How to create a sales brief your sellers will use
Just before a customer call, most sellers won’t reach for a 60-slide deck or dig through a product wiki. They need to know what to say, who to say it to, and what to do next, and fast!
Enter the sales brief, a short, practical guide that turns your messaging into conversation nuggets a seller will use. When sales briefs are done well, sales teams take their calls confidently, and customers hear one consistent, compelling story.
How we build a sales brief
Start with the people who understand the customer and the solution.
- Interview the field team. Most sellers keep their ears to the ground and know what customers are asking for, why deals stall, and which messages are met with crickets.
- Interview subject matter experts. Gather the metrics, customer stories, and differentiators that back up the benefit claims.
- Align with leadership. Loop in the exec team to confirm the key messaging, priority use cases and verticals, and preferred channels for reaching customers, so the brief can reflect where the business is headed.
What goes into a sales brief
A useful sales brief gives sellers guidance in six areas (the list can flex, but these are essentials):
- Approved positioning. What’s the key value prop, and why should the customer care?
- Ideal customers. Which customers are the best fit, and what challenges make the solution relevant to them? Which stakeholders should sellers engage with?
- How to open the conversation. Which questions will resonate, and what are the customer’s top needs?
- Objection handling. Why do customers say no? Do they need more metrics, customer proof, or clearer differentiators?
- Advance, hold, or disqualify. What tells a seller to take the next step? When should they pause the opportunity or rule it out?
- Next action. Is it a discovery workshop? A demo? Sellers should leave every call knowing what comes next.
A sales brief should help sellers prepare for a conversation without scripting every word. Once it’s ready, make it available where your sellers already work, and assign someone on your team to keep it current as capabilities and customer needs change.
Bringing the pieces together
Building a useful sales brief takes judgment at every stage. Stakeholders may have different priorities, and deciding what to leave out can be as challenging as deciding what belongs.
We help guide those decisions and keep the process moving. We bring a practical approach to gathering input and working through competing perspectives to shape the content around what sellers need for a customer conversation. Then we make every word count, with precise language and a format that helps sellers find what they need at a glance.
Ready to give your sellers a brief they can put to work? Talk with our team.
