Sie haben einen Streit mit dem Umsatz über die Prioritäten von Produktfunktionen. Wie finden Sie Gemeinsamkeiten?

You should ideally be closer to your customers than the sales team, if that is not happening then listen to your sales team carefully, understand what the customer is asking for, what features do they love and what they don't like and identify what is needed to make sure the customer stick with our product forever

Having worked in sales previously, the team tends to meet customers on a daily basis. They understand the customer's needs and wants from a product and are a frontline for the organization. They tend to bring features that directly comply with the customer's demand. Having a open discussion and listening their reasons behind the requests , will help understand their exact needs and also the pressure they face. By proper conversation, we can bring a balanced approach that satisfies both the sales issues and the product strategy.

Begin by understanding the sales team's perspective. Recognize their goals, challenges, and the feedback they receive from customers. This understanding helps in appreciating the rationale behind their feature requests. Example: Schedule meetings with sales representatives to discuss their experiences and the demands they encounter from prospects and clients. Ask about the features they believe are crucial for closing deals.

Sales is another functional department that you need to understand by walking the talk, feeling its challenges and realizing its points of view of the customer, his needs, and the need for revenues. Recognise the value of knowing the market and customer preference through the eyes of the sales department. If you empathise sales, there are many issues that are reciprocal and you will find that you both get the outcomes that will benefit the end consumer and the business.

Sales and Product Management have distinct but complementary roles and should respect each other for that. Sales focuses on finding new opportunities and listening to customers. They can help Product Managers by objectively measuring the importance of each feature requests and estimating their potential value and revenue. Product Management is responsible for prioritization, distinguishing must-have features from nice-to-haves. Product Managers can help Sales by joining customer calls to better understand the underlying needs and usage patterns, ensuring that product development aligns with real customer demands.

Identify and align the common goals of both the product and sales teams. Ensure that both teams understand that they are working towards the same overarching business objectives, such as increasing revenue, improving customer satisfaction, and expanding market share. Example: Organize a workshop where both teams can outline their goals and identify overlaps. Highlight shared objectives like boosting user adoption and reducing churn rates.

Setup a meeting and discuss the advantages of launching each of the various features. Look at various aspects of launching the feature: the impact to the business, the impact to the customer, the ease of build for the development team, the short-term benefit, the long term benefit, etc. With detailed discussion and analysis, you will eventually find a common ground.

Picture this: you're in a room with your sales team, armed with data, user feedback, and a determination to align priorities. It’s like herding cats, but with a purpose. Take a cue from Airbnb, where the product team once clashed with sales over prioritizing an advanced booking feature that some top clients demanded. Instead of butting heads, they convened a joint prioritization session. Sales brought their client insights, while the product team shared user research showing limited overall demand for the feature and highlighted the technical hurdles involved. Through open dialogue, they prioritized enhancing the search and discovery feature, which catered to a broader audience and was easier to implement.

Asked sales to quantify the revenue potential and timelines for each product. This will give both teams a sense of which products have short term impact vs. which ones are more long term impact. Since the sales team is focused on getting the most revenue in the short term, they will prioritize those higher, but with this you can help them understand that you need to steadily build towards products that will have long term value as well that will generate customers and revenue for the company in the long term.

Collaboratively prioritize the feature requests. Use a structured framework that includes input from both teams. This joint effort ensures that the prioritization process considers both market demands and sales needs. Example: Implement a prioritization matrix where each feature is scored based on its potential revenue impact, customer demand, and alignment with strategic goals. Include representatives from both teams in the scoring process.

Clearly communicate the value and benefits of the prioritized features. Explain how these features will help achieve both the product vision and the sales targets. Use data and case studies to support your points. Example: Present a detailed analysis showing how specific features can drive sales, improve customer retention, or enhance the user experience. Include testimonials or data from pilot customers if available.

Thinking of and communicating the value is a core product marketing responsibility which product managers have to also think about. When the customer value for a product is clear from the beginning, all teams, including sales and PM, will be more aligned on which customers are being targeted, why they would care about it, and the story that sales will be able to tell with each product.

Foster empathy between the teams by encouraging mutual understanding and respect. Highlight the importance of each team's role in the success of the product and the company. Example: Arrange cross-functional team-building activities or job shadowing opportunities where product managers can spend a day with the sales team, and vice versa. This helps build a better understanding of each other's challenges and contributions.

Everyone needs to understand that conflicts between the sales and product teams are natural due to conflicting incentives. Building empathy means understanding that none of this is personal or targeted. As long as everyone knows this, it will lead to more open communication and search for a middle ground.

Regularly evaluate the impact of the implemented features on both sales and product goals. Use this data to make informed decisions about future feature prioritization and to demonstrate the success of the collaborative approach. Example: Set up a dashboard that tracks key metrics such as feature adoption rates, sales conversion rates, and customer feedback. Review these metrics in joint meetings to assess the effectiveness of the prioritization decisions.