Insights Needed: Handling Unmet Prospect Needs in Revenue Teams

This could be a cool discussion. Usually I wouldn't allow these types of 'asks' posts in this channel BUT I wanna see the discussion - this is an interesting topic. If you wouldn't mind Tela A. plz start these discussions here in this thread so we can all benefit 😎

Absolutely. I'm eager for public conversation on this 🙂

Maybe it would be helpful to kick this with a question:

Have you ever missed quota because integration requirements killed a big deal?

90% of prospects I have encountered want some type of capabilities we can’t immediately deliver

Danny S. do you see a difference between core product gaps and integration gaps in terms of their impact on close rates?

We have a lot of challenges with prospects and also current partners asking for integrations we do not currently have. And we have lost some major partners due to not aligning to their needs. My experience may be different than what you are looking for, I work at 1-800-Flowers and our challenge is manpower - our dev and web teams can't match the level of needs companywide, and we are more DTC focused so partnerships (where I sit) - our requests are deprioritized. I actually was on a call today with our tech teams about projects and their list and back-log is massive. It's a shame because most of our partners asks are not heavy lift but the company doesn't see them as priority.

Hi Tela A. - This is the most common scenario in most of the deals (i.e., enterprise deals) I am involved. As founder, my recommendation to my sales folks is to not commit and instead involve me. I say yes, if what the prospective customer is asking aligns with our direction and hear/anticipate that need from other potential customers. And the deal size is large. We do caveat that the feature is in the roadmap and can prioritize if there is a deal and show a demo of it (if possible) before the deal closure. Irrespective of what product management thinks, often the best requirements are those that are asked by customer. That is market pull. I say no, if the deal is not large enough or if it is outside our scope or direction we want to go. Typically it is 80:20 ratio for No vs Yes. Hope this helps.

That makes sense Durga - so it's a combination of product strategy + business case (driven by customer demand). I'm curious for the 80% that don't make the cut, is your sense that's driven more by ROI or by lack of strategic alignment with your product?

Tela A. - It is both (i.e., lack of strategic alignment or ROI). Once a feature is built for a customer, the company is stuck with maintaining the feature for a long time incurring costs (i.e., eng, qa, support, docs, ...). So you don't want to invest unless you have confidence the feature will be needed by future customers.