Playbooks · assignment by rep and version
Playbook is the object where you write down your company's sales script: when to use it, the recommended steps, who owns it and which version is in force. The Assigned to and Version fields let you point each script at specific reps and make it clear which revision the team should follow.
Playbooks solve a simple, expensive problem: every rep does it their own way. The script that actually works usually lives in two people's heads, in an old deck or in a document nobody is sure is still current. The Playbooks object puts that script inside the CRM, with an owner, a triggering situation and a version number, right next to the deals it should be applied to.
Where it lives
Under the Sales menu, item Playbooks. The default view is the table, with the columns Playbook, Category, Assigned to, Version and Active. You can switch to the board, which groups by Category, and create your own views, filters and columns just like on any object in the system.
The fields and what each one is for
- Playbook: the name of the script, required. For example: Winning back an at-risk customer.
- Category: Onboarding, Adoption, Renewal, Expansion, Risk/Churn or Support. It is the moment in the cycle the script belongs to.
- When to use: the trigger. Describe the concrete situation that makes someone open this playbook.
- Steps: the recommended steps. Write one step per line so it stays readable on screen and in exports.
- Owner: the owner or curator of the content, the person answerable for keeping it current.
- Active: check it to show the script is in use. Old playbooks can be left unchecked instead of deleted.
- Assigned to: the rep or reps who should follow this script.
- Version: the revision number, prefilled with 1.0.
Using it day to day
- Open Sales and click Playbooks, then New.
- Give it a name that describes the situation, not the format. Prefer Reviving a stalled proposal to Playbook 3.
- Pick the Category and write, under When to use, the trigger that sets the script off.
- List the Steps, one per line, with what to do and what to say at each stage.
- Fill in Assigned to with the reps who should follow the script and leave the Version at 1.0.
- When you revise the content later, move the Version to 1.1 or 2.0 and tell the team. That way everyone knows which revision is in force.
Limits and permissions
- Assigned to and Owner are text fields: you type the name. They create no link to the user record, send no notification and do not restrict who sees the record.
- Version is free text too. The system does not keep a history of earlier revisions and does not stop anyone from editing the content. If you need to preserve the old text, duplicate the record before you change it.
- Who sees and who edits Playbooks follows your role's permission on the object, set by the administrator in Settings. Deleted records go to the Trash and can be restored from there.
Common questions
- Why does the playbook not show up on the opportunity by itself? It is reference material, not an automation. Nothing is injected into the deal automatically.
- Is the Approach playbook button under AI suggestions the same thing? No. That button writes a script on the spot from the data on that record, and it does not read the playbooks stored here.
- What about the retention playbooks that show up under Customer success? Those are something else: actions the system suggests for at-risk accounts, calculated from the account's signals.
- I deleted a playbook by mistake, now what? Restore it from the Trash. While it is there it disappears from the lists, but the content is still stored.