agile business development

Preamble

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who can not change their minds can not change everything”

George Bernard Shaw

Think like programmer!

If you are in IT sales

Contents

1.  Why to use Agile in sales?

2.  Agile sales team (roles and tips)

3.  Agile sales process with terminology

4.  Agile sales tools

5.  Implementation: Action plan

AGILE SALES essentials

DEAL

SALES backlog

Why to use?

B u y e r i s m o r e informed than ever. All your leads can go Google, read and share their thoughts. Sales people are not generalists anymore.

E-mail marketing and telemarketing is not working, there is a need to b u i l d S M M , inbound/outbound marketing which requires backlog

Everyone wants to h a v e t h e b e s t technology and is common with the latest news in IT development. So using Agile is the first step to make it.

Classical sales flow chart

DEAL

Quick Wins

Where are we?

Understand

Route map

Agile sales team

Quantity – 5-7 people Target: by Country, by type of sales, by lead nature etc

Roles: Scrum master (Sales Team Lead) Sales team (Lead gen, marketing, business analyst) Account manager

Terminology Mapping

Release – final number of closed deals we deliver to the business (quarter, annual) Sprint – month, quarter Scrum Master – Sales Manager Backlog – What we need to close this quarter? What we need to develop (sale, convert) this quarter Story – High level goals to close this deal Task – List of activities to achieve the story Retrospective – What issues or blockage we have to meet the target

Backlog tools: PIPEDRIVE

Release tools: PIPEDRIVE

Retrospective

Type Inbound leads

Outbound leads

Deals Lost

ODC 45 32 2 5

T&M 18 22 1 10

Project 115 265 4 30

Design 32 12 1 17

US month retrospective

SCRUM meeting

-  Implement two 30-minutes mandatory SCRUM meetings per week.

-  Designate one person as the facilitator. The facilitator’s job is to keep the meeting on topic and pace, log all tasks, and keep the team accountable regarding priorities.

SCRUM meeting

Update 1: Provide a status update/report on “Top 5 Opportunities”

Update 2: Update everyone “SCRUM-worthy” prospects

Update 3: Plans for today and tomorrow

Update 4: Report on stumbling blocks

Update 5: Ask what others on the team can do to help move sales forward, we’re all in this together!

How to start?

Step 1: Training: It is important for the teams to be trained on Agile/Scrum so that they understand the

methodology and the goals.

Step 2: Stand up: Stand ups allow teams to adapt and react quickly to how the process is working for customers and

external teams.

Step 3: Sprints and Retrospectives: For sales, the sprint cycle may be much longer

than recommended for a typical development team, but it’s important for sales managers to follow the

sprint structure.

Step 4: Re-interpreting Product Backlog: Our team implemented an EPIC board

(Customers) and Tasks were set up as “backlog items” with a “pending”, “in-progress”, or

“completed” status.

Action plan

Step 1: Define everyone’s roles

Step 2: Specifically document your business’ key markets.

Step 3: Set a date and time for your SCRUM meetings. Keep in mind when your team may be the most productive, and DON’T pick that time

Step 4: Outline your CRM policies.

Step 5: Define your specific sales process. Outline

each step in your sales process and build a flow chart.

Step 6: Document your sales process.

Step 7: Set weekly goals. Every sales team needs to

have formal sales goals which are reviewed weekly.

Step 8: Define each sales representative’s top 5

opportunities

Thank you!

Kate Goldberg COO Intersog.com

Agile sales: advantages

S  1. Daily check-ins

Quickly jot down the team’s performance since the last check-in and outline your plans to move forward. This gives you something to look back at when you meet again tomorrow.

Action: Set aside 5 minutes with the team before everyone breaks for morning calls to discuss yesterday’s progress, identify key metrics to focus on and make incremental adjustments to your strategy. Set goals for individuals that you expect them to meet before your next check-in.


S  2. Use A/B testing

A/B testing is a simple concept. This marketing tactic tests and compares one benchmark against an alternative. For a sales team this can be a cold call intro, demo script, or really anything you can think to test.

Action: Dedicate a couple members to deliver the same script, every time.

Specify what you want to test, like a script.

Test the delivery consistently over a call total.

Record and measure how prospects move through the pipeline


S  3. Soft Launch to a New Market

Simply understand the territory, estimate what may be their most challenging business problems, and then A/B test your messaging on a small sample. Yes, A/B testing can be applied to markets as well.

Action: Hit the whiteboards with the team assigned to a particular region. Create a persona of who your target customer is, what he or she wants, needs, and most importantly, what keeps that person up at night.