The benefits of agile for sales discussed how adopting agile for sales can profoundly benefit your team. This article builds on those benefits and dives deeper into an agile sales component: the agile sales team.
Composition of an Agile Sales Team
ScrumAlliance defines three roles that make up a product development scrum team: ScrumMaster, Product Owner, and Development Team. An agile sales team’s roles do not align one-to-one with those of a Scrum team; however, the values, structure, and best practices of Scrum can be used to help an agile sales team adapt, improve, and continuously iterate.
Sales Director/Sales Manager
This role is the key stakeholder of an individual sales team, regardless of its size and makeup. They are responsible for eliminating organizational issues impeding sales. Coaching and mentoring are constant. It is also their responsibility to hire the right people and coordinate training. Directors and Managers lead by example to create and encourage a culture of relentless improvement.
Sales Supervisor/Team Lead
This role is the one responsible for driving team motivation and performance on the front line day-to-day. They are responsible for removing immediate roadblocks to sales and escalating larger impediments to secure resolutions. They use their experience and knowledge to coach and mentor the team on best practices. In some cases, they are also individual contributors. Supervisors and Team Leads support the sales team in all of their interactions, both internal and external.
SDRs/BDRs, Account Executives, Account Managers, Sales Ops
This role is the one doing the work to contact prospects and customers. They are building relationships and are responsible for closing deals and servicing customers. Sales reps must be allowed to use their experience and training to excel in their job while working collaboratively with their peers and management staff. It’s also imperative for sales reps to remain open to change and embrace the culture of relentless improvement.
Advantages of the Agile Sales Team
The agile team concept is a core component of Scrum and crucial to its success as an agile framework. For agile sales teams, the Scrum team concept empowers front-line ownership of the team goal and the culture involved to achieve it, including:
Focus
The team is focused on what is most important and is not getting lost in the noise.
Openness
The team has transparency at all levels with tight feedback loops and a clear understanding of the vision.
Respect
The team listens to and learns from one another while allowing for healthy conflict.
Commitment
The team is committed to each other and the goal.
Extreme Courage
The team has psychological safety and takes risks without fear.
The agile sales team takes the traditional structure of a sales team and takes it to another level. Agile sales teams are cross-functional and high performing. They encompass everything from lead generation, deal closing, post-sale service, and technical sales systems into one matrixed team. Doing this enables you to take advantage of using agile values to increase success and improve culture.