Working With Sales TIPS

SEE ALL TIPS

GET THE LATEST TIPS EACH WEEK

Get product resources, conference updates, along with access to an exclusive Slack channel by subscribing below.

Sales Teams Close More Deals When You Give Them the Roadmap

Janna Bastow believes that rather than simply handing over a product roadmap to sales, a good Product Manager will help sales understand it. This is possible by participating in important sales calls and educating sales of the benefits of modern product development practices.

OPEN

A Dangerous Combination: Salespeople and the External Roadmap

Sue Raisty is explicit — “No salespeople with external roadmaps“. Comparing doing so with giving her son a steak knife, she stresses that external roadmaps are, by their nature, too sensitive to change. And we really can’t blame a salesperson for selling exactly what they see planned in the roadmap, can we?

OPEN

When Sales Hijacks Your Roadmap

All it takes is one salesperson insisting on an important customer’s feature request to scupper a well laid out product roadmap. So what’s a Product Manager to do? Shrinath suggests you first become more acquainted with how sales works, then produce different versions of the roadmap. Finally, why not try and negotiate (albeit with someone who does that for a living)?

OPEN

Sales v. Product Management: Why Can’t We All Just Get Along

So how do we get along? Let’s start by being mutually respectful — the salesperson is the lifeblood of a company but couldn’t do anything without someone building sellable products. Then recognize where you can work together, such as in the communication with customers, sharing of competitive information and the defining of roadmaps, amongst other things described by Peter S. Buchanan.

OPEN

PM 101: Working with Sales

It should come as no surprise that salespeople have one singular goal — to sell. As we’ve seen, this can cause conflicts. However, there is one question that a product manager can ask themselves to help craft the right pitch for your methods — “How will this help [the sales person] close more deals?”. Through this lens, the Clever PM explains, we can better understand the motivations in sales and more effectively communicate why you approach product development the way you do. “Work with sales, not against them”.

OPEN

Product Management and Sales: From Conflict to Harmony

Since product managers and account managers usually have different compensation plans, there can often be a natural conflict — that of thinking in the long term about the health of a product versus appeasing a single customer who is ready to pay big money for its delivery. Eric Krock tells us that, in order to tackle this problem, the CEO — who both parties report to — has to be explicit in how they want their workers to manage these situations. But both parties can also start supporting one another better, which ultimately will result in an increased understanding of shared goals and a better relationship in general.

OPEN

Related Tips