Relationships and project marketing success

Abstract

Project operations are a dominating mode of international business. Managing relationships and networks is crucial to project marketing success both at the level of the individual project and at the level of multiple projects. This article first defines key characteristics of project business, identifies potentially relevant actors in the project marketing milieu, and emphasizes the importance of constantly nurturing project business relationships, also in “sleeping relationship” periods where concrete projects are not expected. Thereafter the points made are illustrated with a Finnish‐Chinese turnkey project case at the level of the individual project and a Danish‐German professional service project case at the level of multiple projects. It is concluded that project managers and marketers should focus their attention on the management of project relationships before, during, and after projects, as well as on relevant environmental factors in the project marketing milieu, instead of using resources on sporadic or last minute running after potential projects.