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    <description>Articles on capturing your way of selling, sorted per layer: from promise and phases to win points, contact cadence and KPIs.</description>
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    <lastBuildDate>Wed, 28 Oct 2026 06:00:00 GMT</lastBuildDate>
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      <title>Which companies was SalesDNA made for?</title>
      <link>https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/voor-welke-bedrijven-is-salesdna</link>
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      <pubDate>Wed, 28 Oct 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>All building layers</category>
      <description>Which industries, company types and questions was SalesDNA made for, and which problems does it not solve? A five-minute test.</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[All building layers · 7 min read

# Which companies was SalesDNA made for?

Six industries, four company types, six questions and five problems for which you need something else. With a five-question test.

SalesDNA editorial team · 28 October 2026

"Is SalesDNA something for us?" is the question we hear most often, usually followed by a description of the industry. The honest answer: the industry says less than the type of company and the question you come with. In this article you read which industries, company types and questions SalesDNA was made for, and just as important, which problems it does not solve.

## First the core: business-to-business selling with your own sales team

SalesDNA captures how an organization sells and makes sure the team works that way. That only makes sense if there is something to share. The organizations where it fits have three things in common.

- Business customers. B2B, with conversations, quotes and relationships that last longer than one transaction.

- Your own sales team. About 5 to 40 people who sell: field sales, inside sales, account managers, or a mix. With a leader who wants to steer on more than numbers.

- Customers who come back. Contracts, repeat purchases or projects for the same clients. Then it pays to capture win points, contact rhythm and customer journey.

If you are inside that, the industry is almost beside the point. If you are outside it, say a web shop without salespeople or a one-person business, SalesDNA is too heavy for what you need.

## Industries where SalesDNA is used most

Six industries keep coming back. Not because SalesDNA was built for them specifically, but because selling there meets the three conditions above.

### Technical wholesale and manufacturing

Field sales with regions, often dealers or installers as a channel, and a range that needs explaining. The question is usually the contact rhythm per customer class and one story towards the dealers.

### Construction, installation and engineering

Project sales with tenders, several decision makers and a long cycle from quote to order. Here it is about stages with exit criteria and a forecast that holds.

### Professional services

Consulting, IT, HR or finance: selling expertise. The promise in one sentence and the first conversation make the difference, and those are rarely written down anywhere.

### Logistics and transport

Contracts per customer, yearly negotiations and a contact frequency that has to hold all year, not only around renewal.

### Software and SaaS for SMBs

Inside sales with demos and trials. A fixed qualification and a pipeline that is adjusted every week are the first building blocks here.

### Agriculture and food

Fixed customers, a seasonal rhythm and dealers or cooperatives that have to tell the same story as the own team.

Is your industry not listed? Then test against the three conditions. A staffing agency with account managers, a printer with field sales or a training company with business customers fits just as well.

## Four types of company, four reasons to start

Within those industries we see four company types, each with its own reason to begin.

- Family business with an owner-director. The method lives in the founder's head, and the founder wants to let go without the quality of selling dropping. SalesDNA gets the method out of that head and makes it the company's. See the use case Owner-director who wants to let go .

- Scale-up with a growing sales team. New colleagues every month, and every salesperson does it slightly differently. Onboarding takes too long. Here we start with the onboarding programme and the building blocks a new colleague needs first.

- Branch or label of a larger company. Its own market, but one story and one way of working with the rest of the group. The organization captures the SalesDNA, the team executes it with its own room where allowed.

- Organization with dealers or partners. The story is told by people who are not on the payroll. That calls for one captured method and documents you can share outside the door. See the use case Wholesaler with a dealer network .

## Six questions organizations start with

The industry brings you to the conversation, the question decides where you start. These are the six we hear most, with the building layer where the answer lives.

- Our revenue depends on two or three people. The best salespeople have a method that is written down nowhere. If one leaves, revenue leaves too. Start with building layer 1, Sales foundation, and building layer 4, Customer journey: what do you promise, and which win points do those people perform that the rest do not.

- Everyone sells their own way. Customers hear a different story per salesperson, qualification differs and quote follow-up is luck. Start with building layer 2, Sales process: stages, exit criteria and qualifying with fixed criteria.

- New salespeople are only productive after a year. Onboarding happens by tagging along. Start with building layer 6, People, with an onboarding programme that walks through the method layer by layer. Read Onboarding in 90 days .

- The playbook sits in a drawer. A sales plan or playbook was made once, but nobody looks at it. This is not a capturing question but a rhythm question: quarterly check, feedback from team and customer, and revising when something changes. Read From PDF to living playbook .

- The sales meeting is only about numbers. Meetings are about the pipeline, not about how selling is done. Start with building layer 5, Organization: meeting structure, reports and coaching from your own SalesDNA.

- We grow, but steer by gut feeling. Without KPIs per stage, contact rhythm and prospecting norms, growth cannot be repeated. Start with building layer 3, Activity matrix, and building layer 7, Steering.

## Problems SalesDNA does not solve

Knowing where it does not fit is as important as knowing where it does. Five problems for which you need something else.

- Too few leads. SalesDNA is not a lead generator and not a marketing tool. It captures how you handle leads, not how you get them.

- No overview of customers and tasks. That is work for a CRM. SalesDNA does not replace a CRM; for daily execution with customers, tasks and campaigns there is your CRM .

- Salespeople who cannot hold the conversation. SalesDNA does not replace sales training. It does capture what a good conversation is at your company, so training and coaching have something to connect to.

- A price or product problem. If customers drop out because the product is not good or too expensive, a captured method does not fix that. At most, win/loss makes it visible sooner.

- No leader who wants to steer. SalesDNA only works if someone owns the method and looks at it every quarter. Without that person it becomes a document in a drawer, however good the tool.

## Test it yourself in five minutes

Go through these questions. Three times yes on the first three, and at least one recognisable question: then it fits.

- Do we sell to business customers, with conversations and quotes?

- Do we have our own sales team of about 5 to 40 people, with a leader?

- Do our customers come back, through contracts, repeat purchases or projects?

- Do we recognise at least one of the six questions above?

- Is there someone who wants to own how we sell?

In doubt? Take the quick scan : seven questions, one per building layer, and you see where you stand. Or look at the eight use cases and find the situation that looks most like yours.

## Frequently asked questions

### Does SalesDNA also work for a sales team of three?

Yes, if you sell B2B and want to grow. You then start with Start and capture the method yourself. The added value of sharing, onboarding and coaching comes as the team grows.

### And for a team of more than forty?

Then usually several teams or branches work with the same SalesDNA. We discuss that on request, based on Growth.

### We sell to consumers. Does it fit?

Usually not. SalesDNA was made for business-to-business selling with conversations and relationships. If you sell to consumers with your own team of advisers, such as kitchens or solar panels, it resembles B2B enough to fit.

### Does our sales team need an account?

No. Only leaders work in SalesDNA. The team gets the method through a personal link, as a playbook, one-pager or card set. Read more about working without an account .

## Capturing

In SalesDNA you start with the Scan: seven questions that show which building layer needs attention first. Then you capture per building block how you sell, with Dex helping with the first proposal. On Who it's for the roles, industries and questions are listed side by side.]]></content:encoded>
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    <item>
      <title>Leading a sales team with a fixed weekly rhythm</title>
      <link>https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/salesteam-aansturen-weekritme</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/salesteam-aansturen-weekritme</guid>
      <pubDate>Sat, 03 Oct 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Building layer 5 · Organization</category>
      <description>Leading a sales team without firefighting: five fixed moments a week for the sales manager, from pipeline review to coaching conversation. With a sample week.</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Building layer 5 · Organization · 10 min read

# Leading a sales team with a fixed weekly rhythm

Five fixed moments a week, so steering does not depend on whatever happens to come up. With a sample week and a worked example.

SalesDNA editorial team · 3 October 2026

A sales manager's week fills itself. A customer who calls, a quote that is due, a sales rep who is stuck, a question from management about the forecast. At the end of the week you have worked hard and steered little. Leading a sales team only works with a fixed rhythm: a few moments that sit in the same place every week, so that steering does not depend on whatever happens to come up.

## What is a weekly rhythm for the sales manager?

A weekly rhythm for the sales manager is the fixed division of the week over the moments at which you steer the team: the pipeline review, the sales meeting, the one-on-one conversations, the ride-along or coaching and your own preparation. The rhythm is set in your calendar and in your method, so the team knows when what comes up. It is the counterpart of the weekly rhythm of an account manager : they divide their week over customers, you divide yours over the team.

A weekly rhythm is not a tight schedule for every minute. It is four or five blocks that you do not move for something urgent. Everything else fits around them.

## Why leading without a rhythm goes wrong

Without a rhythm you steer on what stands out. The sales rep who shouts loudest gets attention. The deal that is almost in gets attention. The quiet colleague with an empty pipeline and the customer who is slowly slipping away do not. You are reactive, and the team notices: attention becomes something you have to claim.

The second problem is that you then steer on numbers instead of on behavior. At the end of the month you see the revenue and react to it. But this month's revenue is the result of conversations from three months ago. Steering on behavior is only possible if you see the behavior, and that requires fixed moments to watch and to talk. Read how that works in coaching on behavior instead of on numbers .

## The five fixed moments in the week

These are the blocks that work in most SMB sales teams. Adjust the duration to the size of your team, not whether they happen.

- The pipeline review. Once a week, per sales rep or with the team, through the deals in the pipeline. Not "how is it going", but "what has the customer done and what is the next step". Work with the exit criteria per phase, so the review is about facts. How to do that is in a forecast that is right .

- The sales meeting. Once a week, 45 minutes, with a fixed agenda. About customers and the method, not about the meeting itself. Action items get an owner and come back the following week. The agenda is in the 45-minute sales meeting .

- The one-on-one conversations. Every sales rep, every week or every two weeks, for half an hour. About behavior, about what is difficult, about one thing that could be better. Not a pipeline review in miniature; you have already had that.

- Ride-along or coaching. At least one customer conversation per week with a sales rep, as a listener. Then you see what really happens, and that is what coaching is about. Without riding along, you coach on what the sales rep tells you.

- Your own preparation. One hour a week, preferably at a fixed moment, to look at the numbers, prepare the one-on-ones and go through one part of the method. This is the block that goes first, and it is the most important one.

## A sample week

This is what the week of a sales manager with eight sales reps can look like. The times are an example; the order is deliberate.

- Monday. Morning: own preparation, looking at last week's numbers. Then the pipeline review per sales rep, in blocks of twenty minutes.

- Tuesday. The 45-minute sales meeting at 9:00, with the outcomes of the pipeline review as input. Afternoon: riding along with a sales rep to a customer.

- Wednesday. Four half-hour one-on-one conversations. The other four are next week.

- Thursday. Room for your own customers, quotes and the questions from management. This is the day the urgent is allowed.

- Friday. A coaching conversation following Tuesday's ride-along. Afternoon: going through one part of the method and closing the week.

The pipeline review comes before the sales meeting, so the meeting is about patterns and not about individual deals. The one-on-ones come after the meeting, so you can refer back in the conversation to what the team agreed. The ride-along comes before the coaching conversation, so you have something concrete to talk about.

## Worked example: how much time does leading take?

With eight sales reps, the rhythm above costs roughly: pipeline review eight times twenty minutes, so almost three hours. Sales meeting three quarters of an hour. Four half-hour one-on-ones, two hours. Ride-along half a day including travel time, four hours. Coaching conversation half an hour. Own preparation one hour. About eleven hours a week in total, well over a quarter of your time.

That feels like a lot. Then also calculate the alternative: the time that now goes to firefighting, to deals you take over yourself because it is faster, and to repeating the same explanation to different people. In most teams that is more than eleven hours, you just do not see it, because it is scattered.

If your team grows to twelve or more, the rhythm no longer fits in one person. That is the moment for a second sales manager or a team lead, not for shorter one-on-ones.

## Steering on behavior and on numbers

A rhythm gives you the moments; the content comes from two sources. The first is behavior: what you see when riding along, what you hear in the one-on-one. The second is numbers: the KPIs per phase of your sales process. At most two per phase, each with a norm, a data source and an owner. Which ones they are and how to choose them is in KPIs per phase: what do you really steer on? .

The rhythm determines where each source belongs. You discuss numbers in the pipeline review and briefly in the sales meeting. You discuss behavior in the one-on-one and in the coaching conversation. Mix them up, and every one-on-one becomes an interrogation about the numbers and every sales meeting a coaching session with seven people watching.

## A fictional example

A fictional sales manager at a supplier of workwear inherits a team of six. Her predecessor steered on monthly numbers and jumped in where things went wrong. She starts with two blocks: a pipeline review on Monday and the sales meeting on Tuesday. After a month she adds the one-on-ones, every two weeks. Only in month three does she start riding along.

What she sees after a quarter: the sales meeting is shorter, because the deals were already discussed on Monday. Two sales reps turn out never to ask about the decision process in the first customer conversation, something no number showed. That becomes the learning point for the next quarter, for the whole team. And management asks about the forecast less often, because it is now updated every Monday based on what customers have done.

## Common mistakes in leading a sales team

- Moving the rhythm for the urgent. Moving it once is an exception. Three times is the end of the rhythm. Fix the blocks and let the rest move.

- Everything in the sales meeting. Pipeline review, coaching and news in one two-hour meeting. Nobody listens anymore after half an hour. Spread it over the moments where it belongs.

- Taking over the deal yourself. It is faster and it feels good. But the sales rep learns nothing and next week you have the same deal on your plate again. Go along, but let the sales rep lead the conversation.

- Steering only on numbers. This month's revenue comes from conversations three months ago. Whoever steers only on numbers steers on the past.

- Skipping the preparation. A one-on-one without preparation becomes a chat. A pipeline review without preparation becomes a round of "how is it going". The hour of preparation makes the other ten hours worthwhile.

- Not recording what you agree. An agreement in a one-on-one that is written down nowhere is forgotten in two weeks. Record per conversation what was agreed and come back to it next time.

## How to start next week

- Choose two blocks. Start with the pipeline review and the sales meeting, on fixed days and times. Put them in everyone's calendar for a quarter.

- Tell the team. Explain what comes up where, so sales reps know their question has a fixed moment and does not have to come in between.

- Add the one-on-ones after a month. Half an hour every two weeks, with one fixed question: what went well, what was difficult, what will you do differently.

- Ride along in month three. One customer conversation a week, as a listener. Agree in advance what you will watch for.

- Review the rhythm after a quarter. Which block kept getting moved? That says something about your week, not about the block.

## How the weekly rhythm connects to the other building layers

The sales manager's rhythm does not stand apart from the rest of the method. The sales meeting and the one-on-ones belong to the meeting structure in building layer 5, Organization. The pipeline review uses the exit criteria from building layer 2 and the KPIs from building layer 7. The coaching conversation builds on the conversation cycle and the learning points in building layer 6, People. And the account manager's weekly rhythm in building layer 4 determines when you can ride along: on a region day, not on a prospecting day.

If something changes in one of those building layers, for example a new phase or a new exit criterion, then what you ask in the pipeline review changes too. That is why it pays to capture the rhythm in the same place as the rest of the method, and not only in your own calendar.

## Frequently asked questions

### How often should a sales manager hold a one-on-one?

Half an hour every week or every two weeks works for most teams. New colleagues in their first three months weekly. Less than once a month is too little to steer on behavior.

### How many sales reps can one sales manager lead?

With the rhythm from this article, a team of six to ten fits in one sales manager's week, depending on how many customers of his or her own he or she still has. Above twelve, the rhythm becomes too thin or too expensive; then a team lead or a second sales manager is needed.

