Why Do Most Sales and Customer Success Playbooks Fall Flat?

In today's business world, information isn't just power—it's the blueprint for growth. Sales and Customer Success aren't isolated units but intertwined drivers of success. Both strive to fulfill promises and maximize product value. Enter the “playbook,” the game-changer many believe holds the key to success. But what truly defines an exceptional playbook?

The Confluence of Sales and Customer Success

At the heart of this convergence lies an essential truth: the promises made during the sales pitch are the foundation upon which customer success is built. Ideally, a customer is wooed by the strategic prospects of a product. They've been promised specific outcomes, built goals for both their line of business and their personal performance, and quite naturally they're expecting these results.

The customer success team needs the same insights that drove the sale. In many cases they guide both the professional services team and the customer through implementation while also fielding and redirecting technical issues.

But their role goes deeper. They must consistently highlight the value promised during sales, anchoring every achievement to those initial discussions. This positions them not just as problem solvers, but as guardians of the partnership, ensuring customers always recognize the product's and relationship's worth.

Beyond Checklists: The Multi-dimensional Playbook

In many organizations playbooks are reduced to checklists, a sequence of actions with boxes waiting to be ticked off. But a true playbook is much more.

Like a relational database that intelligently pulls data from multiple tables to generate a comprehensive view, an ideal playbook amalgamates various business facets. It draws insights from verticals, desired outcomes, use cases, and other pivotal factors. The result should be a consolidated knowledge bank that includes the perfect pitch strategies, relevant case studies, potential objections, and actionable strategies for handling them. So let’s look at how to make it happen!

Crafting the Playbook: A Holistic Approach

When forging a playbook, it's crucial to step back and view the larger picture. Who are the personas you're engaging with? What drives them? What are the desired outcomes, and how can they be achieved? The answers to these questions should shape the playbook's content.

But a playbook's true value lies in its adaptability. Each interaction, be it a sale, renewal, expansion, or implementation, offers unique challenges. A playbook should be flexible enough to cater to these nuances while staying rooted in its foundational strategy. It’s not just about combining the right elements; it's about layering them in a manner that offers clear, actionable insights. Take a look at this example:

The playbook doesn’t need to be a novel. In the example, each layer can be expressed as a single page.

1. Customer Portrait

2. Action Plan

3. Insights & Outcomes

You can use this format for each individual customer if you wish; however, the real power comes in using it as a reusable play for a particular set of facets… for example, “Small to Mid-Size Financial Services Businesses”

Content Reuse: The Underrated Power Player

Businesses often craft new content for each client interaction, despite many having common threads. By leveraging this similarity and reusing successful content, sales and customer success teams can align their narratives. This alignment not only smoothes the workflow but maintains story consistency from pitch to renewal. For tips on content reuse, see my previous article linked below.

Wrapping Up

In the dynamic world of business, a playbook isn't just a checklist; it's a strategy blueprint. It brings together the ambitions of sales and the commitment of customer success, driving the organization towards unparalleled growth. So, as you embark on the journey of crafting your playbook, remember: it's not about filling pages with action items. It's about filling those pages with value, vision, and versatility.