If you've ever felt like your sales team and product team are speaking different languages, you're not alone. Jason Knight, a B2B product leader specialising in the enterprise space, tackles one of the most dysfunctional relationships in modern startups: the tension between product management and sales.

This isn't about picking sides or converting your organisation to be "product-led." It's about understanding why these teams clash, recognising the structural incentives that create conflict, and building practical bridges that help both teams do their jobs better. Jason brings frameworks, real examples, and actionable steps for product leaders who are tired of being stuck in the feature factory.

Jason opens with a game that will feel painfully familiar. He runs through the classic "sales bingo" phrases that product managers hear constantly: "We're a customer-driven company" (translation: one customer at a time). "This is just a quick win." "It's a small change." "This is a strategic client." "If we just have this one feature, we'll definitely close the deal."

Sound familiar? The reality is that these phrases aren't just sales being difficult - they're symptoms of a deeper structural problem.

"The amount of teams that I go into where the product and the sales teams just ain't speaking. It's unbelievable," Jason explains. "And half the time they only seem to speak to each other when there's some kind of escalation."

Key Takeaways:

Jason references a quote from Steve Johnson (former Pragmatic Marketing, now Product Growth Leaders community) that perfectly captures the tension: "Sales is responsible for this year's revenue. Product management is responsible for next year's revenue."

That sounds perfect in theory. Product builds for the future, sales sells what exists today. But here's the reality: every single sales rep will tell you they need product's help to hit THIS quarter's numbers, not next year's.

"No B2B salesperson probably believes in that former quote. They're all looking for help to get the deals over the line one way or the other because that's how they're ‘goaled’ within the organisation," Jason notes.

His uncomfortable truth? If you incentivised product managers exactly the same way as sales reps - with quarterly revenue targets and commission structures - they'd make all the same decisions we criticise sales teams for making.

Key Takeaways:

Jason challenges the notion that organisations should be "product-led" rather than "sales-led." He argues that no one in the business really cares about these labels, and frankly, "you sound dumb when you say it."

The real question isn't who's "leading" - it's whether you have a functioning operating model or you're stuck in a feature factory.

Signs you're in a feature factory:

What a high-functioning loop looks like:

Key Takeaways:

Jason introduces a great concept: revenue debt. Just like technical debt, revenue debt is what happens when you chase short-term, misaligned deals that create long-term strategic liabilities.

"Companies are chasing a lot of short-term revenue from what you might call the wrong customers," Jason warns. When you build bespoke features for single clients, promise customisations to close deals, or let strategic accounts drive your roadmap, you're taking on revenue debt.

The consequences compound over time: a fragmented product, inability to scale, strategic paralysis, and a roadmap held hostage by old commitments. You get the revenue today, but you pay the price for years.

This is particularly dangerous in B2B SaaS where products can become impossibly complex trying to serve too many different use cases. The short-term revenue looks great on the quarterly report, but the long-term strategic cost can be devastating.

Key Takeaways:

When a sales rep comes to you with a "quick win" request, how do you decide? Jason provides a practical framework with two dimensions:

1. Alignment to objectives (high/low) 2. Effort required (high/low)

Decision rules:

Before building anything, Jason recommends a process:

"Take them out for a coffee. Go and chat to them, find out what's motivating them, find out what's on their mind. You can't just sit back, throw stuff over the wall, and just expect the sales team to sell it. You've got to get involved," Jason emphasises.

Key Takeaways:

Jason provides practical tactics for improving the relationship when trust is low or communication has broken down.

Get ahead of the wave with pipeline visibility. Don't wait for escalations - know what deals are coming and what they need. Participate in regular deal reviews to understand what's being promised and where deals are getting stuck.

Track outcomes, not just output. When you build something for a deal, did it actually close the deal? Did they win? Create feedback loops so you understand whether your efforts are having the intended impact.

Centralise and close the loop on sales feedback. Use tools, AI, whatever works - but make sure sales input doesn't disappear into a black hole. When reps feel heard and see their feedback acted upon (or understand why it wasn't), trust builds.

Improve sales enablement. Look for friction in the sales process: slow pipeline stages, missing proof points, lack of demo capabilities. Sometimes the problem isn't the roadmap - it's that sales doesn't have the materials they need to sell what already exists.

Use portfolio guardrails. Carve out a percentage of capacity for "specials" (e.g., 20%). Lean on services teams, partners, or APIs to handle one-off requests without derailing the core roadmap.

Key Takeaways:

If you're in a dysfunctional product-sales relationship right now, Jason offers concrete first steps.

Start with coffee. Take sales reps out individually. Find out what's motivating them, what challenges they're facing, what's actually on their mind. Build human relationships before you try to fix processes.

Agree on triggers for "deals of interest." Define together what's worth escalating and what's not. Create shared language around what makes a deal strategic, what constitutes a reasonable request, and when product needs to get involved.

Run a monthly product-sales alignment meeting with a clear format:

The key is consistency and transparency. Sales needs to see that their input matters and understand why certain decisions are made, even when the answer is no.

Key Takeaways:

Jason's final message is simple but powerful: it's in everyone's interest to have a great product. Sales teams want a great product - it makes their job easier. Product teams obviously want a great product. The conflict isn't about goals, it's about the path to get there.

If leadership only rewards "sell anything now" behaviour, don't fight the culture battle with "we should be more product-led." Instead, frame change in financial terms executives understand:

Product must own the strategy. Clear vision, defined objectives, validated ICP, market evidence. Without this foundation, sales requests will always fill the vacuum. You can't blame sales for requesting features when product hasn't articulated what the future should look like.

Everyone wants a great product. The sales team isn't the enemy. They're operating under different constraints and incentives. The question isn't whether they should change - it's whether product is doing its job to create the conditions for better collaboration.

"You've got to get involved. You can't just sit back and expect it to work," Jason concludes.

Key Takeaways:

🔗 Links Referenced:

If you enjoyed this episode on product-sales alignment, check out these related Pod Shots:

Product Tapas 🥘 Bite-sized insights for product people