[ahipple]

    "Nothing gets sold until something gets built"

I suspect I'm not alone in saying this, but having started my "tech" career in marketing/eCommerce agencies, I have _definitely_ worked in organizations where the sales team would sell absolutely anything they could get somebody to agree to buy -- fully ignorant of whether it had been (or even COULD be) built.

[jqpabc123]

sell absolutely anything they could get somebody to agree to buy

Yes. In my humble opinion, selling a non-existent product is really just a scam --- being perpetrated against the customer as well as the producer/seller in some cases. The sale isn't complete until the product is delivered.

But the salespeople don't care --- and apparently, neither do the execs who reward them with bonuses for their fake sales numbers. If the non-existent product doesn't materialize on schedule, it's obviously not the sales person's fault.

Just further illustrates the inherent bias that I mentioned.

[kalupa]

oh dear, I thought that was common only in my own marketing-in-tech career! My solution was to move away from the agency and to the agency's vendors, instead. Worked so far, a decade on!

[Ostrogoth]

I work on sales/customer facing side of a non-tech industry, but my experience has been different than root comment. My industry is engineer/finance driven, with sales as more of an afterthought or necessary evil. I try to stay tied in with the development/production side as much as possible for sales, but the mismanagement and culture rot on the development/production side has me looking for a new job as it spreads through the company. It’s tough seeing top performers leave/forced out and petty politics and mismanagement take over. It makes my job much harder. The rot has eventually trickled down to other departments, so I think it’s time to make an exit.

[mrbadguy]

Yep, been there. It’s an absolute nightmare.