“I recently spoke with a top CS leader who was struggling to get her playbooks to work. I listened to her problems and they felt very familiar. My advice was simple – forget the playbooks. They just don’t fit the modern SaaS journey.

Playbooks for Sales or CS teams are lists of actions that reps must follow for every new lead or customer. They come from the idea that a set series of steps guarantees success. I’ve built plenty of playbooks on both the Sales and CS side that promise two things:

• Helping customers succeed (if you follow these steps, success is yours).

• Making work easier for reps (just follow the playbook and you won't have to think much).

The truth is, these playbooks are management hacks. They are mostly used to hold reps accountable for working their accounts. In the end, a playbook is simply a rigid process that does not mirror how customers actually use your product.

In a modern SaaS business – especially in a product-led operation – things work differently. The product-led model is built on reduced human intervention. Its goal is to drive sales and engagement without any human help. Customers now want to try, sign up, start using, and upgrade on their own terms.

Customers don’t care about your playbook. Soon after you introduce one, its effectiveness fades.

The Playbook Failure

Playbooks force reps to follow a rigid process that does not match how your customers use your product. These systems create tasks for reps based purely on account age. For example:

Day one – do this.

Two days later – do that.

Five days on – do this.

Tasks are usually set up without checking if the previous one is complete. In a few weeks, reps find a long list of overdue tasks in their CRM. This leads to stress, frustration, and a pile of desperate emails that customers never asked for. Before long, whispers of “forget these playbooks” start floating around.

Remember, in a product-led model you cannot touch every customer – nor should you want to. Playbooks force a human touch on a journey designed to work without it. What you need is a good signaling system.

Creating a Signaling System to Replace Playbooks

A system based on signals fits how a product-led business should operate. It replaces the rigid playbook with a framework that highlights which accounts deserve your attention. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach, you use smart segmentation based on more than just the account age.

To build a good signaling system, you need to:

Define your signals.

Create a plan for actions triggered by those signals.

Defining Signals

When setting up signals, focus on two main factors:

• Account Tenure.

• Account Engagement/Activation.

For Tenure, consider these three stages:

• Brand New: accounts less than 30 days old.

• Young: accounts between 1 and 3 months old.

• Mature: accounts 4+ months old.

For Engagement/Activation, think of:

• Engagement – an over-time view of how much a user or account uses your product.

• Activation – a snapshot of how close a user or account is to experiencing their first key benefit.

Every business is unique. You might also add a factor like account size to decide which accounts require different actions.

Defining Signal Actions

After establishing your signals, design tailored actions for each one. This signal programme works by triggering specific actions – like task creation or sending an email – only when needed. While it might seem similar to a playbook, there are two key differences.

First, playbooks are applied globally to all or most accounts. Signals recognise that your team cannot give high-touch attention to every account and instead help you focus on those that matter most.

Second, playbooks are linear – they require a series of steps to be completed sequentially. Signals are non-linear. They trigger single actions when certain conditions are met.

For these reasons, a signal programme better matches the needs of a modern, product-led business.

Other Non-Behavioural, Scheduled Signals

Some signals are scheduled rather than behaviour-based. These can include regular touchpoints like quarterly reviews, satisfaction surveys, and renewal conversations that are set on the calendar rather than triggered by activity. If these are relevant to your business, add them to your system.