Want to be a transformation leader? Then develop your sales skills

Transformation and change is tough. Research shows around 70% of digital transformation projects don't fully deliver on their goals [digitaltransformation.org.au ]. That's why when selecting programmes to invest and sponsor, investment boards and transformation leaders need to very carefully select the projects that have the best chance of success. Because it really should be a case of survival of the fittest.

I've heard various reasons put forward for the lack of success post-project including:

Poor adoption by the target audience - The project team may have had the perfect plan and delivered it on time, but the new system or processes are still not fully adopted or generating value.

Lack of engagement - Despite the communication managers best efforts and marketing campaign, no one seems that interested. Worse still, they don't really understand why the change is happening, so they aren't changing their behaviours.

No one really understanding the problem (or pain) the change was trying to address - This is interesting, as this is also the main reasons I think there are a lot of lessons to be learned from a professional sales process.

Let me explain more.

A solution in search of a problem or a problem in search of a solution?

Have you ever heard the saying that when you only have a hammer, all problems look like nails? That's a solution (a hammer) looking for a problem (ideally a nail). But what if the problem or pain your clients have doesn't need a hammer? Would they be as interested in what you have to offer?

It can be like that in transformation programmes sometimes. I've seen situations where a sponsor has said we've got a great new tool to deploy and take advantage of, but in reality we have a solution without a qualified problem. This is a red flag for the potential success of the programme and value generation.

Lessons from the best sales people for transformation

The best sales people and sales processes take their time to understand their customers pain points, before starting on the path of finding a solution. That way they know they are offering a solution that will ease a specific problem. That increases the chance of making a sale and having a satisfied customer at the end of the delivery process. There is very little difference for a transformation programme. You need to be offering a solution to a significant pain for your target audience, otherwise you'll probably come up against resistance, lack of engagement, and change resistance, resulting in increased waste.

I used the word significant pain earlier because generally speaking, while people may complain about a small amount of pain, they will put up with it (or take an aspirin). There has to be a significant amount of pain and/or benefit (what's in it for me) for people to change their habits and adopt new tools, processes or behaviours. That is why transformation is so hard. It's generally not the technology solution that is the challenge, it's the people component and change in behaviours. Quite simply, if the pain doesn't hurt enough, there's less chance of change.

So what can be done?

Just as experienced and skilled sales people are ruthless at qualifying and managing their pipeline all the way through, a programme board and Transformation Director should be ruthless in qualifying the pain and value of the programme backlog. If there are any doubts on the level of pain a programme cures or value that is generated, the programme needs a review before it goes ahead. If it has already started then it may need to be adapted, with a revised scope, or cancelled. The cost of making that decision may save you or your client lots of money. In 2020 an estimate of $260bn was put on the cost of transformation projects that don't deliver in the U.S. That is a ridiculous amount of money to waste.

Wrapping up

Transformation can be costly for companies and reputations. As a result, it's important that only the projects that cure significant pain are invested in. This will increase the chance of adoption, value realisation and in turn should lead to more satisfied customers.

Management of a project funnel, similar to a sales funnel, against a defined set of qualification criteria, will increase the chance of only the programmes that offer the most value getting to be approved. This in turn will allow companies to increase focus on the projects that cure most pain and reduce the risk of spending money on expensive flops.

Hi, I'm Rich, a Transformation Director with over 25 years of delivery experience. Having worked with internal and external clients on technology enabled transformation for most of my career, I'm looking to share some of my lessons learned over the years. Oh, I'm also looking for a new role, so please connect if you'd like to discuss working together on a fractional, contract or permanent basis.