Unclassified

37 — Sales Playbook

Status: CANONICAL · Commercial OS
Owner: Founder (sales)
Last verified: 2026-07-21

Purpose

The operational run-book for executing the methodology (36): plays per stage, templates, and the POV program in full detail. If the methodology is the rules of the game, this is the set of plays.

Target audience: Whoever is selling — founder now, AE #1 later.

Play 1 — Sourcing (S0)

Channels in priority order: (1) founder-led content inbound (57) — highest intent, lowest CAC; (2) network/MuleSoft-ecosystem warm intros; (3) targeted outbound to ICP ≥ 9 accounts only — never spray.

Outbound template (the only cold sequence — 3 touches, then stop):

T1 (LinkedIn or email): "Saw [specific: their CS team size / stack / churn-related post]. Quick question — when your CSMs prep a QBR, how many tools do they open? We're seeing 8+ at most B2B SaaS teams, ~3 hours a day of reconstruction. Built something that ends that ritual. Worth 20 minutes?"
T2 (+4 days, value): one-pager or demotion-story essay link. "No pitch — this is the piece most CS leaders forward internally."
T3 (+5 days, close the loop): "Last note — if the eight-tab morning isn't a problem for your team, genuinely good news and I'll stop. If it is: 20 minutes, I'll show you the morning that replaces it."

Play 2 — First Call (S1 Discover)

Run 38 Discovery Guide — the 30-minute structure. Non-negotiable outputs: pain story in their words · H/C/N numbers · why-now signal · next meeting booked on the call with P1 users invited. The close: "You've told me your team spends [H] hours a day reconstructing context. Next step: I show you the morning where that doesn't happen — using your tool names. Who from your team should see it?"

Play 3 — The Day Demo (S2 Align)

Run 40 Demo Script (15 min) with 39 Demo Guide discipline. The play around the demo:

Before: recon their stack (site, job posts, LinkedIn) → build the tool-name map; send agenda naming their pains from discovery.
During: watch P1 users, not P2 — the deal is won when a CSM says "wait, it already knows that?"
After (same day): recap email = their pains → what they saw → proposed POV success criteria draft → single next step with date. Attach champion one-pager for internal forwarding.

Play 4 — The POV Program (S3 Prove) — the deal-winning machine

Structure (fixed): 30 days · ≤ 10 seats · full Command · their real tools (HubSpot/Salesforce + 2–3 more) · POV agreement signed (32 §4) with success criteria + decision date.

Success criteria menu (pick 3, quantified):

Morning context time: baseline [X] min → target ≤ 10 min (time samples, week 1 vs week 4)
QBR/meeting prep: baseline [X] hrs → target ≤ 30 min (next real QBR in-POV)
≥ 1 documented catch (churn-risk or expansion signal with evidence chain, confirmed real by the team)
Adoption: ≥ 70% of POV seats hit ≥ 5 approved Twin actions/week by week 3
Governance validation: security walkthrough passed (42 packet delivered day 1)

Cadence: Day 0 kickoff + connect tools live (hydration starts in-meeting) · Day 2 first-morning check ("open your workbench — narrate what you see") · weekly 30-min reviews vs. criteria · Day 21 catch review (the emotional close: their account, their save) · Day 28 exec readout = realized mini-ROI + decision.

POV rules: never extend past 30 days without an explicit written reason (drift kills deals); never run without a decision date; a failed criterion is discussed honestly — one strong catch often outweighs a missed time target, but we raise the miss first (trust posture).

Play 5 — Commit (S4)

Run the close-playbook arc: pain restated → promise personal → ROI in their currency (realized POV numbers now, not projections) → risk removed → one next step fixed.

Commit kit: proposal (3 pages: outcomes, price per 30, timeline) · champion deck (their numbers, 8 slides) · security packet (42) · paper (32). Pricing posture: quote list, defend with ROI, discount only per policy (30 §3) and always in exchange (term, seats, case-study rights).

Stalls: run objection-handling §"We need to think about it" — name the decision, isolate the blocker, map to an outcome, next step ≤ 48h.

Play 6 — Land (S5) and the Handoff

Within 5 days of signature: kickoff booked; handoff doc to CS (even when CS = same founder, write it — it disciplines the transition): POV numbers/baselines · success criteria → success plan seed · stakeholder map · promises made (verbatim — CS must know exactly what sales said). 45 Onboarding takes it from here.

Play 7 — Expansion Support (S6)

Sales re-enters when CS flags: second-department pull, tier-upgrade moment, or Enterprise conversation (46 defines triggers). Expansion deals reuse Plays 3–5 with the internal case study as the demo.

The Weekly Operating Rhythm (founder-seller)

When	What
Mon 30 min	Pipeline review vs. stage-hygiene rules; MEDDICC gaps; stalled-deal decisions (74)
Daily	≤ 90 min selling-adjacent admin; calls logged same-day with stage-exit facts
Fri 30 min	Win/loss notes; battle-card + objection updates fed back (09, 41)

KPIs: plays executed per stage (checklist compliance); POV win rate ≥ 60%; proposal → signature ≤ 3 weeks; recap-email same-day rate 100%.

Related: 36 Methodology · 38 Discovery · 40 Demo Script · 41 Objections · legacy drill guides: pipeline · close