Sales Doesn't Like Product...Why?
Like most communication problems, ask yourself, are you speaking the same language?
Welcome back!
I know it’s been a while, but the newsletter is on the move again after a quick break.
A few changes:
Platform: We’re back on Substack.
Focus: Team tension - the messy thoughts, the hard work of prioritization, and the communication hurdles of creating a good, usable product strategy.
Who is it for: Product people and those who work with them.
Now, with that out of the way, let’s talk about one thing I’ve seen talking to teams over the last six months.
Trouble with the revenue organization.
The last few months of layoffs have created smaller teams, which have had to work together in ways they haven’t before. Revenue and product seem to clash over and over.
Why is that?
Before - teams were, in many ways, over-subscribed. Product and sales had a tenuous “build, and we sell it” relationship - there were enough teams to keep tensions from boiling. Now, fewer teams mean priority is rearing. It’s a significant yet misunderstood head.
So we’re having more challenging conversations.
Over the following few newsletters, we will talk about some reasons why and things you can do immediately after reading this to better communicate your “why” with other teams.
The first thing we will define is the “win rate.” Hubspot defines “win rate” as:
The sales win rate is the percentage of final stage prospects that closed and became customers divided by the total number of deals in a given period.
This is the number that is a heuristic that sales teams can understand efficiency, and super important because the salesperson is generally paid based on the deals they close.
If you have no other way to define your relationship with the revenue organization, then “win rate” can help.
This week, please find anything in your organization that contains the win rate of the revenue team you work with. If you can’t find that, find the deals they closed in the last quarter.
On this search, you’ll more than likely learn a lot about the sales team and the pressures they are under.
We will briefly frame a conversation around this metric, but this week, focus on getting that number.
If you have any questions or need ideas, reply, and I’ll help you.
And it’s good to be back.