If you’ve been leading a sales team for more than five minutes, you’ve felt it: the queasy sense that the playbook you sweated over last year might already be obsolete.
Economic signals whip back and forth. Buyers go radio silent for weeks, then flood you with urgent RFPs. Headlines scream about looming recessions one day and record-breaking earnings the next. And meanwhile, sellers are getting crushed between aggressive quotas and buyers who want to “think it over.”
Carlos Garrido—who I swear was born wearing a headset and a Sandler badge—put it perfectly in a recent session:
“Stress reveals your real process—and shows you where to get stronger. It’s not a weakness; it’s a roadmap.”
That’s what this moment demands. Not just activity for activity’s sake, but agility. A sales playbook that flexes under pressure instead of snapping.
Because let’s be honest: plenty of sellers (and leaders) still treat the playbook like the Ten Commandments—etched in stone, immune to change. They cling to old talk tracks, rigid call sequences, and forecasting spreadsheets that ignore the actual chaos happening out in the field.
But the market doesn’t care about your spreadsheet.
The market wants to know: can you adapt when buyers suddenly pull budgets? Can you pivot when a competitor undercuts you mid-deal? Can your team improvise when a prospect throws an unexpected curveball?
A Bloomberg piece the other week nailed it: “Executives across industries are grappling with compressed sales cycles, increased deal scrutiny, and shifting buyer priorities—all at once.”
The old playbook can’t handle that kind of volatility. The only thing that can is a new kind of playbook—one built on agility, not rigidity.
Agility Means Building for Decisions, Not Just Conversations
One of the biggest traps in sales right now is confusing conversations with progress. Just because your reps are talking to prospects doesn’t mean they’re selling.
Carlos framed it bluntly:
“There’s a real easy way to know if you’re selling: is there a predefined decision at the end of this activity?”
Think about that. Every sales interaction should either:
Move the prospect closer to a yes
Surface a disqualifier early
Clarify next steps in a mutual agreement
Otherwise, it’s just… activity.
That’s why modern playbooks focus less on scripted monologues and more on architecting decisions. Even in something as small as a cold call, your reps should be defining the next choice.
Carlos gave one of my favorite examples of how even a cold call can be a decision-driven conversation:
“Hey Christina, I don’t even know if you’re the right person to speak to. Can I take a minute, tell you why I called, and then you can kick me to the curb?”
That’s not a pitch. It’s a micro-contract. It gives the prospect power—and makes them more likely to stay in the call. That’s agility.
Activity Is Cheap. Learning Loops Are Gold.
Here’s the harsh truth: busyness does not equal progress.
Carlos once shared a stat that hit me like a brick:
“65% of a typical seller’s day is spent on activities that are not actual selling.”
Updating CRM fields nobody reads. Polishing slide decks nobody uses. Replying to emails that don’t advance the deal. It’s the illusion of productivity—and it kills agility.
Agile teams carve out time to debrief and adjust. Carlos calls it “catching the lessons as they fly by.”
After calls, after demos, after objections—there’s gold in those moments. What worked? What tanked? Where did a conversation stall—and why?
Your playbook should have pages dedicated to:
Debriefing calls
Sharing lessons learned
Rapidly testing and tweaking talk tracks
This isn’t theoretical. Carlos lives it:
“This is how adults develop. They catch the lessons as they fly by.”
A static playbook can’t help you when the market changes overnight. But a team trained to capture and apply lessons in real time? That’s unstoppable.
Confidence Comes From Process
I think one reason leaders cling so tightly to their old playbooks is fear. If we abandon the script, how do we keep reps consistent? How do we forecast?
The secret is that agility doesn’t mean chaos. It means clarity.
A modern playbook might change faster than you’d like, but it’s built on a consistent spine:
Clear definitions of pipeline stages
Agreed-upon exit criteria for each stage
Standardized talk tracks and discovery questions
A universal approach to upfront contracts
That’s why Sandler sellers thrive even in turbulent markets. They know how to guide a conversation with upfront contracts, even when the topic is brand new.
Carlos said it best:
“Our Sandler selling process is a consistent string of agreements. Agreement after agreement after agreement.”
That’s the backbone of agility. Your team might pivot how they explain value or handle a new competitor—but the core process of mutual agreements never changes.
Your Playbook Isn’t Sacred—It’s a Work in Progress
Look, I’m not saying you should throw out your playbook and wing it every day. But it’s time to admit that the market will keep changing faster than any sales leader can predict. And the teams who’ll win in 2026 aren’t the ones with the prettiest slide decks.
They’re the ones whose playbooks are:
Decision-focused, not just conversation-focused
Rapidly tested and iterated
Anchored in process, but flexible in tactics
So if you’re staring at your 2025 playbook and wondering if it’ll survive the year… you’re not alone. But you’re also not powerless.
As Carlos reminded his sellers:
“Stress reveals your real process—and shows you where to get stronger. It’s not a weakness; it’s a roadmap.”
Treat your playbook that way, and the chaos becomes manageable.
Want to see how agile your playbook really is? Check out our free guide: How to Create a Sales Playbook That Actually Gets Used.
