Playbooks and ABM plays
Playbooks turn proven sales motions into deployable campaigns with their own research logic, targeting, and personalization. Launch a play in about an hour.
A playbook is a proven sales motion packaged as a deployable campaign. Each one ships with its own research logic, audience targeting criteria, a personalization framework matched to the objective, and performance tracking. You pick a play, fill in the details, and it goes live — 11x documents launch in about an hour. Plays are stackable across segments, and you can compare performance between motions.
The reason playbooks matter isn't convenience. It's that each play carries different research logic — an event play researches the event itself, while a lost-deal play reads your CRM loss reasons. That's work you'd otherwise have to specify from scratch every time.
What a playbook contains
| Component | What it does |
|---|---|
| Strategy and research logic | Research tailored to the play's specific goal |
| Audience targeting criteria | Built into the campaign rather than defined separately |
| Personalization framework | Messaging adapted to the play's objective |
| Performance tracking | Pipeline generated, reply rates, conversions |
Available plays
| Play | Trigger | How its research differs |
|---|---|---|
| Win-back | Deals lost in recent quarters | Reads CRM loss reasons and builds a contextual reason to re-engage |
| Re-engagement | Contacts gone cold | Looks for what changed at the account since contact stopped |
| Event promotion | Upcoming event | Positions attendance value per lead |
| Event follow-up | Attendee or registrant list | Researches the event itself and frames value differently per lead |
| Product launch | New capability shipped | Targets competitor users specifically |
| Renewal | Approaching renewal date | Uses account history and usage context |
| Lead nurture | Long-cycle accounts not yet ready | Builds a reason to stay in contact without pushing |
See the full Alice use-case library for how each maps to a marketing page.
ABM plays
ABM plays make 11x account-aware: the unit of work becomes the account rather than the individual lead.
Define the account list
Upload target accounts, sync them from your CRM, or build the list with web filters.
Alice finds the contacts
Contact discovery within each account, across the roles you care about.
Qualification runs per contact
Each discovered contact is checked for fit before outreach — see qualification.
Multi-threaded engagement
The buying committee is engaged with role-appropriate messaging rather than one message sent to everyone. See AI personalization.
Multi-threading only works if personas are genuinely differentiated. Four contacts receiving four near-identical emails is worse than contacting one — it signals automation to the entire committee at once.
Deploying a play
Pick the play matching your motion
Match the play to the trigger, not to the audience. The same account list can be worked by different plays depending on why you're reaching out now.
Fill in the details
The specifics: which event, which competitor, which loss window, which renewal period.
Scope the knowledge base
Restrict entries to the offering this play sells. See knowledge base.
Review a sample before launch
Read the research and drafted messaging for 15–20 prospects.
Launch, then compare
Run plays side by side and compare on pipeline generated, not reply rate alone.
Stacking plays
Plays run simultaneously across different segments. A useful default portfolio:
- One net-new motion for top-of-funnel volume
- One revival motion — win-back or re-engagement — against existing CRM data, which is usually the cheapest pipeline available
- One timing-based motion — event, launch, or renewal — that runs when the trigger occurs
Revival plays are the fastest thing to test. The data is already in your CRM, the accounts already know you, and loss reasons give the research something concrete to work with. Teams routinely under-run these.
Measuring plays against each other
| Metric | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Pipeline generated | The only metric that settles which play to keep |
| Reply rate | Diagnostic for messaging quality, not a goal |
| Meeting-to-qualified rate | Reveals whether the play targets the right accounts |
| Rep feedback | Whether the meetings were worth taking |
Don't kill a play on reply rate. A revival play against closed-lost accounts may have a lower reply rate and much higher pipeline per reply than a net-new play. Judge on pipeline.