Winning executive sponsorship & management buy-in. What project owners can learn from Sales.

More and more companies are betting on technology to achieve business results. In recent years, there has been huge investments in CRM and digital transformation projects, feeding the hyper-growth of companies like Salesforce.com and co. Whilst most companies invest around 5% of revenues on IT projects, most CRM and large IT projects fail, or deliver less than 44% of promised value. Failed projects damage share price, competitive advantage, and career progression.

The common mistake many project teams make, is thinking that the key to a successful project is delivering a good technical solution. It is often assumed and expected that executive sponsorship and management buy-in are a given. After all, the projects have gone through budget approval and funding processes. Those who have experience in delivering CRM and Digital Transformation projects know, that this is not the case.

Business transformation projects require significant change – change to processes, behavior, and ways of thinking. The biggest challenge facing such projects is not the limitation of technology. Rather, is it the ability to win strong executive sponsorship and management buy-in. Without sponsorship and management buy-in, new processes, changes in behavior, and tools will not be adopted, and the promised value cannot be realized.

The key to executive sponsorship and managment buy-in is being relevant and of value — this is something that successful sales professionals know well. Successful sale-professionals invest a significant amount of time understanding their customers’ needs and then developing, fine-tuning, and communicating their Value Proposition. The value proposition communicates how the customer will benefit by adopting the solution being sold. It states clearly:

• A need that the customer has.
• The problem that is preventing the fulfillment of that need.
• How the solution will remove the problem, thus giving the customer what he/she wants.

In project management, the equivalent of the Value Proposition is the Project Charter. The Project Charter captures the essence of why a project exists: the stakeholders it serves, the problems it will solve, and the value it will deliver. Sadly, in many projects, the Project Charter is a one-time exercise, where stakeholders’ priorities and project objectives are vaguely defined and then forgotten. It is not surprising that a Geneca Research survey found that 75% of project teams do not have a clear understanding of their projects’ objectives, are out-of-sync with stakeholders, and face excessive rework as the result.

In the ever-changing and fast-paced corporate world, stakeholders who sponsored and approved a project in the beginning, may not be the same stakeholders at implementation. Business priorities may have changed, or the value proposition may have been forgotten. Project owners can significantly improve projects’ success rate, lower risks, and reduce implementation costs by improving stakeholders engagement to valid business priorities, ensuring project deliverables are aligned with Stakeholders’ strategic priorities, and communicating their Value Proposition.