Why Your Reps Don’t Use Your Sales Playbook

It’s common for exciting new reps to leave their training, glance at their sales playbook once or twice, and then never again, even when more experienced reps (and managers and trainers) tell them that it can be a handy tool for closing sales.

Is it because the sales playbook is too tough to understand?

Is it because it’s a TL;DR type of task, and they want to get right to selling?

Read on for a few reasons why sales reps don’t use playbooks very often (or reject them entirely).

1. The Playbook Isn’t About Sales

Your playbook should be the quick guide to selling, and not much else. Things like go-to discovery questions, target personas, case-studies.

While it’s good for your reps to know about your company’s history, this isn’t the place. Save that for the company handbook. (Be sure to go into detail about what your reps are selling, however.

2. The Sales Training Was Poor

During the initial onboarding process and sales training, the value of the playbook should have been drilled home, similarly to battlecards, it the need-to-know to sell. Did you know sales reps retain only 40% of what they learned a week after training ends? Without constant reinforcement and tools to keep reps updated, your sales reps will become woefully outdated.

3. There’s Too Much Info in Your Playbook

You need to cover a lot in the playbook — but, the detail that you go into when it comes to scripts and buyer personas, etc. should be somewhat minimal. This should be a reference guide that a rep can look at when they need an answer quickly.

They may be out in the field or on a call. Wading through long text walls will be hard on the eyes and will leave them without an answer. If the answer is too hard to find, they won’t find the answer and won’t pick up the playbook again.

4. Make Sure the Playbook Is Updated Regularly

The first time that a rep uses outdated information that they’ve found in the playbook is likely the last time they’ll reach for it. Make sure your playbook team is updating your playbook regularly with relevant information so that when a rep calls for it, they can trust the information is correct.

5. Keep Your Playbook Customer-Focused

One of the primary purposes of a playbook is to hone a rep’s comfort with selling, and a considerable part of that is the natural dialogue between salesperson and customer. The best way to learn that is through practice, but one reason the playbook exists is to help teach this skill.

There may be other reasons your reps don’t use the sales playbook, but these are the more common ones.

For help with writing a sales playbook your reps will use, email Copilot today and see how we can help.