Abstract:

The author used the Scrum management tool to optimise the processes of two sales teams. Different types of measures were used in two business units to define success in an agile improvement setup over 21 weeks. The team that focused on calls and activities performed better both quantitatively and qualitatively than the team that tracked leads and focused on financial values of contracts. The paper concludes that activity based measures is a pre-condition for success in a sales environment that will utilise SCRUM as an optimisation method.

References:

[1.] Jordan, J., & Vazzana, M. (2011). Cracking the Sales Management Code: The Secrets to Measuring and Managing Sales Performance.

[2.] Moutot, J. M., & Bascoul, G. (2008). Effects of sales force automation use on sales force activities and customer relationship management processes. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, 28(2), 167-184.

[3.] Van Solingen, R., Sutherland, J., & De Waard, D. (2011, August). Scrum in sales: How to improve account management and sales processes. In Agile Conference (AGILE), 2011 (pp. 284-288). IEEE.