Table Of ContentClaudia Thonet
The Agile
Sales
Successfully shaping transformation in sales
and service
The Agile Sales
Claudia Thonet
The Agile Sales
Successfully shaping transformation
in sales and service
Claudia Thonet
Berlin, Germany
ISBN 978-3-658-38285-8 ISBN 978-3-658-38286-5 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-38286-5
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Foreword
When I sat across from Claudia Thonet for the first time, I realized that there was someone
who understood a lot on different levels. She had read a lot, completed an incredible
amount of further training and was able to make connections at lightning speed. She was
also creative. And very lively. She was really enthusiastic about agile working methods,
had done some work shadowing and had familiarised herself with the new topic in a self-
organised way. That was in the summer of 2016, wow, I thought. But the power this sales
expert could develop in trainings and workshops, I learned much later. I already had her in
mind for our new programme of open seminars at Teamworks.
We decided to include “Agile Facilitation” in the programme. The first time I was there
I could experience how Claudia works with groups. She is loving, attentive, detail-oriented
and flexible at the same time. She has a wonderful way of visualizing things, so that real
museums are created in the room, she paints even the smallest post-it and always comes
up with new variations.
I had often experienced “old world” trainers as rather unimaginative and rigidly
concept- oriented. Claudia is “agile” in the best sense of the word: she takes on impulses
and changes her programme when it is good for the group. Our joint course programme
expanded, “Agile Facilitation” is now a fixed component. The feedback is always
enthusiastic.
Our joint book project The Agile Culture Change was nevertheless an experiment for
me. It’s hard to conceptualize and facilitate together, but to write a book? Somehow I
trusted that it would succeed. And after a few teething problems, it was a no-brainer. In
Marbella, where we went on a writing holiday, I discovered how well we could throw balls
at each other.
With Der agile Vertrieb, Claudia is doing her own thing as an author, and that fills me
with a little pride. She completed this book on the island of Usedom, where we spent a
week working together. I witnessed her making sketches, fine-tuning text, and rounding
out themes. It was supposed to be a special book, helpful and practical and well-founded.
It succeeded! When we first met, agility in sales seemed far away – she was one of the first
to recognize how useful and fruitful agile working is, especially in sales.
v
vi Foreword
At the same time, the idea of agile self-organization has a particularly hard time here,
since salespeople are rarely used to teamwork and the incentives are typically high for
individual performance. But there are solutions for this, and in this book you will learn in
a clear and practical way how a rethinking in the sense of the customer can succeed.
Author and Managing Director Teamworks GTQ GmbH Svenja Hofert,
Hamburg, Germany
Preface
How many sales people are drawn to the idea of team goals and joint commissions behind
the stove of familiar behaviors? How many get excited about networked collaboration
right off the bat, and then with the competition? If you’re making these kinds of sugges-
tions, you need to dress warmly as a consultant, trainer, or leader and like heated discus-
sions. I’ve been in sales for more than 20 years, first as an internal, then as an external
trainer and coach. After all these years, my heart beats more and more for this area with its
special esprit. Sales people are usually very direct, open, and flexible. This is probably due
to the many contacts with such different types of customers and the goal and result orienta-
tion, which is nowhere else as pronounced. But let’s be honest: Can you imagine sales-
people sitting artfully around the campfire with the others, talking about tribal problems
instead of going out hunting? I admit, a transformation in sales and service will not be an
easy walk but a hefty transformation with a clear paradigm shift. The ground will not only
have to be fertilized but also dug up and freed from all kinds of wild growth. But I am
convinced that it will be worth it! The soil is very fertile.
In the last 4 years, I have had the privilege to accompany several sales and service
departments in their ploughing up. I have trained countless sales coaches and accompa-
nied agile team developments. My conclusion: salespeople can become the best and most
agile cross runners and even as a team! After initial skepticism, service teams are also
enthusiastic about optimized customer journeys and Shopfloor 4.0. You just have to seri-
ously pick up the people and let them participate, because sales people are very individual
creatures, more than some others, and they don’t just run with it, they want to be convinced.
