Adaptability is the key to successful sales in today’s ever-changing globalized environment.
As sales strategies continually evolve, what works one month may be irrelevant when trends and customer needs change the next.
With agile sales, your sales team stays flexible and competitive. You can pivot faster than competitors with rigid playbooks and test new approaches quickly.
In this guide, you’ll learn how SMBs can incorporate the agile methodology in sales. You’ll get a step-by-step guide with actionable advice that you can start applying today.
Key takeaways for agile sales
Agile sales is a flexible methodology where teams adapt quickly through short sprints and daily standups.
SMBs need agility to compete when customer expectations shift monthly and traditional processes can’t deliver the speed buyers demand.
Start small by creating a backlog, holding daily standups, tracking progress visually and pivoting your approach based on data.
Pipedrive helps SMBs run agile sales with the Projects tool for sprints, pipeline visualization and automated insights – try it free for 14 days.
What does agile sales mean?
Agile sales is a sales methodology in which your team is more flexible and adapts quickly to market changes, rather than following a rigid annual sales plan.
Using methods like Scrum and Kanban, sales teams can run short cycles to test agile approaches and review results.
With these quick review cycles, you can identify pain points, like:
Messaging that isn’t connecting with your customer base
Complex sales demos that fail to close deals
Follow-up emails that get ignored after initial calls
Your team can then fix issues collaboratively before they hurt your sales pipeline.
The term “agile” originates from software development, where constant innovation and unpredictability require teams to respond quickly. Although not all agile methods from IT can be applied to sales teams, some can be very effective.
According to Digital.ai’s 18th State of Agile Report, 41% of organizations increased their investment in scaling Agile (i.e., the formal software methodology) over the past two years.
What does agile sales mean?
Agile sales is a sales methodology in which your team is more flexible and adapts quickly to market changes, rather than following a rigid annual sales plan.
Using methods like Scrum and Kanban, sales teams can run short cycles to test agile approaches and review results.
With these quick review cycles, you can identify pain points, like:
Messaging that isn’t connecting with your customer base
Complex sales demos that fail to close deals
Follow-up emails that get ignored after initial calls
Your team can then fix issues collaboratively before they hurt your sales pipeline.
The term “agile” originates from software development, where constant innovation and unpredictability require teams to respond quickly. Although not all agile methods from IT can be applied to sales teams, some can be very effective.
According to Digital.ai’s 18th State of Agile Report, 41% of organizations increased their investment in scaling Agile (i.e., the formal software methodology) over the past two years.
This sustained increase shows confidence in the methodology, and SMBs across industries are adapting agile practices to fit their sales processes.
For example, say a small recruiting firm starts using a Kanban board to track deals visually. It may spot eight proposals that have been stuck for weeks, waiting for budget approval.
Knowing this, the firm could add a budget check step before sending sales proposals so deals don’t stall.
What is agile sales management?
Agile sales management is about applying agile principles and agile frameworks to the sales process, making it more adaptable, efficient and customer-centric.
Companies can interpret “agile sales” differently, and there are different levels of application:
Full agile – you apply methods like Scrum with two-week cycles, sprint goals and daily standups and use the whole framework
Selective agile – your team adopts some agile practices, like weekly tests or using visual boards
Light agile – you use “agile” to mean you’re not stuck with rigid processes and adjust sales tactics every quarter
Each approach works. You just need to pick the level that fits your sales cycle and team size.
The key is continuous improvement through regular communication and a proactive approach to customer collaboration.
Benefits of agile sales management
Agile sales teams experience several advantages that can transform their effectiveness.
Incorporating agile principles makes sales operations more responsive to market changes and better aligned with customer needs, enhancing the overall customer experience. Agile sales techniques also provide a structured way to adapt and thrive.
Here are some key benefits of adopting agile sales management and agile sales processes.
Increased responsiveness | Agile sales management ensures sales teams stay competitive by allowing them to respond quickly to market and customer needs changes. |
Enhanced collaboration | Frequent communication and cross-functional collaboration among team members lead to better teamwork and collective problem-solving. |
Higher customer satisfaction | Companies can boost customer satisfaction and loyalty by focusing on customer needs and swiftly delivering solutions, improving customer interaction. |
Improved efficiency | Breaking down tasks into manageable sprints and continuously evaluating performance helps optimize processes and increase efficiency. |
Teams that offer agile sales training aren’t dependent on one star salesperson who holds all the knowledge. Instead, everyone contributes and improves while the process keeps running.
For SMBs who can’t afford to lose momentum when someone leaves, this kind of stability matters as much as any growth metric.
Why is agile sales important?
Agile sales and agile sales enablement are important because they let you deliver personalized, customer-centric experiences without sacrificing the speed buyers demand.
Regardless of industry, nearly all businesses face the pressure of constantly evolving challenges, demands and customer expectations.
Deep changes at all levels have become a necessity rather than an option. To stay competitive, companies must overcome slow, lengthy organizational processes and implement agile sales processes to ensure adaptability.
The same applies to purchasing processes. Customers no longer rely solely on a sales team for advice. They can find information online independently with just a few clicks, discovering alternatives and comparing offers.
Today’s customer journey doesn’t follow a predictable path, as shown below.
The traditional sales process, with its longer preparation times and multiple steps, often doesn’t align with this behavior. Sales approaches must evolve to meet modern expectations. Customers primarily expect two things:
Speed. Companies should provide information at any time with minimal friction and respond to inquiries as quickly as possible.
Individuality. Customers want to feel personally recognized and taken seriously. They expect products to be tailored to their specific needs.
Every sales conversation requires real-time adjustment based on that specific customer’s buying journey. Agile sales gives you the framework to balance empathetic customer interactions with dynamic processes.
