Agile sales and business development

Business Architecture Series

Agile Sales and Business Development

Build effective sales team learning from agile development methodology

wintonjkt@gmail.com

Current challenges● Sales update status happens weekly or

biweekly● Resources are working on low value deals

and non-deal closing activities● Too many directions to the team causes

disorientation and lost focus● Late acknowledgement of a failure in

achieving the quota

Agile Sales● Applicable for smallest sales unit in the

organization● Small team members (max 10)● Team still has freedom to determine the tasks

needed to achieve the result ● Transparency acknowledges people's effort, not

only the number achieved

Scrum Agile model in Application Development

Scrum Agile model in Sales and Business

Quarter DealsBacklog

Monthly DealsBacklog

Daily Meeting

Achieving Annual Target

Terminology mapping● Backlog

● What deals we need to close in this quarter?● What deals we need to develop in the coming quarters

● Story● High level goals to close the deal

● Task● List of activities to achieve the story

● Impediment● What issues or any blockage to meet the target

Terminology Mapping● Release

● Final number we deliver to the business (annual number)● Sprint

● Month, Quarter or Half Year● Scrum Master

● Sales Manager● Team

● Sales, Tech Sales, Sales Operations, Marketing

How to benefit from Agile Methodology in Sales and Business

● Always have list of goals and tasks to achieve the goal● We can track down to the most detail level

● Daily Meeting – 30 minutes daily call with the team to update status and task distribution and prioritization and another 30 minutes sales manager meeting for inter division interlock● Create urgency with the team, instead of weekly call, short 30

mins call with the team will help the team to prioritize the target of the day

● Helps the team to focus on top 5 highest priority tasks● Time keeping must be sharp to allow the team to focus on

execution● Sales manager – responsible to clear all impediments, find

out internal bottlenecks, direct the team to achieve the goal● Ensure the management does their job

Some Rules● All team must attend the Daily Meeting –

current technology allows everyone to join meeting from any location

● Allow change to take place at anytime – because we are running business and not developing software

● Allow the team to speak out on the tasks needed to close the deal

● Sales manager helps prioritizing and direct the team's focus

Simple Roles

- SCRUM MASTER(Sales Manager)

- SCRUM TEAM(Sales, Tech Sales, Sales

Ops, Marketing)

picture by exfordy

Scrum Master(Sales

Manager)

Servant leaderTeam protectorTroubleshooter

Scrum guide

picture by Orange Beard

Scrum Master(Sales

Manager)Remove impedimentsPrevent interruptionsFacilitate the teamSupport the processManage management

The Team(Sales Team)

Small (5–9 people)Colocated - Cross-functional

Self-organized - Full-timepicture by ewen and donabel

The Team

Define tasksEstimate effortProgress DealsEnsure qualityEvolve processes

Team Commitment!TEAM DEFINE THEIR OWN RULES OF WORK

TEAM HAS THE FULL CONTROL OF WHAT THEY DOTRANSPARENT

TEAM MUST COMMIT TO DELIVER MAKE CONTINOUS IMPROVEMENT

The Challenge!

Looks Simple, But It Is HardNo Silver Bullet

Need ProcessTakes Time

picture by a2gemma