A business playbook is a short guide that tells a team what to do in one situation, step by step. For a sales team, good examples cover discovery, objections, referrals, multithreading and competitive deals. Each one below comes as a template you can copy and fill in with your own steps.
These are the situation playbooks that sit under a full sales playbook. They are one part of the wider practice of sales enablement.
What is in a good playbook example?
Every example below uses the same six parts, so you can read any of them in a minute and write your own the same way.
| Part | What to write |
|---|---|
| Trigger | The moment when the playbook starts |
| Goal | What a good outcome looks like, in one line |
| Steps | Three to six actions, in order |
| Words | One or two example phrases for the hardest step |
| Proof | The asset or number to use |
| Check | How you will know the play was run, such as a call score |
Gong's collection of five sales playbook examples gives a similar spread: referrals, coaching, multithreading and competitive strategy are among the topics it covers (Gong, read November 11, 2026). Gong gates the full examples behind a form, so we build our own below. For more spoken examples to borrow, see our post of sales talk examples.
Example 1: what does a discovery playbook look like?
Use it on every first real conversation with a buyer.
- Trigger: a qualified meeting is booked.
- Goal: know the buyer's problem, its cost and who else decides.
- Steps: 1. Read the account and the person before the call. 2. Open by stating the goal and asking if it fits. 3. Ask about the problem, then its cost. 4. Ask who else is involved and what each person needs. 5. Agree a dated next step.
- Words: "What happens if this stays the same for another year?"
- Proof: one customer story from the same segment.
- Check: the call score for discovery, and whether the next step is dated.
Example 2: what does an objection playbook look like?
Write one per common objection, starting with price.
- Trigger: a buyer says "it costs too much."
- Goal: find the real concern before answering.
- Steps: 1. Pause and agree it matters. 2. Ask what they are comparing the cost to. 3. Restate the value in their own numbers. 4. Offer a scoped option if the concern is budget. 5. Confirm what would move the deal forward.
- Words: "Help me understand what you are weighing this against."
- Proof: a business case worksheet.
- Check: whether the seller asked a question before offering a discount.
Example 3: what does a referral playbook look like?
Referrals are often the cheapest pipeline, and most teams never ask for them on purpose.
- Trigger: a customer reports a win, or a deal closes.
- Goal: one warm introduction to a person in a similar role.
- Steps: 1. Wait for a positive moment. 2. Name the type of person you would like to meet. 3. Offer a short note they can forward. 4. Follow up within two days. 5. Thank them and report back.
- Words: "Who in your network has the same problem we just solved for you?"
- Proof: the result the customer just described.
- Check: introductions asked for per month and booked from them.
Example 4: what does a multithreading playbook look like?
Use it on any deal with a single contact.
- Trigger: a deal reaches evaluation with one named person.
- Goal: three people engaged, including one with budget.
- Steps: 1. Ask your contact who else is affected. 2. Request an introduction to each. 3. Send each person material for their role. 4. Share one summary the champion can forward. 5. Check the number of contacts at each stage.
- Words: "Who else will feel this problem, and what do they need to see?"
- Proof: role-based one-pagers.
- Check: contacts engaged per deal in the CRM.
Example 5: what does a competitive deal playbook look like?
Use it when a buyer names a rival.
- Trigger: a competitor is named in discovery or a follow-up.
- Goal: understand why the buyer is considering them and what would decide it.
- Steps: 1. Ask what the buyer likes about the rival. 2. Ask which criteria will decide. 3. Show where you fit those criteria, with proof. 4. Offer a side-by-side test on their data. 5. Update the battlecard with what you learned.
- Words: "What would the winning option have to do for you?"
- Proof: the battlecard for that rival.
- Check: whether the seller asked about the criteria before comparing features.
How do you keep playbooks useful?
Keep each playbook to one page, give it an owner and review it every quarter. Put it where sellers work, such as the CRM record or the call prep page. If your playbooks live in many files, look at sales playbook software for ways to keep them in one place. Sales teams also use call data to see which steps get skipped, and our guide to revenue intelligence platforms explains what that data can show.
Where to start
Pick the situation that costs you the most deals, copy the six-part template and write the first version in thirty minutes. Test it on five calls and revise it. Then return to the sales playbook guide to join the pieces into one document, and to the sales enablement overview for the full picture. If you are wondering how a playbook differs from a wider enablement effort, see business enablement vs sales enablement.