TEI 182: What Sales wants from product managers

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you the next
episode of... The Everyday Innovator with host Chad McAllister,
PhD. The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation
and managing products become more successful, grow their careers,
and STANDOUT from their peers. About the Episode: Product
management is a highly cross-functional role. Product managers work
with product teams, R&D, engineering, marketing, finance, and
others, but the one group that is most often discussed, especially
in B2B organizations, is sales. You’ll hear about it at product
management meetups, such as how a salesperson keeps asking a
product manager to do product demos for customers or how the sales
team won’t sell the existing product but some feature that hasn’t
even been discussed yet. This creates tension between sales and
product managers, but it can also be a very positive relationship.
Salespeople can get product managers access to companies for
customer site visits and other customer research. They can be a
source of earlier indications of a new trend forming or an old
trend changing. To understand how product management and sales can
work better together, Ian Moyse is here to discuss the topic with
us. Ian has a technical background with a product mindset and a
passion for sales. He is currently the Sales Director for
Natterbox, a UK-based Cloud Telphony company. He also received the
UK Sales Director of Year award from Institute Sales &
Marketing. He shares what sales wants from product management and
how the two functions can work well together.