Most organizations recognize some need for a sales process, but recent research found that there is a divide between the use of sales process in high and low performing B2B sales companies. The Sales Management Association’s 2013 survey of 74 B2B sales companies shows that the use of sales process correlates with organizational performance. High performing companies are more likely to guide sales rep activity with formal sales processes, more likely to ensure that sales reps understand the sales processes the company implements and more likely to provide sales reps with adequate sales process training, according to the study.

Sales process is valuable at the enterprise and sales leadership level for any company, and defining sales process formally, like in a playbook , is particularly beneficial for these three types of companies:

1. The Fast Growing Company When company growth means on-boarding lots of new sales reps, a sales process playbook can help facilitate new hire orientation. The process playbook acts as a new hire's guidebook, by getting new reps up to speed with company best practices for selling and by getting them access to the materials everyone else on the team is referencing. With lots of new hires, a sales process playbook is a critical tool to expediting new hires' time to productivity.

2. The Acquiring Quickly Company A company that grows through acquisition is in a similar situation as the fast growing company, except the acquiring company has the added challenge of blending lots of sales reps who are used to selling one way into a new way. A sales process playbook is a helpful tool for getting the newly acquired group on the same page with your existing team, ensuring consistent enterprise-wide messaging and sales conversations.

3. The Established Organization In an established organization, sales reps are leaving; new reps are being brought in. Sales has been operating the same way for a while, and company leadership is looking for ways for sales to become more efficient and effective. By identifying the best practices of top performers and defining them in a sales process playbook the established company can optimize their sales efforts.

Every organization has a certain recognized way of selling; it may not be written down in a formal sales process, and it may not be optimized. Take a page from the top performers' book and make sure your sales organization has a sales-ready process playbook in place.