Trends and Insights, Enablement, Sales, Marketing, One Seismic
How to launch an effective sales play
By Emily Gimpel — On August 20, 2025
In today's selling landscape, sales teams are feeling the squeeze. Buyers are spending less time with sellers, and the demands on those sellers are intensifying. According to Gartner, 72% of sales reps say they feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of skills, knowledge, and technology they're expected to master to succeed.
With limited time to influence purchase decisions, every customer interaction must deliver maximum value.
That's where a well-designed sales play comes in — not just as a guide, but as a repeatable framework that connects strategy to execution. This blog walks through a practical approach to building and launching an effective sales play, so your teams can perform consistently and predictably.
Start with strategy
Before creating content or training, step back and ask, "What behaviors do we need to change to meet our business goals?" Whether you're launching a new product, targeting a new segment, or improving win rates, defining a clear outcome is essential. From there, your sales play should map out how reps will get there with the right messaging, tools, and coaching.
At its core, a sales play is more than a checklist. It's a focused, outcome-driven enablement initiative that helps your teams know what to say, show, and do at every stage of the sales process.
If you're interested in diving deeper on this, our blog on the perfect sales playbook breaks it down in detail.
Collaborate to bring go-to-market teams together
The most impactful sales plays aren't created in isolation. Sales, marketing, enablement, and product all have a role to play in shaping the content and structure. That's where Seismic Programs adds value — it gives cross-functional teams a central workspace to build, review, and launch strategic plays together.
This alignment ensures your play is more than theory. Reps aren't handed a deck and told "good luck" — they're guided by practical, field-ready materials that reinforce messaging and remove ambiguity. Think of it as a living sales playbook with all the prep, pitch, and follow-up tools your reps need.
Activate in the field
When it's time to go live, Seismic enables seamless execution. Training and content are surfaced at the right moment — whether that's embedded in CRM workflows or shared through a manager's coaching session. Reps receive personalized, on-demand support that boosts adoption and confidence.
This is where the gap often appears between sales strategy and frontline behavior. Without contextual delivery, even the best sales play template won't gain traction. By integrating learning, reinforcement, and AI guided selling into daily workflows, Seismic helps reps take the right action at the right time, with measurable consistency.
Measure and iterate
A sales play doesn't end at launch. In fact, that's when the real work begins. With Seismic's analytics and insights, you can track how reps are engaging, what content is resonating, and which behaviors are driving results. If something isn't working, you can pivot quickly.
The ability to monitor and optimize live programs is what turns sales enablement into a strategic lever. You're not just enabling reps; you're empowering the business to adjust course and hit revenue goals without waiting for quarter-end retrospectives. This kind of agility is critical for leaders tasked with aligning enablement to growth.
Why sales plays are the key to scalable success
Today's selling environment demands more than a strong sales pitch. It requires a repeatable, scalable framework that ensures consistency without sacrificing personalization. That's the power of a modern sales play — it turns tribal knowledge into institutional advantage.
In fact, Seismic's 2024 Generation Enablement Report found that 94% of organizations using AI-powered enablement tools reported faster ramp times and higher quota attainment. When your sales play is built, launched, and optimized through a platform like Seismic, you're not just reacting to market shifts — you're leading the charge.
From idea to execution
A great sales play doesn't live in a slide deck. It lives in the habits of your reps, the metrics on your dashboards, and the outcomes you deliver. With Seismic Programs, you can go from fragmented tactics to fully integrated execution — aligning your teams, scaling your strategy, and delivering impact that lasts.
Ready to build your next sales play?
Book a demo with Seismic to see how you can create repeatable, high-impact sales plays that drive consistency, performance, and growth.