How to stop Sales from selling vaporware

Episode notes

Episode Summary Host: John Fontenot Topic: How to stop sales teams from selling vaporware (promising unbuilt features) Core Problem Sales teams often promise features that don'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 Lack of vision and strategy at the leadership level causes misalignment between product, marketing, and sales. Without clear guidance on: Who the ideal customer is What value the product provides... …sales operate independently and promise features reactively. Sales are under intense pressure to close deals and may overpromise to hit quotas. The Upstream Fix Founders and product leaders must define a clear vision and strategy , including: Product strategy (value prop, differentiation) Go-to-market strategy (target customer, positioning) Enablement is key : Marketing and product must empower sales to recognize good vs. bad-fit prospects. Tactical, Downstream Solution When a feature is promised post-sale: Don’t drop everything to build it. Ask to talk to the customer to understand the why behind the request.