The most overlooked move that instantly builds stakeholder trust.
Photo by Mathew Schwartz on Unsplash
The biggest unlock at my latest assignment was not a new shiny framework or an AI-powered tool. It's something far more basic. And it changed how my team, marketing, and stakeholders saw me in just a few weeks.
The secret, that is not very secret, is to tag along to a customer meeting with Sales or Customer Service (CS).
You have probably heard about it a gazillion times by now. I understand that it can be a challenge to book customer meetings if you don't have access to customers. So you might retort, "So what do you do then!?"
That's the beauty of tagging along. You don't need direct access to customers yourself. Sales and CS already talk to them every week. All you have to do is ask to join.
And since doing that is not a major process change, it also doesn’t require you to convince half the company to start. You simply need to do two things:
Ask a few questions to Sales and CS. (Bonus if you can talk to Marketing as well)
Tag along the next time Sales or CS meet a customer.
The questions to ask
When we, our company, talk about the benefits of our product, how well does it match with how customers describe our product or their usage? (The core here is trying to understand if we have data and knowledge of how our customers describe or use our product.)
What's the 'aha moment' when customers realise the product solves their problem? For example when customers tried the product or when we demo it for the customers, what convinced them that it would solve their problem.
What makes customers hesitate to buy or use the product more?
The questions are designed to map out and give me an idea of what we already know about our customers’ problems. The better we know about the customers’ reality the easier it is for us to design desirable solutions in the form of our product.
And it’s ok if we don’t have answers at this stage when we chat with Sales, CS and possibly Marketing about them. To know what we don’t know is also very important.
Why tagging along works
Tagging along to Customer meetings doesn’t take much of our time. I usually join a call every other week for an hour, but the payoff is still impressive. You don’t run the meeting. You don't need to prepare a deck. You just listen, learn, and occasionally ask a thoughtful question.
In most cases, Sales and CS are thrilled to have a PM join. They see it as a sign you care. And if one person says no? Ask another. Don't give up 😉
The effects you can expect
The benefits go way beyond understanding customers better. I saw a bunch of secondary effects happen almost immediately:
Sharper strategy: Understanding why people buy our product (thus understanding core vs secondary jobs to be done) leads to better prioritisation.
Better PRDs: More grounded in customer reality.
Stakeholder trust increased: I gained trust when they saw that I speak the language of our customers, and conversations about roadmaps matured into honest discussions, not battles. I was even seen as a product expert after just 3 months at the company.
Marketing engagement increased: They ❤️'d us because they finally had real stories, not guesses. I noticed an uptick in interest in what the team delivered, and even small features were spotlighted by the marketing team, which had previously gone unnoticed.
Team pride improved: The team started to feel proud 👑 of the things we delivered. They saw how their work solved real problems and got more attention from customers and internal stakeholders.
In the end, it didn't just make my job as a PM easier. I felt that I had a positive impact on our product culture, which is even more exciting for me. With one small thing, you can actually create so much impact. That's very magical to me 🙂✨
So, next time someone asks if you have time to join a customer meeting. Make the time!
Say: Yes, I do! ♥️
Nhan Ngo
Do you have any questions? Contact Nhan.
