By Kelly Lawrence, Founder & CEO, Lawrence Innovation
Harvard Business Review wrote a great article on “Do You Have a Strategy?”. For the purposes of this article, I’m going to make the assumption that you have read that paper and have a strategy. If not, contact me. We need to spend more time together.
Once the strategy has been set, the playbook takes center stage. A playbook is a summary of the tactics needed to win - these are the tactics required to successfully execute your strategy. A good playbook can mean the difference between a successful and failed new product launch, new market entry or business pivot. A playbook serves as a training tool to align your internal & external sales teams on how to position and close sales for your new product. It addresses current state of the market, target customers, key questions to quickly qualify leads, your value proposition and how to communicate it. It also contains logistics and pricing information needed to close business and can be used to educate on value pricing approaches to maximize profits.
I once coached youth basketball. Before we learned the fundamentals and organized plays, it was chaos. Everyone ran to the ball and spacing fell apart. Players had to attend practice and were required to learn the plays from every position on the court. With direction and practice, we got better.
Are you giving your team the skills and playbook to successfully execute? Does the sales team know why you entered this new market? What problem does the new product solve? How does it add value to the customer? What’s the next best alternative? Why wouldn’t the customer buy our product? A good marketing and sales playbook provides the answers to these questions and more.
If your strategy execution resembles day one of youth basketball, contact us. We can help.
Resources
Download our proprietary research paper to learn more:
The Sales & Marketing Playbook: A Critical Growth Tool.
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