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Those of you with sales teams, what guidance do you have about sales people promising features that don't exist without getting input from the rest of your team

by nathanh 17y ago

Those of you with sales teams, what guidance do you have about sales people promising features that don't exist without getting input from the rest of your team?

jonknee 17y ago
Fine as long as it's for a lot of cash. If the customer is willing to pay for it, I'm happy to jump through crazy hoops.
- cookiecaper 17y ago
  Really? What if the client demands that your application is in "3D holograph" and won't accept anything that doesn't pop out of the monitor without any special assistance from the user? You're OK with selling that even though, no matter how much money they produce, it would take years and years of development, and may not even be possible until some other foundational technical breakthroughs occur? Please don't take this too literally and tell me all the reasons why 3D holograph is feasible, you get the point.
  - ryanelkins 17y ago
    For enough money upfront I'll get started today. For something really out of the norm a good salesperson should have gotten the customer to agree to an amount of money that would make it well worth it, whatever the task may be. I think for any outrageous example you come up with the cost will bring the customer back to reality.
    - cookiecaper 17y ago
      It's dishonest to pitch it as a product you're selling when the technology to build it doesn't even exist yet. You can't say "Sure, we can do that for xxx million dollars and ten years", because you don't know if you'll have it all figured out even after xxx million and ten years, because nobody knows what would actually be required to produce that product. There may be some theory, but if that theory is erroneous for your application and you placed bets on it, you're screwed. You have to pitch as a research investment. If a company wants to give you money for that kind of research, that's great, but you really need to make clear that it's not something you can just go and implement even if you have an infinite supply of money.
alain94040 17y ago
No problem as long as it's before the PO. But we won't let a sales guy sign something until we have agreed internally that it can be built and made sure that it makes sense for us. So basically the sales guy can probe the customer with ideas, but can't commit.

by nathanh 17y ago

Those of you with sales teams, what guidance do you have about sales people promising features that don't exist without getting input from the rest of your team?

jonknee 17y ago

Fine as long as it's for a lot of cash. If the customer is willing to pay for it, I'm happy to jump through crazy hoops.

cookiecaper 17y ago
Really? What if the client demands that your application is in "3D holograph" and won't accept anything that doesn't pop out of the monitor without any special assistance from the user? You're OK with selling that even though, no matter how much money they produce, it would take years and years of development, and may not even be possible until some other foundational technical breakthroughs occur? Please don't take this too literally and tell me all the reasons why 3D holograph is feasible, you get the point.
- ryanelkins 17y ago
  For enough money upfront I'll get started today. For something really out of the norm a good salesperson should have gotten the customer to agree to an amount of money that would make it well worth it, whatever the task may be. I think for any outrageous example you come up with the cost will bring the customer back to reality.
  - cookiecaper 17y ago
    It's dishonest to pitch it as a product you're selling when the technology to build it doesn't even exist yet. You can't say "Sure, we can do that for xxx million dollars and ten years", because you don't know if you'll have it all figured out even after xxx million and ten years, because nobody knows what would actually be required to produce that product. There may be some theory, but if that theory is erroneous for your application and you placed bets on it, you're screwed. You have to pitch as a research investment. If a company wants to give you money for that kind of research, that's great, but you really need to make clear that it's not something you can just go and implement even if you have an infinite supply of money.

alain94040 17y ago

No problem as long as it's before the PO. But we won't let a sales guy sign something until we have agreed internally that it can be built and made sure that it makes sense for us. So basically the sales guy can probe the customer with ideas, but can't commit.