Who can create Plays

The ability to create Plays is restricted by the “Manage Plays” permission. See the image below. Some customers restrict this permission to ONLY Playbooks Administrators and Managers in order to better control the sales strategy. Other customers have enabled sales reps to create their own Plays which puts the control back in the user’s hands to develop their own strategy and share with their co-workers.

A user’s role is the largest factor in the decision to grant the “Manage Plays” permission. Example: if an end user is a Business Development Representative, they will most likely not have the ability to create Plays, but rather be required to stick to the same, repeatable process as all other Business Development Reps. If the end user is an Account Manager, they might be given the flexibility to create their own Plays to support their unique portfolio.

A user’s sales experience is the second factor to consider. We all learned to ride a bike with training wheels and used bumpers the first time we went bowling. This led to a more enjoyable, and less painful experience. It’s the same with Playbooks. The junior members of our sales team will learn much quicker, and with fewer bruises, if they are provided with Plays to get them started.

Caution: We have seen some customers NOT restrict Play creation and as a result their Plays have spread out of control like a wildfire in August. On the other hand, some customers have restricted Play creation from seasoned Sales Professionals and as a result those individuals did not adopt Playbooks into their daily workflow.

If you choose to allow sales reps the ability to create Plays, managers and admins should give some basic guidelines and training. Consider these best practices:

  • Make Play creation part of your employee advancement and training program. For example, it is required for Team Lead roles or to get the next pay raise
  • Any user, admin, or manager that will create Plays must complete this Play Maker course and provide their completion certificate to the Playbooks Administrator
  • Set a guideline that users are allowed no more than 10 personal Plays. For industry specific Plays, leverage features like Placeholders and Snippets
  • Communicate regular “Clean-up” sessions twice per year for unused Plays

 

Alternative Solution

An alternative and highly advisable solution to granting everyone the ability to create their own Plays, is to establish a “Center of Excellence” group. We’ll go into detail about the CoE group later in this course, but think of it as a customer advisory board. Representatives from all user groups provide feedback on Plays and automation. They report on what is working, what isn’t, and bring new ideas to the table.

 

‘Edit All Plays’ Permission

This is a very powerful permission that should be restricted to administrators only. This permission allows a user to not only modify any Play in their instance of Playbooks, but to also delete them.

Related Article: Manage Permission Groups

Click this message to view more details about this permission in Help Center