Product Management and Sales: The One-Two Punch

Instead of having a product manager go on a sales call, you can use the following effective approach to an important sale:

Product manager meets with prospective customer. Pleads complete ignorance.
Just asks questions. Afterwards, reports customer's special situation to sales
person.
Sales person meets with prospective customer. Uses SPIN Selling
techniques. Tailors the message based on what the product manager reported.

The reason this approach can be so effective is that the product manager "disarms" the prospect by making clear she is just gaining an understanding of the prospect's situation and problems, and does not plan to sell the prospect anything. But then the sales person has the benefit of having a thorough understanding of the prospect's situation before the sales call.

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