you share these resources with the whole team, but you can infuse your sales Playbooks™ with top insights from their content as well.

Your reviews 

Feedback from happy customers shines light on what you do well. Feedback from less-than-happy customers shines light on what you can do better – and will help strengthen your objection handling and battlecards. Every now and then, comb through third-party review sites and social media to keep your finger on the pulse.

Your competitors’ reviews

While you’re at it, look up what your competitors’ customers are saying about their experiences, too. It’s a great way to conduct competitive intelligence, define where you fit into your marketplace, and figure out how to position yourselves against their strengths and weaknesses.

Your common questions

You know those questions that pop up every time a new sales rep joins your team or every time you launch a new campaign? If you haven’t been writing them down, they’re probably still in your head. It’s time to pull them out and pair them with the right answers so reps can find what they’re looking for quickly, without pulling others away from their work.

Your research

Feelings sell. So do facts and figures. Plug into the insights you’ve surfaced in your whitepapers and industry reports and pull out the key figures that’ll help reps add more value to their conversations with prospects. After all, they’re doing their research too – and it’s an important step in the buying journey.

Your results

Speaking of facts and figures, what kind of data do you have about your own success – and the success you help your customers achieve? Your numbers tell another kind of compelling story that not only bolsters your strength as an organization but helps prospects feel confident in their choices.

Learning how to create sales Playbooks™ is important – but it doesn’t need to be hard. And doesn’t it feel good to know you’re already partway there?