Ai Playbooks - Early Adopter Program

Introducing Dialpad’s newest feature - Ai Playbooks!

Ai Playbooks leverage Dialpad’s real-time speech recognition and generative Ai to ensure sales reps adhere to prescribed sales behaviors on live calls and meetings. Playbooks keep sales teams aligned, ensuring everyone is providing a consistent customer experience. 

Not only do Ai Playbooks capture user responses to provide priceless real-time insights for sales reps, but they also offer post-call analytics to help managers drive smart business decisions and pinpoint coaching opportunities.

Let's dive into the details. 

Turn on Ai Playbooks

To use Ai Playbooks, first, you must make sure Ai is enabled.

Once enabled, Office Admins, Contact Center Admins, Supervisors, and Coaches can hand-pick templated Playbooks based on their team’s needs. 

To select an Ai Playbook, head to your Admin Settings from Dialpad.com 

1. Select the desired Contact Center or Coaching Team  
2. Navigate to Dialpad Ai 
3. Navigate to Playbooks
4. Select the desired playbook from the dropdown menu

If you’d like to allow your agents to be able to change the playbook during a live call, check the box beside Allow individual users to select a different playbook during their calls. 

This setting must be manually applied, by default agents cannot change the playbook. 

Use Ai Playbooks

Ai Playbooks provide sales reps with step–by–step prompts based on the selected sales methodology. This ensures reps are not just asking questions, but that they’re the right ones, all the while staying aligned with their organization's established sales process.

When a sales rep places a call, the applied playbook is displayed on the right-hand panel of the calling screen. 

When Ai detects the conversation relevant to an activity in the playbook, it checks off the activity on the UI in near real-time.

If the Allow individual users to select a different playbook during their calls setting has been turned on by an Admin, reps can select a different playbook during a live call.

If you decide none of the playbooks are relevant, or you just don't want to use one, select Disable.

Ai Playbooks in Call History

Use the Playbooks Filter to see how often playbooks are being used and by which agent.

To see Playbook usage, head to your Admin Portal.

1. Select Call History
2. Select More Filters
3. Select Playbooks
4. Select desired playbook(s), or type them in the search box

Playbook types

Dialpad offers templated Ai Playbooks based on the most common sales methodologies: BANT, SPIN, MEDDIC, CHALLENGER, and SPICED, as well as two recruiter Playbooks. Not only that, you can create your own custom playbook!

BANT Playbook

The BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timing) methodology focuses on qualifying leads based on their budget, decision-making authority, identified needs, and purchasing timeline. 

Topics include:

• Budget
  • What is your allocated budget for this project or solution?
  • Have you considered any financial constraints?
• Authority
  • Who are the key decision-makers involved in this purchase?
  • What is your role in the decision-making process?
• Need
  • What are the main challenges or pain points your organization is facing right now?
  • How does our solution align with your needs and objectives?
• Timeline
  • What is your desired timeline for implementing this solution?
  • Are there any deadlines or milestones we should be aware of?

SPIN Playbook

The SPIN (Situation, Problem, Implication, Need payoff) approach involves asking a series of questions to uncover the prospect's situation, identify problems, understand the implications of those problems, and present the value of the solution.  

Topics include:

• Situation
  • Can you describe your current situation and any relevant context?
  • How has your organization approached similar challenges in the past?
• Problem
  • What specific problems are you experiencing that our solution can address?
  • How have these problems affected your business or operations?
• Implication
  • What are the potential consequences if these problems are not addressed?
  • How might these issues impact your organization's future growth or success?
• Need-payoff
  • How do you see our solution addressing your identified problems?
  • What benefits or improvements do you expect to see once our solution is implemented?

MEDDIC Playbook

The MEDDIC (Metrics, Economic Buyer, Decision criteria, Decision process, Identify pain, and Champion) framework is an advanced approach that helps sales professionals identify and engage with key stakeholders, understand their pain points, and tailor their approach accordingly.

