Quite often a sales leaders will ask me to find them someone with “playbook experience,” it sounds clear enough. But here’s what to think about a playbook isn’t just one thing. There’s today’s playbook and tomorrow’s playbook, and the kind of person you hire depends on which one you actually need.
If your company already has a proven sales motion, then you probably want someone who knows how to follow a structured process. They’ve seen a playbook before, they know how to run the plays, and they’ll deliver consistency. They’ll slot right in, stick to the process, and keep the machine running smoothly. That’s the person who makes an existing system scale.
But what if your playbook doesn’t really exist yet, or it’s still being rewritten? Then the profile you’re after looks very different. You don’t just want an operator, you want a builder. Someone who can figure out what works, capture it, and turn it into repeatable guidance for others. They’re not afraid to test, experiment, and change things up. That’s the person who can help you shape tomorrow’s playbook.
Here’s why this matters. A candidate who thrives with today’s playbook might feel lost in an environment where nothing is written down and processes are still taking shape. On the flip side, someone who’s brilliant at building from scratch might get frustrated if you ask them to just follow the rules and not deviate.
So before you start interviewing, it’s worth asking yourself, are we looking for someone to run the play we already know works, or someone who can figure it out as they go. The answer will tell you which kind of playbook experience you actually need.
Because “playbook experience” sounds like one skill set. In reality, it can mean two very different types of people, one built for today’s success, and one built for tomorrow’s growth.
About Indigo
We are SaaS GTM recruitment specialists with extensive experience recruiting professionals across sales, marketing, and sales engineering for US, UK, and Israel-based tech companies. Our start-up and scale-up customers rely on us to find the best people for their businesses, and we take pride in knowing our work helps companies scale quickly.