By Alissa Heirigs On Sales Enablement
Note: This is Post 3 of a series! Before you read this, be sure you’ve read Post 1: What is a sales playbook? and Post 2: How to create a sales playbook.
Post 1 gave you the “what” — a clear sales playbook definition. Post 2 gave you the “how” — a process for talking to your sales team and gathering key insights. Now we’re moving into the final phase: turning all that into sales playbook contents.
Use what you learn to start your sales playbook outline
After talking with sales, you’ll probably have pages of notes or (better yet) transcripts. Congrats! You deserve your own Riddler hat! Now it’s time to sift, sort, and shape those inputs. These steps help you turn them into a customized sales playbook your reps will use.
Step 1: Analyze to find patterns
Sit down with all your transcripts and notes and look for themes that keep coming up. These recurring signals will point to the challenges reps have. And they become the building blocks of your sales playbook template.
Let’s say you heard these three things from different reps:
- “Once they bring up price, I kind of freeze. If it’s not in their budget, what am I supposed to say?”
- “One customer said they had a vendor they’d been with for years who knew their business inside and out. I’m not sure how to compete with that.”
- “More than once, I’ve had a meeting where the prospect said they couldn’t take the risk of switching to a new system, or they’d tried something similar and it didn’t work.”
The recurring theme: Objection handling.
The signal: Your reps need support moving through these moments with confidence.
Now imagine you hear these ideas in your interviews:
“Prospects just don’t seem engaged right from the start.”
“I lose them before I can even get to the good stuff.”
“I’m not sure how to make the intro sound less scripted.”
“They say they already have a solution and shut down the conversation.”
The recurring theme: Weak openings.
The signal: Your reps need guidance on how to start stronger — by focusing on the buyer and their challenges, not the pitch.
Hot tip!
AI can be a phenomenal tool for analyzing interview transcripts to uncover common themes.
- Upload your transcripts. Tell the AI what the documents are (“These are interviews with our sales team about what helps close deals”).
- Ask it to analyze. Request a summary of recurring themes, insights, and pain points.
- Get meta. You can even ask the AI to write its own best prompt for this task. Try: “I’m uploading transcripts of calls with my sales team. I need to use this info to create content for a sales playbook. How should I prompt you to find key themes to inform that content?”
Note: Some AI platforms use your input for training. Always follow your company’s AI policy before uploading sensitive material.
Step 2: Translate patterns into playbook content ideas
Once you’ve spotted your recurring themes, the next step is to turn those insights into actionable content. Each theme should translate into a section, module, or quick-use tool. Here are our two examples from before, and how they can translate into sales playbook contents.
Theme 1: Objection handling
In your sales playbook, you could include:
- A list of the most common objections prospects throw out.
- What those objections really mean (e.g., “It’s not in our budget” = “I don’t see the value”).
- Tried-and-trusted answers that help reps keep the conversation moving.
Theme 2: Weak openings
In your sales enablement playbook, you could include:
- Strong discovery questions to show curiosity and build trust.
- Opening phrases to avoid (and what to say instead).
- Real examples from seasoned reps that show how they start conversations, earn trust, and pivot into consultative selling mode.
Step 3: Group and prioritize
Once you’ve identified content ideas, start clustering them into focus areas: messaging needs, product education, competitor landscape, etc. Then, prioritize what will have the biggest impact on closing or accelerating deals.
Remember, your goal isn’t to build a massive encyclopedia — it’s to create a B2B sales playbook that’s helpful and useful.
Step 4: Build with sales, not for them
Draft a rough outline — just section headers and a few bullets are enough — and bring it back to your most trusted reps. Ask, “Does this reflect how you actually sell?”
Their reactions will tell you whether you’re on the right track. Better to course-correct now than to polish something no one adopts later.
Once you draft your outline, be sure to get feedback from your seasoned reps. Does this track with their day-to-day experience? Getting feedback early ensures content is accurate and helpful. It minimizes rework later. And if reps have a hand in creating it, odds are, they’ll evangelize it.
Step 5: Shape the format around their workflow.
Your sales playbook doesn’t have to be one giant document. It might become a set of smaller playbooks or modular sections by vertical market, product, or stage in the sales cycle. Make it findable and flexible — something a rep can reference easily. Design it for speed and ease, not formality. And speaking of design, get tips on using design to help you win buy-in.
Step 6: Keep it alive.
The best playbooks aren’t stagnant. They’re living documents. Set up a cadence to check in with sales about how the tools are working. Use their input to refresh sales playbook contents and write new sections as needed. And add new examples or stories as they happen. When your sales enablement playbook keeps evolving based on rep recommendations, adoption continues to thrive.
The best playbooks aren’t stagnant. They’re living documents.
Need help crafting your sales playbook template?
This is a lot. We get it! If you’re thinking, “Who has time to create a sales playbook from scratch? I need an expert to take this off my plate,” we know just the team. Get yourself a counterpart for that.
Related:
What is a sales playbook?
How to create a sales playbook
