Creating Exceptional Relationships with Product Management - A Vague Understanding
I just recently published an article in the Pragmatic Marketer magazine for product managers entitled How to Turn Sales Engineers into Your Biggest Fans. I thought it fitting to write the corollary article for how we can best interact with PM.
Having been a student of both professions for quite some time I have observed many points of contention between the two roles—beautifully illustrated at The Cranky PM here and here. There are three areas in particular that I feel cause the most frustration:
- Vague understanding of the PM role
- Lack of and/or disregard for formal process
- Poor resource utilization
Because these are lengthy topics I will address each area one post at a time.
Understanding
It wasn’t until I began reading PM blogs, books, and even attending a few training sessions, that I developed a keen appreciation of PMs as I had come to for SEs. In this case I am as guilty as the rest of us in what I describe…
Let me begin directly and work back from there: as an SE you are not responsible for setting or determining product direction, product quality, or product marketing. Yet that never seems to stop us from getting frustrated, stressing out, and trying our best to influence product direction based on feedback from OUR ultra-important customers. I wrote about this at length here for additional detail.
We do have a crucial responsibility, however. We have the responsibility of providing customer/market feedback to the company in an unbiased manner. That means we have an obligation to do those things we dislike even if it is not demanded of us. This includes trip reports, honest win (and loss!) reports, and forwarding on the 150 feature suggestions we hear every day.
The critical difference (and source of so much stress) is that we have the incestuous need to expect a direct response and action based on that feedback. Shouldn’t we get something back?—we think to ourselves. Yes, but that doesn’t mean we need to expect it. Our responsibility ends when we have provided our feedback to the appropriate location. We get paid enough to worry about our sales cycles, let someone else worry about the roadmap!
Finally, if you’re reading this blog you’re already a few steps ahead of your competition as my anecdotal research suggests less than 30% of SEs actively subscribe to blogs/feeds. Do yourself a favor and read a couple of books and subscribe to some PM blogs to round out your knowledge. I guarantee not only will it make you a better SE but it will begin to lead to some great relationships with your product managers. Here’s a few sources to get you started:
Books
Blogs
Courses
After you’ve had a chance to do a little digging at the links above I’ll continue on with part II next week. If you have strong feelings or feedback on the subject I encourage you to weigh in over in the comments section on the site.
Related Posts at thesalesengineer.com
Filed under: Marketing
