By the time you raise Series D, your company has grown beyond a startup. You’ve proven product-market fit, built repeatable motions, expanded globally, and won enterprise accounts. You’re now in late-stage territory where investors, analysts, and future shareholders want to see one thing: predictable, efficient, defensible growth.
A Series D Sales Playbook is not about experimentation. It’s about codifying global structure, strengthening efficiency, and ensuring the GTM engine is IPO-ready.
The Role of a Series D Sales Playbook
Earlier playbooks (Series A–C) focused on:
- Documenting founder hustle (A)
- Driving repeatability and efficiency (B)
- Scaling globally (C)
At Series D, the stakes are higher:
- You have hundreds of sellers worldwide.
- You’re managing multi-region expansion.
- Competitors are actively copying your moves.
- Investors demand CAC discipline and defensibility.
The playbook at this stage must ensure that every rep, in every region, runs consistent, efficient, and scalable sales motions.
Core Components of a Series D Sales Playbook
1. Global ICP and Market Segmentation
By Series D, you cannot afford vague ICPs. The playbook must define:
- Geographic focus (North America, EMEA, APAC, LATAM).
- Vertical focus (industries where you already have traction).
- Deal tiers (mid-market, enterprise, strategic/Global 2000).
- Executive personas (CIO, CFO, COO, CISO).
Territory assignment and account segmentation must flow directly from this ICP definition.
2. Persona-Centric Enterprise Messaging
At this stage, the buyer journey is no longer mid-level managers. It’s board-level executives. The playbook must include:
- Messaging by persona (CFO cares about CAC payback, CIO about integration risk, COO about operational scale).
- Vertical-specific case studies to reinforce credibility.
- Competitive positioning at enterprise scale, with global references.
3. Institutionalized Sales Motions
Three sales motions should be non-negotiable at Series D:
- Inbound Motion: Global demand-gen campaigns, analyst recognition, Fortune 500 case studies. Objective: accelerate mid-market pipeline.
- Outbound Motion: Strategic ABM for top 200–300 accounts worldwide. Objective: coordinate SDR, AE, and exec sponsor outreach.
- Network Motion (GTN): Formalized warm-intro playbook powered by Vieu. Objective: secure C-level meetings that cold outbound cannot.
Each motion should be documented with: entry criteria, steps, tools, success metrics, and governance.
4. Enablement at Scale
With a global team, enablement must be standardized and measurable. The playbook should include:
- Onboarding frameworks (30-60-90 day plans).
- Global certification programs (demo, discovery, objection handling).
- Regional adaptations of battlecards and competitive guides.
- Recorded calls and libraries categorized by stage, segment, and region.
Enablement is now a discipline, not an afterthought.
5. Executive-Based Marketing Integration
At Series D, executive sponsorship is mandatory for enterprise deals. Your playbook should embed Executive-Based Marketing (EBM) as a sales lever:
- Global CxO dinners in financial hubs.
- Vertical-specific roundtables hosted with analysts or partners.
- Personalized gifting tied to enterprise initiatives.
The playbook must show how reps trigger these motions, and how marketing and sales co-own them.
6. Metrics for IPO Readiness
The Series D playbook must define and track metrics that prove efficiency and predictability:
- Pipeline coverage (4x quota by segment).
- Conversion rates by stage, geography, and vertical.
- Win-rate benchmarks (cold vs network-sourced).
- CAC payback period (< 12 months).
- Ramp time for new AEs (< 90 days).
- Percentage of pipeline sourced via GTN.
These metrics must be visible in dashboards reviewed at board level.
How Vieu Strengthens the Series D Playbook
At Series D, cold outbound loses efficiency. CAC spirals upward, and enterprise execs increasingly ignore generic outreach. That’s why institutionalizing a Go-to-Network (GTN) motion is critical.
With Vieu:
- The VieuGraph maps every warm path across employees, executives, investors, customers, and partners.
- AEs and SDRs get intro recommendations directly into executive buyers.
- Automated pursuit plans guide the outreach angle, context, and engagement sequence.
- Executive-Based Marketing integrates seamlessly with GTN plays.
- GTN impact is measured: pipeline contribution, win rates, CAC reduction.
This turns network-led selling from an ad-hoc tactic into a defensible, board-ready sales motion.
Example: Series D GTN Play
- Target: Fortune 100 enterprise in APAC.
- Outbound outreach stalled after months of attempts.
- Vieu surfaced a warm path via an existing U.S. customer executive and an advisor.
- AE triggered GTN play: facilitated an introduction → secured CIO meeting within three weeks.
- Deal cycle shortened by 40% compared to cold outbound benchmarks.
This isn’t coincidence — it’s repeatable when GTN is part of the playbook.
Common Mistakes at Series D
- Over-relying on outbound headcount instead of network leverage.
- Expanding into too many regions simultaneously without ICP depth.
- Treating enterprise messaging as generic instead of persona-specific.
- Underestimating enablement complexity across regions.
- Failing to track warm-intro pipeline as a distinct, defensible channel.
A Series D Sales Playbook must do more than scale headcount. It must codify global consistency, enforce efficiency, and build defensibility into the GTM engine.
The companies that win at this stage are not those who send more cold emails or double ad budgets. They are the ones who:
- Run standardized global sales motions.
- Segment and cover ICPs with precision.
- Enable reps worldwide with consistent frameworks.
- And most importantly, institutionalize warm-intro selling as a core motion.
That is the Vieu advantage. By making the Go-to-Network motion part of the Series D playbook, companies transform hidden relationships into a predictable, defensible revenue channel that accelerates IPO readiness.
Ready to build your Series D sales playbook? Book a demo with Vieu and see how GTN strengthens your global GTM engine.
