Driving Businesses with Sales Agility in a VUCA world
Many managers feel ill-equipped to lead in today’s ambiguous and fast-paced world, often feeling overwhelmed and not able to keep up with the continuous changes within their organization. Leaders are struggling to understand how to lead in an increasingly VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) environment, where forecasting and planning is no longer something that can be relied upon. The term VUCA, first coined by the US Army College and brought to business settings by Grint (2010), describes the complex and fast-paced, constantly changing nature of today’s world.
Leading through ambiguity requires agility, necessitating more risk-taking and connections with new knowledge. In today’s complexed world, one person can’t have all the answers; instead, leaders must collate ideas, knowledge, and experiences from a comprehensive set of experiences to lead effectively in the 21st century.
One way to succeed in a developing VUCA world is to assist leader’s progress modifiable behaviors to use past experiences to reflect, make meaning and trial new behaviors. Leading through ambiguity requires learning agility, necessitating more risk-taking and connections with new knowledge.
Companies across the world are evolving so they can better meet customer requirements. Organizations may not have even realize that how daunting selling has become, but they probably utilize the swift ways to pay. Typically, speed has become the new currency in almost every business aspect such as -sales.
ALSO READ: BUILDING ADAPTIVE SALES PLANNING TO THRIVE IN A VUCA WORLD
Customers need things done faster, want it shipped immediately, and enjoy it in their hands within a couple of days. Hence, it’s up to the sales team to know what to do, which means quick service and delivery. A large majority of customers prefer digital business. Sales teams must keep up with the pace and demands of their clients.
To be more efficient, successful sales teams must focus all their resources on selling, closing deals faster, and improved productivity. You cannot sell efficiently if you are disorganized. Agility selling in sales translates to efficient management of customer data and management skills. In our digital age, sales teams must learn to develop the necessary skills and fundamental selling techniques to utilize the digital technology effectively.
What is Agile Selling?
Agility in selling refers to companies’ ability to optimize the workflow of its sales force. An agile sales force comprises sales reps that can wear many hats and conduct negotiations and operations with clients on every levels of the sales cycle.
Agile sales reps are highly knowledgeable in all aspects when it comes to service and product, which allows organizations to consult specific questions or concerns from customers promptly. Due to advancements in digital analytic technology, sales reps can sell with more precision and efficiency.
Have a look at five basic steps to introduce Sales Agility in your organization
Training – Moving to agile is an organizational and cultural change, not simply a technology tool to be implemented, so bring a trainer and a coach to help your teams transition from traditional to Agile sales model and understand the basics of Agile Manifesto and Principles. Agile is quickly becoming a flexible, fast-paced management tool allowing companies to gain an edge in competitive markets.
Iterative Planning – Organizations continue to plan quarterly and have much shorter sales goals and targets like two week or three weeks sprints. This way, you will monitor the progress of the sales much closely and address the impediments much faster. Sales are not just the responsibility of the salesperson, but it’s an organizational responsibility. Every member of the team must help each other to win and meet that committed quota.
Build trust – The vital trust is in any organization; no teams can succeed without internal and external trust. Agile stands on the foundation of faith, and everything that happens in Agile is in some ways connect with confidence. The concept of “Self-Organized Teams” arrives from trusting each team member in the organizational functions. Curating an open environment where people can share their losses and fears as early as possible so the team members can support and offer help.
Routine Stand-up – Simplest way to implement time waste reduction for the sales team is to do what is known as a “daily stand-up”. Taken from the daily routine meetings of the teams, the Daily Stand-Up focusses and takes no more than 15 minutes, therefore the term stand-up. This practice has become known and regular these days. This exercise will keep the team and meetings on task, focused, and short.
Performance measurement – Measuring the performance of Sales teams is the biggest challenge that most organizations face today because it’s complex to measure the emotional state of the person who is deciding to sign the contract. Rapid feedback via surveys can help and it is understood that teams become high performing only when they know their performance regularly and are aligned to improve on it continually. Build relevant sales dashboards that show sales performance in real-time and make a habit of using them not to raise any issues but as an opportunity to help the sales team meet their goals.
Final Thoughts
In this competitive business landscape, sales teams cannot afford to fall behind on new selling methods; if speed is the new currency in sales, then sales professionals must learn to adapt to the new environment by continually honing their sales skills and merging them into the newest technological advancements of the digital age.
