Power up your sales team with an interactive sales playbook

By sonal sighInsights, Sales Enablement

Power up your sales team with an interactive sales playbook.

Sales teams need every advantage they can get. To keep reps nimble, one of the most powerful tools in a sales organization’s arsenal is the everything-in-one-place sales playbook. Why are playbooks necessary, and how can modern technology amplify their effectiveness? Let’s explore how they can transform your sales team’s success.

Get everyone on the same page

How many times have you heard a sales rep say, “I have my own way of selling.” Style is one thing. But content and your company’s product messaging are another. It’s important that all of your sales team starts from the same foundation. That makes sales playbooks essential to ensure:

Consistency – All sales representatives should be aligned with the company’s messaging, product knowledge, and best practices.
Efficiency – Playbooks streamline the sales process, allowing reps to focus on selling rather than searching for information.
Scalability – As companies grow, playbooks help maintain quality and consistency across expanding sales teams.
Adaptability – Well-designed playbooks can be quickly updated to reflect market changes, new products, or competitive shifts.
Performance – By providing a framework for success, playbooks help both new and experienced reps improve their performance.

The interactive app revolution in sales training

Traditional static playbooks are being replaced by interactive apps, bringing numerous benefits to sales training:

One playbook. Two modes.

Modern playbook apps can support the sales reps before and during the sale with two modes:

Training mode

Allows reps to familiarize themselves with content, messaging, and strategies in a risk-free environment.

Presentation mode

Provides a clean, professional interface for client-facing interactions.

This dual functionality ensures that reps are well-prepared before engaging with prospects and can present information effectively during meetings.

Persona-based learning

Interactive playbooks excel at educating reps on different buyer personas.

Demographic personas

These are based on attributes such as age, gender, job title, industry, company size, and location. For example, a “CTO of a mid-sized healthcare company” or a “millennial marketing manager in a tech startup.”

Psychographic personas

These delve deeper into the psychological characteristics of buyers, including their values, interests, attitudes, and lifestyle choices. For instance, an “innovation-driven, early-adopter” or a “risk-averse, process-oriented decision-maker.”

With these comprehensive personas in mind, interactive playbooks offer several advantages:

Reps can explore messaging tailored to specific roles, industries, or psychographic profiles. For example, the language used for a tech-savvy startup founder might differ significantly from that used for a traditional corporate executive.
The app can highlight motivating factors and pain points/solutions for each persona. A cost-conscious small business owner might be more interested in ROI and affordability, while an enterprise-level decision-maker might prioritize scalability and integration capabilities.
Content is organized and easily accessible based on the prospect’s profile. This might include case studies from similar industries for demographic matches, or white papers providing clinical data for psychographic matches.
Interactive elements can guide reps through different conversation paths based on the persona, helping them ask the right questions and provide the most relevant information.

This persona-based approach allows reps to guide conversations more effectively, addressing the unique needs and concerns of each potential client. By understanding both the demographic and psychographic aspects of their prospects, sales representatives can create more personalized and impactful interactions, increasing the likelihood of successful outcomes.

Competitive intelligence at your fingertips

In a competitive market, having the latest insight into your competition can be critical to making the sale. Interactive playbooks can provide:

Quick access to competitive comparisons
Prepared responses to common objections
Up-to-date market intelligence

Reps can confidently handle tough questions and position their offerings effectively against competitors.

Leveraging playbooks within sales enablement platforms

While interactive playbooks are powerful on their own, integrating them with a comprehensive sales enablement platform amplifies their impact. Sales enablement platforms serve as a central repository for all sales content. The playbook can then easily access and utilize approved and updated marketing material. By making everything centralized, you create a single source of truth for all your reps.

Content tracking and analytics

How do you know if anyone is using the playbook? Modern platforms provide insights into content usage and effectiveness.

Track which materials are being used most frequently
Analyze which content correlates with successful deals
Identify gaps in the content library

These analytics help sales and marketing teams continuously refine their strategies and materials.

Seamless distribution, updates, and version control

As products evolve and market conditions change, sales enablement platforms make it easy to:

Ensure security and data protection
Push updates to all users simultaneously
Ensure outdated content is archived or removed
Maintain version control across the organization

This agility keeps the entire sales team aligned and up-to-date with minimal effort.

