🎙 Episode SummaryHost: John FontenotTopic: How to stop sales teams from selling vaporware (promising unbuilt features)💡 Core ProblemSales teams often promise features that don&#39;t yet exist (a.k.a. vaporware) to close deals. This creates chaos for product and engineering, derails the roadmap, and sets poor expectations with customers.🧩 Why It Happens<ul><li>Lack of vision and strategy at the leadership level causes misalignment between product, marketing, and sales.</li><li>Without clear guidance on:<ul><li>Who the ideal customer is</li><li>What value the product provides...…sales operate independently and promise features reactively.</li></ul></li></ul><li><ul><li>Sales are under intense pressure to close deals and may overpromise to hit quotas.</li></ul>✅ The Upstream Fix</li><ul><li>Founders and product leaders must define a clear vision and strategy, including:<ul><li>Product strategy (value prop, differentiation)</li><li>Go-to-market strategy (target customer, positioning)</li></ul></li><li>Enablement is key: Marketing and product must empower sales to recognize good vs. bad-fit prospects.</li></ul>🛠 Tactical, Downstream SolutionWhen a feature is promised post-sale:<ol><li>Don’t drop everything to build it.</li><li>Ask to talk to the customer to understand the why behind the request.</li><li>Reframe the conversation with sales:“Let’s explore the real need and maybe we can deliver something better that helps you close more future deals.”</li><li>Collaborate to design a more effective, differentiated solution.</li><li>Bring customers into the process: this creates partnership, not just transaction.</li></ol>⚠️ Contracts often include promised features that are never built and unless the customer feels misled or cheated, they’re rarely enforced.🤝 Building a Healthier Process<ul><li>Establish a norm where product gets involved before a feature is promised.</li><li>Sales can say:“That sounds doable. Can we loop in our product team to better understand your goals?”</li><li>If your org values honesty and customer success, this approach will resonate.</li></ul><li><ul><li>If not, it may be a sign to consider other opportunities.</li></ul>💬 Final Thoughts</li><ul><li>You can shift from feeling powerless as a PM to becoming a true strategic partner.</li><li>This approach builds trust with both sales and customers.</li><li>Ethical, aligned organizations will benefit from this collaboration.</li></ul>

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