SELL Phase

Focus on understanding customer needs and offering tailored solutions that align with their goals. Build trust through clear communication, transparency in pricing, and a value-driven approach, ensuring customers see your services as critical to their success.

1. SELL Phase: Building the Foundation

  • Conduct customer discovery sessions
    In initial discussions, your team meets with the customer to understand their business objectives, challenges, and desired outcomes. This sets the stage for aligning your solutions to their needs.

  • Define high-level scope, objectives, and success criteria
    Collaborating with the customer, you outline the project’s key objectives, what success will look like, and a general scope of work, ensuring alignment before diving into details.

  • Create and present proposals
    A formal proposal is developed, detailing the scope, pricing, timelines, and anticipated outcomes. This document is presented to key stakeholders for review and discussion.

  • Prepare and negotiate contracts
    Legal and financial teams finalize a statement of work (SOW) and associated agreements, negotiating terms as needed to satisfy all parties.

  • Address customer questions and concerns
    The team addresses technical, financial, or procedural questions to build trust and confidence in the proposed solution.

  • Identify change management areas

    The team begins to document the areas of change to the customer’s business processes, tools and people that will come as a result of the project. Utilize the From-To-Why-What PSP Change Management Framework. 

  • Obtain customer approval and signature
    Once all parties agree, contracts are signed, marking the official start of the project.

  • Conduct internal handoff from sales to delivery teams
    Sales ensures a seamless transition by briefing the delivery team on customer objectives, expectations, and the agreed-upon scope

Managing Budget & Customer and Internal Project Team Feedback  in the SELL Phase: Building the Foundation

Budget Management:

  • Define high-level cost estimates based on project scope and timeline.

  • Include clear assumptions, exclusions, and contingencies in proposals to manage financial expectations.

  • Communicate any potential variable costs (e.g., scope creep or additional services).

Customer Feedback:

  • Gather customer input on the proposed scope, pricing, and timeline during negotiations.

  • Use structured questions to identify priorities and concerns (e.g., “Is this budget aligned with your expectations?”, “Are there any areas of scope you wish to include in this engagement that we haven’t discussed?”).

  • Document feedback and incorporate agreed-upon adjustments into the contract or SOW.

Internal Project Team Feedback:

  • Gather feedback regarding risks identified during the SELL phase. Ensure this information is communicated to the project team during the project.