Accelerate onboarding

For companies experiencing rapid growth, onboarding new sales reps quickly is crucial. Interactive playbooks shine in this area:

Self-paced learning – New hires can explore the playbook at their own pace, focusing on areas where they need the most development.

Simulation capabilities – Some advanced playbooks include role-playing scenarios, allowing reps to practice their pitches in a safe environment.

Best practices showcase – Interactive playbooks can feature recorded sales calls or presentations from top performers, allowing new reps to learn from the best in the organization.

Just-in-time learning – Reps can quickly access relevant information or refreshers right before client meetings, boosting confidence and preparedness.

Gamification elements – Incorporating gamification, such as points, badges, or leaderboards, can increase engagement and motivation during the onboarding process.

By providing a comprehensive, interactive learning tool, companies can significantly reduce the time it takes for new reps to become productive members of the team.

Enhancing client interactions

Interactive playbooks don’t just benefit the sales team internally, they also improve the quality of client interaction.

Polished, branded client presentations

In presentation mode, playbooks offer a polished, professional interface:

Persona names and internal notes are hidden
The focus is on client-relevant information and visuals
Navigation is intuitive, allowing for smooth transitions between topics

‘Shopping cart’ for assets

Many interactive playbooks include a feature for collecting and sending relevant content to clients.

Reps can add documents, videos, or other assets to a virtual ‘cart’ during the meeting
At the end of the presentation, selected materials can be instantly shared with the prospect
This ensures that follow-up materials are sent promptly and accurately

Content tracking

Beyond just sharing content, advanced playbooks can track client engagement.

See which shared materials the prospect has viewed
Understand the time spent on each document
Guide follow-up conversations and tailor future interactions

Align with established sales methodologies

One of the key strengths of interactive sales playbooks is their ability to seamlessly integrate with and reinforce various established sales methodologies, such as Sandler, SPIN, Challenger, and others. A well-designed playbook can be tailored to support and enhance these methodologies.

Consistent application

Ensures all team members are applying the chosen methodology correctly and consistently.

Reinforced learning

Provides ongoing reinforcement of methodology principles, enhancing retention and application.

Adaptability

Allows for easy updates as methodologies evolve or as the organization refines its approach.

Measurable results

Enables tracking of methodology adoption and its impact on sales performance.

Customization

Allows organizations to blend elements from different methodologies to create a unique, tailored approach.

Let’s explore how playbooks can be customized for some popular sales approaches.

Sandler Selling System

Interactive playbooks can be structured to guide reps through the Sandler Selling System’s seven-step process:

Incorporate role-playing scenarios for building rapport and setting expectations (Bonding and Rapport stage)
Provide question templates to uncover pain points (Pain stage)
Offer scripts and strategies for discussing budget (Budget stage)
Include decision-making process analysis tools (Decision stage)

SPIN Selling

For organizations using SPIN Selling, playbooks can:

Offer a database of Situation, Problem, Implication, and Need-payoff questions
Provide interactive exercises to practice transitioning between question types
Include case studies demonstrating successful SPIN conversations

Challenger Sales

Playbooks aligned with the Challenger sales method might:

Offer modules on developing and delivering insights to prospects
Provide tools for tailoring the sales message to different stakeholders
Include exercises on constructive tension and reframing customer thinking

Solution Selling

For teams using Solution Selling, playbooks can:

Guide reps through the process of defining pain points and desired outcomes
Offer templates for creating comprehensive solution maps
Provide strategies for involving decision-makers early in the process

Force Management

Playbooks supporting the Force Management methodology might:

Include tools for conducting thorough discovery sessions
Offer frameworks for articulating value propositions
Provide guidance on negotiation strategies and closing techniques

By aligning interactive playbooks with established sales methodologies, organizations can ensure that their chosen approach is not just taught in training sessions, but actively supported and reinforced in day-to-day sales activities. This integration helps transform theoretical knowledge into practical skills, ultimately leading to more effective sales conversations and improved results.

Playbooks: Ready for modernization

Interactive sales playbooks, especially when integrated with robust sales enablement platforms, are revolutionizing how sales teams prepare, present, and perform. By providing consistent messaging, persona-based guidance, competitive intelligence, and seamless content management, these tools are becoming indispensable in the modern sales landscape.