Topics include:

• Metrics
  • How will you measure the success of our solution?
  • What specific outcomes are you looking to achieve?
• Economic buyer
  • Who holds the financial authority for this purchase?
  • Have you discussed the investment required with the economic buyer?
• Decision criteria
  • What are the key criteria you'll use to evaluate potential solutions?
  • How does our solution stack up against your criteria?
• Decision process
  • Can you walk me through your organization's decision-making process?
  • Are there any steps we should be aware of to help support your decision?
• Identify pain
  • What are the most pressing issues or pain points that our solution can address?
  • How have these pain points impacted your organization so far?
• Champion
  • Who within your organization is a strong advocate for our solution?
  • How can we work together to build support for our solution?

CHALLENGER Playbook

The CHALLENGER playbook encourages sales reps to challenge their prospects' assumptions and educate them on new perspectives, positioning them as trusted advisors. 

Topics include:

• Reframe the prospect's understanding
  • Have you considered the impact of [new perspective] on your current challenges?
  • How might [new perspective] change the way you address your pain points?
• Teach new Insights
  • Are you aware of [industry trend or insight] that could affect your situation?
  • How can our solution help you capitalize on these new insights?
• Rational drowning
  • Can you share any data or metrics that highlight the extent of the issues you're facing?
    • How do these numbers align with our proposed solution's capabilities?
• Emotional impact
  • How do these challenges affect your team or stakeholders on a personal level?
  • How can our solution alleviate these emotional pain points and improve morale?
• Tailored solutions
• Based on your specific needs and goals, how can we customize our solution to deliver the best results?
• How does our solution align with your organization's strategic priorities?

SPICED Playbook

The SPICED (Situation, Problem, Impact, Critical Event, Decision) methodology provides a structured approach to gathering information about a prospect, understanding their needs, and assessing the potential for a successful sales opportunity. By addressing each of these five areas, sales reps can better qualify leads and focus their efforts on the most promising prospects. 

Topics include:

• Situation
  • What is your current situation? 
  • What challenges or pain points are you facing?
  • What are the needs?
  • What is the context for the solution being sought?
• Problem
  • What are the main issues you are experiencing? 
  • How do these problems impact your business?
• Impact
  • What are the consequences of not solving these problems? 
  • How do these issues affect your company's bottom line and operations?
• Critical event
  • What is the process, committee and criteria involved in purchasing a solution for the problem?
  • What is the priority level of addressing these?
• Decision
  • Who are the primary decision-makers for this purchase? 
  • What are their roles and responsibilities?
  • What is the purchasing process?

Recruiter screen

The Recruiter Screen playbook helps recruiters have an engaging and effective first conversation with the candidates

Topics include:

• Candidate history and qualifications 
• Company overview
• Details of the role that the candidate is being interviewed for
• Organizational fit

Career history and qualifications

• Information gathering about the work history and qualifications

Work preferences

• Conversation about the candidate’s work preferences

Priorities and deadlines

• Discussions on the company’s priorities and deadlines
• Discussions on the candidate’s priorities and deadlines

Values and organizational fit

• Discussion on the company’s values
• Discussion on the candidate’s values
• Discussion on the candidates fit into the organizational culture and values

Application reason

• Conversation on the candidate’s reasons for applying for the job 

Start date

• Conversation on the candidate's availability and start date

Location

• Conversation on the candidate’s location, required move, etc

Compensation

• Discussion on the candidate’s compensation expectations 

Next steps

• Sharing details on the next steps in the interview process

Hiring Manager Screen

The Hiring Manager Screen Playbook helps hiring managers connect with candidates and identify the mutual fit.

Topics include:

• Team and company overview
• The candidate's preferences and priorities
• The candidate's skillset 
• The candidate's values and motivations

Career history and qualifications

• Information gathering about the candidate's work history 
• Qualifications and match for the role's requirements

Work preferences

• Conversation about the candidate’s work preferences

Priorities and deadlines

• Discussion on the team’s priorities and deadline
• Discussion on the candidate’s priorities and deadline

Technical knowledge

• Understanding the candidate’s strengths and technical knowledge in alignment with the team’s requirements

Communication skills

• Familiarization with the candidate’s communication skills
• Discussion on the team’s communication style and it's alignment with the candidate’s skills

Decision making

• Discussion on the candidate’s decision-making skills
• Discussion on the team’s decision-making style and it's alignment with the candidate’s skills

Leadership qualities

• Learning about the candidate’s leadership qualities
• Discussion on fit into the team’s structure

Values and organizational fit

• Discussion on the team’s values
• Discussion on the candidates fit into the organizational/team culture and values

Application reason

• Conversation on the candidate’s reasons for applying for the job 
• Conversation on the candidate’s desired career path and growth opportunities

Create a playbook

Admins and supervisors can edit and create their own playbook, or edit an existing template, to create workflows and methodologies that align with the unique needs of their business. 

