07 Nov Risk Management: It’s Not One-Size-Fits-All

What if you get hit by a bus tonight?

It’s a serious question. Besides the personal ramifications it would have on you and your family—what would happen to your sales projects?

Have you got a risk management plan that covers you—or anybody on your team—suddenly not being there?

The concept of risk management plans has been growing since the 2000s, but many project managers unknowingly dance with danger by having plans that don’t explicitly address all uncertainties, or aren’t tailored to the project at hand.

In an era when forces majeure (such as hurricanes, floods, and fires) are becoming commonplace, and organizations once considered bastions of security are being hacked (hello Equifax), it’s more important than ever to take a fresh look at risk management.

Types of Risk

Every sales project will have its own unique risks. That’s why there’s no such thing as the one-size-fits-all risk management plan; each project should have its own.

You can identify the risks for your project by brainstorming with your team to draw on their experiences, consulting with external experts, and reviewing old projects to identify where things went wrong.

Here are some general categories to consider:

People

What if executive support diminishes or is withdrawn? What if conflict develops between executive stakeholders? Or the leader who championed your project leaves? Or the business strategy changes, leaving your project orphaned?

What if a key team member gets promoted, transferred, or dies?

Scope

What if the scope of the project creeps up, or the estimates were inaccurate? What if so many changes are requested that they fundamentally affect the complexity of the project or create conflict with the initially defined requirements?

Costs

What if the price of components from another country suddenly jumps because of currency fluctuations?

Technology

What if the components fail? Or don’t meet modern security requirements?

External

What if a hurricane hits and power is lost for days? Or the building where part of your team works is attacked or severely compromised?

Be Specific

Be tough on each risk you add to your list. General comments aren’t good enough.

For example, saying a project may be late is not a statement of risk. It’s too vague and does not correspond to an action. Saying the project may be late if the regulator introduces new product requirements is specific, and something you can work on.

Once you have fully explored, identified, and analyzed your risks, prioritize them in terms of their potential impact on the project and assign a risk owner to each. That is the team member responsible for investigating and devising a plan that will either help you avoid that risk, minimize it, or accept it.

Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

Risks, and your plan for them, should be a regular part of your agenda.

At Sales Beacon, we include risk management as part of our Days of the Week^© project control methodology.

Days of the Week is a set of regular communications and actions that ensures everyone does what they’re supposed to do, when they’re supposed to do it.

Having daily reviews of risk status means we can hold risk champions accountable, escalate a risk priority quickly, deploy more resources if necessary, and alert executive about changes to project scope right away if the risk goes that far.

This is an area in which we really excel, and it’s the reason 99 per cent of our projects are successful.

Want to learn more about how Sales Beacon can help you manage your risks and succeed? Talk to us today.