As companies continue to grow and markets evolve, the ability to quickly train new reps, adapt to changing conditions, and deliver personalized, impactful presentations will be key differentiators. Interactive playbooks are not just a trend; they’re the future of sales enablement, empowering teams to sell smarter, faster, and more effectively than ever before.

Ready to get started on your sales playbook? Complete the form to share your ideas with our team!

Ready to power up your sales team?

Submit this form to schedule a consultation, or contact Don Poe directly at 303-449-6086.

October 24, 2024

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Game on: Sales Training Meets Gamification at Medtronic

By sonal sighInsights, Sales Enablement

Game on: Sales Training Meets Gamification at Medtronic

Compete with other users by sharing your activity stats on your fitness app. Track your pizza delivery with a colorful progress bar right on your phone. Even Uber serves up a live map tracking your driver’s path to meet up. Gamification is everywhere in today’s digital world, but it’s not just for personal use. Now it’s slated to score big in business applications.

It’s official — The corporate world has been ramping up its gamification IQ, especially in sales training and enablement. Our customer, Medtronic, is the largest medical device manufacturer in the world. Their salespeople need to be experts about Medtronic products to reinforce their credibility in the market. Obviously, sales training is a high priority.

How often do training materials get left unopened or glossed over? You know it happens more often than anyone wants to admit. Sales trainers are looking for innovative, engaging ways to connect reps with the materials that will ultimately make them even more successful. Enter the game zone. Medtronic partnered with People Productions for a custom-built solution that played to sales reps’ competitive drive and rewarded them with perks in the process. Their goal – level up their sales teams’ engagement with training lessons and activities on a global scale.

The Medtronic training team was accustomed to leveraging a variety of modern platforms to help reps tune up their product knowledge and sales skills, but were looking for new ways to:

Bring together disparate educational activities
Build excitement throughout the training program
Intersperse specialized subject matter in lessons and tests with fun exercises and games to reinforce the learning.

Simplifying the Learning Experience

How could the training team make it easier for competitive sales reps to see the learnings laid out in front of them, despite the variety of platforms involved in the back-end?

Inspired by that competitive spirit, we created a unique, new sales training process. This is where gamification comes in, and the foundation of our leaderboard and board game approach.

Sales Training Leaderboard

A multi-faceted approach leveraged gamification, competition, and rewards. Using the dashboard would be familiar to reps because it would draw elements from mobile games and even traditional board games. Elevating the game-like approach included elements like animated achievement badges, bonus points, and scoreboards to dial up the competitive fun.

Learning Path in Game Format

Users logged into the program and personalized their avatar with a photo. Then they entered a Learning Path – a progress-based view of the lessons and activities that they needed to accomplish. Our team had multiple review rounds with various progress bars, pathways, and scoreboards. The team landed on a gameboard-inspired design, using Medtronic brand elements. This was a familiar and fun way to show participants how they were progressing through the training program.

Remember, this game pulled online training from different platforms and formats so this made it easy for reps to get a big-picture view of all their training steps. It couldn’t be any easier for reps to track their progress against other reps around the globe.

Lessons and trainings had to be completed on time to receive points.

Games

On-demand games with fun themes like JEOPARDY!,TM Quest Trivia, and Practice Your Skills took training and quizzing to even higher levels. To keep participants from hunting for new logins or other systems, the game board linked directly to their lessons and challenges.

Several games were hosted on popular platforms, like Kahoot and Bravazone, and made available on-demand so that participants around the world could compete with each other without the inconvenience of different time zones.

Practice Your Skills provided an opportunity for participants to engage in a mock customer conversation which was recorded and scored in the Allego platform.

Activities from various platforms fed into the scoring system.

Status Icons

Live games and lessons captured reps attention with a pulsing orange icon that linked directly to each activity. Once each activity was completed, a blue checkmark confirmed the sales rep received credit. If a deadline to complete an activity passed, a lock symbol appeared instead. This kept reps active and encouraged them to check the board frequently.

Bonus Badges

Badges were awarded liberally to boost the sense of achievement and surprise. Badges included 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th place for competitions, certification badges for completing sets of activities, and participation badges for lessons and games.

Point Tallies

The competition was driven by an easy-to-understand points system. Individuals with the most points won. Country and region winners were based on the highest average points per user. Points were weighted based on the difficulty of the achievement. Lessons, worth 500 points, were more intensive than games, which were only worth 100 points. Additional points were awarded as bonuses; +300 points for first place in a competitive game, for example.

