Sales playbook template
Most sales playbooks are 60-slide decks that describe the company, the product, and the personas, and then nobody opens them after onboarding. A playbook is useful when it answers one question fast: in this situation, what do I do next? This template is organized around plays, each with a trigger that tells a rep when to run it and an exit criterion that tells them when it worked.
- Category:
- Enablement & Process
- Formats:
- PDF + CSV + web view
- Sections:
- 7
- Updated:
What you get
- A play library table where every play has a trigger, persona, steps, assets, and exit criterion
- A segment and motion map so the same play is not forced on a 50-seat deal and a 5,000-seat deal
- Stage-by-stage guidance tied to your pipeline stage definitions
- A play retirement checklist so the playbook shrinks as well as grows
Who it's for
- Enablement leads rebuilding a playbook nobody uses
- VPs of Sales standardizing how a growing team sells
- RevOps teams tying plays to stages and CRM fields
What's inside
- 1
Playbook scope
5 fields to complete
- 2
Play library
7 columns, 4 worked example rows
- 3
Segment and motion map
5 columns, 3 worked example rows
- 4
Stage guidance
5 columns, 4 worked example rows
- 5
Play quality check
8-point checklist
- 6
Quarterly play retirement review
6-point checklist
- 7
Why most playbooks go unused
Guidance notes
Preview of section 1
Playbook scope
Fill this in before writing any plays. It stops the playbook trying to serve every team at once.
- Team and roles covered
- e.g. Mid-market AEs and their SEs
- Segment and deal size
- e.g. 200 to 2,000 employees, $25k to $120k ACV
- Sales motion
- e.g. Inbound-led with outbound to named accounts
The preview shows part of section 1. The full template has all 7 sections (6 not previewed here), with blank rows ready to fill in. Download the full template
How to use it
- 1
Start from triggers, not from content
List the moments where reps ask a manager what to do: a champion leaves, a competitor shows up late, legal asks for unlimited liability, a deal goes dark after the proposal. Each of those is a play. Product overviews and persona descriptions go in an appendix, not in the plays.
- 2
Write each play so a rep can run it in under a page
Trigger, who it is aimed at, three to six steps, the assets to use, and the buyer action that tells you the play worked. If a play needs more than a page, it is two plays.
- 3
Tie plays to stages and CRM fields
A play that is triggered by 'competitor identified' needs a competitor field that reps fill in. If the trigger cannot be seen in the CRM, managers cannot tell whether the play was run, and it will not be.
- 4
Test with your best and your newest reps
Your best reps will tell you which steps are wrong. Your newest reps will tell you which steps are unclear. Revise before launch, not after.
- 5
Review quarterly and retire plays
Every quarter, look at which plays were run and whether exit criteria were met. Plays that nobody runs get cut. A playbook with 12 plays people use beats one with 40 that they don't.
Frequently asked questions
What should a sales playbook include?
The scope (team, segment, motion), a library of plays each with a trigger, target persona, steps, assets, and exit criterion, and stage-by-stage guidance tied to your pipeline definitions. Company background and product overviews belong in an appendix or in onboarding material.
How long should a sales playbook be?
As short as it can be while covering the situations that stall deals. Each play should fit on a page. Most teams do well with 10 to 20 plays; beyond that, reps stop finding the one they need.
Who should own the sales playbook?
Enablement or RevOps owns the document and the review cadence, but each play should have a named owner in sales leadership or among senior reps who keeps it accurate. A playbook owned only by enablement drifts away from how deals are actually won.
How do you measure whether a playbook is working?
Track how often each play's trigger fires, whether the play was run, and whether the exit criterion was met afterwards. That tells you which plays are used and which ones move deals, which is more useful than a page-view count.
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