### What is the difference between a pipeline review and a sales meeting?

The pipeline review is about deals: per deal, what the customer has done and what the next step is, often per sales rep. The sales meeting is about the team and the method: patterns, agreements, action items and one topic to get better at together. The review comes first, so the meeting is not about individual deals.

### Should a sales manager still have customers of their own?

In SMBs usually yes, and that is good for staying in touch with the practice. Put those customers on a fixed day, for example the Thursday in the sample week, so they do not crowd out the rhythm of leading.

## Capturing it

Capture the sales meeting, the pipeline review and the one-on-ones in the Meeting structure of building layer 5, with the frequency, the fixed agenda and who attends for each meeting. The conversation cycle with the coaching conversations belongs in building layer 6, the KPIs you use in the review in building layer 7. With the AI note-taker you turn every meeting into notes with action items, and see over weeks which themes keep coming back. The learning points that follow go in the yearly schedule of Sales development, and you follow them per person with Coaching . How the rhythm of the whole year works, with the quarterly check, is explained at how it works .]]></content:encoded>
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    <item>
      <title>Choosing sales playbook software: eight questions to ask first</title>
      <link>https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/salesplaybook-software-kiezen</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/salesplaybook-software-kiezen</guid>
      <pubDate>Sat, 03 Oct 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>All building layers</category>
      <description>Which software fits a sales playbook for SMBs? Eight questions about ownership, coherence, maintenance, sharing without an account, AI and data.</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[All building layers · 10 min read

# Choosing sales playbook software: eight questions to ask first

The prettiest document does not win; the playbook that is still right next year does. Eight questions to test a tool against.

SalesDNA editorial team · 3 October 2026

You have decided that the sales playbook has to come out of the drawer. Not another PDF, but something that is still right next year. Then comes the question of which software fits. There is plenty of choice: from a shared folder of documents to a complete platform. You only notice the wrong choice after a year, when nobody opens the playbook anymore. This article gives you eight questions to test a tool against before you choose.

## What is sales playbook software?

Sales playbook software is a program in which you capture how you sell, and that shares that method with your team: the promise, the phases with their exit criteria , the activities per phase, the rhythm, the roles and the KPIs. The difference with a document is that the parts are connected, that versions are kept and that your team reads it at the moment it is needed. The difference with a CRM is that it does not record what happens, but describes what should happen.

The words run into each other: sales handbook, sales playbook, commercial manual, sales enablement platform. What actually belongs in such a playbook? That is in the article creating a sales playbook: what goes in it? . This article is about choosing the tool.

## Content first, then the tool

The most important warning up front: software does not make a method. If you do not know what your promise is or when a phase is done, no tool will help. So start with the content, or start with a tool that forces you to build the content in the right order. An empty wiki does not do that. A platform with a fixed structure does.

Also look at what is already there. Old presentations, an onboarding folder, quote templates and the notes of your best sales rep together are often half of your first version. A good tool lets you use those documents as a source, instead of typing everything again.

## Eight questions before you choose

Ask these questions of every tool you look at, including the shared folder you use now. Write the answers side by side.

- 1. Who owns the content? A playbook has one person who confirms changes, usually the commercial leader. Can the tool enforce that, with roles and permissions? Or can everyone change everything, so that after six months nobody knows what applies?

- 2. Are the parts connected? If you change a phase, the activities, the KPIs and the job profile that build on it need another look. Does the tool show that, or do you have to remember it yourself? In a document, nobody remembers.

- 3. How does it stay current? A playbook ages in a year. Does the tool have a fixed rhythm for going through parts, for example per quarter? Does it keep versions, so you can see what changed when and why?

- 4. How does the team read along? Sales reps do not want an extra login for a playbook. Can you share via a link, as a document or on paper, without every sales rep needing an account? Can you revoke a link again?

- 5. What does AI do, and what does it not do? AI can draft proposals from your existing documents and summarize meetings. Ask what goes to the AI provider, whether names of employees and candidates are removed, and whether the tool can change anything without you confirming it. A proposal is fine, an automatic change is not.

- 6. Where is the data? Your way of selling is company knowledge, and a job profile or onboarding track contains data about people. Ask in which region the data is stored, whether every organization is separated, which retention periods apply and whether you can export everything if you stop.

- 7. Does it also work for hiring, onboarding and coaching? The playbook is the frame for who you hire, how you onboard someone and what you coach on. Can the tool do something with that, for example build a job profile or an onboarding program from the method? Or does it stop at reading?

- 8. What does it really cost? Do not count only the license. Count the hours to fill it, the hours to maintain it and what it costs if it is in the drawer after a year. A free folder that nobody maintains is more expensive than it looks.

## Document, wiki or platform: three flavors

In practice you come across three kinds of solutions. Each has a place, depending on how big your team is and how often the method changes.

- The document. A Word file or PDF in a shared folder. Quick to make, anyone can open it. Downside: no connections, no versions, no rhythm. Works for a team of three that talks every day, and even then it is in the drawer after a year. Read why in from PDF playbook to living sales document .

- The wiki or knowledge base. Pages you link together, with a search function. Easier to maintain than a document, but you have to design and guard the structure yourself. Nothing forces you to write the promise first and the KPIs last. Who may change what is often unclear.

- The platform. Software with a fixed structure for a way of selling, roles and permissions, versions, a rhythm for maintenance and ways to share. Takes more time to learn and asks you to accept the structure. Pays off as soon as your team is larger than five, new colleagues start regularly or the method also has to land in hiring and onboarding.

Which flavor fits depends less on your budget than on your rhythm. If something changes every quarter in how you sell, you need versions and connections. If nothing ever changes, the question is rather why not.

## A fictional example: a wholesaler chooses

Take a fictional technical wholesaler with twelve sales reps, inside sales and field sales, and two new colleagues every year. The playbook is a PDF from 2023 that mostly describes the CRM. The sales manager puts the eight questions next to three options: rewriting the PDF, a wiki on the existing intranet, or a platform.

- Owner. In the wiki, anyone can edit pages. That seems handy, but the sales manager wants to confirm changes herself. The wiki drops out here, unless they set permissions per page.

- Connections. The phases change next year, because a new product group is coming. In a PDF, the sales manager has to work out herself which activities and KPIs change as a result.

- Reading along. Field sales prefers to read on the phone, inside sales wants a card next to the screen. Neither wants an extra account.

- Hiring and onboarding. Two new colleagues a year means two onboarding programs. Right now everyone shadows a buddy, with mixed results.

The outcome in this example: the platform, because connections, versions and onboarding together weigh more than the lower cost of the wiki. Another team with three sales reps and a stable market might have chosen the wiki. The point is not which option wins, but that the choice is based on the same eight questions.

## Common mistakes when choosing

- Choosing on the demo. A nice demo says little about maintenance after a year. Ask how the tool helps you keep it up to date, not only how it helps you start.

- Letting the tool decide what goes in. Some tools are full of generic sales theory and templates. Your method is yours. You want to start with an empty, good structure, not with someone else's content you have to scrub out.

- Not letting the team look along. Sales reps know whether a playbook is usable. Have three of them read the content before you make anything final, and ask per part whether it is right.

- Wanting everything at once. A first version with the foundation, the phases and the win points is worth more than a complete playbook that is finished in a year. Choose a tool in which a half-filled playbook is already usable.

- Looking at privacy only afterwards. As soon as job profiles, applications or coaching conversations go into the tool, you are processing personal data. Arrange the data processing agreement, the retention periods and the permissions per role before you start, not after.

## What sales enablement means for SMBs

Sales enablement is everything your team needs to sell according to the method: the playbook, the documents, the training, the coaching and the information at the right moment. In large organizations it is a department with its own software and a content library. In SMBs it is usually one person, the commercial leader, who does it on top of everything else.

That changes what you ask of software. You do not need a library of a hundred trainings, but one place where your method lives and from which the playbook, the onboarding guide, the job profile and the agenda of the sales meeting follow. The fewer separate systems, the greater the chance it gets maintained. A tool that connects the playbook with hiring, onboarding and coaching saves exactly the time an SMB sales manager does not have.

## Checklist for your decision

- Content first. Do you know what the promise is and when a phase is done? If not, start there, possibly in the tool itself.

- Eight questions. Have you asked them of every option and put the answers side by side?

- Owner. Is there one person who confirms changes, and can the tool enforce that?

- Rhythm. Is there a fixed moment in the calendar to go through the playbook, and does the tool help with that?

- Team. Have three sales reps read the first version and said whether it is right?

- Data. Do you know where the data is, how long it stays and how you take it with you if you stop?

- Trial. Have you worked out one building layer or one phase completely in the tool, with real content, before you sign?

If you can answer yes to six of the seven, there is a good chance the playbook will still be used next year.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is the difference between sales playbook software and a CRM?

A CRM records what happens: contacts, deals, activities. Sales playbook software describes how you sell: promise, phases, exit criteria, rhythm, roles and KPIs. One does not replace the other. A good playbook feeds your CRM with phases, segments and contact cadence.

### Is a shared document not enough for a small sales team?

For a team of three that talks every day, a document can work, as long as one person maintains it. Experience shows it is no longer right after a year. As soon as new colleagues join or the method changes, you need versions and connections.

### What should I look for with AI in a sales playbook tool?

Three things: AI may make proposals, but change nothing without your confirmation. Names of employees and candidates should not go to an AI provider. And every proposal has to show its source, so you can check where it comes from.

### How long does it take to put a sales playbook into software?

A first usable version of the foundation, the phases and the win points is feasible in a quarter if you finish one or two parts per week. It is rarely complete, and it does not have to be. After that, maintenance takes twenty minutes per quarter, if the tool helps you with it.

## Capturing it

SalesDNA is built around these eight questions. The seven building layers enforce the order, from promise to KPIs. The owner confirms, four roles have their own permissions, and every confirmation is a version. If something changes early on, whatever builds on it is listed under Review after changes. Your team reads along via a personal link without an account, the quarterly check keeps the playbook current, and the workspaces turn it into job profiles, a hiring process and an onboarding program. AI proposes with a source, you confirm; names are removed before anything goes to AI. The data is stored in the EU, with fixed retention periods and a full export. See privacy & security .]]></content:encoded>
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    <item>
      <title>From PDF playbook to living sales document</title>
      <link>https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/van-pdf-naar-levend-handboek</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/van-pdf-naar-levend-handboek</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 28 Sep 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>All building layers</category>
      <description>Why a sales playbook as a PDF ends up in a drawer after a year, and how to turn it into a living document that is updated every quarter.</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[All building layers · 7 min read

# From PDF playbook to living sales document

Why the playbook ends up in the drawer, and what it takes to keep it alive.

SalesDNA editorial team · 28 September 2026

Almost every sales organization has had one: a sales playbook or commercial handbook, written with care, nicely designed and shared as a PDF. A year later nobody knows where it is. That is rarely down to the content. It is down to the form. In this article you read why a PDF playbook goes stale, what a living sales playbook does differently and how to start tomorrow with what you already have.

## Why a PDF playbook goes stale

- It is one moment in time. A PDF describes the method on the day it was finished. Every change after that means a new version nobody sends around anymore.

- Everything is disconnected. If you adjust the promise , the old one is still in chapter three, in the onboarding guide and in the kickoff presentation.

- Nobody owns it. The playbook was a project with an end date, not part of the work.

- The work changes faster than the document. New colleagues, a new industry, a different pricing strategy. After a few months the playbook describes a team that no longer exists.

You see the result in practice. New sales reps get the playbook on day one and hear from a colleague in week two that "it does not work like that anymore". From that moment nobody reads it.

## What a living playbook does differently

A living playbook is not a document, but a source that documents come from. The method sits in one place, in parts that build on each other. The playbook, the onboarding guide and the presentation are made from it and move along when the source changes.

That sounds like a technical difference. It is mostly a difference in habit. With a PDF you ask: when do we make a new version? With a living playbook you ask: is this part still right? That second question is smaller, which is why you ask it more often.

## Four things that keep it alive

- Parts that build on each other. If you change something at the front, you see what needs reviewing further on.

- Confirming. A change only counts when someone confirms it. That keeps it clear what applies.

- A fixed rhythm. A few questions every quarter, so the whole method comes around once a year.

- Signals from the work. Win/loss conversations and meetings show where the method no longer fits.

## From PDF to living playbook in five steps

You do not have to start over. This is how to go about it:

- Collect what exists. The old playbook, the onboarding guide, the kickoff slides, loose notes. Even half-outdated pieces are usable.

- Cut it into parts. Think of: who you are, the promise, the customer classification, the phases of the sales process, the contact cadence , the roles, the KPIs. Each part gets one place.

- Confirm each part. Read what is there and choose: still right, adjust or drop. Do not do this alone. A sales rep sees faster what goes differently in practice.

- Assign an owner. One person per building layer who proposes and confirms changes. Often that is the sales manager or commercial director, sometimes a senior sales rep.

- Rebuild the documents from the source. The playbook, the onboarding guide and the presentation now come from the same parts. If you adjust the source, the document moves along.

## A fictional example

A wholesaler with eight sales reps decides to serve a new industry: healthcare organizations. In the old situation, that goes out in an email and a presentation on the sales day. The playbook stays as it was.

In a living playbook it goes differently. The sales manager adds the industry in the sales foundation. The parts that build on it are then ready to be reviewed: the promise per industry, the customer classification, the regions. He walks through them in an hour, confirms what is right and adjusts two things. The onboarding guide for the new sales rep who starts next month already includes the healthcare industry. Nobody has to think of it.

The difference is not in the writing. That is about the same amount. The difference is that the change lands everywhere, and that you can look back at what changed and why.

## Common mistakes with a sales playbook

- Wanting too much at once. Rewriting an eighty-page playbook in one go rarely works. Start with the parts the team works with daily: phases, contact cadence, quote follow-up.

- Writing for the board. A playbook that mainly looks good in the boardroom is not used by a sales rep. Write for the person who calls a customer tomorrow.

- No owner after the launch. The project ends, the project leader moves on to something else, and the playbook stands still. Record the ownership in a role, not with a person.

- Changes only spoken. Something is agreed in the sales meeting , but it is written down nowhere. Six months later nobody remembers what the agreement was.

- Throwing away the old playbook. It holds years of experience. Even what no longer applies tells you something.

## Starting with what is already there

Do not throw away the old playbook. It is the best source for the first version. Upload it, have a proposal made per part and confirm what is still right. What is no longer right is immediately your first point for improvement.

A simple checklist for the first month:

- Week 1. Collect and upload the old pieces. Choose an owner.

- Week 2. Go through the sales foundation and sales process: is the promise right, are the phases right?

- Week 3. Activity matrix and organization: contact cadence, weekly rhythm, roles, meetings.

- Week 4. Make the first document from the source and share it with the team. Ask what is missing.

After that the quarterly rhythm keeps it up to date. You do not have to work on the playbook every week.

## How the playbook connects to the rest of your method

A playbook is the visible part. Underneath sits the method itself, in building layers that build on each other. The sales foundation decides who you are there for. The sales process and the customer journey decide how a customer moves from first contact to customer relationship. The activity matrix translates that into a week. Organization, people and steering make sure the team can do it and that you see whether it works.

Because the playbook comes from those building layers, it is never looser than the method. If someone adjusts the KPIs, the chapter on steering adjusts with it. That is exactly what goes wrong with a PDF.

## How you notice the playbook is alive

A few signals that it is working:

- Sales reps refer to it. In a meeting someone says: "That is in the contact cadence." Then it has become a shared agreement.

- Changes have a date and a reason. You can look back at why something changed.

- New colleagues ask fewer basic questions. They find the answer themselves.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is the difference between a sales playbook and a sales handbook?

In practice they are used interchangeably. A playbook is often more practical: which step you take when. A handbook also describes the why. A living playbook can deliver both from the same source.

