Your sales team doesn't understand what they're selling (and it's costing you deals)
A few years ago, I got a call from a CTO who said something that still haunts me: "Our sales team doesn't understand what we're selling."
They'd landed a couple of big opportunities, but they couldn't tell their story. No clear pitch. No way to explain their own product to buyers who had already done their homework.
Here's the kicker: This isn't uncommon. I've run workshops where entire leadership teams couldn't agree on what they were selling or to whom. Meanwhile, their competitors were out there winning deals because they had their act together.
The problem? They were missing the most important piece of content they'd never heard of—and it's not what you think.
The content asset nobody talks about but everyone needs…
The first content asset you need isn't flashy, doesn't generate leads, and won't rank on Google.
It's internal. It's foundational. And if you skip it, none of your other content matters.
It's called a Sales Playbook.
A real sales playbook does three critical things:
Aligns sales and marketing on messaging, positioning, and product value
Equips reps with talking points, proof points, and objection handling
Standardizes the buyer journey so everyone knows how to guide deals from first touch to close
Think of it as the internal version of all your external content—the thing that holds your product's narrative together.
Why most companies lose deals (and don't even know it)
When you don't have a sales playbook, your AE jumps on a call with a prospect who's already Googled your competition, read the docs, and formed opinions. Your rep gets in over their head, can't answer basic technical questions, and starts saying things like, "Let's jump on another call next week with our solutions architect."
Game over.
Your competitor just closed the deal while you're scheduling more meetings.
A sales playbook gives your team the ability to handle objections, answer technical questions, and guide conversations like pros.
Not like they're winging it.
What actually goes in a sales playbook
The format doesn't matter. PowerPoint, Notion, Google Docs—whatever works. What matters is what's inside:
The essentials:
Core messaging: What problems do you solve, for whom, and why now?
Positioning statements: What makes you different from alternatives?
Buyer personas: Not fluff bios, but how each persona sees value and risk
Common objections and responses: The real ones your team actually hears
Key use cases and success stories: Framed for different buyers
Proof points: Metrics, quotes, outcomes that build confidence
Deal stages and next-step plays: What content or action fits when
Nice-to-haves:
Demo scripts that actually reflect how people work
Discovery question libraries
Competitive battle cards
Pricing rationale
Here's a pro tip: If your reps are improvising through sales conversations, your playbook is incomplete. Everything should be in there.
Your playbook needs to be a living document. Not a monument.
The best sales playbooks evolve with your product and reflect what top reps are actually saying. In practice, this looks like:
A rep preps for calls by reviewing persona-specific objections
Marketing updates messaging after product changes
Sales enablement runs monthly sessions using playbook examples
New reps bookmark it because it actually helps them close deals
Another pro tip: If your sales playbook isn't being used, it's probably too long, too generic, or too outdated. Treat it like an internal product that needs regular maintenance.
The truth about sales content
Your playbook is the connective tissue between your product, your positioning, and your people.
If your reps are misaligned, no case study will save you.
If they don't understand how to tell your story, your one-pagers will fall flat.
If they can't explain your product in a way that resonates, your white paper is just a PDF.
A good playbook ensures the rest of your content gets used the right way, at the right time, for the right reason. It's also your cheat code for onboarding new reps and avoiding the "every deal is bespoke" trap that kills scale.
Start here, not there
You don't need your playbook to be perfect.
You just need it to be clear, accurate, and aligned with how you actually sell—which means it needs to reflect how people actually buy products like yours.
So before you create another lead magnet or write another blog post, arm your sales team with an internal playbook.
Get them prepared. Help them understand the product and know how to handle objections.
Because great external content sparks conversations, but great sales playbooks win them.
Need a sales playbook that actually helps your team close deals? We build them for B2B tech companies who are tired of watching reps wing it on calls. Let's talk: anthony@edifycontent.com
