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> sales people can make a habit of selling things that the product can't currently do Maybe this is a trope from the 90s and 2000s or from a Scott Adams cartoo

> sales people can make a habit of selling things that the product can't currently do Maybe this is a trope from the 90s and 2000s or from a Scott Adams cartoon, but I disagree this is representative of most enterprise sales these days. Maybe I'm just spoiled, but every company I've worked at the past decade has had a knowledgeable sales force. I've been asked plenty of times, "can you add this feature for a huge customer?" and been able to say "no, that is not realistic for us to complete in a reasonable amount of time."

duderific 11y ago
You are indeed lucky. I would guess the companies you worked at were profitable?
bmelton 11y ago
I think that overselling is a trait of young companies, really. Every sale matters when you don't have customers, and if it means a little back-breaking work to get that first bit of revenue, I know very few companies with the fortitude to say 'No'. Once the product has established a foothold, reputation, or repeatable sales process that works, product managers get an idea of exactly what it is that customers want, and across more than one data point. From that, they're able to communicate the exact value they provide to the sales team, and that sales team is able to approach customers with an actual, legitimate, proven value proposition. It isn't until the product team really knows what they have that those requests become easier to turn down. (Or at least, that's been my experience.)
deleted 11y ago
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manyxcxi 11y ago
I've never worked for a company with a sales organization that had a blatant disregard for what we could do, but everywhere I've ever worked there was usually a promise of something that we couldn't quite do out of the box, or a level of speed that wasn't normal. A perfect example would be integration to SSO systems like PingFederate or Tivoli, et al. Maybe the prospective customer needed a certain type of report that wasn't already built in. In the early days it was supporting a different application server than we'd typically been deploying to. They weren't promising Ferarris when we were building Maseratis, but they were definitely throwing in the undercoating and floor mats. Even now when I'm building and selling my own software products I do it. I literally do it to myself. In the end it helps evolve the product if you make a responsible claim you can get to.
api 11y ago
It's gotten better since the 90s. There are more people in sales with some dev background and therefore at least a bit of a clue.
zippergz 11y ago
I've seen it happen within the last 12 months.

duderific 11y ago

You are indeed lucky. I would guess the companies you worked at were profitable?

bmelton 11y ago

I think that overselling is a trait of young companies, really. Every sale matters when you don't have customers, and if it means a little back-breaking work to get that first bit of revenue, I know very few companies with the fortitude to say 'No'. Once the product has established a foothold, reputation, or repeatable sales process that works, product managers get an idea of exactly what it is that customers want, and across more than one data point. From that, they're able to communicate the exact value they provide to the sales team, and that sales team is able to approach customers with an actual, legitimate, proven value proposition. It isn't until the product team really knows what they have that those requests become easier to turn down. (Or at least, that's been my experience.)

deleted 11y ago

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manyxcxi 11y ago

I've never worked for a company with a sales organization that had a blatant disregard for what we could do, but everywhere I've ever worked there was usually a promise of something that we couldn't quite do out of the box, or a level of speed that wasn't normal. A perfect example would be integration to SSO systems like PingFederate or Tivoli, et al. Maybe the prospective customer needed a certain type of report that wasn't already built in. In the early days it was supporting a different application server than we'd typically been deploying to. They weren't promising Ferarris when we were building Maseratis, but they were definitely throwing in the undercoating and floor mats. Even now when I'm building and selling my own software products I do it. I literally do it to myself. In the end it helps evolve the product if you make a responsible claim you can get to.

api 11y ago

It's gotten better since the 90s. There are more people in sales with some dev background and therefore at least a bit of a clue.

zippergz 11y ago

I've seen it happen within the last 12 months.