### How often should you update a sales playbook?

One part every quarter is doable for most teams. That way the whole method comes around once a year. Big changes, such as a new industry or a new role, you process right away.

### Who owns the commercial playbook?

Usually the commercial leader. They do not have to write everything themselves, but they do confirm what applies. Sales reps can make proposals.

### Can I reuse my existing playbook?

Yes. The old playbook is the best start. You cut it into parts and confirm per part what is still right.

In SalesDNA your method sits in seven building layers, from Sales foundation to Steering. With the templates you make a sales process playbook, an onboarding guide or a kickoff presentation from it, and they move along when you adjust a building block. The timeline per building block keeps every confirmed version, and the Quarterly check makes sure everything comes around once a year.]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>KPIs per phase: what do you really steer on?</title>
      <link>https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/kpis-per-fase</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/kpis-per-fase</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 28 Sep 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Building layer 7 · Steering</category>
      <description>Fewer KPIs, better steering: at most two KPIs per phase of your sales process, each with a norm, a data source and an owner.</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Building layer 7 · Steering · 7 min read

# KPIs per phase: what do you really steer on?

At most two KPIs per phase, each with a norm, a data source and an owner.

SalesDNA editorial team · 28 September 2026

Many sales dashboards show twenty numbers. Everyone looks at them, nobody steers on them. Whoever chooses at most two KPIs per phase of the sales process knows exactly what the conversation should be about when a number deviates. In this article you read how to choose KPIs per phase, how to attach a norm to them and how to steer on them in the weekly meeting.

## Why KPIs per phase

A KPI like "revenue" tells you something is wrong, not where. A KPI per phase points to the spot. If the conversion from proposal to decision drops, you know the conversation should be about quotes, not about prospecting.

Revenue is an outcome. You only see it when it is too late to do anything about it. A KPI in an early phase shows earlier that something is shifting. Fewer new conversations in March often only shows up in June's revenue.

## Every KPI has four parts

- The measure. What exactly do you measure? "Quotes discussed in a conversation, as a share of all quotes sent."

- The norm. What is good enough? "100 percent."

- The data source. Where does the number come from? The CRM, a list, a sample.

- The owner. Who looks at it and holds others to it? Record that as a role, not as a name. Then the KPI stays in place when someone leaves.

A KPI without a norm is a number. A KPI without an owner is a number nobody looks at.

## Four kinds of KPIs

It helps to know what kind of number you are choosing. There are four:

- Activity. What do we do? Number of new conversations, number of visits, number of quotes.

- Conversion. How much gets through to the next phase? From conversation to proposal, from proposal to decision.

- Result. What does it deliver? Deals won, revenue, margin.

- Cycle time. How long does it take? Days between quote and decision, days between request and first conversation.

A good set per phase usually has one activity and one conversion. You mainly need result KPIs at the end. Cycle time is useful in the phases where deals get stuck.

## Examples of KPIs per phase

- Explore. New conversations with prospects per month, with a norm per account manager.

- Proposal. Share of quotes that was discussed in a conversation.

- Decision. Conversion from proposal to decision, and the share of lost deals with a recorded reason.

- Customer relationship. Contact cadence met per customer class.

- Whole customer journey. Win points carried out.

## You set the norms yourself

Start with the norms you already meet in a good month, not with ambitious targets. Adjust them every quarter. That way the KPIs steer behavior, instead of turning red every month and being ignored.

Work with three zones instead of one number. Healthy means: do nothing, well done. Attention means: ask about it briefly in the meeting. Risk means: look at what is going on together, now. That way everyone knows in advance what a number means, and you do not have to debate every week whether 70 percent is good or bad.

## Choosing your KPIs per phase step by step

- Get your phases out. Without clear phases with an exit criterion you do not know what you are measuring. Start there if that is not done yet.

- Ask per phase: where does it usually go wrong here? Deals that get stuck? Too little inflow? Quotes that are never discussed? The answer points to the KPI.

- Choose one or two KPIs per phase. Cross out the rest, even if they are interesting.

- Check the data source. Can you get the number out of the CRM without extra work? If not, choose a sample or a simpler measure.

- Get the current figure. Look back three months. What was a good month, what was a bad one? Your zones come from that.

- Assign an owner per KPI. Usually the role with the most influence on the number.

- Put them on the agenda. A KPI that does not come back in a fixed meeting disappears from view within two months.

## A worked example

A fictional example to show the form. A technical wholesaler with four account managers looks at the proposal phase. The KPI is: share of quotes above a certain amount that was discussed in a conversation within five working days.

The CRM shows 60 such quotes over the past quarter. For 33 of them a conversation is recorded within five days. That is 55 percent. The team agrees: healthy from 80 percent, attention between 60 and 80, risk below 60.

So in the weekly meeting the number is red. The conversation is then not about "working harder". It is about the question: why are we not managing to discuss the quote? Sometimes it is a scheduling issue. Sometimes someone is sending quotes to the wrong person. After two months the number stands at 72 percent, and in the same overview you see the conversion from proposal to decision moving along with it.

## Common mistakes

Too many KPIs. Ten numbers per phase means you do not really steer on any of them. Two is enough.

Measuring results only. Revenue and deals won matter, but there is little you can do about them within the week itself. Activity and conversion you can influence.

KPIs nobody can measure. If someone has to spend half a day in Excel every month, it stops after three months. Choose what the CRM already shows, or make the measure simpler.

Settling scores instead of discussing. A red number is a question, not a verdict. Whoever uses KPIs to call people out on their failures gets numbers that look better than reality.

Never adjusting. A norm that has been green for a year no longer steers anything. Neither does a norm that has been red for a year.

## How KPIs per phase connect to the rest

KPIs stand at the end of the line. They build on what you captured earlier. The phases and their exit criteria come from building layer 2. The win points from building layer 3 give you something to count: were they carried out or not? The contact cadence and quote follow-up from building layer 4 provide norms you can follow as a KPI. And the roles from building layer 5 decide who the owner is.

That works both ways. If a KPI is off, the cause often lies earlier in the line. A phase without a clear exit criterion gives a conversion nobody can rely on.

## Starting tomorrow

- Choose one phase. The phase where the pinch is greatest right now.

- Choose one KPI. Write down the measure, the norm, the data source and the owner.

- Get the figure for the past quarter. That is your starting point.

- Discuss it in the weekly meeting for four weeks. Five minutes each time. After that you know whether the KPI helps, and you add the next phase.

## Frequently asked questions

### How many sales KPIs do you need?

One or two per phase. With five or six phases that comes to eight to twelve KPIs in total. More than that a team cannot keep track of in a weekly meeting.

### What is the difference between a KPI and a target?

A target is a goal, often a result such as revenue. A KPI is a number that shows whether you are on track. The norm attached to a KPI works as a target for behavior, for instance the number of quotes discussed.

### How do you set a good norm for a KPI?

Look at what you already achieve in a good month. Start there, and adjust every quarter. A norm nobody meets is ignored after a few weeks.

### How often do you discuss KPIs with your sales team?

Activity KPIs weekly, conversion and cycle time monthly, results per quarter. Keep it short. Only discuss what is on attention or risk.

Capture the KPIs in KPIs per phase of building layer 7 , with for each KPI the kind, the data source, the owner and the thresholds for healthy, attention and risk. If you change a phase or an exit criterion later, the KPIs that belong to it are ready to be reviewed.]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Onboarding in 90 days on your own method</title>
      <link>https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/inwerken-in-90-dagen</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/inwerken-in-90-dagen</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 28 Sep 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Building layer 6 · People</category>
      <description>Onboarding a new account manager on the method instead of by shadowing: a 90-day program, building layer by building layer, with fixed moments.</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Building layer 6 · People · 7 min read

# Onboarding in 90 days on your own method

A new colleague learns the method, not the habits of their buddy. Building layer by building layer, in three months.

SalesDNA editorial team · 28 September 2026

Most new account managers are onboarded by shadowing. That feels practical, but they learn the habits of their buddy, not the method of the organization. Whoever onboards on the method gets a team that does the same things, even when it grows fast. A 90-day onboarding program gives that a fixed form.

## Why shadowing alone is not enough

Shadowing is valuable. You see how an experienced colleague runs a conversation and how customers respond. It goes wrong when shadowing is the whole program.

Every sales rep has their own habits. Some are worth gold, others once grew out of convenience. A new colleague cannot see that difference. They take over everything. After three months you have a second version of the buddy, not someone who works by your method.

On top of that, a buddy is busy. Explaining happens in between things. What they forget to mention, the new colleague only learns when it goes wrong. I see this often: a new account manager who only hears after six months that there is a fixed exit criterion for a phase.

## The principle: onboarding building layer by building layer

A good onboarding program follows the same structure as the method. First who we are and what we promise, then how the sales process runs, then what we do just a bit differently at the customer. Only after that the rhythm of the week and the numbers.

That order is no accident. Whoever knows the promise understands why a phase is set up the way it is. Whoever knows the phases understands why a win point falls at that point. And whoever understands all that sees a KPI as a tool, not as a reckoning.

## Day 1 to 30: understanding

- Week 1. Promise, core values and the company story. At the end of the week the new colleague retells the story themselves.

- Week 2. The phases and exit criteria. Shadowing two colleagues, with the assignment to name for each conversation which phase it was in.

- Weeks 3 and 4. The win points, seen at customers. Carrying out one moment themselves under supervision.

So shadowing does belong here, but with an assignment. The new colleague does not just watch, they name what they see in the language of the method.

## Day 31 to 60: doing

- Own portfolio. A small portfolio of C and B customers, following the contact cadence .

- Weekly one-on-one. With the sales manager , about one exit criterion and one win point.

- Sales meeting. Taking part with a deal of their own, which they explain themselves.

Start with C and B customers for a good reason. Mistakes are less expensive here. And the new colleague builds confidence before sitting at the table with the most important customers.

## Day 61 to 90: independent

- Full portfolio. Including A customers, with a warm handover by the previous account manager.

- Own KPIs per phase. With the same norms as the team.

- Evaluation on day 90. What helped, what was missing? The outcome improves the program for the next colleague.

## A fictional example: Sanne at an installation company

Sanne starts as an account manager at a fictional installation company with twenty employees. The company promises maintenance without surprises. One of the win points: a free baseline inspection of the installation for every new customer, discussed at the kitchen table or at the office.

In week 1 Sanne reads the company story and the promise. On Friday she retells it to the managing director. She forgets to mention the baseline inspection. That is exactly what you want to see: now you know what to give extra attention in week 2.

In week 3 she shadows two baseline inspections. In week 4 she does one herself, with a colleague next to her who only steps in when needed. Afterwards they discuss one thing that went well and one thing for next time.

In month 2 she gets fifteen B and C customers. In the sales meeting she presents a deal in the quote phase. The sales manager does not ask how big the deal is, but whether the exit criterion of the previous phase has been met. That is how she learns to apply the method to her own work.

On day 90 Sanne says the explanation of the contact cadence came too late. She would have wanted to know it in month 1. The program moves that part to week 2. The next new colleague benefits right away.

## Common mistakes when onboarding account managers

Handing over the best customers too soon. It is tempting. The new colleague is there, the previous account manager is busy. But an A customer who gets an uncertain new contact notices. Wait until month 3, or do the first conversations together.

Wanting to tell everything in the first week. Nobody reads an eighty-page binder properly on day 1. Pace it. One building layer at a time, and let the new colleague tell it back.

No fixed moments with the sales manager. Without a calendar appointment, the one-on-one keeps slipping. Put the conversations for all 90 days in the calendar in advance.

Never updating the program. The method changes, the onboarding program stays behind. A new colleague then learns how things went last year.

## How to start tomorrow: a checklist

You do not have to wait until a new colleague starts. With these steps the program is ready before anyone begins.

- Write down the company story. One page: where you come from, what you promise, for whom.

- List the phases with exit criteria. One sentence per phase: when is this phase done?

- Choose your win points. At most three, with for each moment who carries it out and when.

- Assign someone responsible for each week. Who gives the explanation, who takes the new colleague along?

- Schedule the conversations. Weekly one-on-ones and the evaluation on day 90 are fixed in advance.

- Decide on the starting portfolio. Which B and C customers are suitable to begin with?

## How the onboarding program connects to the other building layers

The onboarding program does not stand on its own. It draws its content from the rest of your method. The promise and core values come from building layer 1. The phases and exit criteria from building layer 2. The win points from building layer 3, the customer journey. The contact cadence from building layer 4. The role and the job profile from building layer 5. The KPIs per phase from building layer 7.

If something changes in one of those building layers, the onboarding program changes with it. That is the advantage of onboarding on the method: you do not have to maintain it in two places.

## Frequently asked questions

### How long does onboarding an account manager take?

Count on about three months until someone independently runs a full portfolio. With complex products or long sales cycles it can take longer. The 90-day program gives structure, but you can stretch the stages if needed.

### What belongs in a sales onboarding plan?

At the very least: the promise and core values, the phases of the sales process with exit criteria, the win points, the contact cadence, the KPIs per phase and a fixed rhythm of conversations with the sales manager. And an evaluation at the end.

### Who is responsible for onboarding new sales reps?

The sales manager owns the program. Colleagues take on parts, such as shadowing or demonstrating a win point. Agree each week who does what, otherwise it falls between the cracks.

### Does this also work for an inside sales employee?

Yes. The structure stays the same, the content adapts to the role. An inside sales employee gets the phases and moments they play a role in themselves, and KPIs that belong to that role.

## Capturing and sharing

Capture the program in the Onboarding program of building layer 6. With the template builder you turn it into an onboarding guide that moves along as the method changes. The new colleague follows the program through a personal link, without an account of their own. You can read how that works at the onboarding program for sales staff . If someone leaves, you record in the new Knowledge transfer building block how the knowledge stays with the company: see knowledge transfer when a sales rep leaves .]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The 45-minute sales meeting</title>
      <link>https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/salesmeeting-45-minuten</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/salesmeeting-45-minuten</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 28 Sep 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Building layer 5 · Organization</category>
      <description>A weekly sales meeting that does not run over and does deliver: a fixed 45-minute agenda, with action items that are followed up.</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Building layer 5 · Organization · 7 min read

# The 45-minute sales meeting

A fixed agenda that runs the same every week, so the meeting is about customers and not about the meeting.

SalesDNA editorial team · 28 September 2026

The weekly sales meeting is often the most expensive meeting of the week: eight people, an hour, every week. Yet it regularly turns into who did what, instead of what has to happen this week. A fixed 45-minute agenda changes that. In this article you find that agenda, the roles, an example and the mistakes you can avoid.

## Why a 45-minute sales meeting

An hour invites running over and wandering off. With 45 minutes you force choices, and everyone keeps a quarter of an hour for the first customer conversation. The most important thing is not the length, but that the agenda is the same every week. Then everyone knows what is being asked and nobody arrives unprepared.

## The sales meeting agenda

- 5 minutes · Action items from last week. Only: done, not done, or moved to when. No discussion.

- 10 minutes · Numbers per phase. Where does the pipeline stand, which phase is behind the norm? One slide, always the same one.

- 15 minutes · Two deals in the spotlight. One deal that is stuck and one that is going well. What does the customer still have to do to move to the next phase?

- 10 minutes · One theme from the method. A win point , an exit criterion or a new norm. What works, what does not?

- 5 minutes · New action items. Who does what, and when? Repeated out loud and recorded.

## The roles in the meeting

Let the sales manager chair and a rotating colleague keep time. That person may interrupt when a topic runs over. That way the responsibility for a tight meeting does not rest with the manager alone.

Also appoint someone each week to bring in the two deals. Rotate that weekly. That way everyone learns to present a deal briefly and clearly: where it stands, what the customer's next step is, where the doubt is.

