Sales
Professionals in sales go by many names depending on the industry and maturity of the firm. At the end of the day, they are responsible for bringing in new business and keeping the lights on. Lackluster sales reps give a bad name to an admirable function (sales is not taught in most MBA curricula). Amazing sales reps are legendary and bring deals to life that can change the trajectory of the company.
Sales Engineers
These fine folks are joined at the hip to sales reps and own the technical strategy for specific accounts or territories. Magnificent sales engineers are a rare breed because they embody both technical prowess in addition to a strong EQ. This enables them to be truly consultative and assemble solutions to address customer-specific workflows.
Product Managers
Depending on the age and stage of a company, the product management function is biased towards one of the following: software development, product engineering, project management, marketing, or business development. They may be tied to industry verticals or subsets of major product functionality. Typically the PM team is relatively small and relies on collaboration with other departments to achieve product success.
What Customers Care About
Customers do not particularly care about all the distinct roles at the company they buy products from. What matters most is that tomorrow is brighter than yesterday. As such, storytelling is the main event. Not the features. Not the discount. Not the macroeconomic conditions. Prospects want a partner that will help them save time, money, or ideally both.
Fortunately this desire is evergreen. The challenge is that the budget does not magically appear for your customers to spend on new shiny objects.
Sales and PM Collaboration
Product managers must build products that solve real obstacles. They then need to author high level stories that resonate with management at target customers to release funds. The more tangible the pain points, the easier it will be for the field team to digest. The account team can then shape those points to address business initiatives at a specific customer.
Sometimes these stories originate from within the ivory tower. Sometimes they come from customer engagements. The important thing is that there is an iterative communication loop and sales enablement repository so that the message is continually refined until the sales pipeline is full enough to achieve the expected revenue goals.
In overly political organizations, crossing swim lanes can cause undue friction. This is due to colleagues feeling threatened about their own responsibilities. However, if the business units are running on all cylinders and trust is high, the help is welcomed and the product arrives to the promised land eons before the alternative.