To create a new playbook, head to your Admin Settings from Dialpad.com 

1. Select Dialpad Ai  
2. Navigate to Ai Playbooks
3. Select Create Playbook
   1. Choose to use a default template or create from scratch

Create a playbook from a template

Templated topics are pre-loaded and can be edited and added as desired. Once you’ve chosen the playbook template:

1. Name your playbook, then select Next 
2. Select the desired template 
3. Review and add playbook topics
   1. To add a topic, select +
   2. To remove a topic, select -
   3. A maximum of 10 topics can be added 
4. Select Create playbook 

Create a playbook from scratch

1. Choose the playbook type
   1. Recruiting
   2. Sales 
2. Name your playbook, then select Next
3. Select + to add a topic 
   1. A maximum of 10 topics can be added
   2. To remove a topic, select -
4. Select Create playbook 

Once a playbook is created, it is displayed in your Custom Playbooks section. 

Ai Playbooks for Meetings

Not only for calls, Ai Playbooks can also be used in Dialpad Meetings!

Hosts and Co-Hosts can use Ai Playbooks during external meetings, as long as they are on an Ai Sales license and use the Dialpad desktop or browser app. 

To select an Ai Playbook during a meeting:

1. Make sure Ai is turned on
2. Select Ai Notes
3. Select Ai Playbooks
4. Choose the desired playbook
   
   1. If you are a member of multiple Contact Centers, you’ll see the assigned playbook for each Contact Center
      

That’s it! The Ai Playbook will appear on the left side of the meeting, guiding reps through the conversation. 

Change playbooks at any time during the meeting by returning to the Ai Playbooks tab. Select the drop-down menu to choose a new playbook. 

Choose any of your company’s custom playbooks, or use one of Dialpad’s default templates. 

Post-call insights

Coaches, managers, and leaders can easily see which reps are (or are not) following Ai Playbook behaviors. This allows leaders to better understand who needs additional coaching, and for which specific steps.

To view a Playbook score, head to your Admin Settings from Dialpad.com 

1. Select Call History
2. Select the desired call
3. Select Playbooks from the right-hand sidebar

Here you’ll see the playbook score, and any Ai detected activities with the relevant transcript snippet for context and evaluation.

Managers can also access the playbook adherence and other details via the call summary page.

Playbook analytics

Dialpad’s Coaching Hub dashboard provides a detailed view of Ai Playbook adherence over time to show leaders, managers, and sales reps their improvement in specific skills.

To access the Coaching Hub Leaderboard:

1. Head to your Admin Settings from Dialpad.com 
2. Select Coaching Hub from the left sidebar
3. Your Playbook metrics are in the Playbook Adherence column

Frequently asked questions 

How do I sign up for Ai Playbooks?

Sign up for the Ai Playbooks Early Adopter program here.

How do I give feedback on Ai Playbooks?

We want to hear all about your Ai Playbook experience! Please email us at [email protected] 

Is there a cost for Ai Playbooks?

The Early Adopter Program is free! Once we’ve fully released this feature, there will be an additional cost. 

Can I assign multiple playbooks to a Contact Center or Coaching Team?

No. Only one playbook can be assigned per Contact Center or Coaching Team.

Can you export playbook analytics?

No, playbook analytics are available only from the Coaching Hub leaderboard. 

Is there a limit to the number of playbooks I can create?

Nope! Create as many playbooks as you need. 

Can I create my own questions?

Not at this time. 

Can I delete a playbook?

You can delete a custom playbook, but not one of Dialpad's templates. 

To delete a custom playbook, head to your Admin Settings from Dialpad.com

1. Navigate to Dialpad Ai
2. Select Playbooks
3. Navigate to Custom Playbooks
4. Beside the Playbook, hover over the # of topics 
5. Select the trashcan icon
   
6. Confirm deletion

Deleting a playbook cannot be undone. 

What if I don’t think the playbook score is correct?

Agents and admins can review the call summary and flag any incorrect playbook activities. 

Click the flag icon beside the playbook action.