## Action items that are followed up

The first agenda item is the reason this works. Whoever knows their action item will be checked out loud next week carries it out. Record action items with an owner and a date, not as "we will look into".

A good action item fits on one line and starts with a verb. "Call the buyer at the construction company about the schedule, before Thursday, by the account manager for region North." You can tick that off next week. "Look into quote follow-up" you cannot.

## Preparation: ten minutes per person

A 45-minute sales meeting only works if everyone does something beforehand. It does not have to be much. Ask every sales rep to update three things by the afternoon before at the latest:

- The phase of every open deal. Does it match the exit criterion ? If not, back to the previous phase.

- Their own action items. Done, not done or moved, with a new date.

- One deal that needs help. Written down briefly: what is the situation, what have you tried already?

The manager prepares the slide with numbers per phase. That is the same slide every week, in the same order. Whoever shows something different every week makes it hard for the group to see differences.

## A fictional example

Take a wholesaler in technical products with five field sales reps and two inside sales colleagues. The sales meeting took an hour and a half every Monday. Everyone took turns telling about their week. After half an hour, half the room was looking at their phones.

The sales manager switches to the 45-minute agenda. The first week it runs over to an hour, because the deal discussion gets stuck on details. From week three they stay within the time. Action items get done more often, because they are checked every week. And the theme block produces something unexpected: inside sales turns out to follow up quotes differently from field sales. That becomes the theme for the next month.

This example is made up, but I see the pattern often. The gain is rarely in the time alone. It is in the meeting being about the customer instead of about the sales rep.

## Common mistakes in the sales meeting

- Everyone tells about their week. That feels engaged, but it is a report. Only ask about what deviates from the norm.

- The numbers are discussed, not used. If you see a phase falling behind, attach an action item to it. Otherwise it is just an observation.

- Deals are defended instead of examined. Ask questions about the customer, not about the sales rep. "What does the customer still have to do?" works better than "why is this taking so long?".

- The theme block gets dropped every week. That is exactly where the team learns. Guard those ten minutes as strictly as the rest.

- Personal matters in the group. If it is about someone's effort or results, discuss it in the one-on-one. Not in the sales meeting.

## How to start next week

- Send the agenda around in advance. With the five blocks and the times. Explain why you are going to do it differently.

- Choose the timekeeper. Ask someone who enjoys it. They may really interrupt the first time too.

- Make the slide with numbers per phase. Use the phases of your sales process, not the default phases from the CRM if they differ.

- Choose the first theme. Start with something small, like the exit criterion of one phase.

- Evaluate after four weeks. Ask the team what works and what does not. Adjust one thing, not everything at once.

## Online, at the office or hybrid

If your field sales team works from the car or from home, the sales meeting can also be online. The same agenda works fine there. It does take a bit of extra discipline.

- Cameras on. You see faster who is hesitating or wants to say something.

- One screen for everyone. The chair shares the slide with numbers per phase. Nobody has to look anything up themselves.

- No sales meeting from the car. Driving and thinking along do not mix well. Schedule the meeting before the first visit.

If part of the team is at the office and part is online, give the online participants the floor first for the action items. Otherwise they quickly drop out of the conversation.

## How the sales meeting connects to the rest of your method

The sales meeting does not stand alone. The numbers per phase come from your KPIs per phase in building layer 7. The themes come from your promise, your win points and your exit criteria. And the action items are often about the rhythm from building layer 4, such as contact cadence and quote follow-up. The better those building layers are captured, the easier the meeting becomes. You no longer have to agree every week on what you are watching.

## Frequently asked questions

### How long should a good sales meeting take?

For a weekly sales meeting, 45 minutes works well for most SMB teams. Enough for numbers, two deals and one theme. Longer is allowed, but then it often drifts into reporting.

### What do you discuss in a weekly sales meeting?

Action items from last week, the pipeline per phase, two deals, one theme from the method and new action items. Personal matters and extensive product information belong elsewhere.

### On which day is it best to schedule the sales meeting?

Many teams choose Monday morning, so the week has direction right away. If your field sales team is often at customers on Monday, Friday afternoon works too. Choose one fixed moment and stick to it.

### How do you keep a sales meeting from getting boring?

Let sales reps bring in deals themselves, rotate the timekeeper and give the theme block real room. A meeting about real customers is rarely boring.

## Capturing

Capture the agenda in the Meeting structure of building layer 5, together with the one-on-ones and the quarterly review. With the AI note-taker you turn a transcript into a report with action items in Meeting notes, and you see over several weeks which themes keep coming back. Read how that works at meeting and conversation notes with AI .]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Setting a contact cadence per customer class</title>
      <link>https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/contactritme-per-klantklasse</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/contactritme-per-klantklasse</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 28 Sep 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Building layer 3 · Activity matrix</category>
      <description>How often do you speak with which customer? How to divide customers into A, B and C by revenue and potential, and set the contact cadence per class.</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Building layer 3 · Activity matrix · 7 min read

# Setting a contact cadence per customer class

Attention by potential instead of by habit: dividing classes and agreeing on a cadence per class.

SalesDNA editorial team · 28 September 2026

An account manager has limited time. Without agreements, that time goes to the customers who call, who are nearby or who are pleasant company. Those are not always the customers with the most potential. A recorded contact cadence per customer class makes sure attention is divided deliberately. In this article you read how to classify customers, how to choose a contact frequency per class and how to check whether that cadence fits in a normal week.

## What goes wrong without a contact cadence

I see this often. The biggest customers get attention, because they ask for it. So do the smallest, because they call with questions. The middle group falls in between. That is often exactly where the growth is. And that is where quiet churn creeps in: a customer who orders less goes unnoticed until the annual figures come in.

A second pattern: every account manager has their own habit. One visits a lot, another calls a lot. To the customer it feels random. For you as sales manager it is hard to compare.

## Customer classes by revenue and potential

Do not classify customers by last year's revenue alone. Also look at potential: what could this customer buy if everything goes well? A simple classification:

- Class A. High revenue or high potential. This is where the growth and the risk are.

- Class B. Stable, with room to grow.

- Class C. Small, mostly maintenance.

Set the boundaries with numbers, for instance the top twenty percent on revenue plus potential as A. That way the classification can be explained and repeated.

Estimating potential feels hard. Keep it simple. Ask per customer: how much do they buy in total of what we supply, and what share of that comes to us? A rough estimate is enough. It is about the order, not the exact amount.

## A contact frequency per class

For each class, record how often you are in contact and through which channel. An example:

- A. Twelve contact moments a year, four of them visits.

- B. Six contact moments a year, two of them visits.

- C. Two contact moments a year, by phone or email.

Then do the math. How many A, B and C customers does an account manager have, and how many contact moments a week does that produce? If it does not fit in the week, the cadence is too heavy or the portfolio is too big. Better to find out now than in March.

## Worked example: does the contact cadence fit in the week?

A fictional account manager has 20 A customers, 40 B customers and 80 C customers. With the cadence above, that produces per year:

- A customers. 20 times 4 visits is 80 visits. Plus 20 times 8 other contacts is 160 calls.

- B customers. 40 times 2 visits is 80 visits. Plus 40 times 4 other contacts is 160 calls.

- C customers. 80 times 2 is 160 calls or emails.

Together that is 160 visits and 480 other contacts. Count on about 44 working weeks, and that is almost 4 visits and 11 calls a week. That is only the existing customer base. Prospecting, following up quotes and meetings come on top.

Does it fit? That depends on travel time and on what a visit costs. Sometimes it does. Often it turns out to be tight. Then you have three dials: fewer visits at B, more contact by phone or video, or moving part of the C customers to inside sales .

## What the contact is about

A cadence without content becomes a courtesy visit. Attach a goal to every type of contact: a quarterly visit to an A customer has a fixed agenda, a call to a C customer checks whether there are new needs. That way the customer also knows what to expect from you.

A few examples of goals per contact:

- Quarterly visit A. Look back on the past period, the customer's plans, one new topic to explore.

- Call B. Are there projects running, are there new contacts, is there room for an additional product?

- Contact C. Check satisfaction and notice whether the customer is growing. A C customer that grows may belong in B.

## Introducing a contact cadence in five steps

- Get the customer list. Revenue per customer over the past year, from your accounting system or CRM.

- Estimate the potential. Do this together with the account manager. They know the customer best.

- Divide into classes. Record the thresholds, so the classification still works next year.

- Choose a cadence and a goal per class. Frequency, channel and what role the contact plays.

- Calculate and test. Does it fit in the week? If not, adjust the cadence or the portfolio before you start.

## Common mistakes

- Classifying by revenue alone. Then a large customer without growth opportunities gets a lot of attention, and a small customer with a lot of potential too little.

- Too many classes. Five or six classes feel precise, but nobody remembers the difference between B2 and C1. Three or four is enough.

- Not doing the math on the cadence. A cadence that does not fit in the week is quietly dropped. After that it applies to nobody.

- Forgetting lost prospects. A prospect who said no can say yes a year later. Also record when you approach them again.

- Never reviewing the classification. The customer who was A three years ago may be C now. And the other way round.

## Re-contacting lost prospects

A contact cadence is usually about customers. Do not forget the prospects who said no earlier. A no is often a no for now: the budget was spent, the timing was wrong or there was still a contract running with someone else.

For each reason, record when you get back in touch and how. A few examples:

- No budget. Contact again just before the customer's next budget round.

- Contract with someone else. A few months before that contract ends.

- Chose a competitor. After six months, with a question about how it is going. Without pressure.

That way a lost deal becomes an appointment in the future, instead of a name that drops out of sight.

## Keeping track

Check every quarter whether the cadence is being met per class and per account manager. If it is structurally not met, that is not a failure of the sales rep but information about the classification or the cadence. Review the classes at least once a year: customers grow, shrink and change in potential.

The contact cadence does not stand alone. The account manager's weekly rhythm builds on it: how many visits a week, on which days, in which region. The KPIs can measure it too, for instance the percentage of A customers visited this quarter. So if you change the cadence, you also look at the week and the KPIs.

## Frequently asked questions

### How often should you visit a customer?

That depends on the customer class. A common starting point is four visits a year for A customers, two for B and no fixed visits for C. Then check whether it fits in the week.

### What is an ABC customer classification?

A division of customers into classes based on revenue and potential. A is the most important group, C the smallest. For each class you agree on its own contact cadence.

### How many customers can an account manager handle?

That follows from the cadence. Add up the contact moments per year and divide by the number of working weeks. If it does not fit alongside prospecting and meetings, the portfolio is too big.

### How often do you review the customer classification?

At least once a year. A customer that grows or shrinks strongly can be moved in between.

Capture the classification in the Account matrix of building layer 1 and the cadence in Contact cadence of building layer 4. If you change the classification, the cadence is ready to be reviewed. Weekly rhythm visits and Weekly rhythm meetings build on the contact cadence, and in KPIs per phase you can choose it as a data source. For your most important customers, the Account plans building block has belonged there since October.]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Writing a promise in one sentence</title>
      <link>https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/belofte-in-een-zin</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/belofte-in-een-zin</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 28 Sep 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Building layer 1 · Sales foundation</category>
      <description>Your promise decides the rest of your way of selling. How to write it in one sentence from the customer's point of view, with five examples and a test.</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Building layer 1 · Sales foundation · 7 min read

# Writing a promise in one sentence

The sentence your whole method rests on: written from the customer, testable and said the same way by everyone.

SalesDNA editorial team · 28 September 2026

Everything in a sales method builds on one sentence: what do you promise the customer? That sentence decides which win points you choose, how you run conversations and what goes in your playbook. Yet many organizations do not have it, or have five versions, depending on who you ask. In this article you read how to write a customer promise in one sentence, test it and make it land in your team.

## Why a promise in one sentence

A promise that does not fit in one sentence cannot be remembered by a sales rep, and so cannot be said out loud. And what is not said out loud does not exist for the customer. One sentence also forces you to choose: what do you leave out?

A promise is not a slogan. A slogan is for the outside, the promise is for your own team. It says what the customer may expect from you, every time. It does not have to sound nice. It does have to be true.

## Write the promise from the customer's point of view

The most common mistake is a sentence about yourself: "We are the specialist in…". A promise is about what the customer gets or no longer has to do. Three openers that help:

- "With us you always know…"

- "We make sure that…"

- "We take … completely off your hands."

## Five examples of a customer promise

Fictional examples from different industries, to show the form:

- Installation company. "With us you know where you stand within a day."

- Fall protection. "Everyone who works at height at our customers comes home safe every day."

- Wholesaler. "What you order before four o'clock is on the building site tomorrow morning."

- Business services. "We take your payroll completely off your hands, with no surprises."

- Software company. "Within thirty days your whole team is working with it, or we keep coming by until they are."

## How to write the sentence: five steps

You rarely write a good promise in one go. This order helps:

- Collect what customers say. Why did they choose you? Why did they stay? Look in emails, reviews and your sales reps' notes. Write down their words, not yours.

- Find the pattern. Often one thing keeps coming back: speed, certainty, taking work off their hands, expertise. That is your core.

- Write five variants. Use the openers above. Write fast, cut later.

- Pick one and make it shorter. Remove every word that adds nothing. "High-quality" and "optimal" can usually go.

- Let it sit for a week. Then read it aloud. Does it sound like something you would say at the table with a customer? Then you are on the right track.

## The test

Hold your sentence against these four questions:

- Checkable. Can a customer check whether you deliver on it?

- Yours. Could the competitor use exactly the same sentence? Then it is too generic.

- Memorable. Can every sales rep recite it from memory after reading it once?

- Directional. Does every win point you choose fit this sentence?

Then test the sentence with three sales reps and three customers. Ask the sales reps to repeat it in their own words. What comes back shows whether it lands.

## A fictional example: from four sentences to one

An installation company in commercial construction asks four people what they promise the customer. The managing director says "quality". The sales manager says "personal contact". A project leader says "we think along with you". An account manager says "we are fast".

They put the customer feedback from the past year next to it. What stands out? Customers mostly value knowing quickly where they stand: a price indication, a schedule, an answer about a breakdown. Speed in clarity, not in execution.

The sentence becomes: "With us you know where you stand within a day." After that the choices follow by themselves. One win point becomes the callback within four hours of a request. The exit criterion of the first phase gets a time attached. And in the onboarding program new people first learn how to deliver on that promise.

## Common mistakes with a customer promise

- Too much in one sentence. "Fast, reliable and personal" is three promises. Choose one. The other two may exist, but they are not the promise.

- Promising something you do not always deliver. A promise you break now and then costs more trust than no promise. Choose what you can deliver every time.

- The promise only on the website. If sales reps do not know it, it stays marketing. Discuss it in the sales meeting and in the onboarding program.

- Never adjusting it. Markets change. Look at it every year, for instance in the first quarter.

## How to make the promise land in your team

A sentence on paper changes nothing yet. What matters is that sales reps use it. That takes repetition, not a single presentation.

- Let the team co-write. People adopt a sentence faster when they have worked on it themselves. Present two or three variants and let the team choose.

- Ask for examples. Have every sales rep tell about a customer situation where you delivered on the promise. And one where it just did not work out.

- Use it in conversations. Let sales reps practice how they bring the promise into a first conversation, in their own words.

- Come back to it. Make the promise the theme of the sales meeting a few times a year. Where do we deliver on it, where not?

If you notice a colleague does not say the promise, first ask why. Sometimes the sentence does not match what they see at customers. That is useful information, not unwillingness.

## Worksheet for your first session

Want to start tomorrow? Plan an hour with two or three people who have a lot of customer contact. Bring these questions:

- Why do customers choose us? Write down the literal words you hear from customers.

- What would a customer miss if we were gone tomorrow?

- What do we do that the competitor cannot or will not do?

