From order of ops to sales playbooks

As a VP of SDRs managing an 80+ person organization, building scalable processes was one of the most important things I could do for my team. My goal was never to script every rep’s outreach or limit creativity. I wanted SDRs to have freedom in who they reached out to, what they said, and how they engaged.

Where I felt I could make the biggest impact was in creating smart, prioritized lists, especially those built around the sales plays we were running each quarter. That kind of prioritization shouldn’t be something we force SDRs and sellers to build for themselves. The process should already be there and be thoughtfully designed, easy to follow, and refined over time.

In the early days, I stitched this together using Demandbase data combined with first-party signals flowing into Salesforce reports and dashboards. Once we launched and trained the team, the feedback was immediate. Slack messages poured in: “Got one from this report.” “This is great, can we add something like this?”

Those teams consistently hit 125–150% of pipeline targets. We promoted two to three SDRs every quarter. And during that time, Demandbase grew revenue more than 20x.

Order of ops, evolved

After I moved into the Sales Evangelist role our current SDR Leader, Sean Magee, took that original “Order of Ops” framework and pushed it even further. Sean built Order of Ops 2.0 refining prioritization, tightening execution, and making it even easier for SDRs to know exactly where to focus each day. Sean made it an even better process that was immediately adopted as his orgs prioritization engine.

And the feedback didn’t change.

We continued hearing things like:

• “These reports are great.”
• “I got 75% of my opps last quarter from the engaged and MQA reports.”

What started as a set of dashboards had become a core execution engine for our SDR team.

Turning a proven motion into a product

As Sean and I continued iterating on our Order of Ops, we began working more closely with our Product Management and Design teams including Stephenie Springer, Sandesh de Silva, Uday Challa, and Holly Kerr.

Sandesh and Holly had been hearing about the SDRs using the Order of Ops and came to us asking deeper questions about how we were using these dashboards day to day. How did SDRs start their mornings? How did managers think about sequencing work? What signals actually mattered when deciding who to engage and why?

Very quickly, they saw what we saw: this wasn’t just a set of reports. It was a repeatable, scalable way to run an SDR organization.

Over the next few months, they took that internal Order of Ops and brought it to life inside the product. What emerged was something bigger and far more powerful.

Today, we’re excited to announce the launch of sales playbooks in Demandbase One for Sales.

What are sales playbooks?

Sales playbooks are guided, execution-ready workflows that help SDRs know who to engage, why now, and what to do next without jumping between tabs, filters, or reports.

Embedded directly into the Prescriptive Sales Dashboard and the People tab, each Play surfaces a prioritized set of accounts or contacts based on real-time engagement, intent, persona, and buying group signals. Each Play appears as a dynamic, clickable card with clear actions reps can take immediately.

This is the order of ops directly in Demandbase One for Sales

Less research. Better execution. Bigger pipeline.

Sales playbooks eliminate one of the biggest drains on SDR productivity: manual research.

Each play includes:

• AI-powered account summaries that explain what’s happening and why it matters
• Recommended actions that guide reps to the next best step
• Recommended buying group members so outreach expands beyond a single contact
• An email personalization agent tying those things together and allowing SDRs to choose a product of interest, the tone of the email and instructions for how they like to write their emails

No more stitching together signals. No more guessing which contacts matter. Just effective plays with clear actions designed to build bigger, better pipeline that closes at a higher rate, for more revenue.

Completed actions are automatically suppressed, keeping reps focused on fresh, high-signal opportunities and reducing cognitive overload.

Built for SDRs. Scaled by managers.

Sales playbooks give SDRs clarity without removing autonomy — and give managers scale without micromanagement.

Managers define Plays once, aligned to their GTM motion and sales methodology. SDRs start every day with a prioritized execution plan that reflects how the business wants to sell.

The result:

• Faster ramp for new hires
• More consistent execution across the team
• Better outcomes without constant coaching

Early feedback has been clear:

“This is perfect, it gives you a snapshot of unknown people, but also the ability to really hone in on known personas.”
— SDR Manager

“If you know exactly which three People Plays reps should work first, and that’s all they have to do for the day — that’s huge.”

–SDR Manager

“I am getting 70% of my opportunities month over month from Engaged and MQA account plays

–Top performing SDR

Coming next, SDR Managers will be able to customize Plays within the Playbook and build reports dynamically with flexibility similar to querying an LLM. You’ll be able to adapt Plays to your team’s priorities, use AI to understand plays other customers have used to build pipeline and get the recommendations to add those to your playbook, and continuously refine execution as your strategy evolves.

Sales Playbooks represent a shift from static dashboards to AI-driven, outcome-oriented execution. What began as an internal Order of Ops is now available to every Demandbase customer helping SDR teams spend less time researching and more time driving pipeline that actually closes.

Join the ranks of top marketers who trust Demandbase, and let us help you transform your potential into success.

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