{"id":2711,"date":"2018-01-31T16:16:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T16:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/?p=2711"},"modified":"2023-10-18T17:35:45","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T17:35:45","slug":"3-project-management-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.salesforce.com\/ca\/blog\/3-project-management-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Project Management Practices Every Sales Team Should Apply"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On any given day in a company, there might be one team installing a new piece of technology, another planning a corporate event, and still another organizing a training session for new employees.<\/p>\n

These kinds of projects are typical. When projects proliferate — or become so complex in the way they draw upon shared resources that things start to go awry — some firms set up a formal project management office, or PMO. Nothing gets started without the PMO, and those who work within it make sure that projects are managed in a consistent way that delivers the right results.<\/p>\n

Take away the term \u201cproject management\u201d for a moment, however, and the same things should be true within your sales team.<\/p>\n

Individual reps may have a particular style or approach with their accounts that works, and some customers will require variations on established processes, but sales management, much like project management, is all about getting from A to B without getting lost in the details and unexpected difficulties. Many sales professionals get pulled into IT projects, marketing projects and others, but they still might not see closing deals as a sort of project. It\u2019s just their job.<\/p>\n

Selling is no mere job or task, however. A task is something that happens once (or once a session). It\u2019s a step in a journey. A project is the entire journey — including the point where you reach your destination.<\/p>\n

There might be no better time to inject this kind of thinking into sales, because reaching a buying decision in many organizations is a lot more difficult and complicated. Buying teams are bigger, purchasing cycles longer, expectations higher. That means a single sale is looking a lot more like an individual project.<\/p>\n

Bear in mind, reps don\u2019t have to completely transform themselves into project managers. It\u2019s just a matter of looking at the best practices of project management and looking for what to apply. Start with these three:<\/p>\n

1. Clearly Define The Particular Project Outcomes<\/h3>\n

This should be easy, right? The outcome of selling is to get a \u201cyes\u201d from a customer or prospect. Except . . . the outcome might also be to get a larger share of an existing customer\u2019s budget. Or to get them to sign up for a recurring contract. Or to have them close more quickly than they have in the past. Or to bring them back after a period when they were buying from someone else.<\/p>\n

With this perspective, selling isn\u2019t just selling. It\u2019s a project where historical background and context — in other words, the kind of data you can find in CRM like Sales Cloud<\/a> — directly informs the specific goal you want to reach. Yes, the organization needs revenue, but when you can articulate the more immediate need associated with the sale, you\u2019ll be in a better position to achieve it.<\/p>\n

2. Create Your Workback Schedule<\/h3>\n

A well-run project has deadlines. Lots of them. The final outcome might not be expected for weeks, months or even the better part of the year, but there could be many different milestones along the way, and a good PMO makes sure everyone on the team is accountable for them.<\/p>\n

In sales, the milestones may be things that reps know intuitively but don\u2019t necessarily spell out for their managers or other members of the organization. If you filled out the kind of workback schedule for a sales goal that was similar to putting on an event, however, it might have some of the following:<\/p>\n