- Which of these answers can we deliver on every time?

- Write one sentence. Use one of the openers and test it right away against the four questions above.

## What the promise does in the other building layers

The promise is the start of the chain. From the promise follow your win points in building layer 3: the moments where the customer notices you mean it. Your exit criteria in building layer 2 become sharper, because you know what you qualify on. And in building layer 6 you translate the promise into behavior: what does a sales rep do and not do? If you serve several industries, you can put a different accent on it per industry. The core stays the same sentence.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is the difference between a customer promise and a slogan?

A slogan is for the outside world and may play with words. A customer promise is for your team: what may the customer expect from you every time? It has to be checkable.

### How do you write a good value proposition for SMBs?

Start with what customers themselves say, find the pattern and write it down in one sentence from the customer's point of view. Then test it with sales reps and customers. Keep it short enough to say out loud.

### Can you have a different promise per target group?

Yes, as long as the core stays the same. Per industry you can put a different accent on it, for instance what speed means for a contractor or for a healthcare organization.

### How often do you adjust a customer promise?

Look at it deliberately once a year. Change it only if your offering or your customers have really changed. Nobody remembers a promise that changes every quarter.

## Capturing

Capture the promise in the Value and promise building block of building layer 1 . Because everything builds on it, a later change shows you right away which win points, conversations and documents need another look.]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Exit criteria: when is a phase really done?</title>
      <link>https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/afsluitcriteria</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/afsluitcriteria</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 28 Sep 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Building layer 2 · Sales process</category>
      <description>A sales process without exit criteria is a wish list. How to write a criterion per phase based on what the customer does, not the sales rep.</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Building layer 2 · Sales process · 6 min read

# Exit criteria: when is a phase really done?

Why a phase is only done when the customer has done something, and how to write that down per phase.

SalesDNA editorial team · 28 September 2026

Most sales organizations have phases: explore, proposal, negotiation, won. In the CRM every deal has a phase. But ask three sales reps when a deal moves from "explore" to "proposal" and you get three answers. Then your pipeline mostly measures how optimistic someone is. Exit criteria solve that. In this article you read what a good exit criterion is, how to write one per phase and how to make them work in practice.

## What an exit criterion is

An exit criterion describes when a phase is done. A good criterion describes something the customer has done, not something the sales rep has done. "Quote sent" says something about the sales rep. "The customer has discussed the quote with us and knows who decides" says something about the deal.

That distinction is the core. A sales rep can send a quote without the customer doing anything with it. A phase that depends on what the customer does predicts better whether the deal will go through.

## One exit criterion per phase

For each phase, write one sentence that starts with "Done when". Keep it concrete enough that someone else can check it. An example for a B2B sales process with five phases:

- Explore. Done when the customer has named a problem that fits our promise.

- Analyze. Done when we have seen the situation and know who decides.

- Proposal. Done when the customer has discussed the quote with us, not just received it.

- Decision. Done when there is a signed order, or a recorded reason for the loss.

- Start and retention. Done when the handover is complete and the first evaluation is scheduled.

## How to write exit criteria in five steps

- Write down the phases as you use them today. Even if they are messy. Look in the CRM at which phases exist and how often they are used.

- For each phase, take five deals that recently left it. What was true at the moment they moved on? What had the customer done or said?

- Draft a first "Done when". Use what the customer did, not what you did. Keep it to one sentence.

- Test it with the team. Put five open deals next to the criterion. Does everyone agree on which phase they are in? If not, the criterion is still too vague.

- Adjust the CRM. Put the criterion as an explanation next to the phase, so someone sees it at the moment they move a deal.

## A fictional example

An installation company with three account managers had the phase "Quote" in its CRM. Every deal with a quote sat there. The pipeline looked full. Yet every quarter revenue came in lower than the forecast .

Walking through the deals revealed the pattern. About half of the quotes had never been discussed with the customer. A request had come in, a price had been calculated, a quote had been sent. After that, silence.

The team rewrote the criterion to: "Done when the customer has discussed the quote with us and we know when they will decide." Deals that did not meet it stayed in the previous phase. The pipeline shrank considerably in one go. That felt bad at first. But the forecast was more accurate afterwards, and the account managers knew the next step for each deal: schedule a conversation.

## Common mistakes

Too many phases. More phases feels more precise, but makes the process heavier. Five to seven is enough for almost every organization.

Criteria that are an activity. "Demo given" is an activity. What has to be true after the demo? For example: "The customer has indicated which two parts weigh most heavily."

Forgetting the loss. A deal is also done when it is lost. Make "reason for loss recorded" part of the criterion, and you learn from every deal.

Criteria nobody can check. "The customer is enthusiastic" sounds good, but who decides that? Pick something you can see in a report, an email or an appointment in the calendar.

Criteria only the manager knows. If the criterion sits in a presentation and not in the CRM, nobody uses it at the moment it matters.

## Checklist for a good exit criterion

- Starts with "Done when". That forces you to describe an end state.

- Is about the customer. What have they done, said or decided?

- Is checkable. A colleague can see whether it is true without asking the sales rep.

- Is one sentence. Two conditions is fine, three becomes a form.

- Also covers the loss. Wherever a deal can stop, "reason recorded" is part of done.

## Starting with exit criteria tomorrow

You do not have to rewrite all phases at once. This is how to start small:

- Pick the phase where deals linger longest. That is where a sharp criterion pays off most.

- Write one "Done when" on a whiteboard. Ask in the next weekly meeting whether everyone agrees.

- Walk through the deals in that phase together. Which ones meet it, which do not? The latter move back one phase, without judgment.

- For each deal that does not meet it, ask: what does the customer still have to do? That is immediately the next action for the sales rep.

If it works after a month, take the next phase. That way the set grows by itself, and the team has lived through every step.

## What exit criteria deliver

With clear exit criteria you can trust forecasts more, you coach on something concrete ("what does the customer still have to do?") and a new colleague works by the same definitions from the first week.

It is also the backbone for the rest of your sales approach. The win points and the activities per phase in building layer 3 hang on the phases. Quote follow-up in building layer 4 is about what happens between proposal and decision. The roles in building layer 5 say who is in charge per phase. And the KPIs per phase in building layer 7 measure whether deals make it through the phases. Whoever has sharp exit criteria makes all those other parts easier.

## Frequently asked questions

### What are good phases for a B2B sales process?

There is no fixed set. Many SMBs end up with five to seven phases, from first contact to customer relationship . More important than the names is that every phase has a clear exit criterion.

### What is the difference between a phase and an activity?

A phase is a stretch of the road a deal travels. An activity is something you do to move the deal along. An exit criterion describes when the phase is done, not which activities you carry out to get there.

### How do you make your sales forecast more reliable?

Start with the phases. If a deal may only move to the next phase when the customer has done something, the pipeline says more about reality. After that you can look per phase at what share of deals moves on.

### How often do you adjust exit criteria?

Not often. Look at them every quarter, and adjust them when you notice deals regularly moving on without the criterion being met. A change calls for a short explanation to the whole team.

Capture the phases and their exit criteria in the Phases building block of building layer 2 . If you change a criterion later, you immediately see which activities and KPIs need another look.]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Win points: how to find the three moments that set you apart</title>
      <link>https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/winpunten</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/winpunten</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 28 Sep 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Building layer 4 · Customer journey</category>
      <description>A one-afternoon workshop with your sales team: from thirty ideas to three win points in the customer journey that you deliver every time.</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Building layer 4 · Customer journey · 7 min read

# Win points: how to find the three moments that set you apart

A one-afternoon workshop with your team: from thirty ideas to three moments you deliver every time.

SalesDNA editorial team · 28 September 2026

Ask five customers why they buy from you and you will often hear the same thing: "You are reliable", "The service is good". That is probably true, but your competitor says the same about themselves. A win point is something else. It is a concrete moment in the customer journey that you do just a bit differently, in a way a customer remembers and passes on.

## What a win point is, and what it is not

A win point is an action, not a trait. "We are customer-focused" is not a win point. "After every first quote we discuss it at the table, never by email alone" is. The difference: you cannot check the first one, you can check the second.

A good win point meets four requirements:

- Concrete. Someone who was not there can see whether it happened.

- Distinctive. The competitor does not do it, or not this way.

- Repeatable. It can be done for every customer, not just the biggest.

- Tied to your promise. It delivers on what you promise.

## Why win points work

Customers do not remember a whole relationship. They remember a few moments. The moment someone did something they did not expect. The moment they felt relieved.

If you leave those moments to chance, they happen sometimes. More often with one sales rep than with another. With win points you make them a fixed part of how you work. Every customer gets them, whoever the sales rep is.

There is another advantage. A win point gives your sales reps something to talk about. "We do things differently" becomes: "After the quote we come by to walk through it together. That way you know exactly what you are buying." That is a story a customer can retell.

## The workshop in four rounds

Plan a three-hour afternoon with four to eight people: sales reps, inside sales and someone who knows the delivery side. Put the phases of your sales process on a long strip of paper on the wall.

Round 1, collecting (45 minutes). Everyone writes down, on separate cards, moments when a customer was ever surprised or relieved. One moment per card. Stick them next to the phase they belong to. After forty-five minutes there are usually thirty to fifty cards on the wall.

Round 2, clustering (30 minutes). Merge cards that are about the same thing. Give each cluster a verb as its title: "discuss the quote at the table", "visit within 48 hours".

Round 3, testing (45 minutes). Run each cluster past the four requirements above. Whatever is not concrete or not distinctive drops out. Be strict: a moment the competitor also delivers is a basic promise, not a win point.

Round 4, choosing (30 minutes). Everyone gets three stickers. Choose the moments that contribute most to your promise and that you can carry out tomorrow. Keep three.

## From thirty to three win points

Three feels like few, but that is exactly the strength. Nobody remembers ten win points and nobody delivers them every time. Three you can train, check and celebrate. What dropped out is not gone: put it on a list for the next quarterly check .

For each moment, agree who carries it out and in which phase. A moment without an owner happens enthusiastically in the first month and less and less after that.

## A fictional example: three moments at a wholesaler

Take a fictional wholesaler in fastening materials. Their promise: "Your building site never comes to a halt because of us." After the workshop they keep three moments.

- In the orientation phase: a site visit. The account manager comes to look before writing a quote. He sees how people work and where things get stuck today.

- After the first order: a call on day three. Inside sales calls the site manager. Was everything delivered in full? Is anything missing?

- For emergencies: a fixed emergency line with a name. Not a general number, but one colleague who knows the customer.

All three are concrete, repeatable and deliver on the promise. The competitor delivers fast too. But none of the competitors calls back on day three.

What dropped out? "Fast delivery", for instance. Customers find it important, but everyone in the market promises it. It is a basic promise. It has to be good, but it does not set you apart.

## Common mistakes with win points

Writing down a trait instead of an action. "Personal contact" sounds good. But what exactly does someone do? Keep asking until you have a verb and a moment.

Choosing moments that only work for large customers. Dinner with the board is nice, but you do not do it for every customer. Then it is an exception, not a win point.

Letting only sales come up with the moments. Many strong moments sit with inside sales, the technician or planning. If you do not invite those people, you miss half.

Not measuring whether it happens. A moment nobody checks fades away. Keep track of how often it was carried out, for instance as an activity in your CRM.

## How to start tomorrow

No free afternoon? Start small. You can take these steps this week.

- Call three customers. Ask: "What has stayed with you from working with us?" Write the answers down word for word.

- Look for the moments. Which answers are about something you did, at a specific moment?

- Test against the four requirements. Concrete, distinctive, repeatable, tied to your promise.

- Pick one. Agree who carries it out, in which phase, from when.

- Plan the workshop. Put the afternoon with the team in the calendar six weeks from now.

## How win points connect to the other building layers

Win points belong to building layer 3, the customer journey. They build on your promise from building layer 1 and on the phases from building layer 2. Without a clear promise you do not know which moment matters. Without phases you do not know where it falls.

From there they carry through. In the activity matrix of building layer 4 a win point becomes a fixed activity per phase. In building layer 6 it comes back in the onboarding program and in coaching conversations. And in building layer 7 you can measure how often it happens.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is a win point in sales?

A win point is a concrete moment in the customer journey that you do differently from the competition. It is an action customers remember and pass on, and that delivers on your promise.

### How many win points should you have?

Start with three. That is enough to make the difference and few enough to deliver every time. If it works, you can add one later.

### What is the difference between a win point and a USP?

A USP is a trait you claim. A win point is something you do, at a fixed moment, for every customer. A good win point shows your USP instead of just naming it.

### How do you know whether a win point works?

Listen for whether customers mention it, for instance in win/loss conversations or during an evaluation. Also check whether it is carried out consistently. A moment nobody mentions may not be distinctive enough.

## Capturing and keeping track

Capture the three moments in the Win points building block of building layer 3, with for each moment the phase, the role and one sentence on why it belongs to your promise. From there they come back automatically in the activities per phase, in the playbook and in the card set you share with the team.

Check every quarter whether the moments are still being carried out and whether customers mention them. In win/loss conversations you quickly hear whether a moment works: customers who mention it have remembered it.]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Qualifying leads with four fixed questions</title>
      <link>https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/kwalificeren-met-vaste-criteria</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/kwalificeren-met-vaste-criteria</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 14 Sep 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Building layer 2 · Sales process</category>
      <description>Fewer quotes that go nowhere: four questions that tell your team after the first conversation whether a prospect is worth it, as an alternative to BANT.</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Building layer 2 · Sales process · 7 min read

# Qualifying leads with four fixed questions

Four questions after every first conversation, so your team applies the same bar before a quote goes out.

SalesDNA editorial team · 14 September 2026

A sales rep comes back from a first conversation and says: "Nice company, they are really interested." Two months and three quotes later it turns out there is no budget and someone else decides. That is not bad luck. It is a deal that was never properly qualified.

## What qualifying in sales is

Qualifying is establishing whether a prospect is worth investing time in. Not whether they are friendly or sound enthusiastic, but whether there is a real chance of an order that fits you. The earlier you know that, the less time you put into quotes that go nowhere.

Many teams know BANT: budget, authority, need and timeline. It is a good start, but it has two weak spots. In SMBs the budget often has not been set yet when you come in. And the four letters say nothing about whether the customer fits you.

## Qualifying with four fixed questions

Replace the loose letters with four questions a sales rep can answer after every first conversation:

- Is there a problem that fits our promise? In the customer's words, not yours. Can the sales rep retell the problem in one sentence?

- What does it cost the customer if nothing changes? Money, time, risk or frustration. Without a consequence there is no urgency.

- Who decides, and have we spoken to them or got them on the agenda? A name and a role, not "management".

- When does it have to be solved, and why then? A date with a reason is stronger than "sometime this year".

Budget comes up by itself with the second question. Whoever knows what the problem costs can also say what the solution may cost.

## How to ask the questions in the conversation

The four questions are for the sales rep, not to be read out word for word. A customer who gets a checklist fired at them shuts down. A few phrasings that feel natural in a first conversation:

- Problem. "What made you get in touch now?" or "What is not going the way you want at the moment?"

- Consequence. "What happens if this stays the way it is for the coming months?"

- Decision maker. "Who looks at this alongside you when it comes to a choice like this?"

- Timeline. "Is there a moment by which it has to be solved? What depends on that?"

If the sales rep does not know an answer yet, that is no problem. It is the first action for the next conversation.

## From questions to an exit criterion

Qualifying only works when the team applies the same bar. So make the four questions part of the exit criterion of your first phase. For example: "Done when the customer has named a problem that fits our promise, we know who decides and there is a date with a reason."

If the answer to one of the questions is still "I don't know", the deal stays in the first phase. No quote goes out. That feels strict, but it keeps your pipeline honest.

