Topic: Selling & Marketing Agile

Convenor: Bernard Vander Beken and many others

Attendees: Eric, Ralph, Justin, Rachel, André, Diana, Emmanuel, Willem, Bernard, Martijn

There’s a Yahoo group: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/SellingAgile

Problems:

• Selling agile philosophy
• Selling agile courses/training/services up/down
• Help sales sell agile
• Aim for person who pays
• Person who will practice agile
• Person who uses it / should use it

Selling agile:

• people don’t like change
• finding the “agile needing customers”
• product “agile” is vague, not concrete enough
• bigger projects are more difficult to sell
• controversy & the snake oil factor. Eg Which agile flavour should we use, there are too many alternatives.
• Do not sell agile, sell the result
• Resistance to certain practices – “we tried it once”
• Experience with “Bad agile professionals”
• Lot of products & services selling agile
• Agile is a buzzword
• Customer has to trust you
• Customer may not have buying experience
• Create a need for agile
• Grow agile team
• Agile projects: fixed cost/requirements à perception problem ?
• Inferred credibility à eg certifications
• Selling services is different from selling products
• Spincelling à start with looking at at what people need instead of what you have.
• Put the pain where it belongs, eg share with the team instead just the management
• Selling to person with budget differs from selling to person that will practice agility
• Combine XP Bill of rights with SPIN approach
• Listen first - what is the problem?

Selling courses to anonymous audiences = it’s marketing

• Easier to sell to people you know.
• Tip: try out with people you know first, get and use feedback.  Use as references.
• Tip: guerrilla marketing
• Some customers need help deciding
• Selling/marketing takes time.
• Cold-calling might be effective, eg “I have something new, could you tell me what you think about it?”
• Tricks for contacting persons are more considered acceptable than tricks you use to convince them once you know them.
• Stress previous results. Get some results asap if you don’t have any.
• What if a classic sales person needs to sell “agile” à needs enough knowledge.
• Aspects of consulting: sell, advise, technical knowledge.