Sales Plays - translating customer campaigns for sellers
A common trap when building sales plays is to take a high level campaign that has been crafted for a segment of prospects and dump it on sellers expecting them to take it out to their prospects and make magic happen.
An upcoming event
An on demand webinar
A new product release
A new report
The problem is, the top level campaign has been created for one persona (the prospect), and the sales play must be created for at least one other persona (likely an SDR and an AE).
If your SDR or AE is going to effectively take out the campaign to their own prospects then you’ll need to translate it for them.
What does it mean to translate a campaign?
I don’t mean language translation, I mean translation of the concept.
Let’s say we have an event coming up about the new ACME2000 launch.
It can be easy to say “sellers, we have this new landing page for the event live, can you push it out to your prospects and drive some registrations”
We’ve all seen that story play out. A week before the event we have low registrations and sales managers are brandishing a nearly empty spreadsheet and reprimanding sellers for the lack of signups.
In this example, the sellers weren’t equipped with a solid talk track for why this was a valuable use of time for the customer, what problem it solved, and why joining this particular session (and not just reading about it on email) was important.
Furthermore, the connection wasn’t made between how this campaign would help the SDR or AE with their own personal targets. “What’s in it for me?”
How to translate a campaign
The Sales Play Design Template
The first thing I start with is the Sales Play Design Template.
This interview style document asks me questions that guides my thinking as I look at this play from the perspective of the intended user - the SDR or AE.
What is it that that person wants from this play, and how can I translate the source materials to give them that.
For an SDR, what they want is meetings, qualified opportunities, or booked revenue (depending on how they are comped).
For an AE they want qualified meetings and booked revenue.
So how does this event support those goals and provide them with the path of least resistance compared to all of the other things they could be doing with their day?
Speak to SDRs and AEs
Once I’ve drafted up my understanding of the play, I’ll then want to test that out 121 with a few of my target personas - whether that is SDRs or AEs.
“We have this play coming up, this is the intended outcome, what would you want or expect to be in that play?”
From my experience a couple of learnings here:
Speak 121 if you want to get the real answers - sellers have to feel comfortable saying they don’t understand the core concept of the play, or that it doesn’t help them reaching their personal goals.
SDRs and AEs want and need different things for different stages of the sales process, so consider having one play for prospecting, and one for opportunity development and negotiation.
Assume a low level of base knowledge. The fact is the tenure of an SDR or AE is short. And so while you may be comfortable with the business lingo and acronyms, the likelihood is the SDR 8 weeks into their ramp does not - so translate campaigns as if everyone is new. Answer the questions they are too afraid to ask.
Tiktok style bite-sized information
We live in a world of short form information. Scrolling, swiping, clicking.
If you think your 21 year old SDR is going to sit through a 90 minute recorded webinar you are mistaken.
And if you bake it into a mandatory certification where they need to watch 75% of a video, I bet 76% is the average watch time, meanwhile they were doing something else on their other screen.
Instead of taking the customer facing content (whether that is a report, a video or an event) and asking your sellers to wade through it, you’ll want to record short videos that call out the the main points and why they are relevant to your SDR or AE.
I use a flipchart for these - I find it a much better way of conveying complex information and it breaks the pattern of slides that induce sleep.
I aim for 90 seconds to 3 minutes max per video. Any longer than that and I split it into two - each featuring one learning point.
Flipcharts and whiteboards
Developing a story on a flipchart is far more engaging than hiding behind a slide deck
I follow Highspot’s methodology (a sales enablement platform) of splitting content into four sections on a single page:
What to know (about the campaign, event, competitor, product)
What to say (questions, talk tracks)
What to show (videos, reports, demos, events)
What to do (role-play, campaigns, calling days, certification)
With every play following a similar format it is super easy for a rep to know where they are and what to expect.
Test with SDR/AE champions/guides/gurus
Go back to the SDRs and AEs that you met with in your planning process and ask them to review the draft of your play.
Top to bottom - what to know, say, show, do.
What doesn’t make sense to them? Do they understand why the play is valuable to their prospects and therefore valuable to themselves?
Is this a play that they would voluntarily start using and if not, why not?
Take this feedback and update your play accordingly.
Incorporate real world use into your play
As your reps start using your talk tracks you should be collecting a good amount of call recordings via Gong or your preferred call recording platform.
As a seller, listening to my peers call recordings, with real customers on the other end, was the most powerful source of learning.
How did my peer phrase the question?
How did the customer react?
What was it that piqued the customer’s interest?
Add call snippets back into your play (4-5 minutes, not a 60 minute call with introductions and rapport building!).
This keeps your play fresh and gives your sellers confidence that its working for others in their team.
The seller is your customer
These are a few of the techniques that I have found help translate a top level campaign into an effective sales play that supports the need of your SDRs and AEs.
Remember - the seller is your customer. It is up to them what they choose to say to their prospects, and if they don’t see your play as being the path of least resistance to their quota they won’t use it.
Build for the seller and they’ll embrace your campaign.
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