Insights
Practical thinking on revenue operations, business agility, and fractional leadership from the team at Adnova Group.
What is Business Agility?
The concept of agile was introduced to the worlds of software development and project management in early 2001 with the creation of the Agile Manifesto: Individuals and interactions over processes and tools. Working software over comprehensive documentation Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Learning what customers need over negotiating what to do. Responding to change versus following […]
Why is Strategy Important in Business Agility?
For many, strategy may be the most misunderstood concept in business. Is it a business plan document? Is it a mission or vision statement? Is it a pitch deck? While you can record business strategy using these methods, none of them are actual strategies. A strategy is your company’s plan to achieve a particular outcome […]
5 Essential Parts of an Agile Business
I am a huge proponent of bringing business agility into companies, especially small- and medium-sized service businesses. Consider current events like the COVID-19 coronavirus, or previous events like the financial recession of the early 2010s. Service SMBs are often the hardest hit by events that cause uncertainty in customers’ spending habits. These same SMBs are the most […]
How to Improve Business Process With Value Streams
In last week’s post, we touched on the massive impact coronavirus has had on the service industry and small business. Weeks later, the situation has escalated to a point where the landscape has changed dramatically. Working from home virtually has become the new normal in the social distancing environment. There has never been a better […]
What Are the Benefits of Agile for Sales?
Sales processes, tools, and methodologies are ever-changing. Adopting agile for sales can have profound benefits for your team by providing them a framework to respond quickly to today’s dynamic customer needs. What Does Agile Mean? The term agile describes a specific set of foundational principles and values. Adopting agile processes help organizations and sales teams […]
Four Tips to Improve Agile Sales Leadership
Agile sales leadership – including the head of sales, leader of sales operations, and sales team managers – sets the strategy, pace, and priorities of the sales teams. Agile sales leadership supports the agile sales team through the operational runway and provides coaching and guidance. They are also responsible for eliminating items impeding the success of the sales team. This post will provide four tips to improve agile […]
Implementing Relentless Improvement Using PDCA
There is an interesting phenomenon that exists in many organizations. People are usually enthusiastic to tell you all of the different workarounds their team uses to get things done. Most people in an organization know where their processes are inefficient or flawed. In the cases we have observed, few people tend to seize the opportunity […]
How to Create an Agile Sales Pipeline that Aligns with the Buyer’s Journey
Here is a true-life story of a B2B Healthcare SaaS (software as a service) company with three sales teams over 18 months. The account management team – staffed with talent from hospital marketing departments, not software sales – closed 70% of the company’s recurring annual revenue through contract renewals. The business development team – staffed by several entrepreneurial company founders – helped close the remaining 30% of contract renewals and added 30% of non-recurring revenue in those 18 months. The new business sales team – staffed by top sales performers from other […]
3 Tips for Creating an Agile Sales Pipeline
Recently, we introduced the Agile Sales Pipeline – a sales process that adjusts to the non-linear nature of the buyer’s journey. The Agile Sales Pipeline is a core part of the sales team management framework we illustrate in the Introduction to the Sales Accelerator Playbook. The Agile Sales Pipeline seems complex, thanks to the fact that each sales opportunity your team dives into will be equally complex. It doesn’t have to be difficult to get started with building […]
Prioritize Sales Initiatives with the Revenue Prioritization Formula
“How do we prioritize sales work for our teams?” “How do we prioritize where our resources should be focused?” These are questions that every leader is typically asking. The executive leadership team asks them during strategic planning. Colleagues ask them in one-on-one meetings. The answer differs from leader to leader, person to person. The reception […]
Agile Sales Operational Runway
Most people on a flight don’t think much about an airport runway before a plane takes off or lands. Sure, some may think about the sensation of takeoff, worry about the harshness of the landing, or sleep through the entire experience. Not many consider the age of the runway, why it’s the width it is, what materials it consists of, or why it faces in the direction it does. Nor are they thinking about the […]
Agile Sales Performance Measures
We previously covered the Revenue Prioritization Formula (RPF) and how you can use it as a starting point to prioritize sales initiatives. RPF provides a way to prioritize sales and marketing efforts based on analyzing real data on the best performing offerings you sell to customers. RPF considers two dimensions: the close rate for a specific offering and the […]
Relentless Improvement: Sales Performance
Sales is a performance measure driven environment. Agile sales departments typically have a set of measures to track and benchmark both individual and group performance. Sales teams also track the success of new product offerings or changes to an internal process using performance measures. Deciding which agile sales performance measures to use can be a game of trial and error. […]
Why You Should Outsource a CRM Administrator
Countless companies consider the decision to outsource a CRM administrator. Truthfully, most businesses are often skeptical about outsourcing CRM administrator roles because of its impact on sales operations. However, the vast majority of companies are already completely comfortable when it comes to using an outside company like Salesforce to create and host their CRM, a […]
How Does Financial Agility Enable Business Agility?
Business Agility transformation is a challenging undertaking. As business has evolved, we have developed agile methods to optimize operations, convert monolithic project management into a constant flow of value, and change business culture for the betterment of all. The slowest evolving piece, however, has been financial business management. In this post, we examine the current state of finance, business accounting […]
Why Outsourced Sales Operations Consultants Make a Difference for Businesses
Have you ever considered outsourcing your sales operations? You might want to consider the benefits of outsourced sales operations consultants. It could open up new opportunities for your business and take it to the next level of success. Outsourced Sales Operations Consultants Manage Sales Ops Challenges One significant factor in business is change. However, it […]