It wasn’t until I was writing this book that I realized, through an interview with a very
dedicated market division manager at Sparda Bank Baden-Württemberg, how inevitable
the cultural and structural change in sales really is. Not only are young customers and
fintechs forcing financial sales to transform, for example, but also employees are doing it
too. Just 5 years ago, banks could choose trainees. Today, you can hardly get new recruits,
let alone replacements for employees who retire or go on parental leave. For employer
branding, too, new work with flexible work arrangements, meaning-centered development
support, and global networking are not options but simply necessary steps towards secur-
ing one’s existence.
vii
viii Preface
Many companies will not survive the next few years because they sleep through the
urgency and necessity. This is due on the one hand to the lack of a digital strategy and on
the other hand to the lack of openness and networking. Just as people used to lock the door
when something threatening happened outside, distributors also literally shut the door.
This is fatal, because successful innovations will only come about with allies and
fresh ideas.
Open the doors and invite dissenters! Be sure to change the tendency to hire people
based on similarity and team fit. Team up with your biggest competitors and look for com-
mon win-win solutions. I’m sure it’s worth it! After all, you already have the most valuable
thing on board: people.
Berlin, Germany Claudia Thonet
Contents
1 Basic Thoughts on Agility in Sales � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 1
1.1 Common Understanding as a Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2 What the Agile Manifesto Means for the Sales Department . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2.1 Individuals and Interactions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2.2 Functional Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.2.3 Cooperation with the Customer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.2.4 Adaptation to Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.2.5 I mplementation Possibilities in Sales and Distribution . . . . . . 10
1.3 The Three Sides of the Coin Agility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.3.1 O ne Side of the Coin: Conventional View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.3.2 T he Other Side of the Coin: Complementary View . . . . . . . . . 12
1.3.3 T he Third Side: The Dynamics of Duality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2 The End of Sales as You Know It Today � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 17
2.1 What Buyers Really Want Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.1.1 B2C Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.1.2 B2B Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.1.3 Expectation Versus Performance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.2 How Much Agility Is Already in It? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.3 The Contradiction of Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3 The Distribution of the Future � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 29
3.1 Value Creation from the Customer’s Point of View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.2 Offering Digital Solutions Instead of Selling Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.2.1 Transparency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.2.2 Human Care . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.2.3 Individuality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.2.4 Commitment and Appreciation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.3 Offline Selling 4.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
ix
x Contents
3.4 Customer Care: Service Center 4.0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.4.1 T he Future Demands on Customer Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.4.2 F rom Call Slave to Expert for the Customer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.4.3 Agile Service Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.5 Learning from Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.5.1 E lizitation: Working Out the Strategy of the Model
in Small Steps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.5.2 U tilisation: Adapting the Strategy to the Product
and Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.5.3 I nstallation: Learning and Adopting the Utilised Strategy . . . . . 43
3.6 Models: You Can Learn Modern Customer Loyalty from These
Companies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.6.1 Amazon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.6.2 Team Bank: EasyCredit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.6.3 OBI DIY Store . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.6.4 Nike . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.6.5 Thomann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.6.6 HP Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.6.7 BestSecret . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.6.8 PayPal Versus Paydirekt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.6.9 Zalando . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.7 New Strategies for Customer Retention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Responding to Requests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.7.1 Curated Offers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.7.2 Being a Coach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.7.3 Automated Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.7.4 Conveying Exclusivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.7.5 Offer Appreciation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4 What Hinders Change � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � � 57
4.1 The Six Errors of Reasoning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.1.1 The Linear Fallacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4.1.2 I ncorrect Centre of Gravity or Repair Service Behaviour . . . . 59
4.1.3 N on-observance of the Remote and Secondary Effects . . . . . . 60
4.1.4 Central Reduction, Encapsulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.1.5 Vague Objectives, Conflicting Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.1.6 False Hypotheses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.2 The Four Resistors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.2.1 Dysfunctional Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.2.2 Resistance of Interests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.2.3 Overload Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
