{"id":6308,"date":"2011-04-24T05:24:43","date_gmt":"2011-04-24T12:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=6308"},"modified":"2011-04-18T12:34:47","modified_gmt":"2011-04-18T19:34:47","slug":"the-complete-project-manager-marketcustomer-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=6308","title":{"rendered":"The Complete Project Manager – Market\/Customer Knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Market<\/a>Success in the market place is the usual source of positive cash flow. Successful projects bring vitality into an organization. \u00a0As a key contributor to these outcomes, project managers are well advised to be aware of what is happening in the market and make appropriate decisions that positively influence the cash flow resulting from project outcomes. \u00a0Although new product development projects are clearly linked to the market, most project outcomes end up in the market in one form or another. \u00a0In the case of internal projects, the customer may be another department or division in the same organization. \u00a0The end-user\u2014the person who finally benefits from the project outcome\u2014will be the customer of the project.<\/p>\n

We must never forget that customers pay the bills and our salaries. Bosses, of course, are important to our well-being and futures, but if customers go away or stop doing business with us, everybody suffers. \u00a0Some people say there is only one true customer and that is the final purchaser of the outcome who pays real money for the product or service. \u00a0We say there are internal customers as well who depend on project outputs and outcomes. \u00a0Complete project managers have an obligation to attend to all customers.<\/p>\n

Project managers, as servant leaders, need a good knowledge of the customer and of the market for project outcomes if they are to be truly successful. \u00a0Understanding competitive forces in the market is a key aspect of this knowledge. \u00a0The need is to focus on marketing and customer issues most important to the complete project manager:\u00a0 determining who potential customers are and what they want; learning who the competitors are and what they are offering; understanding the trade-offs among product performance attributes of benefits, features, and price; and determining the ideal timing for market introduction. \u00a0In this context it is also important to pay attention to organizational ethics and its important role in the interface among executives, employees, competitors, and clients.<\/p>\n

Generally speaking, customers need project outcomes in areas such as solving a problem or issue, launching a product, or upgrading a system. \u00a0A first step to generating revenue is to design products, services, or processes that help customers solve their problems and meet or exceed customer\u2019s expectations.\u00a0 This happens through projects.\u00a0 Customer demand is also\u00a0influenced by the total market demand, and a company\u2019s share of that market is influenced by both the project outcome and project duration.<\/p>\n

Develop skills for interacting with challenging customers. \u00a0Stay professional during issue escalations as a means to preserve relationships and keep customers satisfied. \u00a0Remember that serving customers is the purpose for most project work.<\/p>\n

Randy Englund, Englund Project Management Consultancy, www.englundpmc.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Success in the market place is the usual source of positive cash flow. Successful projects bring vitality into an organization. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,852,7,844],"tags":[557,186,210,918],"class_list":["post-6308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","category-pmbok-process","category-goals","category-integration","tag-competitive_advantage","tag-customer","tag-ethics","tag-market-knowledge"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}