The Secret PM Handbook

AUGUST 18, 2017

A Sales Demo Challenge. Our product was not as strong as some of our competitors for managing agile projects. Even though we had a lot of customers successfully using it for agile projects, the sales engineers felt severely challenged because we didn’t have the features to show in the sales demo.

Demo 150

Demo Agile Differentiation Product Research 150

The Secret PM Handbook

AUGUST 18, 2017

A Sales Demo Challenge. Our product was not as strong as some of our competitors for managing agile projects. Even though we had a lot of customers successfully using it for agile projects, the sales engineers felt severely challenged because we didn’t have the features to show in the sales demo.

Demo 191

Demo Agile Differentiation Product Research 191

The Secret PM Handbook

AUGUST 18, 2017

A Sales Demo Challenge. Our product was not as strong as some of our competitors for managing agile projects. Even though we had a lot of customers successfully using it for agile projects, the sales engineers felt severely challenged because we didn’t have the features to show in the sales demo.

Demo 150

Demo Agile Differentiation Product Research 150

The Secret PM Handbook

OCTOBER 9, 2018

Co-opting product management into sales. My good friend Geoffrey Anderson ( @ganders2112 ) recently wrote about a situation we product managers sometimes find ourselves in. When sales are not going well, company leadership might ask product management come in to help hit the numbers. Often] not a great idea.

Sales Training 170

Sales Training User Testing Differentiation Customer Experience 170

The Secret PM Handbook

JANUARY 15, 2018

Successful customers, quality product, but bad sales. When I started as the Director of Product Management at my last company, they had a lot of successful and enthusiastic customers, a product that worked – although a bit long in the tooth – and a good lead pipeline. But they had one big problem.

Demo 71

Demo Product Research Differentiation Engineering 71

The Secret PM Handbook

MARCH 9, 2018

But if that skill is augmented with great product knowledge (provided by product managers) sales take off. Prospects may have all kinds of objections, and not all have to do with the product. You can predict many product-related objections in advance. Questions like “How does your product handle situation X?”.

Weak Development Team 95

Weak Development Team Customer Experience User Testing Demo 95