How Scrum Sprints Can Help You Smash Your Sales Goals

Reviewed by: Madhur Kathuria (CST, CEC, CTC, CSP-D, CSP-SM, CSP-PO, CAL 1)

Instead of chasing your next sales goal, try sprinting towards it! In the scrum framework, a sprint is a defined timebox (often two weeks) in which a team plans and delivers work, focusing on high-value items that move the needle in accomplishing the team's goals. Scrum enables teams to become more agile, supercharging their collaboration and decision-making in order to keep pace with changing conditions.

While scrum and the idea of working in sprints were traditionally created for software development teams, other functions have recognized its benefits, including marketing, human resources, finance, and sales. 

The sales profession is fast-moving, and team members need to be able to respond to customers quickly while still being accountable to leaders for showing progress. By working in short, timeboxed sprints, agile sales teams can set goals and prioritize the tasks needed to achieve them in a collaborative, transparent way.

How sprints help sales teams stay focused and productive

Sales teams usually have big monthly or quarterly goals, but breaking down sales goals into small, achievable progress and holding each other accountable isn't something typically done by sales organizations until recently.

When sales teams break their work into short, focused periods with clear goals, they can see daily how close they are to achieving them, allowing the team to pivot strategies when needed.

A sales team may have a monthly goal of $1 million in gross sales for a new product. To accomplish that goal, they may decide to have weekly sprints, each week breaking down work into tasks needed to get to their goal. Some possible tasks (or sprint backlog items as we call them in scrum) are:

• Networking meeting at the Chamber of Commerce
• Send a follow-up email to Company A
• Send follow–up emails to prospects obtained from the recent tradeshow
• Hold a first meeting with Company B
• Send a proposal to Company C

If you want to give sprinting a try, it's pretty easy to get started. To kick off the sprint, the team plans what they'll tackle in a scrum event called sprint planning. They'll have another planning event at the beginning of the next sprint. For example, if the team selects one-week sprints, they'll agree on a set day and time each week to plan that week's work, keeping a consistent cadence to gain efficiency and effectiveness.

Each day, they have a quick check-in (called a daily scrum) to stay aligned and remove blockers. This collaboration session, lasting 15 minutes or less, reduces the need for one-off meetings and keeps everyone on the team focused on the same outcomes.

At the end of each sprint, the team holds a sprint review session, in which they share what they've achieved with stakeholders and other interested parties. The last event of the sprint is the retrospective, where the team discusses what worked well, what didn't, and how to improve next time. By doing this on a regular and consistent basis, the sales team gets better at collaborating, improving efficiencies, and finding new and innovative ways to achieve their sales goals.

If your sales team is looking to have greater visibility into the progression of sales goals, working in sprints can help tremendously. In the fast-paced sales world, taking a little time to proactively think about the work needed to achieve goals and having a team of people to hold each other accountable has been known to improve outcomes.

How your team can get started with sprints

Using sprints for your sales team doesn't have to be overly complicated. Here's a step-by-step guide to start using sprints:

#1) Choose a sprint length

A consistent sprint length gets your team into a familiar rhythm, which improves productivity. If things change quickly on your team, you may opt for one-week sprints, allowing for more frequent planning cycles. Two-week sprints may work better for larger companies that are accustomed to longer planning horizons.

#2) Set clear sprint goals

To succeed in sprinting, set clear sprint goals. This ensures that everyone on the team is in alignment and chooses only work that's going to help achieve the established goals. Here are a few example sprint goals:

“Close two client deals this week.”

“Reach out to 50 new prospects.”

#3) Assign ownership

The team needs to agree on ownership of each work item, which keeps people accountable. Without a clear owner, it's easy for important work to slip through the cracks.

#4) Use short daily check-ins

The team should conduct a daily scrum to discuss the work in progress and identify any obstacles to accomplishing those tasks. It's also a great time to ask a team member to cover an appointment if someone has a conflict, making sure all prospects are being appropriately nurtured.

#5) Review results and adapt

At the end of every sprint, the team should hold a retrospective to review results and find new ways to work if goals weren't met. 

Increase agility with microcredential sales training

If you're looking to smash your sales goals, agile can help. If you're interested in learning more about scrum and its practices, check out the Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM®) course. It provides an overview of the scrum framework and its events, accountabilities, and artifacts.

For a sales-specific course that dives into ramping up your agility whether you choose to use scrum or other agile practices, earn a microcredential by taking the Agile in Sales course. You'll learn from a course designed and led by experts in sales agility, learning from real-world scenarios of sales experts like you.

Discover the sales course