Sales Playbook

Team / segment: [e.g., Mid-market new business] Owner: [Name / role] Last reviewed: [Date] Next review: [Date + 90 days]

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1. Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

[Describe the accounts worth pursuing. Be specific enough that a rep can disqualify a bad-fit account in under a minute.]

• Company size: [e.g., 50–500 employees]
• Industry / vertical: [Target industries]
• Region: [Geographies you sell into]
• Budget signal: [What tells you they can afford this]
• Buying triggers: [Events that signal readiness — funding, new hire, growth, regulation]
• Disqualifiers: [Red flags that mean walk away]

2. Buyer personas

Persona	Role / title	What they care about	Pain we solve	How they're measured
[Economic buyer]	[Title]	[Goals]	[Pain]	[KPI]
[Champion]	[Title]	[Goals]	[Pain]	[KPI]
[End user]	[Title]	[Goals]	[Pain]	[KPI]

3. Pipeline stages and exit criteria

Stage	What happens	Exit criteria (must be true to advance)	Forecast %
[Prospecting]	[Identify and reach out]	[Contact made and interest confirmed]	[10%]
[Qualification]	[Confirm fit and intent]	[Need, budget owner, and timeline confirmed]	[25%]
[Discovery]	[Map the problem and process]	[Pain quantified, decision process mapped]	[40%]
[Demo / evaluation]	[Show the solution to the criteria]	[Buyer agrees solution meets their criteria]	[60%]
[Proposal]	[Present pricing and terms]	[Proposal sent and reviewed by buyer]	[75%]
[Negotiation]	[Resolve terms]	[Terms agreed, only signature outstanding]	[90%]
[Closed]	[Signed]	[Contract signed]	[100%]

4. Discovery question bank

Situation

• [How do you handle [process] today?]
• [Who is involved when [event] happens?]

Problem

• [What's the hardest part of [process] right now?]
• [Where does it break down most often?]

Impact

• [What does that cost you in time or money?]
• [What happens if nothing changes this year?]

Decision process

• [Who else needs to be involved in a decision like this?]
• [What does a yes look like, and by when?]

5. Objection handling

Objection	Response
[We already use a competitor]	[Acknowledge, then ask what's working and what isn't before positioning the gap]
[No budget this quarter]	[Explore the cost of waiting and whether a phased start fits]
[Send me some information]	[Agree, then ask one qualifying question to tailor what you send]
[Your price is too high]	[Reframe around value and total cost, not headline price]

6. Qualification checklist

[Pick one framework and apply it to every deal.]

• Budget — funds identified and roughly sized
• Authority — the decision-maker(s) are known and engaged
• Need — a real, named business pain exists
• Timeline — a reason to act within a defined window
• (MEDDIC extras) — metrics, decision criteria, decision process, champion identified

7. Tools and cadence

• CRM: [System and how stages are logged]
• Outreach cadence: [Sequence of touches over what period]
• Sales tools: [Email, scheduling, call recording, proposal tooling]
• Meeting rhythm: [Pipeline reviews, deal desk, forecast calls]

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Maintenance

• Owner: [Name]
• Review cadence: [e.g., quarterly]
• Update triggers: [Pricing change, new competitor, recurring new objection, win-loss findings]