I’ve worked with several companies and on several Sales teams, but I consistently hear the same frustrations between Sales and Product. Sales reps consistently say things like “I could make so much more revenue for the company if only the product did x, y, z” or “I’m not sure our Product team is listening to the feedback from our customers.” While on the Product side, I often hear comments like “Sales is constantly giving us a laundry list of items of features” or “we’re trying to develop one-off solutions for very niche use-cases vs. building the product for scale.”
Comments like these happening cross-functionally can create devastating impacts on culture, morale, and trust internally, but it can also lead to poor outcomes for both Product and Sales alike. How can teams avoid this tension and create cross-functional confidence between teams? In this post, I hope to share 4 best practices that I’ve seen between Product and Sales teams that have helped build confidence and trust between both sides of the business. Each of these is framed to be used by either team to improve cross-functional collaboration.
Assume Positive Intent
This is a lesson that I learned early on in my career, and something that sticks with me to this day. Most people you interact with, especially in the workplace, are not malicious. They mean well, they want to be good at their job, and they want to do what’s best. If you approach your interactions cross-functionally assuming that the other team is bought into doing what’s best for the organization, its mission, and its customers, you will find that it’s easier to collaborate.
From the Sales side, I often find that teammates feel unheard with their Product team. They either feel like the most high-impact updates are not on the roadmap or that updates being rolled out are not in line with what they expected. This often gets brought into internal meetings with Product and even with customers at times and prevents both Sales and Product from truly meeting their customer needs.
From the Product side, I often find that Product Managers and Engineers feel like Sales is creating laundry lists of to-dos for Product with little understanding of the long-term vision or how one-off requests may fit into that vision. This misalignment can often cause Product teams to devalue or misunderstand important needs being brought forward from Sales and customers.
If you’ve ever been on a cross-functional call between Product or Sales, you may notice that these tensions can manifest in incredibly unproductive ways. It can derail Product updates due to misalignment, create hostile meetings between leaders, and even create unproductive siloes that prohibit growth.
The Product and Sales teams that I’ve seen most successfully collaborate are those that have leaders that consistently lift their cross-functional partners up. They walk into each cross-functional meeting assuming that they want the same thing: success for the business and its customers. When you find yourself feeling misaligned, whether you’re on the Sales or Product side, take a step back and remind yourself that the person on the other end of the call isn’t attacking you or your work. They are not questioning or challenging as an attack. They are likely seeking to understand and want the same outcome: to move the business forward.
Quantify Customer Impact
I’ve mentioned this several times already: working with a Sales team as a Product Manager can feel like getting a laundry list of to-dos. Without proper quantification of impact to the customer experience, internal processes, or revenue, it can be a guessing game to determine what’s a priority. If you find means to quantify this impact, it will help both teams feel valued and heard in the negotiation of a Product Roadmap.
From the Sales side, it’s super easy, especially in a small organization, to feel like every product limitation is of the utmost importance, especially when you are not tapped into the product roadmap and decision making around it. You start to notice patterns in your own customers, and it becomes incredibly simple to tie lost revenue to these limitations.
From the Product side, you’re consistently tapped into where the Product is in its current state and the cost of the Product requests on your overall roadmap to the future state. It is incredibly understandable to be overwhelmed by all of the information on competitors, ideas for new features, and customer limitations shared by a Sales team when there is a clear vision for where the product needs to go and limited resources to get it there.
Both sides are in a very tough position: Sales must acquire and retain customers despite product limitations and Product must consistently weigh product limitations in the current state against the overall product roadmap. The quickest way to make sure both teams are aligned in this is by creating mechanisms to quantify product needs from your customer base and feedback loops to keep the Sales team in the know.
The most successful teams I’ve worked on use CRM data, ticket requests, and feedback forms to collect this information. Leaders review this consistently and use it to re-prioritize and negotiate the product roadmap. Where you become really dangerous (will discuss this further in the following sections) is turning that into a 360-degree loop where that impact data and the outcomes from it are then communicated back to the Sales team as actions. Whether you’re in Sales or Product, try to find ways to mechanize customer impact and product requests to better align your product strategy to the changes that will provide the most meaningful impact to your customers. Take the guessing out of product development and work together to pull the business forward as a unit.
