--- title: Building the Ultimate Playbook description: This article covers seven best practices and tips for taking your Accord playbooks from 9/10 → 10/10. --- [Skip to content](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/how-to-build-a-10/10-playbook-in-accord#main-content) [![Accord logo](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/hubfs/Hubspot%20KB%20Logo.svg)](https://inaccord.com) Open main navigation Close main navigation How can we help? - There are no suggestions because the search field is empty. 1. [Knowledge Base](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge?hsLang=en) 2. [Playbook Building](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/playbook-building?hsLang=en) # Building the Ultimate Playbook ## This article covers best practices and tips for taking your Accord Playbooks from 9/10 → 10/10. Your Playbooks are the foundation of the Accords you’ll create to engage with your customers – so it’s important to set your deals or implementations up for success with a solid Playbook. Here are seven best practices that will take your Accord playbooks from 9/10 → 10/10. ### **1. Keep It Simple!** The goal is to capture everything your customer needs to know to complete their journey *– without overwhelming them.* A) Aim for 3x3 to 3x5 (3 stages with 3-5 steps each). B) Include a 1-line step description on each step. *Try using Sub-Tasks within each step to help you further break down larger Steps* [Learn more about building the Next Steps page](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/how-to-build-a-next-steps-page?hsLang=en) in your Accord Playbooks. --- ### **2. Draft a Compelling Summary** The ***Summary page*** is the #1 reason your buyer will engage with and invite other stakeholders to your Accord. Think of your Summary as a living and breathing documents where you'll add information gained during discovery and throughout the sales process. You'll align with your buyer on their pain points and how your solution solves that pain, arming them with the necessary information to sell on your behalf. a) The Summary should tell a compelling story about the value your solution can bring to the customer. b) Your champion should be excited to share it with their senior leadership. c) It should answer all the questions your champion will need answered when sharing this information with their team, while still being concise (try to keep it one page or less). --- ### **3. Create a Recommended Timeline** It's important to uncover a compelling event and do a work-back plan with every customer, so you can control the deal or implementation timeline. a) Pick a [**Milestone**](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/milestone?hsLang=en) (usually the day the customer gets to value). b) Work backwards and assign relative dates to key steps in each stage leading up to the milestone. --- ### **4. Guide Your Customer to Value, Not Their Signature** Your customer doesn’t care about signing the deal – they care about **solving their problems.** a) Orient your Next Steps page around a go-live, value, or success date, not a close date! b) Even if you’re not planning to transition your Accord to another team after the Milestone, include an onboarding or implementation stage so your buyer can see what the post-sale process includes. --- ### **5. Assign an Owner to Every Step** While many stakeholders will be involved in the deal, you are making a commitment with your *champion*, and holding *them* accountable. a) **Most steps should be owned by you** (the AE / CSM). b) The rest should be owned by the champion. --- ### **6. Organize & Share Helpful Resources** Along with the Summary, ***Resources*** are a common reason buyers will engage with your Accord. Make life easy for them by centralizing everything they need in the Resources tab. a) Include every resource to be shared during the process. b) Organize resources into folders based on resource type. c) Pin the most important resources & folders to the top. (Tip: this may change throughout your deal or implementation.) d) Connect resources to the steps where they belong. Reminder: you’ll also get [notified](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/how-do-notifications-work?hsLang=en) when buyers access resources in Accord! --- ### **7. Define Key Stakeholders** Use the ***Team*** tab to list out all the stakeholders who need to be involved for the deal or implementation to go successfully. a) Represent the stakeholders who need to be involved by adding Placeholder Roles for them. Placeholder Roles are set at workspace-level by an admin. b) Refer to stakeholders by their title within the organization or their role within the deal (eg. CRO vs Exec Sponsor). - [Getting Started for Admins](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/getting-started-for-admins?hsLang=en#main-content) - [Administration](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/getting-started-for-admins?hsLang=en#administration) - [Getting Started for Users](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/getting-started-for-users?hsLang=en#main-content) - [Best Practices](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/getting-started-for-users?hsLang=en#best-practices) - [Playbook Building](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/playbook-building?hsLang=en) - [Accord Pages Overview](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/accord-pages-overview?hsLang=en) - [Salesforce Integration](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/salesforce-integration?hsLang=en) - [HubSpot Integration](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/hubspot-integration?hsLang=en) - [Integrations](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/integrations?hsLang=en) - [Resource Library (CMS)](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/resource-library-cms?hsLang=en) - [Accord Intelligence](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/accord-intelligence?hsLang=en#main-content) - [Accord Agents](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/accord-intelligence?hsLang=en#accord-agents) - [Reporting](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/reporting?hsLang=en) - [Troubleshooting](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/troubleshooting?hsLang=en) - [Single Sign-On (SSO)](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/single-sign-on-sso?hsLang=en) - [Deal Reviews](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/deal-reviews?hsLang=en) - [Miscellaneous](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/knowledge/miscellaneous?hsLang=en) [![3ffd500e-b255-4f54-aca9-eb7961c6ceaa](https://collaboration.inaccord.com/hs-fs/hubfs/3ffd500e-b255-4f54-aca9-eb7961c6ceaa.png?width=100&height=27&name=3ffd500e-b255-4f54-aca9-eb7961c6ceaa.png "3ffd500e-b255-4f54-aca9-eb7961c6ceaa")](https://inaccord.com/) Knowledge Base Copyright © 2025, Accord