Both Customer Success and Sales have roles in gauging what the market is asking for and needing. But before making key decisions and conducting research do you tend to turn to Customer Success or Sales first? Why would you turn to this group first and what weighting do you value their feedback over the other?
Who internally are you more inclined to source feedback from?
Userlevel 5
+2
I don’t prioritize one over the other in general. The key consideration is where they fit in the customer’s journey.
Sales hears valuable feedback during the early stages of awareness, consideration, and purchase.
Customer Success has insight into engagement and retention.
Whatever I’m working on, I consider where in the customer’s journey it will have impact and use that as my guide to which teams to engage.
Userlevel 3
You should start with your business strategy that shapes your product strategy that then shapes your product objectives. Only when you start breaking those objectives down you should start thinking what product feedback is relevant to them and where you can get additional information (what department). Afterall, if your goal is increasing the Net Revenue Retention coming from existing clients, how relevant is feedback from your sales organization pushing for the new shining thing?
It is okay to be opportunistic, but don’t forget to look at your product priorities from a greater distance and from a long-term time horizon.
Userlevel 3
+2
- Product Makers Ambassador
- 23 replies
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26 August 2022
This is a question I’ve been reflecting on recently
Userlevel 6
+12
- Product Makers Ambassador
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29 August 2022
I would have to say that I’m not more inclined to get feedback from any given department. Each has its own value when soliciting feedback around researching, ideation, and conceptualizing a product enhancement, feature, or vertical/horizontal market slices.
I usually tackle “feedback sessions” with each a little differently. More or less, what
Userlevel 5
+2
- Product Makers Ambassador
- 43 replies
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30 August 2022
The short answer (and not just limited to Sales and CS) is it depends!
Userlevel 6
+12
- Product Makers Ambassador
- 192 replies
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30 August 2022
The short answer (and not just limited to Sales and CS) is it depends!
Sometimes, just sometimes.. Simplicity is brilliant. 
Userlevel 4
+2
I regard all of these groups from Executive to Sales to Marketing to Customer Success to Resellers to Partners with equal disdain and contempt. 
OK, not really. 
Each group, even all the way down to Customer Buyers and Customer Users themselves, usually has some kind of bias. So they all have value but for me the trick is normalizing whatever that bias is into something that informs the strategy the best.
a haiku:
Feedback is biased
As the river goes to shore.
Best grab a paddle.
Userlevel 2
Love
Sales team have a great perspective on pre-sale journey and they see what are missing in our product in terms of the competition and also how we differentiate. They have a good understanding of non-customers/prospects. CSM teams care a lot about journey of customer success from onboarding to renewal, they will always advocate for the customers voice and what they need.
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