Achieving Sales Agility with a Sprint Selling Methodology

Turn Volatility into a Competitive Advantage

The defining characteristic of selling today is change. Customer needs are dynamic. Perceptions of value fluctuate. Movement is unpredictable.

Responding to this volatility is difficult because it puts stress on processes that have become rigid. The solution to this challenge is to embrace volatility with an agile approach that embraces changing customer needs and uses new information to deliver more compelling solutions.

At Richardson, we call this approach Sprint Selling^TM.

Why Sprint Selling Works

Sprint Selling^TM works because it is responsive to change no matter how disruptive or frequent. The approach empowers the sales professional to gather strength from volatility and leverage it to their advantage.

New, unexpected information from the customer provides insight that equips the sales professional to deliver value earlier in the dialogue. Outcomes can be visualized and buy-in develops along the way.

This framework and methodology are anchored in an agile selling approach that:

• Uses a solution mindset and consultative approach to foster trust and collaboration.
• Is anchored to opportunity assessment tied to buyer-validated outcomes
• Shows the critical seller actions needed to drive consensus and win a deal
• Supplies the tools, techniques, and skills to execute critical selling actions
• Creates a differentiated buying experience by helping buyers navigate their journey

Objective Opportunity Evaluation

The Sprint Selling methodology breaks sales pursuit into five parts, known as "opportunity vitals."

Opportunity Vitals are a set of objective criteria that help sellers navigate the buying journey and increase their probability of winning. The five Opportunity Vitals are pain, power, vision, value, and consensus.

Measuring progress against these vitals gives sales professionals a process to evaluate the strength of an opportunity in real-time, identify gaps preventing forward movement, and collect critical customer information needed to advance the sale.

Opportunity vitals help sales professionals get a clearer image of what they have accomplished and what else they need to do, so they can agilely respond to customer needs and improve forecasting.

Agile Selling Approach

When working in an agile sales process, sales professionals need a flexible and fast-moving framework to guide their actions throughout the sales pursuit. This cycle is called a Selling Sprint.

A sprint consists of three key actions—prepare, engage, and advance. When executed in the right order these actions result in a burst of activity that accelerates the customer conversation resulting in a “mini close” which ensures the sale advances with every interaction.

Connected Tools and Skills

A fundamental, and unseen challenge that has emerged in selling is organizational investments in tools have outpaced and overshadowed investment in skill development. Instead of focusing on applying effective skills in front of the customer, sellers are spending their time updating systems that don't add value for the customer or close business.

That said, the right tools can make selling easier through simplicity, the ability of the tool to be embedded into the seller's regular flow of work, and the tool's ability to provide meaningful insights. That's why the Sprint Selling^TM methodology includes steps that include tools that help sellers prepare for calls, evaluate opportunity strength, and measure results.

Explore the tools we've developed to meaningfully support your team's skills throughout the agile selling process by clicking here.

Agile Mindset Development

Volatility in the sales pursuit is no longer a characteristic to be feared. With the Sprint Selling^TM methodology, it becomes an advantage because it is the constant force that turns the wheels of the process.

While the Sprint Selling methodology consists of parts and processes, it is important to remember that what surrounds all of it is an agile mindset. When a sales team is truly agile, they deliver a differentiated buying experience that drives results because they create clarity to challenges and goals and position solutions in a way that resonates with their buyers.

Learn about our new Sprint Selling^TM training program by clicking here.