The Product Team’s Knowledge of the Sales Cycle
While the data show the majority of product teams have managed to strike a strong relationship with their organization’s sales team, with only occasional friction, there does appear to be a problem when it comes to the product team’s knowledge of their product’s sales cycle. Our analysis indicates fully 23% of product teams don’t know the sales cycle for their product. Another 43% acknowledge that they struggle to stay in sync with the sales cycle. Only a third of product teams indicate that they are completely in sync with their product’s sales cycle.
Do Product Team’s Know Their Product’s Sales Cycle?
Astonishingly, 66% of product teams do not have a strong grip on their product’s sales cycle, how the product is being sold and under what conditions. Knowledge of a product’s sales cycle is vital and can contribute to more effective roadmap planning, improved collateral and more effective training – not only for the sales team, but for other functions as well.
This widespread lack of understanding of the sales cycle suggests the majority of product teams are too internally focused on product development activities without the appropriate context to understand external factors that can make the product team’s efforts more effective and yield a better return. While this internal orientation is understandable for junior employees and internally facing team members, the reality is that product teams have team members who must be externally focused. These include positions such a product managers, line managers and project managers who should possess knowledge of the sales cycle and be able to share it with core team members.
Conclusion
Clearly, more needs to be done to increase the product team’s awareness of their product’s sales cycle in order to increase the overall effectiveness of the team as well as the organization’s ability to efficiently generate revenue.
How well does your product team understand the sales cycle of your product?