Agile in Sales: An introduction

The sales world is constantly changing- and what worked even as near as 3 years ago don’t and won’t cut it today. To stay competitive, salespeople need to be agile and understand the paradigm changes in the customer journey. Enter agile sales.

The agile methodology was designed to streamline the software development process in response to the unpredictable and ever-changing nature of IT. Traditional “waterfall” processes were proving ineffective. The agile movement was designed to respond to unpredictability through incremental, iterative work cadences and empirical feedback.

The original manifesto principles can be found here

Agile within sales

How can agile management help sales teams be more successful?

The agile approach helps teams work more quickly and efficiently, which can lead to better results for sales teams. By focusing on smaller goals, addressing feedback and issues in real time, and adapting to evolving needs, sales teams can stay competitive and improve their performance.

By constantly iterating and using real-time, empirical data to analyse and improve sales team processes, reps are able to maintain the flexibility of using targeted and personalised sales tactics to adapt to a changing market and stay competitive.

“When applied to sales, core agile principles such as accountability, measurement and continuous iteration can level up not only sales performance but also organisational stability, effectiveness and contentment as a whole.” — John Barrows

Benefits

Sales have changed a lot in recent years. Nowadays, salespeople and their customers grew up with the internet and always having access to information. Having an agile sales strategy lets reps adapt to their customers and meet them at the right stage of their new buying journey.

“Because any process that includes human beings is non-linear, it’s more important than ever to view our sales processes as non-linear, and to use a dynamic, agile process that serves both us and our clients in making changes.” — Anthony Iannarino

The adoption of agile in sales

The agile sales approach is rapidly being adopted by more and more teams as an alternative to outdated traditional sales tactics. A Forbes survey of more than 2,000 professionals found that nearly one quarter of respondents using the agile approach came from industries outside IT, including sales and marketing. Additionally, 87% of survey respondents agreed that agile methodology is improving the quality of work life for their teams.