Naguel

I'm Nahuel, and these are my work experiences, ideas and thoughts as a web developer working on the eCommerce industry.

The long standing cliche war between the sales team and the developers team

The long standing cliche war between the sales team and the developers team

If you think this happens only on the company you work for, surprise surprise, this "war" appears in many software developer companies as I happen to discovered in a dev exchange session during a Magento Meetup.

So, what's the problem? It seems to be that the developers claim that the sales guys are selling too much, and sales shrug their shoulders and keep on selling because that's what they do.

For a start let's say for a fact that sometimes developers are way up to the eyes and can't handle either the amount of work they have or the delivery dates people up in the chain of command are expecting them to accomplish. I'm not whining about it, I'm saying it happens to me in several occasions and it's something companies acknowledge by time to time (therefore, a fact).

If you are a developer going through this, then of course you are going to complain when a new project arrives as "you simply don't have more time to do it and nobody seems to understand that".

Time passes and you, developer, contain your discomfort deep inside, only having as a escape pipe your rolling-eyes attitude when a new client is presented. That means that when you encourage yourself to talk about this problem, with the sales team, is already late: you're angry, the sales team is angry too because they know by talk around the water cooler that the developers are complaining, so the discussion is getting to nowhere.

Sorry to disappoint you, my fellow developer, but to keep the company open for business the sales guys must attract new clients. Sales gotta sales, and, on top of that, the company must remain competitive, which means that the estimates provided in the commercial proposals must be competitives.

Stand in the shoes of a client picking a company for his next project: you will look at the estimates written in the proposal from the different companies you're consulting before choosing one, in addition to take into consideration the quality their provide.

Finally, the sales team times are different than the ones experienced by the developers team. Pre sales can take months, so it's hard to predict right now how busy the developers are going to be in, let's say, 10 months from now.

If you put your dev problems aside for a second, the explanations coming from the sales team are understandable, so give the sales guys a break.

I can see that both sides are right but unwilling to listen to the other. Nobody talks to nobody, developers raise complaint among developers only, sales within sales, and the real problem is never faced.

Up to this point we must agree that developers happens to have too much on their plate, and sales must keep on selling because everything I just said, but nobody is going to quit doing what they're doing to solve "the problems from the other side", at least nobody is going to do just that literally.

Understand that it's not about your problems and their problems, but a problem we have as a whole team.

The first step toward a solution is to start seeing this as an integrated team between devs and sales, no separate teams. Otherwise, if you can't accomplish this, then become a freelance and sell your time by the hour, because whether you are a developer or sales you're only thinking about yourself and not seeing the big picture, missing an opportunity to be a better company and benefiting you, plus everybody in the process.

Start talking, and planning together, but don't wait until you're mad. And find common ground about the problems you are facing, because sometimes it's not about changing the reality you're living but more about facing it and accepting it. Everybody, devs and sales, acknowledging the same reality (the same reality being the key words in this sentence).

Not changing the reality but just accepting it? Here's an idea...

Wouldn't be better to work in a place where a salesperson sells "the impossible", but closes the door behind the client, turns to the developers and says "Look, this project's delivery dates are challenging, but it's a key client we had to win"? Wouldn't be better to work in a place where, after that, the developers team says "Okay, we both agree on the times for this new client to be very difficult, but since we both agree on that let's work this out internally"?

Resolve it indoors! Keep on selling, good job, then sit on the same table and plan altogether with the developers team how are you going to accomplish the deadlines. It's impossible to get it done in one month? What if two devs work on this instead of one as it was originally planned? Wait, does this augmented reality requirement must be on the go live or can it be postponed for the support phase? Work it out as a team!

When I say that it's not about changing the reality but accepting it I'm saying that as long as we agreed on the problem, as long as we stand on the same boat knowing what's going on inside the company, both devs and sales, there's an opportunity to fix what's going on.

And, if not, if you don't think this means fixing anything... at least you'll be working on a place where the "enemy" is not inside the same building, causing the working environment to be much better, less stressful for sure.

Do not forget about the emotions while selling something

Do not forget about the emotions while selling something

I'm selling two newest iPhone, Space Gray color, both with 256 GB of capacity. When I bought them I wasn't sure about getting the 64 GB version or the bigger one, but I made up my mind in favor of the 256 GB version and I'll tell you why it was a great decision.

Last year I went on a family trip with my mom and sister to a Brazilian beach where cellular signal wasn't available all the time, meaning LTE was a luxury, and also finding WiFi was a Tom Cruise's "Mission Impossible" remake possible plot.

In this scenario, the idea of today's about everything being in the cloud and not in the physical devices was a no go for me.

The trip was beyond great. I spent a lot of time in the water with my sister trying to record the best slow motion videos: sometimes trying with just the water, sometimes filming the sand to see if that improves the video, then letting my sister try some tricks in front of the iPhone camera over and over again until we get something good.

At the end of the day we ended up with many many GB of videos, and a job not done yet. Before dinner, all nights, and most of the times waiting for our mom to get ready, we selected the best shots in order to create a video, cinematic music included, to show to mom as if we were two Directors showing the final cut of a Hollywood movie to a film criticism.

The other phone, while exactly the same, it was just used for some work stuff. It's a great device for reading emails, writing emails, and taking notes.

The difference lies in the emotions

While both are the same technical speaking, they are not the same emotionally speaking. If I still need to prove my point I'll will continue telling you fake stories including a beach, a mom and a sister until your eyes get wet and you rip this phone out of my hand while letting me keep the one used for work... because that's the whole point.

I know it's very obvious I'm appealing to your emotions in the last story, but the true is that we're all victims of this trick in a regular basis.

Think about it. Think about the last time you bough something on Amazon, eBay or Mercado Libre, when you searched for a product you already knew, ended up with three or four browser tabs with similar publications of the same product, different price within a short range, and then you made a decision from where to buy based on not much logical data but confidence on the seller, the aspect of the website, the fact that one had a better description with a video of real people using the product, the fact that one had reviews from previous buyers.

Think in Coke showing a couple jumping of a cliff into a lake, McDonald's showing a single mom with his kid laughing while eating fries, a perfume showing a good looking guy with three Victoria's Secret angels.

I remember a local ad I often see on TV showing a divided screen where on the left you can see a cute lady getting ready to go out on a sunny day, and on the other side a big man wearing a hood and preparing his tools to break into the house of this lady the moment she step out. There you have the victim, the villain, the conflict... and the hero? A trustworthy armored door at an accessible price.

And Apple?, oh, boy, those guys really know everything about selling feelings instead of products. I remember during an Apple's Keynote somebody, probably Tim Cook, introduced "Live Photos" (you know, that feature that records a few seconds before and after an static photo) and said something like "This feature allows you to see a photo, gently press on the screen, and get a sneak peak of what was going on during the shot of that static image".

A time machine that shows you 3 seconds of video and audio around the static shot. Right in the feels.

What you're selling is a hero

Your product, service, software... whatever is the thing you're selling, it can be the hero of a story. A story where there's a problem your potential customer has.

The problem is the villain in the story you need to start telling. It can be pretty obvious like in the ad for the armored door, or very subtle like in the McDonald's ad where they tell that they know how hard it is to being a single mom but still you can come upon great moments with your son in their stores.

Spot the villain, disclose the problematic, then introduce the hero to your customer so they lived happily ever after.