"Selling" Project Management Across the Enterprise

 

Although the image of the "salesman" is a little over the top, according to the famous marketer, Jay Abraham, "The fact is, everyone is in sales.  Whatever area you work in, you do have clients and you do need to sell."

Most project managers I know would never consider themselves salespeople, but if you are neither seen nor heard, no one knows you are there.  Project management provides organizations doing project-based work incredible opportunities to increase efficiencies and profitability across the enterprise.  However, if awareness at the executive level is lacking, those opportunities will be lost.

Effective work management methodologies that may have originally been developed for IT carry the potential to improve work processes throughout the organization.  Start by increasing communication and improving awareness on the executive level, beyond the CIO.  The key is to identify the primary issues and top priorities among stakeholders and demonstrate how effective project management can address them.  Project decision-makers who can demonstrate the ability to reduce costs, save money by eliminating duplication, or increase efficiency by better resource utilization should "market" these abilities to their counterparts throughout the organization.

Business leaders are always looking for ways to effectively implement and validate that corporate strategy is executed by the workforce.  A well-functioning project and portfolio management methodology can provide the foundation to effectively accomplish this.  As businesses grapple with profitability, and in some cases even viability, in the current economic climate delivering projects that align with corporate objectives and enable business growth have become critically important to executives.

CIOs, PMOs, and other project leaders have an opportunity to directly impact the profits of their organizations.  For many, all that is lacking is a little "salesmanship."

Does your executive staff know of your project successes?  Is the contribution your project teams make to the profitability of the organization obvious—or should you be tooting your own horn?

What are you doing in your organization to promote the benefits of project-based work?