A playbook records what the people selling have learned about a particular buyer, in a form they can consult during a deal. Its typical sections are:
- personas: who you speak to, what they are measured on, what worries them;
- pains and value propositions, paired;
- objections, what usually sits behind them, and the answers that have worked;
- talk tracks and templates for calls, emails and messages;
- qualification criteria, often adapted from a framework such as MEDDIC or BANT;
- stage exit criteria: what must be true for a deal to move to the next stage.
Two properties separate a playbook that gets used from one that does not. It is specific to a motion: one offer, one audience. And it is living: updated after calls, not written once. A company that sells in more than one way needs more than one playbook; see go-to-market motion.
The guide Writing a sales playbook people actually use goes through each section in detail.