## Saying no is part of it

A well-qualified pipeline is often smaller than sales reps are used to. That is the point. A prospect who does not fit, you can politely tell that you are not the best party. Record why, and agree when you will approach them again.

Two things help to make this land in the team:

- Discuss dropped prospects in the sales meeting. Not as failure, but as a deliberate choice. That way saying no becomes normal.

- Look back after a quarter. How many deals that passed qualification were won? And how many that did not pass came back later anyway?

## Do the math

A worked example: an installation company with six account managers sends out three hundred quotes a year. Suppose a third of those go to prospects who had already dropped out on the four questions. If every quote costs four hours of calculation and follow-up, that is almost seventy hours a year per sales rep. That time can go to the A prospects that do fit.

## A fictional example from practice

An account manager at a fictional supplier of workwear has a first conversation with a logistics company. The buyer is enthusiastic and would like a quote. In the past, that would have gone out the same week.

Now the account manager runs through the four questions. The problem is clear: clothing wears out too fast and is not replaced on time. The consequence too: employees complain and there is a complaint from the occupational health service. But who decides? That turns out to be the operations director, and he was not in the room. And the timeline is "sometime this year".

The deal stays in phase one. The next action is an appointment with the director, with the question of when the occupational health service comes back. That becomes the date with a reason. Only then does a quote go out, and it lands with the right person.

## Common mistakes in qualifying

- Qualifying as a one-off step. A deal can still change color later. A new decision maker or a shifted budget calls for another look. Run through the questions briefly at every phase change.

- Confusing enthusiasm with willingness to buy. A friendly contact is nice, but says little about whether an order will come.

- Everyone their own bar. If one sales rep qualifies more strictly than another, your pipeline tells you nothing. Agree on one definition and discuss borderline cases together.

- Qualifying as rejecting. The goal is not to cross off as many prospects as possible. The goal is knowing where your time pays off most.

## How to start qualifying tomorrow

- Take the open deals in your first two phases. Answer the four questions for each deal, together with the sales rep.

- Mark every "I don't know". That becomes the first action for the next conversation.

- Write down the exit criterion of phase one. Use the four questions as the basis and make it fit your customers.

- Discuss it in the sales meeting. Let the team think along about the wording. Then it becomes their bar.

- Look back after a quarter. Are you winning more of the deals you did let through? Then it works.

## How qualifying connects to your other building layers

The first question leans on your promise from building layer 1. Without a clear promise you do not know when a problem fits. Your account matrix and industries help you see in advance which prospects are most promising. And in building layer 7 you can attach a KPI to phase one, for instance the share of first conversations that passes qualification. That way you see whether the bar is set right: too strict, too loose or just right.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is qualifying in sales?

Establishing whether a prospect is worth investing time in. Is there a fitting problem, a consequence, a known decision maker and a timeline with a reason? Then the prospect is qualified.

### Is BANT still useful for SMBs?

As a start, yes. But in SMBs the budget is often not fixed yet, and BANT says nothing about whether the customer fits you. Four questions about problem, consequence, decision maker and timeline usually work better.

### When do you qualify a lead?

After the first real conversation, and then briefly at every phase change. That way you see in time when something changes.

### How do you say no to a prospect who does not fit?

Honestly and kindly. Explain why you are not the best party, and name who is if you can. Agree when you will get back in touch.

## Capturing

Capture the four questions as the exit criterion of your first phase in the Phases building block of building layer 2. Who approaches prospects again after they dropped out, you record under Contact cadence in building layer 4, and how fast and by whom a new lead is followed up in the new Lead follow-up building block of building layer 4. If you change a question later, you see which activities and KPIs belong to it.]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>A forecast that is right: how to run the pipeline review</title>
      <link>https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/forecast-die-klopt</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/forecast-die-klopt</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 31 Aug 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Building layer 7 · Steering</category>
      <description>Why your forecast mostly measures optimism, and how exit criteria, your own win probabilities and a fixed pipeline review give you an honest pipeline.</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Building layer 7 · Steering · 7 min read

# A forecast that is right: how to run the pipeline review

Three rules for an honest pipeline and a fixed review that is about what the customer does, not what the sales rep hopes.

SalesDNA editorial team · 31 August 2026

It is the last week of the quarter. The forecast said four big deals would close. One closes. The other three slide into next quarter, just like last quarter. Management asks what went wrong. The honest answer: the forecast mostly measured how optimistic the sales reps were. In this article you read how to build a sales forecast that is right, with an honest pipeline, a fixed pipeline review and win probabilities from your own numbers.

## Why a sales forecast is wrong

Most forecasts are built on two things: the phase in the CRM and a win probability per phase. Both are filled in by the sales rep. Without a fixed definition of when a deal is in a phase, that is an estimate. And whoever has a target rarely estimates low.

On top of that, deals rarely drop out in one go. They stay put. A four-month-old quote still counts, because nobody dares to mark it as lost.

That is not unwillingness. A sales rep who marks a deal as lost also loses a bit of hope. And in many teams an empty pipeline feels like a bad conversation with the manager. So the deal stays.

## Three rules for an honest pipeline

- A phase only counts when the exit criterion has been met. A deal is in "proposal" when the customer has discussed the quote with you, not when it has been sent.

- Every deal has a next step with a date. A deal without an agreed next step is standing still, however good the conversation felt.

- A deal that sits in a phase too long gets discussed. Set per phase what too long means. For example: a quote with no response after six weeks goes on the list for the pipeline review.

## The pipeline review

A forecast only becomes reliable when you walk through the pipeline together regularly. Not all deals, but the deals that matter. A fixed setup of half an hour per sales rep, once every two weeks:

- The deals for this quarter. One question per deal: what does the customer still have to do before he signs? If the sales rep cannot answer that, the deal does not belong in this quarter.

- The deals standing still. What is the next step, and who takes it? If there is none, mark the deal as lost with a reason. That is not failure, it is information.

- What is shifting. Which deals moved from this quarter to the next, and why? If the same reason keeps coming back, that says something about your process.

In the review, ask questions about what the customer does, not about what the sales rep thinks. "How sure are you?" produces a feeling. "When did the customer say he will decide?" produces a fact.

A few questions that work in every review:

- Who decides? And has the sales rep spoken to that person himself?

- What happens if the customer does nothing? If there is no reason to choose now, the deal usually slides.

- What is the agreed next step? With a date, and who takes it.

- What could still stop this? Budget, a colleague who still has to agree, a competitor.

## Win probabilities from your own numbers

Do not use standard percentages like 20, 50 and 80 percent. Look back at the past year: how many deals that entered "proposal" were eventually won? That is your own percentage. It is often lower than you thought, and exactly for that reason more reliable.

A worked example: of a hundred deals that entered the proposal phase last year, thirty were won. If there are now twenty deals in proposal worth 400,000 euros together, an expectation of 120,000 euros is more realistic than the sum of what sales reps hope.

If you have little history, start with what you have. Six months of numbers beats a standard percentage from a book. Recalculate it every quarter. After a year you have a number you can build on.

## Building a forecast in five steps

- Set the phases and exit criteria. What has to have happened before a deal may move to the next phase? Write it down in terms of what the customer does.

- Clean up the pipeline. Go through all open deals. No next step and no response in months? Mark them as lost, with a reason.

- Calculate your conversion per phase. Look back over the past year. How many deals went from each phase to won?

- Set a maximum duration per phase. A deal that sits longer goes on the review list.

- Schedule the pipeline review. Fixed moment, fixed setup, once every two weeks. Keep it short.

## How the forecast connects to your sales process

A forecast is only as good as the process underneath it. The phases and exit criteria come from your sales process. The time a sales rep spends on follow-up comes from your activity matrix, for example the agreements on quote follow-up. The pipeline review belongs in your meeting structure, with a fixed frequency and a fixed agenda.

That is why it helps not to improve the forecast in isolation. If a phase is wrong, the conversion is wrong too. And if many deals keep dropping out in one phase, that is a question for the process, not only for the sales rep. Sometimes the answer is a better exit criterion, sometimes an extra contact moment.

## Common mistakes in forecasting

- Mixing up forecast and target. The target is what you want. The forecast is what you expect. Whoever sets the forecast equal to the target only sees a shortfall when it is too late.

- Looking only at the total amount. A big pipeline says little if half of it has been standing still for months. Also look at age and next steps.

- The review as an interrogation. Sales reps who have to defend themselves give socially desirable answers. Ask about the customer, not about the person.

- Not analyzing lost deals. The reason for a loss is the best source for improving your process. Record it, every time.

- Treating the CRM as the truth. The CRM is only as good as what is in it. Without exit criteria it mostly measures how the team interprets the phases.

## What it delivers

A forecast that is right brings calm. You know earlier when a quarter is going to fall short and can still adjust. And the pipeline review becomes a coaching moment instead of an interrogation, because the conversation is about concrete steps by the customer.

The conversation with management changes too. You can explain what a number is based on. And if it falls short, you can show where it went wrong: too little inflow, too long a cycle or a phase where many deals drop out.

## Frequently asked questions

### How do you build a reliable sales forecast?

With fixed exit criteria per phase, a next step with a date for every deal, win probabilities from your own history and a fixed pipeline review. Together they make the difference between hope and expectation.

### How often do you run a pipeline review?

Once every two weeks per sales rep works for many teams. Half an hour is enough if you limit yourself to the deals for this quarter and the deals standing still.

### Which win probabilities do you use per phase?

Your own. Look at how many deals from each phase were won in the past year. Standard percentages say nothing about your customers and your process.

### When do you mark a deal as lost?

When there is no agreed next step left and the customer does not respond within the period you have set per phase. Always record the reason.

Capture the conversion per phase and the norm for how long a deal may sit in a phase in KPIs per phase of building layer 7, with the CRM as data source and an owner per KPI. The exit criteria belong with Phases in building layer 2, the pipeline review itself in the Meeting structure of building layer 5. Because the KPIs build on your phases, a new exit criterion shows you straight away which norms you need to look at again.]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Capturing an ideal customer profile</title>
      <link>https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/ideaal-klantprofiel</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/ideaal-klantprofiel</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 17 Aug 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Building layer 1 · Sales foundation</category>
      <description>Who is your ideal customer? Derive the profile from your own customer base, with five criteria and thresholds that sort prospects into A, B and C.</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Building layer 1 · Sales foundation · 7 min read

# Capturing an ideal customer profile

Five criteria with verifiable thresholds, drawn from your best and worst customers today.

SalesDNA editorial team · 17 August 2026

Ask a sales team who their ideal customer is and you often hear: "Anyone who wants to buy." That is honest, but it helps nobody. An account manager with a hundred prospects on his list has to choose. Without a documented ideal customer profile, he picks whoever is easiest to reach, not whoever brings in the most.

## What an ideal customer profile is

An ideal customer profile describes the kind of organization where you deliver the most value and earn the most. It is about companies, not people. Who decides inside that company comes later in the sales process.

The profile is not a wish list. It is a filter. A prospect that does not fit can still become a customer, but does not get priority in your week.

## Five criteria for your ideal customer profile

Choose at most five criteria. More than that becomes a form nobody fills in. For most B2B companies in the SMB market, these work well:

- Industry. In which industries do you deliver on your promise best? Look at your ten best customers today.

- Size. Number of employees, locations or another measure that fits what you deliver. A wholesaler looks at construction sites, a software company at users.

- Trigger. Which situation makes a customer receptive? A move, new legislation, growth, a supplier that left.

- Region. Can you serve the customer the way you promise, including service and visits?

- Potential. What could this customer buy in three years if everything goes well?

Give every criterion a threshold you can check. "Big enough" is not a threshold. "At least twenty technicians on the payroll" is.

## How to find the criteria in your own customer base

You do not have to invent the profile. It is already in your numbers. Take your customer list and sort the customers by margin over the past two years. Then look at the top ten and the bottom ten.

- The top ten. What do they have in common? Industry, size, how they found you?

- The bottom ten. What do they have in common? You often see customers here who chose on price or who ask for a lot of service for little revenue.

- The most loyal customers. Which customers stayed with you the longest? That says something about where your promise lands best.

Do this with two or three sales reps in the room. They know which customers are a pleasure to work for and which ones drain energy. That is not in the numbers, but it belongs in the profile.

## Step by step to an ideal customer profile

Count on two sessions of ninety minutes. This is how to go about it:

- Get the numbers. Customers with revenue and margin over two years, plus industry and size. An export from your accounting system or CRM is enough.

- Sort by margin. Not by revenue. Mark the top and bottom ten.

- Look for patterns. Write down what you see per criterion. Which industries keep showing up at the top? Which size?

- Test with your sales reps. Do the patterns match what they notice in conversations? Where is the energy, where is the irritation?

- Set thresholds. Make every criterion measurable. A number, an industry code, a postal code area.

- Test on ten prospects. Sort them with your new profile. Does the outcome feel logical? If not, adjust a threshold.

## From profile to classes

With the criteria you can sort prospects into A, B and C. An example: a prospect that meets four or five criteria is A, three is B, fewer is C. The A prospects get most of your account managers' time, the C prospects at most an email per quarter.

Use the same logic as for your existing customers, so that a prospect who becomes a customer lands in the right class straight away. Otherwise you have two classifications that contradict each other.

## A fictional example: an installation company chooses

Take a fictional installation company in climate technology. The team thought their best customers were large offices. Those brought in the most revenue.

After sorting by margin, it looked different. At the top were healthcare organizations with one to three locations. They asked for fixed maintenance contracts and paid on time. The large offices sat in the middle. Lots of revenue, but hard bargaining and a lot of extra work that was difficult to invoice.

The profile became:

- Industry. Healthcare and education.

- Size. One to five locations, each with its own installation.

- Trigger. An expired maintenance contract or a renovation within two years.

- Region. Within an hour's drive of the office.

- Potential. At least one maintenance contract per year, with a chance of replacement.

The large offices remained customers. They were simply no longer actively pursued. The time that freed up went to healthcare organizations in the region.

## Common mistakes

Basing the profile on revenue alone. A large customer with a small margin and many complaints is not an ideal customer. Also look at margin and at how well your promise fits.

Not daring to narrow down. A profile that fits everyone filters nothing. Choosing feels like leaving customers behind. In practice, the right customers get more attention.

Writing the profile down once. Markets change. Check at least once a year whether your best customers still resemble the profile.

Not sharing the profile with marketing. If marketing generates leads outside the profile, your sales reps spend time on the wrong conversations. Make sure everyone uses the same definition.

## How to start tomorrow

You do not have to wait for a strategy session. Ask for an export of your customers with margin tomorrow. Sort them and look only at the top ten. Write down three things they have in common. Put that in front of your team at your next sales meeting and ask: "Do you recognize this?" After that conversation you have a first version. It is not perfect, but it is better than "anyone who wants to buy".

## How the customer profile connects to the other building layers

The ideal customer profile belongs to building layer 1, the Sales foundation. It sits next to your promise and your core values. That makes sense: your promise lands best with customers who suit you.

Further on, the profile carries through. The classes A, B and C determine the contact cadence and the activities in building layer 4. The prospecting norms and KPIs in building layer 7 build on it. And in building layer 2 it determines which prospects are allowed into the first phase of your sales process.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is an ideal customer profile (ICP)?

An ideal customer profile, or ICP, describes the kind of organization where you deliver the most value and earn the most. It is a filter for where your selling time goes.

### What is the difference between a customer profile and a persona?

A customer profile is about companies: industry, size, region. A persona is about the people inside that company: their role, concerns and questions. You start with the profile and work out the personas afterwards.

### How many criteria does a good ideal customer profile have?

Five is enough for most SMB companies. More makes the profile hard to use. More important than the number is that every criterion has a measurable threshold.

