What is the suitability of a senior sales person wanting to move to a project management role?

A Project management job needs a domain experience as an essential qualification. In Sales you would have handled Relationship management, Project coordination and Procurement  but if you have the domain experience of particular Job (like Telecom Billing, Retail, POS , Payment systems, CCTV and Surveillance systems, HR and Personnel management, e-Governance , etc.),  that would be advantageous.

Project Management jobs are of different kinds, i.e, requiring purely Technical knowledge , or Administrative , or both (normally it is both). This requires domain knowledge, Process, People management and Task management skills. Delivering to specified Quality parameters is very important in Project management, which we sometimes skip in a sales job (due to over commitment at times). A PM does estimation of the time required, after doing a detailed scoping of the requirements. He has to deliver the product in the agreed scope, time frame, resources and cost. So he cannot go wrong in estimation .

If during your experience in sales you have had the exposures to the above traits, then I would suggest you to work as a Junior PM with a Sr PM, understand the PM Cycle, and then go in for a study, (self or through a PMI certified trainer) for required Project Development Units, take the test, and do some introspection of how you rate yourself, work on the improvement areas, and then launch yourself as Project Manager.

Good Luck !!!!

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