TheLaughingWolf

Business Development Manager

ADR Playbook

Earlier today I found out that my company is going to be hiring 3-4 more ADR's because of how successful I have been. They asked me if I wanted to create the playbook for all new ADR's. Of course I said yes, but have no real idea where to start.

Having worked as the first ADR/BDR at the two companies I have worked for, I have not used a Playbook. I'm curious to know what is in everyone else's company's Playbook.

Is there a book you might recommend on building one, a website, or articles?

I will be doing research online about this, but would love to get the opinions from the elite sales people.

23 comments

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DwightsEgo

Politicker

BDR Manager

Sometimes it is hard to even begin- what helped me was to type out a doc in bullet points of what I would do in a day. From there start to add detail. The advice around "think about what you wish you would have had" is spot on.

Once you can visualize what is it that the ADR does, how they do it, and what the hopeful outcome is. You can start to focus more on this finer details of "enabling" the next to come up. Think about what you did, how you did it, and what you wish you had- starts of a decent playbook.

Hope this helps, best of luck. Remember, try not to let your "time" in sales hold you back or be a cloud. You have a skill set that you developed and the company sees value in it. Document it! :)

TheLaughingWolf

WR Officer

Business Development Manager

That is such a great way to start. Bullet points and expand. I am so doing this, not just cause I love bullet points either. lol Thanks so much.

SalesPharaoh

Big Shot

Senior Account Executive

I agree, if you start with outline style like writing an essay you can easily expand from there.
Also bullet points will help you create "core" principles that you will detail or hash out later.

chickenortheegg

Good Citizen

Head of Sales Development

In our company BDR/ADR playbook, we start from the beginning. You can separate it into sections, covering everything from what they need to know about the product, a sample cold call script, email templates and objection handling guides. Strategy with cold calls, and emailing and the follow up process are good things to focus on.

I also include a section on Tips and Tricks from an AE where you can have multiple AEs contribute and write in things they wish they knew, or misconceptions! Make sure to include things that may seem obvious to you now, but when you were brand new to sales seemed unknown.

TheLaughingWolf

WR Officer

Business Development Manager

Thanks so much, I love the idea of having a AE's section where they can put in things they wish they knew when they started.

YaBoi

Manager, Business Development

Here are a few things to include

-Call script
-Email templates
-Battlecards for quick product knowledge look-up
-Personas to target
-Competitor overview
-CRM best practices (you're that guy now)
-Best practices for AE/BDR alignment (varying importance depending on the market
-Cadences

TheLaughingWolf

WR Officer

Business Development Manager

This is great Josh. But please don't let the word get out that I'm that guy now. lol

Sales4what

Opinionated

Co-Founder & VP Sales @ PLURiTy

This is interesting. In this case take a step back and think about what you didn’t have and what you’ve learned and focus the “playbook” on what you wish you would’ve known.

ive made a few of these and this is how I approach it. Considere it an o boarding manual for new employees.

TheLaughingWolf

WR Officer

Business Development Manager

This is a great way to approach this. Out of curiosity, how long did it take you to make yours? I have two months before it is due. I know 2 months seems like a long time, but this will be done on my own time. And it would be awesome to have a rough ballpark so I can properly manage my time.

Sales4what

Opinionated

Co-Founder & VP Sales @ PLURiTy

When I started at LOQI and had to restaff, it took about a month. I was relatively new.

when I started the sales division at solgaard it took me around 2 days. It’s hard to gauge a ball back, it really depends on how much you know

Sales4what

Opinionated

Co-Founder & VP Sales @ PLURiTy

You have an advantage. You’re the reason they need it, which means likely they will be working very closely with you. I suggest using that as a starting point

TheLaughingWolf

WR Officer

Business Development Manager

Thanks so much Joe. I'm pretty new to sales with just under a year in. So I want to make sure I get this right. Ha ha

I have two months to get this done, so hopefully it will make sense when finished.

Sales4what

Opinionated

Co-Founder & VP Sales @ PLURiTy

Well you’re doing something right for sure, truth is chances are they font even know what they are looking for in it. You got this

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Walk them through the steps of how to close a deal internally. Include a spreadsheet of internal key contacts (bid team, pricing, shipping, etc.), the approval process, and whatever your new hires will need to know in order to on board the client seamlessly. We all know a "sale" is never finished after the client agrees to move forward. Well, everyone but upper management who is asking about who is next in your pipeline 😏

TheLaughingWolf

WR Officer

Business Development Manager

That is a great idea. I was going to focus more on everything up to a signed deal. I will now include post deal too. Cheers.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Happy to help!

LTYale

Public Sector Business Development

Personally - I don't think playbooks are really effective - more idealistic. But if you have to do it - I'd say emphasize any resources/activities that demonstrate business outcomes understanding & value added research.

TheLaughingWolf

WR Officer

Business Development Manager

Truthfully, I like the idea of playbooks, but that just might be the geek in me. lol I find they can hold answers to questions that you might have to ask others in the organization if there was no playbook.

winnerswin

Good Citizen

VP of Sales

Before you start building the playbook think about how much time you can dedicate per week without sacrificing your main role. Stick to this schedule. You don't want to create a great playbook and then have your main role suffer and receive blowback as a result.

Break this up into the different chapters:

Planning

-Business goals and revenue targets

-Anticipated expenses

-Prior period performance

Process

-Lead sources

-Funnel management

-Scripting, sequences, etc.

People

-Ideal candidate profile

-Action plans for teams and/or individuals

-Employee and employer expectation setting

Performance

-Performance benchmarks and monitoring

-Goal setting

-Sales coaching

Out of the above list, decide which of the following you feel the most comfortable building. From there, the remaining playbook pieces are still important but you may be in a position to delegate them to someone else.

TheLaughingWolf

WR Officer

Business Development Manager

I have given myself 20 hours to work on this. This will mostly be done outside of work. I don't really have a life, so 2.5 hours on the weekend is an easy target.

Those are some good ideas for chapters. I like the idea of Expectations and benchmarks/Goal setting/Sales Coaching. It's a great way for someone to take action into their own hands if they feel they are not performing, before they get taken aside and spoken to.

SalesPharaoh

Big Shot

Senior Account Executive

I just want to know how did yours end up looking because I'm in the similar position as yourself. If you want I would love to have a call and see how you developed it.

TheLaughingWolf

WR Officer

Business Development Manager

I think it turned out pretty decent to be honest. Not sure how we can hop on a call without one of us exposing our email to the rest of the community though. If you can find a way, I'd be more than happy to hop on a call.

SalesPharaoh

Big Shot

Senior Account Executive

we put our emails then confirm seeing it then delete it. sounds counter-intuitive but we got not choice if are game let me know

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TheLaughingWolf

ADR Playbook

23 comments

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