When Sales Promises Features The Team Hasn't Validated

Names have been changed to protect the guilty

Narrator: It was 4:47 PM on a Thursday when the Slack message landed like a grenade:

Sales: "@channel Great news! Just closed MegaCorp renewal - $2M! They're excited about the advanced workflow automation we're shipping next quarter 🎉"

Me: "The... what?"

Sales: "You know, the workflow automation thing they asked about. I told them it was on the roadmap."

Narrator: It was not on the roadmap.

The Universal PM Nightmare

Every product team knows this story:

1. Big client threatens to churn
2. Sales gets creative in the "art of the possible"
3. Promises land on your desk as commitments with hard deadlines
4. You scramble to figure out what was actually promised
5. Entire roadmap goes up in flames

The worst part? Sometimes these promises are so vague, you're not even sure what you're supposed to build.

"Advanced workflow automation" could mean:

• Simple if/then rules
• Complex orchestration engine
• AI-powered process optimization
• Zapier integration
• Who knows?

The Traditional Response (Spoiler: It Doesn't Work)

Option 1: The Pushback

• Tell sales they can't promise features
• Get labeled "difficult to work with and not customer-focused"
• Watch sales go around you next time

Option 2: The Scramble

• Drop everything to build it
• Ship half-baked solution that customers may or may not actually need
• Other features suffer
• Tech debt grows
• Nobody's happy

Option 3: The Investigation

• Pivot!
• Spend days figuring out what client actually needs
• Interview stakeholders with conflicting opinions
• Build something that misses the mark
• Client churns anyway

The Pattern I Finally Recognized

After years of these fire drills, I noticed something:

Sales promises features when they don't know how to articulate value.

They hear "we need workflow automation" and panic. Without deep user understanding, they're not equipped to push back, offer alternatives, or get to the root of the problem. So they promise the moon.

The Go-To Question

Now when sales promises something we haven't validated, I don't panic. I ask one question:

"What problem is MegaCorp trying to solve?"

Then I ask our users to describe their experience with the same task.

Real Example: The Workflow Automation Crisis

Here's how I handled the MegaCorp situation:

Step 1: Get Specific About the Problem

Me to Sales: "Can you connect me with the MegaCorp champion? I want to understand their specific workflow challenges."

What I learned: They were manually copying data between three systems. Taking up nearly 2 hours/day.

Step 2: Validate with Our Personas

Me to our Enterprise Persona: "How do you handle data synchronization between multiple systems?"

Rooost Persona: "We've hacked some API integrations to automate make this. What would really help is if you could export to CSV in the exact format our other systems expect. I'd rather have clean exports than fancy automation I don't trust."

Me: "What about automated workflows?"

Persona: "Every time someone promises to 'automate my workflow,' they break something. I'd rather have reliable, simple tools I control."

Step 3: Reframe the Solution

Armed with this insight, I went back to the MegaCorp champion:

Me: "I've been thinking about your workflow challenge. What if instead of complex automation, we gave you perfect export templates for each system? One click, right format, no manual cleanup needed?"

Them: "That would save me 90% of the time. The copying isn't tas much of a problem as the data reformatting."

Result: Built templated exports in 1 sprint. MegaCorp happy. Sales happy. Roadmap intact.

The New Playbook for Sales Promises

When Sales Makes a Promise:

1. Don't Panic

   • Take a breath
   • Thank them for the feedback
   • Avoid the blame game

2. Dig for the Real Problem

   • "Describe the specific challenge the client is facing."
   • "What does success look like for them?"
   • "What works and what doesn't?"

3. Validate with Your Users

   • Identify what users are trying to accomplish in this context
   • Ask additional users or Rooost personas about their current workflow
   • Understand potential usability concerns and workarounds being used

4. Reframe the Solution

   • Often simpler than promised (sometimes as simple as updating instructional copy)
   • Usually different solution than expected
   • Always grounded in user reality vs. assumption

5. Build Sales Confidence

   • Share user insights with sales team
   • Help them speak to real problems
   • Make them heroes with better solutions

Plot Twist: Sales Became My Biggest Ally

Once sales saw how user insights helped them close deals WITHOUT random, risky promises, everything changed:

• They started asking "What do our users say about X?" before client calls
• Promise frequency dropped
• When promises happened, they included problem context and were made collaboratively
• Sales win rate actually increased

My favorite message from sales:

"Client asked about AI features. Remembered what you showed me from user research about automation fears. Repositioned our current features as 'human-controlled intelligence.' They loved it. No new features needed."

The Cultural Shift

This approach created unexpected changes:

Before:

• Sales vs. Product tension
• Feature promises based on panic
• Roadmap chaos
• Trust issues

After:

• Sales armed with user insights
• Promises grounded in real problems
• Roadmap stability
• Happier product team
• Actual partnership

Your Survival Kit

Templates That Save My Sanity:

The Problem Discovery Script: "I'm excited about solving [challenge] for you. To make sure we nail it, can you walk me through your current process?"

The Validation Question Set:

1. Walk me through how you handle [problem] today...
2. Describe what you're trying to accomplish.
3. What's the most frustrating part of the process?
4. If you had a magic wand, what would you do to improve this workflow?
5. What would you NOT want it to do?

The Reframe Template: "Based on what you've shared, it sounds like the core issue is [specific problem]. What if we [simpler solution]? Would that address your need?"

The Bottom Line

Sales promises features because they want to help customers but often don't have the tools or time to dig into real needs.

Give them user insights, and they'll stop making promises you can't keep. They'll start selling solutions that actually exist—and customers actually want.

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Next time sales drops a feature bomb: Don't panic. Get curious. Ask your users. Solve their core problem. Build something even better than what was promised.

The client will thank you. Sales will thank you. Your roadmap will thank you.

And you and your team might actually get to go home on time on Thursday.