Sales Plays: The Good, The Bad, and The Profitable

I've dedicated the last six years of my career to unraveling the mystery of Sales Plays. Across three distinct organizations, with varying cultures and leadership styles, one consistent belief emerged: targeted outbound selling to an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) can only yield positive results.

And I can say with absolute confidence: when executed correctly, Sales Plays truly make a difference. But, oh my word, there are so many ways to get them wrong.

Let's dive into some of the key factors to consider when you're setting up your sales plays.

Do You Have a Target Audience?

It sounds incredibly simple, but targeted outbound efforts demand a precisely defined target audience. Typically, you'd introduce a play for a new product launch, market penetration, or to focus on a specific industry. In each scenario, a critical consideration must be: who stands to benefit from this change?

Too often, I've witnessed new products launch and plays get created, only for the audience to be a poor fit for the product. This might happen because there aren't enough ideal-fit customers and leadership wants to broaden the play, or perhaps pipeline looks weak, leading to a "why not try and sell ice to an Eskimo" mentality.

If you're serious about getting Sales Plays right, don't obsess over the size of your target list. Instead, focus relentlessly on whether or not they are genuinely poised to benefit.

Pro Tip: If it's an expansion play (i.e., selling to existing customers), leverage your customer data to uncover the markers or intent that justify why the customer should care. Share this insight with your sales teams. Knowing why a customer is on the target list empowers reps to use that same information in their conversations, significantly boosting interest.

Do You Have the Right Approach to Messaging?

The peculiar thing about Sales Plays is that they're a targeted approach applied to a large number of accounts. There's an inherent contradiction here: making a customer feel like you're finding the perfect solution for their unique situation, all while building a program for their peers.

This is precisely why messaging is so crucial.

In plays that have faltered, you'll often see the development of a one-size-fits-all messaging approach. Perhaps marketing crafted the copy, and reps failed to personalize it. In even more serious situations, marketing might have locked down the ability for reps to change text, insisting they "must use the sequence."

Remember, even if there are 10-20 target accounts on each rep's list, and they're all being contacted about the same topic, each of their situations is different. Personalized messaging is crucial.

Again, guide your reps here. Empower them to use any existing intent data or customer product usage data they can to make every customer feel special and unique within the sales play.

Do You Have a Multi-Pronged Attack?

Sales Plays are coordinated prospecting efforts, and that coordination extends far beyond the team directly putting the play together. By nature, your Sales Play planning approach should be cross-functional.

While Enablement, Product Marketing, or even Operations might own the project, they shouldn't work in isolation. The best plays I've seen operate like a coordinated orchestra:

• Enablement brings the education.

• Marketing provides value propositions, customer stories, and market research.

• Operations identifies the right target accounts and shares useful data points for reps to leverage and personalize with.

Furthermore, each department should own the success of the play. If the play isn't a success, it's likely because reps didn't understand the approach (Enablement), they didn't buy into the messaging or narrative (Marketing), or the target list data was inaccurate (Ops). Work as a team, succeed as a team.

Do You Have Leadership Engagement and Buy-In?

Listen, you might be building a Sales Play system because your Sales Leadership wants it, but that doesn't automatically mean you have their active engagement – which is absolutely vital for successful Sales Plays.

Especially when you're introducing a Sales Play, or even the concept of a Sales Play, to your reps for the first time, you'll want a leader to join the meeting. They should articulate to the group why they believe this will drive success and what the expectations are for the sales team.

This could involve building a certain amount of pipeline, contacting all target accounts, or even gathering feedback on how well this new approach resonates with customers and if it makes outbound sales any easier.

Whatever it is, you want your leaders to be engaged at all times. This means that even after the play has launched, they're driving participation by recognizing successful reps and sharing war stories. As the project owner, you need to clearly communicate when you need their support to drive engagement and provide regular updates on the play's performance.

You've gone through the pain of finding a topic, coordinating the enablement, marketing efforts, and target list creation, and then launched the thing. Just remember to keep the motivation alive and keep driving the drumbeat so that the play is successful.

You don't earn brownie points for merely creating a play; the real victory comes in solid pipeline.

The Bottom Line

Ultimately, successful Sales Plays are about strategic alignment and meticulous execution. By prioritizing a laser-focused target audience, crafting personalized messaging, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and securing unwavering leadership buy-in, you can transform your sales efforts from hit-or-miss attempts into a coordinated, predictable engine for generating valuable pipeline. Get these foundational elements right, and you'll unlock the true power of Sales Plays to drive consistent, impactful results.