If you still use a “Sales Playbook,” you risk falling behind, like Blockbuster. Playbooks harm modern sales, not just because they are old. They stop smart sales people from adapting, they give leaders a false sense of security, and they waste money.
This may sound harsh, but sugar-coating truths prevents sales leaders from reaching goals. Let’s face five difficult truths your sales enablement vendor will never tell you.
1. Playbooks Are Written by Tourists, Not Fighters
Most playbook writers have not talked to a live customer in years. They make rules from safe offices while sales representatives face real challenges. When theory meets sales goals, theory always loses.
2. Static Content Ages Like Milk
Customer feelings change weekly; your playbook updates yearly, if you are lucky. By the time lawyers approve a new section, the problem has changed twice, and a competitor has already won the deal.
3. Top performers ignore playbooks.
Your best sales people look at the playbook, laugh, and then do what actually closes deals. You might think they are rebels, but they believe you are limiting their success. Guess who earns more money? Not the people who follow the binder.
4. Compliance Theater ≠ Revenue Reality
“95% of sales people completed the playbook certification!” But what does “completed” mean? Perhaps they watched a video fast while on Instagram. Mandatory certifications only show that sales people know how to click “Next.” They do not show skill or healthy sales pipelines.
5. Playbooks create excuses
When sales deals fail, leaders blame a “lack of adherence.” This is an easy excuse. Meanwhile, the real problem—customer changes—is ignored. Your market changes hourly; your playbook points fingers monthly. No wonder sales forecast meetings feel like group therapy.
Enter AI: The Playbook Pyromaniac
We do not need better playbooks. We need to destroy them and use an adaptive, real-time intelligence system instead. AI is not just a “nice-to-have dashboard.” It fixes decades of old sales rules. Here is why older leaders hate admitting this:
AI learns—humans guess. Every email opened, call recorded, or customer field updated teaches the system. Patterns that humans see as “noise” become useful predictions for the machine.
AI gives real-time advice, not after-the-fact analysis. Instead of reviewing sales after the quarter, sales people get advice during calls: “Ask about competitor X now—your chance of winning increases by 18%.” You do not need a checklist after the fact; you need immediate guidance.
AI shares top sales people’s secrets. Remember the best sales people who ignored your playbook? AI copies their methods and shares these insights with every sales person. Suddenly, special knowledge becomes company knowledge, and excuses disappear.
AI updates itself every night. Has customer feeling changed? The system retrains. Did a new competitor enter? Signals are found, messages are adjusted. Compare this to waiting for next quarter’s “playbook refresh workshop” (which is like corporate purgatory).
Objections from the Dusty-Binder Crowd
“AI cannot replace human judgment.” Wrong. AI improves judgment and removes the busywork that stops it.
“AI lacks context.” Also wrong. AI processes customer notes, call transcripts, and sales stages that your brain could not hold.
“It is too expensive.” So is missing sales goals for six quarters in a row while paying for laminated charts no one reads.
The call to change:
If you are serious about making money, stop treating your playbook like a holy book. See it for what it is: fuel for a fire. Light it, watch it burn, and let AI build something living, breathing, and very effective in its place. Your competitors are already doing this. The question is whether you will join them or keep polishing your old manual until failing becomes unavoidable.
About Eldad Postan-Koren
Eldad Postan-Koren is a recognized thought leader in sales, technology, and artificial intelligence. With over 15 years of experience driving innovation in B2B sales organizations, Eldad has helped companies transform their go-to-market strategies and embrace data-driven decision-making. As a founder, executive, and advisor, he challenges the status quo and empowers sales teams to achieve more through technology. Eldad’s insights have appeared in leading industry publications, and he is a sought-after speaker on the future of sales enablement and AI. When he is not reimagining the sales process, he mentors startups and advocates for a smarter, more adaptive approach to business growth.
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