Latin America. 28% of Latin American managers better understand the importance of technology to their businesses. The IT market, especially that of Brazil and Mexico, has a larger opening to receive investments in technology projects.
Comstor business unit of Westcon-Comstor and one of the leading wholesalers of Cisco technology, explains the 5 key points to sell IT projects to companies.
28% of Latin American administrators gave it top marks when analyzing the importance of IT in business results. This data is part of the conclusions of the global CIO Survey report developed by PromonLogicalis, which noted that CIOs in Latin America consider the IT area as the most important to obtain results in business, compared to professionals in other regions of the world.
Mobility was the topic most discussed by the interviewees, so that for 62% of Latin American administrators the issue is critically important. This data is on the average of the other regions which presented an index of only 31% on the level of criticality.
These data show that the IT market, especially that of Brazil and Mexico, has a larger opening to receive investments in technology projects, which makes it necessary for managers to be convincing enough to be able to increase their departments by approving new projects.
Some key points to be able to sell these projects internally are: winning the support of the executives who decide for the company, presenting a project from a story to make the facts more convincing, showing the added value of what will be presented, exposing achievable goals and offering a tool to monitor the partial results of the project.
Let's explain each of those points better:
1.- Earn the support of the executive committee
Before building an IT project, you need to have funding, and without the support of the managers who make the business decisions, the project will hardly be implemented. Therefore, like the other departments of the company, justify the significant expenses, present complete budgets, the implementation time, the profile of the team that will be involved in the project and, mainly, the cost-benefit that the investment will bring for the entire business.
2.- Present the project by telling a story
For it to be a story, it must have a beginning, middle and end, at least one protagonist, an obstacle to overcome, the process of overcoming and a solution. Present the facts in a structured way, it will be more convincing if the protagonist is unique and if the story happens in the business world and not in the IT world so that listeners do not understand that they are being manipulated. Engage listeners by conveying information, giving them a basis for decisions so that they come to a conclusion that will be the logical end of the presentation.
3.- Present the added value
It's natural for most Administrators, especially those who aren't as involved with IT, to look for the cost of the project and ways to reduce it. However, the interesting thing is to reverse the game, changing the focus towards billing and the value that will be added, showing them the benefits of the new technology for the whole company and how the costs will be reduced by the values that will be added.
4.- Set achievable goals
Without a doubt, this is a point that can damage the conviction of the project. The goals must be defined according to each possibility that they can be realized, because that is exactly what pleases the client, even the internal. For that, it is necessary to make a well-done planning, with all the stages documented and checking its effectiveness.
5.- Present a model in which companies can accompany the project.
Accompany. That word can change the course of all the work done. There needs to be systematic monitoring of all stages of the process and show, in each phase, what results were achieved and new goals for the next steps. Offering that "power" to managers will be a great weapon of conviction, but, on the other hand, it can also become a way to stop the project halfway if the results are not as effective as those initially presented.
In short, understanding the side of the other managers and offering all the necessary information for them to make the best decision for the company, is the best way for a technology project to be approved. Finding the best way to present that data facilitates the process for both the listener and the person in charge of approval and funding.
