How often is there a mismatch between sales and delivery?
How often do we deliver something fundamentally different from what we thought was agreed with a client?
It’s rare for the sales process to include much time from the delivery team. It inflates the cost of sales, and unsuccessful pitches feel significantly more risky. So is it worth it?
Is it worth it?
For me, absolutely. Sales teams aren’t always able to consider the risk that’s baked into the projects they sell without experienced members of delivery. There has to be a better approach that isn’t many times more expensive.
I see this reduction of project risk, and the multiplying effect on team and client engagement as an investment in the future. An acknowledgment that project failure and client churn is significantly more expensive than bringing forward discussions about project delivery. Even if some projects never happen.
What would this early involvement look like?
Start with the ‘why’. Why now, why this, what will success look like and how will we measure it?
Sometimes the why comes from a paid vision deck or roadmapping session. Sometimes it’s free. Sometimes it’s handled another way. But without the why, we’re only a supplier. We need the why to be seen as a valuable partner.
The we get members (plural) of the delivery team involved. They should be hunting down risk, recommending ways to achieve the client’s needs, and finding ways to return the valuable parts early without the need for all the invaluable parts. The why is central to this too.
Their involvement is no longer limited to estimation, although you may want them to help with offering a range of budgets that consider any existing requirements.
Introduce them to the client to start building trust and connection early.
Get them to understand the needs of the client and what success looks like for each stakeholder.
Have them consider relevant previous or parallel projects they can draw from.
Consider which services have or could be productised and resold again and again.
The sales process becomes less about agreeing a scope, timeline and budget and more about confirming that as a team which includes the client, you can deliver the outcome they’re looking for with the budget and time available.
Push the focus on scope to one side as quickly as possible. You could translate it to user needs, or a user story map. Confirm metrics worth tracking.
Start talking in terms of the future, and what comes next as early as possible.
Get the client excited about impact and ongoing value and opportunities for discovery and iteration.
Move them from the mindset of project then support, to a mindset of ongoing value delivery and prioritisation as a retainer.
With some or all of those changes you quickly connect the sales and delivery teams.
Sales still work solo on finding and attracting new business, the hooks and nets. The what and how become team activities.