Transformed

CHAPTER 22Partnering with Sales

Please note that this chapter does not apply to all companies and all types of products. But when it does apply—when the company has a direct or channel sales force responsible for bringing its products to market—the relationship between the product organization and the sales organization can literally make or break the success of the company.

There are perhaps no two more interdependent roles in a company than product and sales.

Product depends on sales to get its products into the hands of its customers. And sales depends on product providing them with solutions that truly meet their customers' needs.

If either one falters, we have a real problem.

Yet, despite this seemingly natural alignment in incentive, in practice they are too often pursuing very different goals. In so many organizations using the prior models, neither product nor sales is happy.

Product is not happy because sales keeps requesting (or demanding) they build things that they know are not going to solve the customers' real problems.

And sales is not happy because they are simply relaying the demands of the customers, yet product keeps delivering solutions that don't meet the needs of those customers or, worse, not delivering at all.

Realize that salespeople depend primarily on commissions for their income. This comes from new sales, renewals, upsells, and increased customer spend with your company.

For that reason, salespeople are wired to respond very directly to customer ...