### How often do you update an ideal customer profile?

Look at it at least once a year, or sooner if your market changes. Compare your best customers today with the profile. If they no longer resemble it, it is time for an update.

## Capturing it

Capture the industries in the building block Industries and the criteria with their thresholds in the Account matrix of building layer 1 , on the tab for prospects. The profile itself, with its criteria and thresholds, has since October had its own place in the new building block Ideal customer of building layer 1. Because your prospecting norms, your prospect mix and your contact cadence build on it, a change shows you straight away what needs another look further on.]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Capturing the weekly rhythm of an account manager</title>
      <link>https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/weekritme-accountmanager</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/weekritme-accountmanager</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 03 Aug 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Building layer 3 · Activity matrix</category>
      <description>How to divide an account manager's week between visits, prospecting, follow-up and meetings, with fixed region days and a sample week.</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Building layer 3 · Activity matrix · 7 min read

# Capturing the weekly rhythm of an account manager

A fixed division of the week, so prospecting is not pushed aside by what is urgent.

SalesDNA editorial team · 3 August 2026

Monday morning, half past eight. An account manager opens his calendar and sees mostly empty slots. By Friday they are full: with customers who called, a quote that was urgent and a visit that happened to be nearby. At the end of the month it turns out that not a single new prospect has been spoken to. Nobody did anything wrong. There was just no rhythm. In this article you read how to set up a weekly rhythm for account managers, do the math on it and keep track of it.

## What a weekly rhythm for account managers is

A weekly rhythm sets how much time an account manager spends per week on which kind of work, and on which day. It is not a schedule down to the quarter hour. It is a division that makes sure the important work is not pushed aside by the urgent.

The difference with a personal plan: the rhythm applies to the role. Every account manager works with the same division, so that as a sales manager you can compare, adjust and onboard .

## Start with what is already set

You do not invent a weekly rhythm on its own. It follows from agreements you make elsewhere:

- The contact cadence per customer class. How many visits and calls do the A, B and C customers require per week?

- The prospecting norms. How many new conversations with prospects does an account manager have to hold per quarter?

- The quote follow-up. How much time does following up open quotes take?

- The meetings. Sales meeting , one-on-one and other fixed moments.

Add it up and see whether it fits. In many teams it turns out that the agreements together ask for more time than the week holds. Then you have to choose: a lighter rhythm, a smaller portfolio or work that goes to inside sales .

## Worked example: how much room is there in the week?

A fictional account manager works 40 hours. This is what the sum can look like:

- Customer visits. 5 visits of about ninety minutes each, plus travel time. About 12 hours in total.

- Calls with customers. 12 conversations of fifteen minutes, with preparation and notes. About 5 hours.

- Prospecting. Calling, preparing and 1 prospect visit. About 6 hours.

- Writing and following up quotes. About 6 hours.

- Meetings. Sales meeting, one-on-one, coordination with inside sales. About 4 hours.

- Administration and CRM. About 3 hours.

That is 36 hours. That leaves 4 hours for everything unexpected: a complaint, a rush delivery, a customer who calls. In most weeks that is too little. Then you see where the rhythm pinches, and you can choose before you start instead of afterwards.

## An example of a week

A fictional example for a field account manager with a region:

- Monday. Sales meeting, following up quotes, preparing the week's visits. No customer visits.

- Tuesday and Thursday. Region days: three to four visits in one area, at least one of them with a prospect.

- Wednesday. Calling morning for B and C customers, afternoon for new prospects.

- Friday. A visit to an A customer in the morning, then updating the CRM and planning next week.

It is not about this particular division. It is about there being a division that everyone knows, and about prospecting having a fixed place instead of whatever room is left over.

## Region days save the most time

Whoever plans visits the moment a customer calls, zigzags across the country. Visiting one region per day easily saves hours a week. Split the territory into regions and link each region to a fixed day. A customer who calls then gets an appointment on the day you are in the area anyway.

Customers get used to that faster than you think. A fixed day gives them something to hold on to as well. For a real emergency you make an exception. It then stays an exception.

## Setting up a weekly rhythm in six steps

- Collect the agreements. Contact cadence , prospecting norms, quote follow-up and meetings. Put them on one sheet.

- Convert to a week. Divide annual and quarterly agreements by the number of working weeks.

- Add up the hours. Including travel time, preparation and notes. Those are often forgotten.

- Choose fixed days. Region days for visits, a fixed moment for prospecting, a fixed slot for meetings.

- Discuss it with the team. Account managers see faster what does not work in practice. Adjust where they are right.

- Try it for a quarter. Then look together at what worked and what did not.

Want to start tomorrow? Ask every account manager for their calendar of the past four weeks. Count together how much time went to visits, calls, prospecting, quotes and meetings. Put that next to the agreements. The difference is your starting point, and the conversation about it often delivers more than the schedule itself.

## Common mistakes in weekly planning

- Prospecting as the leftover. If there is time left, we will prospect. There is never time left. Give prospecting a fixed place in the week.

- Not counting travel time. Five visits a day looks feasible on paper. With an hour of driving in between, it is not.

- Forgetting meetings. Sales meetings, one-on-ones and coordination with inside sales together easily add up to half a day.

- Using the rhythm as control. An account manager who deviates for a week usually has a good reason. Look at the pattern over months, not at one week.

- A separate rhythm for every account manager. Small differences per region are fine. But without a shared basis you cannot compare or onboard.

## How the weekly rhythm connects to the other building layers

The weekly rhythm is the point where the method becomes concrete. What you agree in other building layers has to find a place here somewhere.

- Sales foundation. The customer classification determines which customers get a fixed cadence and which do not.

- Activity matrix. Contact cadence, prospecting norms and quote follow-up supply the numbers for the week.

- Organization. The meeting structure determines how much time goes to meetings. The roles determine which work belongs to inside sales.

- People. A new account manager grows into the full rhythm. Set in the onboarding program how fast.

- Steering. KPIs such as visits per week or prospect conversations per month measure whether the rhythm is met.

Change one of those agreements and the week changes with it. So after every change, check whether the rhythm still fits.

## Keeping track of the rhythm

A weekly rhythm is not met every week. It does not have to be. Check per month whether the division is roughly right, especially for prospecting. If it is off three months in a row, that is information. Maybe the rhythm is too heavy, or there is work in the week that belongs to another role.

The one-on-one is a good moment to discuss that. Do not ask why it was not met. Ask what filled the week. That answer says more about your organization than about the account manager.

## Frequently asked questions

### How many customer visits per week is normal for an account manager?

That differs a lot per industry and territory. Calculate it from your contact cadence and count travel time. A number that works at another company does not automatically fit yours.

### How much time should an account manager spend on prospecting?

That follows from your growth goal and your prospecting norms. More important than the exact number of hours is that prospecting has a fixed place in the week.

### What are region days?

Fixed days on which an account manager works in one region. It saves travel time and makes it predictable for customers when he is in the area.

### How do you make a weekly plan for field sales?

Start with the agreements that are already set: contact cadence, prospecting norms, quote follow-up and meetings. Convert them to a week, add up the hours and choose fixed days.

Capture the rhythm in Weekly rhythm visits and Weekly rhythm meetings of building layer 4 , with the regions in Region layout and the fixed days in Region days. Because the rhythm builds on Contact cadence and the Account matrix, a change to those shows you straight away that the weekly rhythm needs another look.]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>The customer journey after the deal: the first 100 days</title>
      <link>https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/klantreis-na-de-deal</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/klantreis-na-de-deal</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 20 Jul 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Building layer 4 · Customer journey</category>
      <description>After the signature, the customer decides whether your promise holds. Four fixed moments in the first 100 days, each with an owner and a role.</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Building layer 4 · Customer journey · 7 min read

# The customer journey after the deal: the first 100 days

Four fixed moments after the order, each with an owner, and a good place for a win point.

SalesDNA editorial team · 20 July 2026

The signature is in. The sales rep celebrates, marks the deal as won and moves on to the next one. For the customer, it is only just beginning. What he experiences in the first months decides whether he comes back, whether he recommends you and whether that second order ever comes. In this article you read how to set up the customer journey after the deal, with four fixed moments in the first 100 days.

## Why the customer journey does not stop at the order

Many customer journeys are drawn from the sales side. They start at first contact and end at the decision. But most revenue in SMBs comes from existing customers. The period after the deal is exactly where a customer decides whether your promise holds.

It is also the period where things often go wrong. The sales rep is gone, the delivery team does not know the exact agreements, and the customer has to tell his story again. Nobody does anything wrong, but nobody owns it.

## The first 100 days in four moments

You do not have to plan every day. Four fixed moments are enough to give the customer the feeling that you have things under control:

- Day 1 to 3: confirm. Within three working days the customer hears who will help him from here, what is going to happen and when. Preferably by phone, with a short email afterwards.

- Around delivery or start: be there. The sales rep or the regular contact is present at the start, or calls that day. The customer sees that the people from sales have not disappeared.

- Day 30: first evaluation. What is going well, what is disappointing? A short conversation with two or three fixed questions.

- Day 90 to 100: look back and look ahead. Has the customer's problem been solved? And what is coming up in the year ahead?

## An owner and a role for every moment

A moment without an owner happens the first time and never again. Capture per moment who does it: the account manager, inside sales , the project manager or the technical expert. Also capture exactly when: "within three working days of signing" can be carried out, "soon after the order" cannot.

Look at the handover while you are at it. What does the sales rep need to record so that the delivery team does not have to ask the customer again what he already told them? Think of the reason for buying, who decides and what was promised.

## How to set up the customer journey after the deal, step by step

- Look back at five recent customers. What did they hear from you after the signature, and when? Where was it quiet? Where did a complaint come in?

- Choose your four moments. Use the division above as a start, and shift the timing so it fits how you deliver.

- Write the goal of each moment in one sentence. For example for day 30: "We know what is going well and what the customer wants done differently, and we act on it within a week."

- Assign a role to each moment. Not a name, a role. Then it still stands when someone leaves.

- Decide what the sales rep hands over. Three or four fixed points, no more.

- Put the moments in the CRM or the calendar. Preferably automatically, as soon as a deal is marked as won.

## Three questions for the conversation on day 30

The conversation on day 30 does not have to take an hour. Fifteen minutes is often enough, as long as you ask the same questions every time. An example:

- What is going well? Let the customer start. You often hear something you can use, with other customers too.

- What is disappointing or different from what you expected? Keep asking. A small point now is a big complaint in three months.

- Is there anything we should know? New people, other plans, a move. The kind of things that otherwise only surface later.

Record the answers briefly. That way, whoever calls on day 90 can pick up where the last conversation ended.

## Where a win point fits

The first 100 days are a good place for a win point . The customer expects little here. A concrete moment that you do just a little differently stands out all the more. A few fictional examples to show the form:

- Wholesaler. After the first delivery, someone calls the foreman on the construction site to ask whether everything was complete.

- Software company. On day 30, someone drops by with an overview of what the team already uses and what it does not yet.

- Installation company. After handover, the customer receives a short video explanation, recorded on their own premises.

Choose one, not three. It has to be possible for every customer, not only the largest.

## Common mistakes after the deal

The sales rep disappears all at once. The customer has built a relationship with one person. If that person goes silent after the signature, it feels like a sales trick. A phone call at the start is often enough.

Evaluating only when there is a complaint. Then every conversation is about what went wrong. Plan the evaluation in advance, even when everything is going well.

Planning too many moments. Ten contact moments in three months is more than anyone keeps up. Four that always happen are worth more.

Doing everything for the big customers. A smaller customer can become the big customer of later. Choose moments you can carry out for everyone, and make the form lighter where needed.

## The step to up- and cross-sell

The conversation on day 90 is also the moment to hear what else is going on. Do not do that with a sales pitch, but with a question: what is on the agenda for next year? Whoever has done the first 100 days well gets an honest answer. That is the best way in to a next order.

After that, the customer moves into the regular contact cadence that belongs to his customer class. That way attention does not stop at day 100, but takes a form you can sustain.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is the customer journey after the sale?

It is the part of the customer journey that starts at the signature. It describes what the customer notices from you during delivery, start and the first months afterwards, and who takes care of that.

### How do you ensure a good handover from sales to delivery?

Agree which three or four things the sales rep always records: the reason for buying, who decides, what was promised and what the customer expects first. Also have the sales rep present at the start, or calling.

### When do you evaluate with a new customer?

A first time around day 30, when the customer has seen enough to say something. A second time around day 90 to 100, to look back and look ahead to the coming year.

### How do you improve customer retention in SMBs?

Start with the first 100 days. Customers who notice in that period that you do what you promised stay more often. After that, a fixed contact cadence per customer class helps.

## Capturing it

Capture the four moments in the building block Activities of building layer 3 , under the customer relationship phase, with the role and the timing for each moment. A win point in this period goes in Win points, and what the sales rep has to hand over in Handovers of building layer 2. The cadence afterwards and the opportunities for a next order go in Contact cadence and Up- and cross-sell of building layer 4. For your most important customers, you capture in the new building block Account plans of building layer 4 what you want to achieve with each account. If you later change a phase, you see which activities need another look.]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Inside sales and field sales: who does what?</title>
      <link>https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/binnendienst-en-buitendienst</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/binnendienst-en-buitendienst</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 06 Jul 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Building layer 5 · Organization</category>
      <description>A clear division of roles between inside sales and field sales: a goal, target groups and phases per role, and handovers where nothing gets lost.</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Building layer 5 · Organization · 7 min read

# Inside sales and field sales: who does what?

Describing roles instead of people, and setting per handover what has to come along at minimum.

SalesDNA editorial team · 6 July 2026

A customer calls inside sales with a question about a quote. Inside sales does not know what the account manager agreed and promises to call back. The account manager is on the road and only sees the message in the evening. The next day the customer calls again, now a little less friendly. Everyone did their best. It just was not clear who does what. In this article you read how to make the division of tasks between inside sales and field sales clear, and how to prevent the customer from falling through the cracks.

## Why the division of roles between inside sales and field sales often stays vague

In many SMBs, inside sales grew out of order processing. The tasks came along by themselves: typing quotes, calling customers back, checking deliveries. Field sales did the rest. As long as the team is small, that works. When it grows, gaps and double work appear.

You see the result at the customer. He does not know who to call, hears two different answers, or has to tell his story twice.

It also starts to grate within the team. Inside sales sometimes feels like the secretariat of field sales. Field sales has the feeling that its customers are being called behind its back. Mostly it is not about the people. It is about agreements that were never made.

## Describe roles, not people

Do not start with who is on the team, but with which roles you need. A role is a set of responsibilities. One person can hold two roles, and two people can share the same role. Per role you capture three things:

- The goal. In one sentence: what is this role for? For example: "Inside sales makes sure every customer question is answered within one working day."

- The target groups. For which customers or prospects is this role the first point of contact?

- The phases. In which phases of the sales process does this role take the lead?

## A division of tasks that often works

There is no division that is right for everyone. An example that is a good start for many B2B companies:

- Field sales. First point of contact for A customers and A prospects. Leads in the phases analyze, proposal and decision. Visits, advises and negotiates.

- Inside sales. First point of contact for C customers and for open orders of everyone. Writes standard quotes, follows them up and schedules appointments for field sales.

- B customers. Shared, with a fixed agreement: inside sales calls according to the contact cadence , field sales comes in for an opportunity or a complaint.

The most important thing is not which division you choose, but that there is one that everyone knows, including the customer.

## Inside sales as a commercial role

I come across this often: inside sales is seen as support. They do what is left over. That leaves a lot on the table. Inside sales often speaks to customers more than field sales does. They hear what is going on, what is going wrong and where a customer is hesitating.

