Balancing Customer Needs and Sales Priorities as a Product Manager

Customer is not happy; their contract is expiring. We need to close the deal ; The prospect needs a commitment that we will prioritise the request

We have all been in those situation where the sales team and customers in B2B are driving majority of product development. Now as a product manager you have to manage those requests.

In an ideal world, saying “yes” to customer requests would be easy if:

1. 🎯 Product Goal Alignment :
   The requests are fully aligned with the product’s goals and vision. Implementing them could benefit market segmentation, customer satisfaction, or other strategic elements.
2. 🌟 Customer Impact :
   These requests will impact 100% of existing customers, enhancing the overall experience.
3. 💰 Business Impact: These requests have a high potential to generate substantial revenue, attract new customers, or increase retention for all clients
4. 🎧 Cross-Functional Support:
   All teams are on board, ensuring a smooth transition from planning to execution. All the dependencies with cross-team are resolved and they don’t have competing priorities.
5. 👩🏽‍💻Resource Considerations:
   Engineering and maintenance costs are low, with no competing priorities with regulatory or compliance deadlines.

The reality is totally different as ideal scenarios don't exist :P

As company grows, the number of stakeholders, clients, and their requests also increases, making weekly or bi-weekly prioritization meetings less scalable.

I have applied the following steps in my roles. I wanted to share with you guys how to implement it. Based on the resources and skills , you can either use a excel or integrate jira with sales force and other data sources

1. 🎯 Product Goal Alignment :

Start by assessing if the request fits into the product’s vision and strategy. Factors to consider:

• Business Priorities: Will the feature attract new customers, increase retention, or drive upsell?
  e.g if priority is for attracting new customers assign 3 points and 2 , 1 to the other one
• Market Segmentation: Does this align with our key market or industry segments, whether that’s regional (e.g., North America vs. APAC) or by verticals (e.g., healthcare, finance)?
  e.g if your priority is APAC assign 1 to it and assign 0 to other
• Customer Segmentation: Consider the user persona or specific customer group driving the request.
• Core Value Proposition: Will the request enhance or differentiate the core offering, improve a high-impact feature, or contribute to key performance metrics (such as customer retention)?
  Suggestion: Only use these qualitative factors when you have less or don't have any quantitative factor

Assign points to each criterion to ensure requests are aligned with the broader strategy like below

Assigning points based on product strategy

2.🌟 Evaluate Customer Impact

Assess the likely impact of these requests on customers by grouping and assigning weight to each feature:

• Feature Usage: If usage data is available, use it to assign points. For SaaS, features can be linked to API usage data to see which are most valued by customers. For e-commerce, filters and search capabilities might be highly utilized, thus gaining higher priority.

3. 💰 Business Impact:

Weigh the business impact by assigning points based on:

• Customer Size: Requests from enterprise clients may warrant higher priority than those from smaller customers.
• Revenue Impact: Evaluate the client’s revenue contribution (high, medium, or low) to determine priority. If the feature is revenue-generating, assign an additional score.
• Chargeability: If the requested feature has a revenue potential (e.g., could be offered as a premium service), prioritize it accordingly.

Assiging points based on business impact

4. 🎧 Cross-Functional Support and 5. 👩🏽‍💻Resource Considerations:

It’s crucial to keep an eye on resources and cross-functional alignment, as regulatory and compliance requirements will take top priority over everything else. Additionally, the impact on ongoing projects and client commitments should be carefully considered when making decisions.

This approach combines qualitative and quantitative measures to evaluate customer-driven requests based on product strategy, customer impact, and business value.

The above is just a framework you can add or reduce factors based on your needs.

If you have any thoughts or would like to chat over a coffee, I’d be glad to connect!

Email : nidasaleem333@gmail.com