Collaborate Consistently
The teams I see struggle the most are those that become siloed within the organization. Sales teams aren’t taking the time to deliver feedback or even read about the updates from the Product teams. Product teams are not providing avenues for feedback on product updates or product roadmaps. This siloing is often unintentional but can provide huge levels of distrust or frustration between teams.
Sales teams often stop communicating product requests when they feel like the requests they are making are unheard or unimportant. Delivering customer feedback or meeting with Product can be incredibly time-consuming and difficult to balance against the time that needs to be spent trying to hit a quota.
Product teams often end up siloed when their Sales teams are not providing meaningful information on revenue impact, requirements, or feedback around current and future product updates. Without buy-in from the Sales team on making sure Product goals align with what the end-user needs, it can be difficult to make the right solution to meet those needs.
You want your Product team to match customer expectations, but without the Sales team, your direct front with your customer base, how can you possibly meet your customer needs without simply guessing? This lack of collaboration is often what continues to progress the tension I’ve consistently discussed: Sales feels unheard, Product feels unvalued.
The companies I’ve seen most successful at combating this siloing have leaders dedicated to getting Product in front of customers and Sales as frequently as possible. They meet consistently. They have liaisons between their two teams collecting and sharing feedback on a regular basis. They think of their organizations as one team with one goal: satisfying the end-user. If you’re in a small organization, this may be relatively easy; however, it can often break down in larger organizations. Whether you’re an individual contributor or leader in Product or Sales, find ways to work cross-functionally not only on immediate or urgent needs but consistently. Find mechanisms or avenues to stay up-to-date on current goals, pain points, and updates from your cross-functional partner. Most importantly, be sure to respectfully give as well as receive honest and consistent feedback throughout.
Lead with Transparency
This is basic knowledge if you ever want to be a leader or generally just build trust with others. A lack of transparency causes tension, distrust, and general frustration cross-functionally. It’s important to constantly remember that you are the expert of your own team, but your cross-functional partners probably have no idea what your role or projects entail. Sometimes it can be tedious to remind and educate cross-functionally, but in not doing that, you run the risk of losing trust with these important partners.
From a Sales side, reps are often not tapped into technical specifications, limitations, or decision making. Most Sales reps have never worked in project-based roles, so the way a Product team operates is quite foreign to them. It’s also quite difficult to understand why certain requests may be nearly impossible to execute. This lack of understanding can make often manifest as frustration with the progress made on the Product.
From a Product side, the team is often solution-oriented and can often miss out on key information from the Sales team on what the customer needs and why they need it. Without clear, concise information from Sales, product updates and changes can easily become misaligned due to a lack of transparency from Sales or a lack of understanding of the problem by Product.
Not taking the time to meet your cross-functional partner where they are at in understanding your team, its vision, its needs, etc. is a very quick way to become misaligned. All too often, we assume the other party knows what is happening and understands exactly our intention, limitations, and decision-making.
The teams that work most productively together consistently educate and re-educate on these important concepts. They are honest about why they are making decisions, why they may not be able to satisfy the other team’s needs, and what they need to work better with their cross-functional partners. Whether your Sales or Product, continually push yourself to better understand your cross-functional partners. Ask questions, assume positive intent, and most importantly be honest! Even if you are not meeting the expectations of your cross-functional partner, the best thing you can do is be honest and direct with that information, so they can adjust their own expectations accordingly.
Conclusion
Whether you are Sales or Product, you and only you can control your own reactions to frustrations with your cross-functional partners. You can assume negative intent and continue that rift between your organizations, or you can step up and change the narrative.
Assuming positive intents, quantifying customer impact, collaborating consistently, and leading with transparency are just a few basic ways to build trust between your teams and ones that I’ve seen work really well in my own experience. Let’s keep this conversation going! In the comments, tell me more about your own experience working cross-functionally and what contributed to some of your best and worst experiences doing so.