Enterprise Sales Requires a Project Management Mindset

The SKMurphy model for enterprise sales uses a project management mindset: define and deliver projects that create value for the customer.

Enterprise Sales Requires a Project Management Mindset

 
project management mindset

One of the most valuable methods that Sean Murphy advocates for de-risking sales is to approach each opportunity with a project management mindset. A good enterprise salesperson is skilled at managing projects that create value in the customer’s business. Sean’s model is to get agreement with both the prospect’s technical and management teams on shared goals. These goals should capture the dependencies and timeline for creating value in the customer’s business. This mindset has enabled us to manage the delivery of value just as we would in a project, with milestones that represent risk-reducing steps along the way.

As a software consultant, my default stance was honesty and transparency. But after reading several books by sales gurus, I got the impression that sales required special tactics. Jeff Allison and Sean helped to act with integrity and clarify our intentions when communicating with our prospects to make sure we deliver as much value to them as early as possible. Our commitment is to provide customers with value where we can and point them in the best direction when we can’t.

Sean stressed that the truth was always the easiest story to remember and the best way to deliver the most value to our prospects even if they did not become customers then. For the types of sales opportunities that we are involved in, we manage them as we would an engineering project. We understand that we need to be clear about the deadlines, value delivery milestones, the people needed from both our team and the customer, and other resources required to complete the project. We are upfront about these expectations with prospects from the very early stages of our engagements.”

Wojciech Bulaty – CEO at Traffic Parrot

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