Kimberly ChavezPlatform Program Manager, Integration| BrightspeedOverland Park, Ks, United States
In my current position, I coordinate installation projects. We receive the project from sales, then it becomes our job to manage that project all the way through final installation. One of the issues I am running into is the salesman promising impossible deadlines. This causes a great deal of risk to that project as well as many others. When your expected to "make things happen" how do you effectively manage when resources are limited? Saving Changes...
Kimberly ChavezPlatform Program Manager, Integration| BrightspeedOverland Park, Ks, United States
Aug 30, 2019 12:23 PM
Replying to Steve Ratkaj
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This reminds me of a place where I worked as a student in the summer. It was a aluminum awning and sunroom manufacturing company. The sales staff were paid based on commission and would promise the buyers anything to make the sale. As this was mostly a seasonal business due to the weather here in Canada, there was a small window to install the items which had been sold. Standard sales pitch was it will be ready in three weeks regardless of the production schedule, WIP, etc. So usually what happened, and it was quite funny to witness were angry customers calling and yelling because their sunroom hadn't yet been delivered and installed. So, it literally became crisis management in the shop, and essentially our schedule was based on whoever was screaming the loudest for their sunroom. Needless to say, the company never really prospered beyond a mom & pop shop.
That is a definite barrier for a small company to grow or even remain stable. I work in managing projects for a huge food processing equipment manufacturing business. Our customers are commercial and when their lines go down for a problem or an install at an inopportune time, they lose millions of dollars and jeopardize huge franchise contracts. Bottom line is that time is everything in this business and risk management is tricky at best. Saving Changes...
As you can probably imagine, that advice comes from finding myself in the same situation many times. As PMs, we sometimes find ourselves stuck in the situation where as professionals, we have to keep moving forward and looking for solutions, even when we're pointing out that the problem was completely avoidable to begin with.
As for getting the schedule from the sales dept., my advice is to try to demonstrate how you could use the data, even if it's using old data. If you try to explain it, chances are that others won't grasp the value. If you can provide a demo of "If you give me this info, here is how we can all benefit" , you might be able to make it more relatable.
Bear in mind, that any time you are asking for asking for detail schedule information from outside your team, you are likely to get push-back. They don't want you micromanaging their work any more than you want someone micromanaging yours. Giving you more data requires trust that you won't abuse it, such as pushing to prioritize your job over all the others. That's one of the reasons we manage to milestones. We advertise those, but what goes on between them is our own problem. We need that flexibility to get the job done without unnecessary outside interference. Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
I was the head of LATAM Professional Services for long time. Professional Serices were composed by Consultiing, First Level Support, Training and Presales Areas. As you stated we received the need from sales and we have to make it real. Or on the other sides, make dreams come true. Dreams for our customers, nightmare for us. I was involved on creating the solution to all company nightmares (at the end it became that). The solution was created a process from propspectation to implementation and post implementation where the key was: no sale was approved if the proposal did not have three signatures: one from fianance, one from professional services and one for sales. Saving Changes...
Karl TwortSenior Project Manager| Fresh EggUnited Kingdom
This is a hard balance to strike. The need for commercial stability and progression vs the demands on resource allocation and ability to deliver. It is key for all departments to work together to understand each others challenges and constraints, whilst maintaining a level of mutual appreciation. Often, involving the PM team earlier in the pre-sale process can allow the client to understand that whilst goals and deadlines will always be managed with them in mind (and at the earliest opportunity), also having an understanding that over-promising or rushing a delivery can bring its own commercial risks on both sides.
In addition, client handover where the first news is of perceived delay, is not a good start to the project relationship from the outset. Saving Changes...
"We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it - and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again, and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore."
