Reginald Braithwaite has written a piece in two parts titled "What I've Learned From Sales," in which he applies his experiences as a salesman to the problem of how to win acceptance for agile development practices. The problem of selling Agile to management is well-traveled territory; Ron Jeffries went a step further and wrote that agile shouldn't have to be sold:
First, the word "selling" suggests that the would-be buyer doesn't want whatever we're offering. Otherwise we'd be worried about installing agile or providing XP. Second, Agile or XP isn't what the buyer needs. Don't get me wrong, XP is great stuff. But very few people really want Agile / XP, and those who do don't need us to sell it to them.
Interestingly, Braithwaite doesn't disagree:
People without problems are not good prospects for lightweight development methodologies, new development tools, programming languages, or any other “change for the better.”
Instead, Reginald asks the reader to consider buying and selling as a metaphor for the consideration - and eventual adoption - of new ideas:
Our model here is that the mental process of considering a new idea is the same as the mental process behind buying something. If you are discussing a new idea with someone—even if you aren’t actively trying to “sell” it to them—they are still going through the buying process. And if they have trouble accepting the idea, they will resist, or in sales jargon, they will “raise objections.”What sales professionals understand, says Reginald, is that prospective buyers will often have "hidden objections" which may have nothing to do with their stated objections. The key is to move past objections by identifying the buyer's real problems, and then show how agile development practices can address those problems:
On the face of it, an objection is an expression of a discrepancy between your idea and what someone wants... The great secret we can learn from sales is that this is not true.
If someone really doesn’t have any applicable near-term objective, you will not be able to introduce a new idea to them. So don’t be surprised if they express very little interest. But when you have an immediate, specific objective in hand, you can position the idea as a solution to their problem.