First Sales Summit
I attended my first sales summit today. Awesome stuff. We had a presentation from a Forrester analyst, and I was able to meetup with our Account Exec and asked him to send over all the data they had on a product module I’m working on.
It was really cool to spend time with the sales folks in that type of environment. In addition to getting some cool ideas for the product, I also made sure I paid attention to each question coming from Sales. One thing that is important to remember is that they are at the front line; their concerns are important to understand the market.
I am curious to find out how other PM’s build relationships with Sales. Do they see it as part of their market data gathering efforts, or just product -> market communication? I reall think a strong relationship must be in place so that they trust the products you are releasing. After all, they are the ones that will be selling them.
On another note, this week has been completely cool. I feel much stronger in my personal skill than I did on Monday; and that’s no lie. My gaps are being filled just as I thought they would be, and I actually feel like a working Product Mananger more now than I did two weeks ago (hell, even 1 week ago). Pretty crazy, eh?
Happy Friday!
February 13th, 2006 at 5:07 pm
Building a relationship with sales is easy.
1. Have something that helps sales people sell.
2. Give it to them.
3. Ask them if it helped.
4. Implement feedback
5. Repeat
Helping sales can turn into a bit of a drug, since they are always hungry for the expertise and insight that PM brings. Being a sales-friendly PM has been a huge boon to my career, since many PMs “never leave the building” and in so doing miss out on the real-world market perspective they could get through a close partnership with sales and sales management.