I know from experience that “Product” and “Sales” can sometimes be two groups within a company that are kept at arm’s length. \u00a0On one hand, salespeople are constantly in front of customers and genuinely have a lot of valuable input from customers that could be quite useful to the Product team. \u00a0On the other hand, a Product Manager can discount the feedback a salesperson receives, as a customer may just be telling the salesperson\u00a0something to make their “no” less of a blow. \u00a0For example, hearing “Gee, if you only had X feature, then we’d surely come on board,” can be interpreted much differently by the salesperson than by the Product Manager.<\/p>\n
A salesperson hears: \u00a0“If you only had X feature, I’ll give you all of my money.”<\/p>\n
A product manager hears: \u00a0“You don’t have X feature? \u00a0Oh good, I’ll blame my lack of commitment on that rather than tell you I don’t think your product is anything special.”<\/p>\n
Because of this, sometimes sales is held out of the product development process altogether. \u00a0This isn’t necessarily the right<\/em> approach, but it’s an approach that many companies take. \u00a0They simply rely on the Product team to be in touch with customers directly and make product-related decisions based on their own interactions. \u00a0The sales team is just supposed to sell.<\/p>\n When a company takes this approach, should a salesperson even care<\/em> about the product development process? \u00a0Should they just “stick to what they know” and treat every sales meeting as simply an opportunity to sell something?<\/p>\n My answer to that is unequivocally no<\/em>!<\/p>\n In fact, implementing customer development practices\u00a0can not only\u00a0give a salesperson product-related insights, but it can actually help them be better at their job of selling<\/em>. \u00a0I’m learning this first-hand, myself. \u00a0Just over a year ago, I was brought on to lead Product at Movable. \u00a0In that role, I implemented customer development practices in order to inform our\u00a0product decisions. \u00a0As the year wore on, I was promoted to President and ultimately helped find an attractive strategic acquirer. \u00a0Post-acquisition, my focus is now on Business Development for the combined company. \u00a0One might think that day-to-day is much different — and that’s true. \u00a0However, I’ve been sure to maintain some customer development practices\u00a0even though\u00a0it might not be in my job description. \u00a0In fact, every first meeting I have with a potential customer is treated as a customer development meeting… not a sales meeting.<\/p>\n Here’s what I’ve learned thus far:<\/p>\n First meetings are easier to get when the context is a customer development meeting.<\/strong><\/p>\n Let’s face it, unless a potential customer reached out to you first asking for more information, they’re probably not sitting there waiting for your call to schedule a sales meeting. \u00a0Getting that first meeting can be tough. \u00a0Of course, if you believe in what you’re selling, that first meeting is sometimes all you feel you need in order to have a shot. \u00a0Well, when you lead with the notion of the meeting being purely educational and you’re simply looking for their insights as an expert — that changes things. \u00a0People like being known as the expert. \u00a0It’s no lock, but it certainly helps open up the door a bit more.<\/p>\n Customer Development leads to\u00a0learning.<\/strong><\/p>\n