The game board provided a clear set of objectives to work through within a specific timeframe. Sales reps pushed to achieve their own personal learning goals because the path was clear and the rewards were achievable. Gamification really does work.

Global Sales Training Leaderboard

How can you engage sales reps across the globe who need the same baseline product knowledge and sales competencies? A little healthy competition and teamwork can go a long way. Sales reps from 10 countries across four global regions participated in the 12-week program, in an effort to not only increase sales training compliance in a specific territory or team, but also across the entire global sales organization. The Medtronic reps learned their materials in a fun and engaging manner.

Stack-Ranking Reps, Countries and Regions

The Leaderboard aspect of the program gave reps a chance to see how they ranked against their global colleagues throughout the 12-week program. Friendly competition and teamwork were amped up even more with country and region rankings.

Rewards

Sales careers often appeal to those who are motivated by financial rewards, but typically completing sales training does not have a direct financial impact for reps. To keep sales reps engaged throughout the program, prizes were awarded for passing points thresholds. At the end of the 12 weeks, top-scoring regions, countries, and individual salespeople were rewarded with prizes including gift cards and company swag.

Planning for an Uncomplicated Experience

Right from the start, we knew the reps would love having all of the training in one place on this dashboard. Reps would learn faster and be more effective when we brought many disparate educational systems together.

In order to simplify the process of participating in sales training and activities, we needed to leverage multiple platforms with a variety of capabilities and integrations. It was important to work within Medtronic’s rules for data privacy and security, and leverage existing platforms and lessons that were already meticulously developed by the Sales Training team and other internal Medtronic resources. A discovery phase helped the team navigate requirements and understand the possibilities from the start.

Hosting, database requirements, and manual and automatic integrations, and authentication were discussed with the Medtronic team, including an IT Liaison assigned to the project, Sales Trainers leading the project internally, and others. We interviewed multiple stakeholders and platform specialists, documented technical requirements, and weighed options for executing the experience.

Strategy and Design

While we uncovered technical questions and looked for answers in the Discovery process, we held strategic discussions with Medtronic and began to formulate the necessary elements for the experience. Using a data schematic and wireframes, we formulated a strategic direction, and then developed design comps with a range of creative ideas pulling inspiration from retro video games, outer space, and the client’s brand, ultimately bringing the vision to life.

Results and Enthusiasm From Participants

An open feedback loop was built into the game board, and reinforced with email communications to participants. The People Productions team and Medtronic project leads were available to answer questions or troubleshoot any issues during the 12-week program. For example, a few changes to the user interface were made on the fly, based on user feedback.

Hani Al Ariss, the project lead with the Sales Training group had this to say: “What we have achieved is very impressive. There is a lot of excitement about this program.” A survey was sent to participants during the last week of the program. Responses were positive, many shared positive experiences with quotes like “Loved it!” to “Enjoyed this.” The Medtronic team is considering ways to scale the program so that more reps have the opportunity to participate.

Participation, by the Numbers

Weekly reporting and analytics allowed the team to keep track of progress and identify any participants who needed an extra nudge to stay engaged.

Upon completion of this initial roll-out, the Medtronic team is exploring how to expand this sales training tool to include more sales reps in more locations, and continue to increase sales training engagement throughout the organization.

Successful Sales Training and Enablement With Gamification

Salespeople are more effective when they are knowledgeable consultants who assist their customers with complex buying decisions. Developing reps into valuable resources for their customers takes time and effort to practice of strategies that deftly navigate customer objections. It’s a lot for reps to keep up with.

When sales reps are motivated to learn in a variety of ways — with games, quizzes, and practice exercises — the learning becomes an engaging, interactive layer of their work life that sparks their competitive side and provides the dopamine hit of getting rewards for their hard work. When you’re looking for a way to drive engagement and encourage camaraderie, all while accomplishing the core goal of training your sales teams for success, gamification is a win-win.

Ready to Gamify Your Sales Training?

Curious if a gamified experience can win over your sales organization? Let’s discuss your goals and explore ways to drive engagement with gamification.

Ready to gamify your sales training?

Submit this form to schedule a consultation, or contact Don Poe directly at 303-449-6086.

September 11, 2024

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