» Switching to a product-led sales movement should not be a hard pivot but a blended transition
» The product must demonstrate its own value regardless of whether sales people are involved
» Intent adds nuance to the classic “strategic, execution, and planning” cascade
» Product managers need a blend of skills, of which commercial acumen is a part
» Which does your company pay more attention to: the immediate or the long-term?
» Selling to everybody is selling to nobody
» Knowing what kinds of customer you want and don’t want help you to prioritise ‘one-off’ feature requests from sales
» “Enterprise customers look at our roadmaps as the starting point for negotiations”
» Are feature requests a deliberate strategy or a reactive wild goose chase?
“Hi Jock, I’m currently applying for loads of product manager jobs. I’ve received an offer from a sales-led company where the Product team reports in to Sales. Should I take the job?”
The other day, I was asked how to launch a product successfully. Two competing responses sprang to mind: the way I would have answered a couple of decades ago and the way I actually suggested.
There are several common dysfunctions plaguing product teams in B2B companies the world over. How can you stop them? Read on for suggestions.
More often than not the relationship between product management and the sales team frustrates both sides. Here are three ways to build a better sales team.
Despite relying on each other for the success of their products, the Sales and Product teams often have a jarring relationship. This is far from ideal. By looking at where things go wrong we can identify a better way of working with each other. The prizes on offer: shorter sales cycles, more easily achieved targets and customers who are always happy to hear from you.
Does your sales team sell your products (like, in exchange for money), or does it give them away as generous sweeteners to guarantee the sale of something else that will hit their targets? Or to put it in another way, does your salesforce truly understand the value of your products and can it articulate the benefits to the customer?
There are many reasons why Sales may be holding back on your new product. As we all know, Salespeople are by nature shy, retiring types, who need constant reassurance. You need to encourage and nurture them, delicate little flowers that they are. Or at the very least, restrain the urge to run screaming at them with a baseball bat held aloft.