So you can give inside sales a commercial goal of its own. Think of calling C customers on a fixed cadence, following up standard quotes, or calling back lost prospects after a few months. Then also capture when inside sales passes an opportunity to field sales. For example: "A request above a certain amount, or a question about a new product group, goes to the account manager within a day."

## The handover is where it goes wrong

Every place where a customer moves from one role to another is a handover. That is where information gets lost. Capture per handover what has to be passed on at minimum. An example for the handover from field sales to inside sales after a visit:

- Agreements. What was discussed and promised?

- Expectation. When does the customer expect something from us, and what?

- Contacts. Who decides at the customer, and who is the day-to-day contact?

Keep it short. Three questions that are always answered are worth more than a two-page form that is half filled in.

## A fictional example

A wholesaler in building materials has two account managers and three people in inside sales. For a week, the team keeps track of every phone call: who should have picked this up?

The picture: many questions about open orders went to the account managers, because customers had their mobile numbers. At the same time, inside sales sometimes called A customers about an offer, without knowing that the account manager had just had a conversation about it.

They make three agreements. Questions about open orders always go to inside sales, and the account manager kindly refers customers there. A customers are only called by inside sales after a heads-up from the account manager. And after every visit, the account manager puts the three handover points in the CRM the same day. After a few weeks, inside sales calls back less often with "let me look into that".

## Common mistakes

Agreeing the division only internally. If the customer does not know who his contact is, he calls the person he knows. Tell the customer, and put it in the order confirmation or the email signature.

Writing roles around the current people. Then it holds until someone leaves or goes on holiday. Write the role, and then look at who fills it.

No agreement about the boundary. "Inside sales does small quotes" cannot be carried out. What is small? Set an amount, a product group or a customer class.

No goals of their own for inside sales. Whoever has no goal becomes the safety net for everything. That is not fair to inside sales, and it wastes what they can do.

## Deciding together

Do not write the division of roles alone at your desk. Put inside sales and field sales around the table for an hour and walk through three recent customer situations. Where did it go well, where did something fall between two stools? What surfaces there is the input for the role description.

Then ask three questions per role: what do you do, who do you do it for, and when do you pass it on? Write the answers on one sheet of paper. Hang it next to the phone, discuss it again after a month and adjust what does not work.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is the difference between inside sales and field sales?

Field sales visits customers and prospects and holds the conversations that much depends on. Inside sales works from the office: quotes, orders, follow-up by phone and often a group of customers of its own. The exact boundary differs per company, and you set it yourself.

### Which customers do you give to inside sales?

Often the C customers, and the open orders of all customers. B customers can be shared with a fixed agreement about who calls when. Use your account matrix as the basis, and nobody has to hesitate per customer.

### How do you improve the cooperation between inside sales and field sales?

Start with three things: a clear role description, fixed handover moments with a few fixed questions, and a short weekly meeting where both roles sit at the table. Discuss situations, not people.

## Capturing it

Capture the roles in the building block Roles of building layer 5, with the goal, the target groups and the phases for each role. The tasks and competencies per role belong in Job profiles; how to build those from your own method is explained at creating a job profile for sales . The handovers themselves go in Handovers of building layer 2, and who calls which customers in Contact cadence of building layer 4. Change a role, and you see which activities, meetings and KPIs need another look.]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Coaching on behavior instead of on numbers</title>
      <link>https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/coachen-op-gedrag</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/coachen-op-gedrag</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 22 Jun 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>Building layer 6 · People</category>
      <description>A sales rep who misses target gains more from a conversation about behavior than about the number. From KPI to behavior, with a competency profile and rhythm.</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[Building layer 6 · People · 7 min read

# Coaching on behavior instead of on numbers

From number to phase to behavior, with a competency profile as shared language and a fixed conversation rhythm.

SalesDNA editorial team · 22 June 2026

A sales manager sits across from an account manager who is not hitting his target. The conversation is about the number: how far behind, how much is still needed, what is in the pipeline. Both leave the room with the same feeling. More has to happen. But what exactly, nobody knows. Coaching on behavior helps you hold that conversation differently.

## Why coaching on numbers delivers little

A number is an outcome. It says that something is wrong, not what. A sales rep who hears that he is behind works harder at what he was already doing. Sometimes that helps. Often it does not, because the problem sits in a specific piece of behavior that nobody has named.

Coaching on behavior means you hold the conversation about what someone does, in a concrete situation. The number is the trigger, not the subject.

There is a human side too. A conversation about a shortfall quickly feels like an appraisal to the sales rep. He starts defending or promising. A conversation about one concrete situation feels different. You can look at it together, without anyone having to justify themselves.

## From number to behavior in three steps

- Find the phase. Where does it get stuck? Few new conversations, many quotes that go nowhere, or deals that drop out at the last moment? Your KPIs per phase point to the spot.

- Find the moment. What happens in that phase that makes the difference? For example: is the quote discussed in a conversation or only emailed?

- Name the behavior. What does the sales rep do at that moment, and what could he do differently? So concrete that you can see it again next week.

The difference in the conversation is big. "Your quote conversion is low" becomes: "Of the last five quotes, you discussed two in a conversation. What holds you back with the other three?"

## A competency profile as shared language

To talk about behavior, you need words that everyone understands the same way. A competency profile per role helps with that. Keep it limited: four to six competencies that make the difference for this role, each with two or three behaviors you can observe.

An example for an account manager:

- Probing. Asks at least one follow-up question after an answer before naming a solution.

- Keeping the lead. Closes every conversation with a concrete next step and a date.

- Following up. Calls within the agreed period after a quote, even when the answer is probably no.

Link the behaviors to your core values where you can. Then a coaching conversation is not only about technique, but also about how you want to treat customers.

## The rhythm of the conversations

Coaching does not work in one annual review. It works in a fixed rhythm of short conversations. An example:

- Every two weeks a half-hour one-on-one. One competency, one situation from the past weeks, one agreement for the coming weeks.

- Once a quarter a ride-along. Half a day with the sales rep, with one behavior to watch for agreed in advance.

- Twice a year a development conversation. Which competencies have grown, where is the next step?

Start every conversation with the agreement from last time. Whoever knows it will come back gets to work on it.

## How a coaching conversation on behavior runs

Half an hour is enough if you use a fixed structure. This order works well in practice:

- Look back (5 minutes). What was the agreement last time? What happened with it?

- Choose a situation (5 minutes). The sales rep names one conversation or deal from the past weeks. Preferably one that did not go the way he wanted.

- Rewind (10 minutes). What exactly happened? What did he say, what did the customer say? Ask for facts, not feelings.

- Look for an alternative (5 minutes). What could he have done differently? Let him search himself first before you give a tip.

- Agreement (5 minutes). One behavior, at a concrete occasion in the next two weeks. He writes it down himself.

Notice that as a manager you mostly ask. That is not a trick. A sales rep who comes up with the alternative himself is more likely to carry it out.

## A worked example: where is it really?

Suppose an account manager has twenty first conversations in a quarter. Those lead to twelve quotes. Three of those become orders. The team averages five out of twelve. These numbers are fictional, but I come across the pattern often.

So the first conversation is not the problem. Twelve quotes from twenty conversations is fine. It sits between quote and order. Working harder on new conversations helps little here. Then he only produces more quotes that go nowhere.

The question becomes: what happens after the quote is sent? The conversation reveals that he emails quotes and then waits. He feels pushy when he calls. The agreement for the next two weeks: discuss every quote in a meeting, and call within three working days. In two weeks you look together at how that went.

## Common mistakes in coaching on behavior

Wanting to improve too much at once. Nobody remembers five improvement points from one conversation. Choose one. The rest comes later.

Giving the solution yourself. It is faster, but the sales rep carries out someone else's idea less well. Ask first. Only give a tip if he cannot work it out himself.

Talking about personality. "You are too passive" is about who someone is. "You did not call after the last three quotes" is about what he does. The second you can change.

Letting conversations slide. When it gets busy, the one-on-one is the first to go. That is exactly when you need it. Keep the rhythm, even if the conversation is shorter for once.

## How coaching connects to the other building layers

Coaching on behavior leans on the rest of your method. The KPIs per phase from building layer 7 show you where to look. The phases and exit criteria from building layer 2 give the conversation a fixed place. The win points from building layer 3 and the activities from building layer 4 show which behavior you expect.

Without that basis, coaching becomes a matter of taste. With it, you talk about the same method, with every sales rep.

## Frequently asked questions

### How do you coach a sales rep who is not hitting target?

Start with the numbers per phase to see where it gets stuck. Then find one concrete situation in that phase and discuss what the sales rep did. Agree on one behavior that he does differently in the next two weeks.

### How often should a sales manager coach?

A short one-on-one every two weeks works well, supplemented with a ride-along per quarter. The fixed rhythm matters more than the length of the conversation.

### What is the difference between coaching and appraising?

Appraising looks back at the result. Coaching looks at behavior and at what someone can do differently next time. Keep them separate, otherwise every coaching conversation becomes an appraisal.

### What goes in a competency profile for sales?

Four to six competencies that make the difference for the role, with two or three observable behaviors per competency. For example probing, keeping the lead and following up.

## Capturing it

Capture the conversations with their rhythm and fixed topics in the Conversation cycle of building layer 6, and the behaviors per core value in Core values in behavior. The competencies per role go in Job profiles of building layer 5. That way sales manager and sales rep speak the same language, even when a new manager arrives. How to turn every conversation into notes with coaching tips is explained at meeting and conversation notes . You put your team's learning points in a yearly schedule in the new building block Sales development, and with the Coaching workspace you follow per person whether they land.]]></content:encoded>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Creating a sales playbook: what goes in it?</title>
      <link>https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/salesplaybook-wat-hoort-erin</link>
      <guid isPermaLink="true">https://yoursalesdna.com/en/kennisbank/salesplaybook-wat-hoort-erin</guid>
      <pubDate>Mon, 01 Jun 2026 06:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
      <category>All building layers</category>
      <description>What belongs in a sales playbook and what does not? Seven parts that build on each other, an order for the first three months and where to start.</description>
      <content:encoded><![CDATA[All building layers · 7 min read

# Creating a sales playbook: what goes in it?

Seven parts in a fixed order, what you leave out and a workable start for the first three months.

SalesDNA editorial team · 1 June 2026

You have decided that you need a sales playbook. Maybe because new people are joining, because every sales rep does it differently, or because your best account manager retires in two years. Then comes the question: what do you put in it? An empty document is a hard place to start.

## What a sales playbook is

A sales playbook describes how you sell. Not how selling works in general, but how it works at your company: what you promise, which steps a customer goes through, who does what and what you steer on. It is the method that now mostly sits in the heads of your best sales reps, put on paper so others can take it over.

Handbook, playbook, commercial manual: the words are used interchangeably. It matters little what you call it, as long as it is about your own way of working.

Also think about who you are writing for. A new colleague wants to know what to do in his first weeks. An experienced sales rep wants to look something up quickly. The sales manager wants to be able to steer. A good playbook serves all three, with short sections you can read on their own.

## What goes in a sales playbook: seven parts

A good playbook has a fixed order. Each part builds on the previous one. Whoever reverses the order writes activities without knowing what for.

- The foundation. The company story, the core values, the promise in one sentence and which customers you are there for.

- The sales process. The phases, each with an exit criterion , and the handovers between roles.

- The customer journey. The activities per phase and the win points : the moments you do just a little differently.

- The rhythm. Contact cadence per customer class, weekly rhythm, prospecting norms and quote follow-up.

- The organization. Roles, job profiles and the fixed meetings.

- The people. Hiring, onboarding, training, conversations and the core values translated into behavior.

- The steering. At most two KPIs per phase, with a norm, a data source and an owner.

## What does not need to go in

A playbook gets thick quickly. Much of what ends up in it does not belong there. Leave these things out or refer to them:

- General sales theory. What an open question is can be found in any book. Write down which questions you ask.

- Product information. It changes too often and already has a place of its own.

- Exceptions. Describe how things normally go. An exception that occurs often is not an exception but a second route.

## Where do you start with your sales playbook?

The temptation is to start with the phases and activities, because they are the most tangible. Yet it pays to start with the foundation. A promise in one sentence and a clear picture of who your ideal customer is make the rest much easier. Without that foundation, every choice further on becomes a debate.

A workable order for the first three months:

- Month 1. The foundation and the phases with their exit criteria. Together with two or three experienced sales reps.

- Month 2. The win points and the activities per phase, in a working session with the team.

- Month 3. Roles, rhythm and a first set of KPIs.

People and steering follow after that. The playbook does not have to be complete in one go. A part that is right and gets used is worth more than a complete document that nobody reads.

## A fictional example: one phase written out

What does that look like in practice? Take a fictional installation company with four phases. This is how the first phase appears in their playbook:

- Name. Explore.

- Goal. Know whether there is a problem that fits our promise.

- Exit criterion. Done when the customer names a concrete problem, we know who decides and there is a date with a reason.

- Activities. First conversation on site, walk-through with the technical department, summary by email within a day.

- Win point. After the first conversation the customer receives a photo overview of what we saw, with three points of attention.

- Role. Account manager, with the work planner for larger projects.

- KPI. Percentage of first conversations that move to phase two within three weeks.

That fits on one page. After reading it, a new colleague knows what he does, why, and when he may move on. It does not need to be more than that. Write the other phases in exactly the same structure. Then everyone knows where to look.

## Common mistakes with a sales playbook

I come across these often, also at teams that have put a lot of time into it:

- One person writes it alone. Then it becomes his playbook, not the team's. Write the core with a few experienced sales reps in the room.

- Too much text. A sales rep does not read eighty pages. Short sentences, lists and one page per phase work better.

- Describing the ideal instead of the practice. Write down what you really do, or what you are really going to do. Not what is in a book.

- Finished and into the drawer. A playbook that is not maintained is wrong after a year. Then everyone stops reading.

- No owner. If nobody is responsible, nobody updates it. Appoint one person who confirms changes.

## Use what is already there

You rarely start from zero. Old presentations, an onboarding folder, quote templates and the notes of your best sales rep often already contain half of it. Collect them before you start writing. What is in there and is still right is your first version.

## A sales playbook that stays current

The hardest part comes after the first version. Markets change, roles shift and a phase turns out to run differently in practice. So plan a fixed moment to go through the playbook. Once a quarter works well. Do not take everything at once, but a few parts per quarter. That keeps the work small and the document right.

Also use what comes up in the sales meeting and in win/loss conversations. If the team says three times that an exit criterion does not work, that is your next change.

## Checklist: is your sales playbook usable?

- Promise. Is the promise in there in one sentence, and does the team know it?

- Phases. Does every phase have an exit criterion you can check?

- Length. Does every phase fit on one page?

- Use. Does the newest colleague use it in his first week?

- Owner. Is there one person who confirms changes?

- Date. Has it been updated in the past three months?

If you can answer yes to four of the six, you have a playbook your team can work with.

## Frequently asked questions

### What is the difference between a sales playbook and a sales handbook?

In practice, little. Both describe how you sell. Some teams use playbook for the practical part per phase and handbook for the whole. Choose one word and stick to it.

### How thick should a sales playbook be?

As thin as possible. For most SMB teams, twenty to thirty pages is enough. One page per phase is a good measure.

### How long does it take to create a sales playbook?

A first usable version is possible in three months, if you finish a few parts per month. It is rarely complete, and it does not have to be.

### Who writes the sales playbook?

The commercial leader is the owner. Write the content together with two or three experienced sales reps, so that it matches the practice.

## Capturing it

In SalesDNA, the seven parts are the seven building layers, from Sales foundation to Steering, with a fixed building block for each part. You can upload existing documents and have a proposal drafted per building block. With the template builder you turn what you confirm into a playbook, onboarding guide or presentation for your team.]]></content:encoded>
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