Empathy for Sales Teams
No doubt, it helps a great deal if product teams are more empowered. But, alongside that it would also be equally essential for them to build an acute sense of empathy for all teams involved.
Am sure all of us might have witnessed how customer-fronted teams like marketing, sales go overboard in talking tall & promising product capabilities / features over their strategy of locking & retaining users.
Over my stint with growth & business development with B2C & B2B products I have faced this thing abundantly. The amount of time given to product teams over going from "idea -> first major release" is perhaps 10-12x the time given to sales to onboard users & retain them. And sadly, that's true of orgs. right from the BFSI giants to some of the early / growth stage start-ups as well.
The penchant to fixate on sales numbers is only but common.
But, the underlying cause needs to be explored. Are they really going back to being sales-led by any chance? Or is it in the way they are organized & tend to operate?
Some orgs. that follow the area-wise split over the hierarchy of sales teams from Director - Managers - Execs - Staff where each of them have 2 targets to chase per product:
individual level &
team level
When there is nothing that's really wrong with the hierarchy, it could lead to an overbearing fixation purely for the numbers which may enforce a mindset change drifting the focus within teams towards solely increasing numbers resorting to traditional mailers, cold calls. Eventually it could worsen with product teams not having a say & control leading to a shift from systematic processes of taking ideas from "concept -> build" to swallowing inputs from sales teams hook line & sinker.
Problems galore!
Let's explore why this happens?
1. Sales teams are pioneers in "Selling"
With sales teams popularly standing testimony to how they have to be able to sell, achieve some tough breakthroughs & impossible outcomes it ought to be no surprise that their skills are wholly & solely bent only towards - "SELLING". Even during the hiring process they're tested for whether they can amplify sales. That is "The strength" to tap into & use wisely. Product managers have to be careful in giving sales teams the right download & assist in effectively smoothen out their jobs with all the info. It could be done via sharing significant docs on target markets, customer segmentation, problems & how they are solved, GTM strategy.
PRO TIP: I would deter introducing the Roadmap at this stage as a knowledge of what's to come later could act as a deterrent in some cases.
2. Sales often deals with unreal targets & deadlines
Sales teams are mostly dealing with acute pressure in catering to their assigned targets & deadlines over a given cohort. So, the whole onus of their jobs is to get immune, shun everything else around & fixate over those numbers. What that does is, it gives them absolutely no time to go over the nuances, at times partially imparting / completely lacking the understanding of the "why, whom, what & how" of the product which is only dangerous to say in the least over both those cases. That's a rat race.
Let's say you have to solve a Rubik's cube.
how may can do it?
- 85-90%
if you have to solve within a time limit?
- 30-40%
if you have to solve within a time limit & a blindfold?
- < 1%
Sales teams' jobs are tilted mostly towards numbers & incentivization.
3. Sales don't understand PLG (Product Led Growth)
Many teams were sales-led till the recent turn of the tide over the WebApps / Mobile-first Apps. With the advent of PLG some things changed for the better. Right from ideation till the growth stages everything was going to be user-centric. If sales had to be pictured fitting into this whole scenario they had to first start by understanding PLG. It an imperative for PMs to educate & onboard sales teams to understand the whole idea of product led growth & the essential shift from their conventional way of work.
Some steps to onboard sales teams to PLG practices:
Train sales on PLG
Define boundaries b/w teams & build accountability
Focus on upselling / cross-selling
Define metrics as relevant to PLG
Identify areas where sales teams are an imperative channelizing & optimizing henceforth (for ex: B2B)
4. Sales isn't aware of PLC (Product Life Cycle)
Sales teams don't really have the foggiest idea of the entire product life cycle over how ideas, hypothesis passes through stages evolving incrementally right from Concept to Release & then leading to Growth which is where they step in. When most people would argue that it isn't necessary for sales to know how products are built over processes / methodology followed, I understand that thought.
But think.
The initial idea was to build (x) & post n-iterations you're building (x5) which is an improved idea.
If this understanding is somehow passed on to sales teams over basic docs., it could make their lives simpler. Not only would they understand how the solution fits to the problem but also be able to factor in the step-wise evolution which could enrich their pitches.
5. Sales teams loosely connect with Product Vision
There is a whole reason why the vision is important for all teams involved. It acts as a single gospel truth that could sort out the alignment for you. If sales teams don't understand the vision, the pitch could be complete a hollow.
Think of an instance where the sales guy is meeting a group of prospects who are passionate of Tech & after being impressed by the pitch they exclaim:
"Wow"! And then ask,
"but how did this product idea come by & what exactly were your team's motivations behind it?"
At that point if the sales guys start off with
"our product vision is..."
there could be nothing that would stand in comparison to that impression he would be able to leave. If he were to respond vaguely, then that could be a case of "defeat from the jaws of victory".
BONUS - Exodus of User Requests
Not everybody in a team gets to face users on a regular cadence as that demands an entirely different set of soft-skills on its own. Users are bound to come up with those requests. Remember, they are the ones facing the problem after all. The fact that users are pumping requests is more than an indication of deeper friction that exists which the product teams might have missed / might have taken notice but a linked story sitting in the backlog. A repeated non-committal could also piss off the users.
The trick is in finding the mid of the extremes
"saying YES immediately" &
"saying NO altogether"
Plenty of ways to approach it.
But saying:
"that's a known issue, we are aware of it & are already working on it"
"we will begin work on that shortly"
might also work.
But, whatever you say, please ensure your sales teams never ever say,
"Ah! Yes. You can expect that by the end of the week / in 2 weeks / a month's time".
Never ever quote timelines.
If you are pressed for timelines consider saying,
"I'll have to float this to my internal teams & then circle back to you".
Also make it a point to discuss internally & get back to the user with an answer. If not anything the promptness / honesty may help you build a relationship. Also, do make it a point to shoot a direct message / e-mail apprising him of the feature release as that happens.
SUMMARY
PMs could build empathy for sales teams by understanding: -
Sales teams are pioneers in "selling"
Sales often deals with unreal targets & deadlines
Sales don't understand PLG
Sales isn't aware of PLC
Sales teams loosely connect with Product Vision
Bonus: Exodus of User Requests