You have to provide Sales with some different materials than other functional groups within the organization. Especially the roadmap – no question.

This may be different at other organizations; my experience in the past has been, if you don’t do this, you are setting yourself up for failure. Better safe than sorry.

You must listen to sales. They are on the front-lines and their input is valuable; to a point. The access to customers their relationships provide is fantastic. Sales people will only ever think about 3 things – their next 3 deals that they can close to give them commissions.

Again, there are exceptions to this rule and better safe than sorry.

I find it’s always good to use your best judgment and always question quality. Chances are, you are certainly going to want to follow-up on feedback received before making decisions using it.

I believe that we’re all basically saying the same thing here.

The point is to listen to them without involving them too much, as in “deciding what should be done or not”.

Sales is one among many voices that a Product Manager must listen to and consider as they plan and prioritize their products. Yes, they are self-serving and are most interested in their own deals, they provide a valuable mechanism for feeling out upcoming business requirements or new business opportunities for your industry.

Here’s an example–at my company, we have a weekly meeting with the Sales leadership team to discuss requirements related to upcoming deals. This has two benefits:

1. Sales has a clear and consistent chance to provide input about what’s important in the field
2. I get to hear about what prospects want to do with my product

Number 1 limits the number of times that I have to hear the same request from multiple Sales reps and let’s me point to a specific process for providing feedback. Number 2 gives me insights that are difficult and time-consuming to get on my own. If something interesting comes up, I can work with the Sales rep to talk to the prospect and get a better understanding of their future plans and that can help me make better choices for product priorities.

Don’t think of Sales as a nuisance (I know, it’s hard). Think of your Sales team as a tool that you can use to better understand the market.

Great Answer!

I actually do agree with you, and it was never in my intentions to keep the mushr .. em .. the salesforce in the dark! ;o)

Thanks Bob.