Don KimPROJECT-TO-PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT EXPERT| Seeking opportunitiesSacramento, CA, United States
Daniel Pink is one of my favorite general business authors that’s in the same league as a Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin and others who use sound research from industry and academia to position a point, but do so in a way that’s articulate, easily digestible and popular. This is why he usually tops the best selling list for business publications.
In his latest book, “To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others” he argues that we are all salesmen and saleswomen in our daily work whether we know it or not, or admit it or not...
Some or many project managers may not like the idea of having to be involved with sales, but the entrepreneurial minded project manager or projectpreneur would find noting surprising about this and would probably say “it’s about time someone articulated and popularized this!” This is because the ability to sell is more vital and heightened by the new realities of the constant re-organizations, outsourcing, off-shoring and automation of business processes and functions that is going on with corporations around the world that require you to retool, reinvent and transition yourself at many points throughout your career that require excellent sales skills.
So what do you think, do project managers do enough to develop this important skill? Are they even aware that this skill is vital to their success?
Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
Don, I could not agree with you more. Years back I had the pleasure of hearing Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad - author) speak to an audience of first time book authors. One of the attendees asked Robert for a good first time author tip. Robert advised the attendee to get some sales training. The attendee replied back that she meant tips for being a great writer. Robert then held up his book and showed her the spot on the book that read "Best Selling Author" and he made the point that there is no such spot on a book or label that reads "Best Writing Author...!" So yes, I agree with the premise and context that whether we know it or not, we all engage in selling. Like with any other skill or capability, low levels of maturity (ad hoc best efforts) will be less effective and successful than higher levels of skill and capability. And yes, this could very well mean that project managers that do not have this skill seeking to advance throughout their organizations will be outcompeted by those that do. Great post and advice, thanks Don. Saving Changes...
Wayne MackRetired| RetiredSouth Riding, Va, United States
Actually, I would say the term "sales" understates the tasks required of the project manager. Typically in sales the communication flow is uni-directional, while in project management the communication flow is multi-directional.
To clarify, by "sales" I mean causing someone to change his mind about something. In traditional sales, a sales man must convince a customer that a product is valuable to the customer's organization. A project manager often must convince stakeholders that a project is valuable to the stakeholders' organizations. These stakeholders can range to senior executives funding the project to departmental leads to the individual staff who will actually use the project delivearbles. The project manager may also have to convivince the development team that a stakeholder request is necessary or desireable for the project. The project manager may have to convince stakeholder A that a request by stakeholder B is valuable or at least not detrmental to the project. The project manager may also have to convince team member A that team member B's approach is viable or at least not detrimental to the project. Lastly, whenever that inevitable problem arises, the project manager must convince all of the above that the issue can be resolved and and that true benefit will be realized.
Being the one individual with the most complete knowledge of all project information, or sometimes in spite of knowing the information, the project manager needs to provide a consistent message regarding the benefits of the project. The roles is not to mislead, but to emphasize the larger picture and eventual benefits.
Saving Changes...
Don KimPROJECT-TO-PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT EXPERT| Seeking opportunitiesSacramento, CA, United States
@Mark, thanks for your reply. As always, you give me additional insights and inspiration to write about these topics that concern me.
@Wayne, good point about the multiple ways in which the notion of "selling" comes in to play.
What prompted me to this discussion is the fact that within the last decade, I've seen an accelerated need to be able to sell yourself quickly due to the common lay-offs and re-organizations I've seen companies do, especially during the economic downturn.
I'm about to post a follow up that discusses this in more detail. Hope to hear more feedback on this important topic! Saving Changes...
Mark Price PerryBusiness Driven PMO Evangelist| BOT InternationalOrlando, Fl, United States
While I absolutely agree with the premise of Wayne Mack's reply (and most all of his replies for that matter), as someone that has had years of formal sales training in all of the leading sales methodologies such as RADAR, FAR, SPIN, MDM, COS, TAS, and Miller Heiman, I would offer that while a good salesman may make a customer change his mind about something and buy a product as an example, a great salesman enables a customer to make up his mind in light of the best available information and options which may or may not result in a sale.
Toward that premise, I can still remember as if it were yesterday when nearly thirty years ago one of the IBM salesmen in the office nearly lost his job for making a sale on account of the product not being a good enough fit to the customer needs over other non-IBM alternatives. Speak of corporate integrity and ethics - of course that was a long time ago.
Where a good salesman tries not to lose a sale, a great salesman tries not to lose a customer.
As an aside that is tangentially related to this post and Don's keen insight, I have always found it highly amusing to hear ways to sell the PMO to the leadership team from those in the project management community such as PMPs and PMO managers that have had no training in selling, no experience as a sales professional, and that would not recognize a sales best practice from a telephone book. Any wonder so many PMOs are doomed from the start?
Hence, I would offer that better sales skills in just about any business context would contribute greatly to better discussions about ways to meet needs and solve problems - and this skill (selling) should not be viewed as limited to just card carrying sales professionals any more than skill in managing a project should be limited to formal/titled project managers. Put another way, I can't think of any project manager being poorly served by developing professional-grade sales skills and sales acumen - again, not to get a sponsor to change their mind, rather to help a sponsor make up their mind..!
Very interesting post - IMHO, more to all of this than initially meets the eye.
