What is playing to win?
Playing to win is a strategy approach built on five linked choices covering the winning aspiration, where to play, how to win, the capabilities needed and the management systems behind them. A.G. Lafley and Roger Martin described it in their 2013 book Playing to Win. The choices are made together, and each one has to fit the others.
Why it matters to a revenue leader
Where to play and how to win translate directly into sales decisions about which segments the team pursues and on what basis it expects to beat rivals. A CRO can test a sales plan against them. If the plan targets every segment with the same pitch, the company has yet to make a where-to-play choice. The capability and management system choices then describe what the sales team has to be good at and how leaders will reinforce it.
Example
A PE-backed environmental services company chooses to play in regulated industrial sites in its region and to win on permit expertise. The CRO hires sellers with compliance backgrounds and drops a residential program that did not fit. Commission plans now reward multi-year industrial agreements.
"Can every seller name where we play and how we win, in the same words?"
Sources
- Strategy - Roger L. Martin checked 9 Oct 2026
- Playing to Win - Roger L. Martin checked 9 Oct 2026