Sales training and coaching · Hiring and onboarding sellers
Write one short playbook that a new rep can read in the first week.
A new hire playbook is a living document of about twenty pages that tells a new salesperson your goals, territories, key messages, offers, roles and how to log a deal. It is read in week one and updated when anything changes. The page ends with the section list, a who-to-ask map and a quiz.
Scope, fee, reporting and term are agreed in writing after we have read your brief and spoken to you.
In one paragraph
A new hire playbook is a living document of about twenty pages that tells a new salesperson your goals, territories, key messages, offers, roles and how to log a deal. It is read in week one and updated when anything changes. The page ends with the section list, a who-to-ask map and a quiz.
A signage company in Vijayawada hires its third field rep. The owner says "watch how Ravi does it", and Ravi says ask the office. The office says ask the owner. Within a month the new rep has quoted a customer a discount the owner never approved, because nobody had written down who could say yes.
The playbook is where those answers go. Aim for about twenty pages, drafted by the sales head in a day or two: the yearly goal and the numbers every rep is held to, how the territory is split, the five or six sentences you want said about your company, the offers and their prices, who does what in the company, and how a deal is logged.
The most useful pages are the plainest. A who-to-ask map names who approves discounts and credit, who raises the GST invoice and e-way bill, who handles dispatch and who chases dues. Put it in a shared Google Doc or a PDF that the rep can open on a phone in a customer's car park.
Your top performers review it and cut anything that is only nice to know. It comes after the onboarding ramp plan, which says when each part is taught, and it draws on the sales process and buyer personas you wrote earlier.
Where this sits
Topic 7 of 8 in sales training and coaching: hiring and onboarding sellers. Building the early team, hiring against evidence and ramping new reps.
- The topic before
- Coaching the sales team
- The topic after
- Training programme design
If you want this done for you
New hires learn the job by listening in on other people's calls.
The work
What this is actually like.
“A binder is not a playbook”
A heavy file of every circular and price list ever issued gets read once. A twenty-page playbook gets reopened. Cut a section if a rep would not look at it in the first three months, and move it to an appendix folder.
“The top producers must read it before the rep does”
If your best closer thinks the pricing page is wrong, the new rep will follow the closer, not the page. Review the draft with the people who sell best and change what they say is out of date.
“Dead playbooks have no change log”
Add a line at the end for every edit: date, what changed, who approved. When a territory is redrawn or a price list revised, the playbook changes the same week. Otherwise reps trust their memory over the page, and the page loses.
“A week-one quiz catches the gaps”
Ten questions from the playbook, answered without looking: who approves a ten per cent discount, which three messages do we use for a first call, what is the territory boundary. The wrong answers show you which pages are unclear.
What we do
What you end up with.
The documents this topic produces, what each one is for, and how you know it is finished.
The section list
Goals and KPIs, territory breakdown, key messages and offers, roles in the team, how to log a deal, buyer personas, the sales process, and the internal network map. One to three pages each.
Result: Finished when a rep can find any section within thirty seconds.
The who-to-ask map
A table: the situation, the person who decides, their phone, the usual response time in working hours. Cover discounts, credit limits, GST invoices, dispatch and collections.
Result: Finished when a rep can resolve a stuck order without asking the owner.
The messages page
The company in three sentences, the answer to the most common objection, and the proof you can honestly offer. Written in the way a rep would say it, not as marketing copy.
Result: Finished when a rep can say it aloud without reading.
The quiz and score sheet
Ten questions, the right answers, and the new hire's score in week one and again in week four.
Result: Finished when a score below the pass mark triggers a conversation, not a reminder email.
The change log
Date, what changed, who approved, and which reps were told.
Result: Finished when the log has an entry for every territory or price change this year.
Why us
Why owners pick GullySales over an agency.
Marketing and sales, as one job
Most agencies stop at the enquiry. We also fix what happens after it: the reply, the follow-up, the quote and the CRM.
The person on the first call does the work
No account managers in between. You are never handed to someone you have not met.
A baseline before anything starts
Your numbers are written down on day one, so every later report compares against something honest.
The fee in writing, split three ways
Our time, your media spend and production on separate lines. You always see what goes to us.
No guarantees we cannot keep
The term is agreed in writing and never a default twelve months. We never promise a ranking or a lead count, because nobody controls those.
One office, and we say so
Nagarbhavi, Bengaluru. We work across India by call and WhatsApp and travel when a session needs to be in person.
#257, 3rd floor, Sri Nanjundeshwara Complex, Nagarbhavi 8th Block, Outer Ring Road. How we work.
Your brief
Tell us what you need, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps about your business, what you want and who decides. Most questions are a tap, and you can skip any you would rather answer on the call.
FAQ
Questions owners ask before they call.
Not here? More answers, or ask on WhatsApp.
How long should the playbook be?
Where should we keep it?
Should it include customer names and prices?
Who writes it if we have no sales head?
How long is the contract?
Who will actually do the work?
What do you need from us?
What if we are not happy with the work?
Where to go next
The work that carries this topic further.
The rest of hiring and onboarding sellers
Or read all of sales training and coaching.
Your next practical step
Tell us what you are trying to grow, and we will read it before we call.
Eight short steps, mostly taps. Skip anything you would rather answer on the call.