Got introduced to Kyle Norton and Kevin Dorsey through Pavilion, and just listened to their latest podcast episode on creating, developing, and deploying playbooks🎙️. If you’re in a GTM (Go-to-Market) function, I’d highly recommend giving it a listen. Tons of insights on building, deploying, and maintaining sales playbooks 📈.

I was so inspired by the episode that I went ahead and put together a high-level summary of Kevin Dorsey’s best practices and playbooks, which you can find below 👇.

Outline of Best Practices, Playbooks, Tips & Tricks from Kevin Dorsey

1. The Five P’s Playbook Framework

• Description: Kevin Dorsey outlines five core components of an effective sales playbook: People, Prospect, Problem, Process, and Product. Each element is critical for creating a comprehensive playbook that supports team growth and predictable performance.
• Example: The “People” section of the playbook includes standards of excellence, virtues, and expectations that every team member signs off on to align with the organization’s values. This creates accountability and culture consistency.

2. “What Good Looks Like” (Wiggle)

• Description: The playbook should represent “What Good Looks Like” (Wiggle). It’s a detailed set of actions and processes that define best practices for each role, so everyone knows the standard of performance expected of them.
• Example: Kevin provides playbooks for sales processes like cold outreach, discovery calls, and demos. Each has clear entry and exit criteria, along with scorecards for evaluation.

3. “Imitate First, Innovate Second”

• Description: During onboarding, Kevin emphasizes starting with established best practices before innovating. This ensures a solid foundation of skill before customizing approaches.
• Example: New hires are given a playbook with fill-in-the-blank sections during onboarding. They learn the principles through practice before being encouraged to add their personal flair to calls or emails.

4. Quarterly and Weekly “Wiggle” Practices

Quarterly Wiggle:

• Description: Every quarter, Kevin assigns each manager to study the top performers for a specific metric or process. This ensures the team consistently learns from what works best.
• Example: A manager might be assigned to analyze ACV. They identify top performers in that area, study their behaviors, and document insights into the playbook.

Weekly Wiggle:

• Description: Kevin meets weekly with managers for an hour to work on refining a specific element of the playbook. This ongoing approach allows them to update in manageable chunks.
• Example: One week, they might refine the lead handling section, while the next week, they focus on cold social outreach.

5. “Volume or Volume” Framework

• Description: Kevin distinguishes between high “volume” (frequency) problems and “volume” (loudness) problems. He focuses on solving recurring issues that have a larger impact on results.
• Example: Instead of focusing on a complaint from a few clients (a loud problem), Kevin prioritizes improving close rates, which impacts a significant number of deals (a frequent issue).

6. BIPSY Analysis for Playbook Development

• Description: Kevin uses BIPSY — Behavior, Issue Diagnosis, Process, Skill, and You — to analyze top performers. This helps extract best practices and informs playbook updates.
• Example: When building a playbook for post-sales, Kevin observes the top performers to see what behaviors and processes differentiate them and documents those as best practices.

7. Practice Before Game Time

• Description: Kevin believes in extensive practice before putting reps in real scenarios. He uses roleplay and AI-based simulation tools to help reps practice until they can consistently demonstrate the skills needed.
• Example: Reps spend three to four hours per day practicing objection handling and pitching before they are put on live calls. This prevents lead waste and helps reps build confidence.

8. Active Playbook Referencing

• Description: A playbook is not meant to just sit around — it needs to be actively referenced. Kevin insists that whenever reps ask a question covered in the playbook, managers should direct them to it.
• Example: If a rep asks about handling a specific objection, Kevin encourages leaders to refer them to the playbook first, helping reps learn to use it as a resource.

9. Continuous Playbook Updates

• Description: Whenever a new best practice or insight is discovered, it’s added to the playbook. This keeps it dynamic and relevant.
• Example: After identifying that a top rep was consistently achieving higher ACV by presenting pricing differently, Kevin updated the playbook to include the new approach.

10. Dark Week for Working on the Business

• Description: Kevin recommends taking a “dark week” — a week away from day-to-day operations — to focus entirely on working on the business, specifically on building and documenting processes like playbooks.
• Example: During a dark week, leaders can document all call scorecards, refine onboarding processes, and write down core best practices.

11. The “I Am Not You” Leadership Approach

• Description: Leaders often try to mold their team into copies of themselves, but Kevin emphasizes the importance of acknowledging that each person is unique. Leaders should focus on making their team members better versions of themselves, not clones of the leader.
• Example: Instead of expecting a new rep to sell in the exact way he does, Kevin tailors his coaching to enhance the individual rep’s skills.

12. “What’s the Cause?” Analysis

• Description: Kevin insists on identifying the root cause of both good and bad results. Leaders should be able to explain why success is happening, not just attribute it to luck.
• Example: If a team’s show rate is low, Kevin looks at every contributing factor: how far out they’re booking, whether the calendar invite is accepted, how they sell the meeting, etc.

13. Roleplay and Simulation Tools

• Description: Kevin uses AI-based tools to give reps additional practice, particularly for challenging scenarios like handling objections or late-call negotiations.
• Example: Tools like Hyperbound are used to simulate real-life conversations, allowing reps to practice different scenarios for three to four hours each day during onboarding.

14. Fill-in-the-Blank Playbooks for Onboarding

• Description: Instead of giving new hires a complete playbook, Kevin provides versions with blanks that they must fill in during their learning process. This helps with retention and understanding.
• Example: A new hire is given a playbook with a missing section on the primary problem prospects face. They fill it in during training sessions, reinforcing their learning.

15. Controlled Burns in Leadership

• Description: Kevin uses the idea of “controlled burns” to describe how leaders should manage issues by focusing on what’s most important. Sometimes it’s necessary to let certain areas struggle temporarily in order to focus energy elsewhere.
• Example: Instead of trying to fix show rate issues and close rate issues at the same time, Kevin may let the show rate slide while focusing entirely on improving close rates.

16. Leaders Don’t Work Alone

• Description: Kevin emphasizes that leaders should never do things alone. Involving team members in projects builds engagement, trust, and accountability. Collaboration also results in better outcomes because it leverages the diverse skills of the team.
• Example: Kevin involves his reps and managers in building out playbooks. Instead of creating everything by himself, he assigns different sections to team members, which speeds up development and makes everyone feel more invested in the process.

Kevin poured a ton of effort into building his new Sales Leadership Accelerator (🌟 https://salesleadershipaccelerator.com/) — Have you taken it? Let me know in the comments what you learned and who you think would get the most value out of it. 🚀.