The way into a customer, role by role.
An Upstream Playbook answers a single question: how do you get into this customer, early enough to influence what they are going to ask for.
It is written on the case you worked on, and it names the customer, the roles and the openings.
Several ways in, weighed against one another.
The starting point. Where you stand with the customer today, and the trap that is easiest to fall into right there.
The openings. Several possible ways in are described and weighed against one another: through the person who already wants something, through the numbers, through the leadership, through the regulations, through an adjacent question. Every route gets its risks described, not just its advantages.
The sequence. Which combination is recommended, and in what order. Two right openings in the wrong order make the wrong meeting.
The phases. Concrete steps, phase by phase, with what is to be said to whom.
The internal part. What you need to change on your own side to be able to do it. It is the part that most often decides whether the plan happens.
This one concerns one customer. The Sales Playbook concerns them all.
An Upstream Playbook has served its purpose once that deal is decided. If the way of working is to live on with the next customer, it is a Sales Playbook you should read about.
It assumes the customer has been analysed.
