Playbooks, in the Sales Hub app of Dynamics 365 for Sales, are a great way to automate
repeatable processes and respond to external events.
With Playbooks, automation can trigger
a ‘play’ that creates a set of tasks and activities needed to remedy a situation.
Sales managers, or users with a Playbook administrator role
can create Playbook templates for common business scenarios.
The templates use Playbook categories to define the event or scenario.
For example, the event could be the departure of a decision maker
from an organization your sales rep is dealing with.
To create a Playbook category
Go to App Settings from the Sales Hub app
and then under Playbook Management
select Playbook categories.
Select New on the command bar to open the Playbook category form.
Enter the category name as Decision Maker departure
provide a short description, and then select Save.
To create a Playbook template
in App Settings, select Playbook templates.
Select New on the command bar to open the
Playbook template form.
On the form, enter the following information
Select the category as Decision maker departure. Name is automatically set to the Category
name, which you can change.
In Track Progress, select whether to track
the progress of the playbook by creating the activities under a playbook.
This playbook is linked to the record type the playbook applies to. In this case, let’s keep it as Yes.
In Estimated duration, enter a value
in days to indicate the time it might take to complete the playbook template once launched.
Let’s enter 10.
Select Save.
Now, select the record types for which the Playbook template is applicable.
One playbook can apply to multiple record types.
You can choose from Lead, Quote, Opportunity, Order, Invoice, Account and Contact.
Let’s select Lead and Opportunity.
Sales reps will be able to launch the playbook template
from the Opportunity and Lead records. Capture company and industry best practices
in the form of Playbook activities. In the Playbook Activities section, select
Add Activity, and then select the activity you want to create.
Let’s create a task and provide the subject as
Share opportunity related documents with new decision maker.
Select Save. You can add other activities to the Playbook template, if required.
In the Task record that you created, on the Related tab
select Documents to add the sales materials that would help a sales rep to close a deal.
Your template is now ready to publish.
On the command bar, select Publish.
Your sales team will now be able to use this
template from the entity records that this template is available on
in this case, opportunity and lead records.
Playbook launches can be manual or automated based on entity record events.
Let’s see how sales reps can launch these
playbooks manually while working on a deal or when an event occurs.
To launch a playbook from an opportunity
in the Opportunity form on the command bar
select Launch playbook.
A dialog box opens with a list of all available playbooks.
Select Decision maker departure and then select Launch.
You’ll see a notification on the successful launch of the playbook.
To open the launched playbook, go to the Related tab and then select Playbooks.
Open the playbook record, and work on the playbook activities.
Mark them as complete when you’re done.
To complete the playbook, select Complete as to indicate whether it was successful or not.
A sales manager can also track use of the
Playbook template by navigating to the Monitoring tab in the Playbook template record.
Playbooks not only help improve sales efficiency and the productivity of sales reps, but they
also help sales managers ensure a consistent outcome.