5 steps to incorporate agile sales methodology into your process
You can start implementing agile in your sales process without overhauling your entire operations.
Before you begin, here are some principles to consider:
Tasks are broken down into short-term, intermediate goals – also known as sprints
All team members exchange ideas frequently to solve challenges together
Flexibility in adjusting plans is highly encouraged
Decisions are made strategically based on data and facts
With these guidelines in mind, you can start implementing the first agile sales processes. Follow these five steps for the best results and to streamline your sales cycle.
1. Create a backlog
Your backlog lists every sales initiative and sales goal still in the pipeline, so you know exactly what to tackle first.
Start with a 30-minute kickoff meeting with your team. During this meeting, everyone collectively sets the goal and divides it into subprojects and small tasks.
For example, if your goal is to “reduce demo no-shows from 40% to 15% this sprint”, you’d break it into the following tasks:
Send calendar invite after booking
Call sales prospect one day before to confirm
Create an agenda with their specific pain points
Text reminder two hours before demo time
Projects by Pipedrive makes organizing and tracking goals easy with the tasks and sub-tasks features.
Click the “+Task” button under any project to add activities.
Ideally, you’ll appoint a Scrum Master. They’re the person responsible for keeping the backlog up to date and acting as a point of contact if any sales reps face issues.
You should then make a decision about which subgoals the team members should focus on during the first sprint.
In Pipedrive, you can assign team members to each task and set a due date. A sprint should last a maximum of one to two weeks and result in a tangible outcome.
Pipedrive in action: Blulinc, a telecommunications infrastructure company, used Pipedrive’s Projects add-on to manage installations and separate their sales pipeline from project management.
With dedicated project tracking and checkpoints, they’ve been able to deliver solutions in two weeks (versus the industry average of four to six weeks) and freed up 30% of their team’s time.
2. Implement daily scrum meetings for the team
Daily standups keep your team aligned and accountable without wasting time on long meetings.
Once the first sprint starts, hold daily standups (also known as daily scrum meetings) where each team member answers three questions:
“What did I accomplish yesterday?”
“What will I work on today?”
“Do I have any roadblocks or difficulties?”
Don’t pivot to problem-solving during the standup. If someone’s stuck on an activity, note it and handle it separately.
The goal of this meeting is to foster accountability.
Seal More Deals With Your Free Sales Communication Handbook
3. Track progress
Tracking your sprint progress daily shows you what’s working and what needs immediate attention.
In Pipedrive, you can click on the specific project you’re working on and see the progress bar.
Use labels like “In-progress” or “On-hold” to show status at a glance. You can also color-code them to highlight bottlenecks.
Tracking numbers and data allows the team to learn from each sprint and progressively develop better sales strategies. Moreover, it helps sales managers with informed decision-making and ensures constant iteration and improvement.
If you have multiple projects, use Pipedrive’s pipeline as a Kanban board.
With this visual organization, you can drag projects through stages and spot where deals get stuck.
Pipedrive in action: HoorayHR, an all-in-one HR platform, used Pipedrive’s CRM (customer relationship management) pipeline view to get clear visibility of their sales funnel and automate their follow-up process.
With visual deal tracking and automated processes, the company now closes deals twice as fast while achieving better customer satisfaction.
4. Perform a sprint review
Sprint reviews turn your wins and losses into better sales strategies for the next sprint.
Conduct a retrospective at the end of each sprint. During this session, have each sales professional share their results and experiences, and incorporate feedback from customers to improve future strategies.
Focus your discussion on three key questions:
1. What worked well? | Maybe your two-call close approach converted 30% better than your old three-call process. |
2. Which strategies proved particularly successful and why? | That personalized demo agenda might have closed deals 40% faster because prospects saw immediate value. |
3. What difficulties were encountered, and what potential solutions could address them? | If proposals kept getting stuck waiting for budget approval, you might need to confirm budget availability before creating a proposal. |
Pull up your Pipedrive Insights dashboard during the review to check sales performance by team members.
If you see one sales rep completed 105 activities while another finished 31, you can identify who might need support or who has capacity for more.
Document insights in your project notes while they’re fresh. Build your next sprint on these learnings, so you’re always improving instead of guessing.
Pipedrive in action: CreativeRace, a digital marketing agency, used Pipedrive’s Insights function to forecast revenue and track team performance against targets during their reviews.
By making data-driven decisions with accurate monthly predictions, the company achieved 600% more client acquisition year-on-year and improved conversion rates.
5. Stay flexible
Staying flexible means that you can adjust your approach mid-sprint when the data tells you to pivot.
Remember why agile methodology is gaining popularity. The world has become more complex and is constantly changing, so sales forecasts are often difficult to make.
As a result, things often go differently than initially planned. Prepare for this from the start and strive to react quickly to new situations and data.
For example, if your new cold email campaign gets zero responses after a week, don’t wait until the next sprint to change it. Test a new subject line or see what may be causing your emails to land in spam folders.
Regularly check what’s changing in your market:
Competitors launching new features
Customer priorities shifting
New stakeholders joining the buying process
Adjust your sales approach to match your current situation. Embracing agile practices will help your team stay adaptable and responsive.
Final thoughts
By maintaining high levels of business agility, companies can quickly respond to new trends, challenges and customer requirements.
This approach fosters continuous improvement and innovation, keeping your sales strategies relevant and effective.
Educating salespeople in agile sales management doesn’t replace traditional sales models, but rather complements and expands on them, providing sales managers with more versatile tools to lead their teams.
Pipedrive makes agile sales simple for SMB teams. You can track sprints with Projects, visualize bottlenecks in your pipeline and get instant insights on what’s working.
Try Pipedrive free for 14 days and see how agile can transform your sales process.
