“If I don’t sell $2500 worth of products every 15 minutes I don’t make quota. Your product is not easy to sell.” These words came from an SMB partner channel rep.

Early in my PM career, the Head of Sales and I visited one of our top partners. We spent the day with their leadership, discussing ways to increase our sell-through business which had flat-lined, sharing our product roadmap, the new features we were excited about, etc.

Then we sat down with two frontline reps. And the brutal truth came out.

Our product was failing because it was too hard to sell. Not because it lacked features. More gut punches followed:

“You have 80+ SKUs, confusing add-ons, license keys that require activation. Your competitors have less than 10 SKUs that reps can quote in seconds.”

Here I was feeling great that we had a product direction that would move the needle. The reps made it painfully clear that none of it would matter.

The Head of Sales and I came back with a lot of clarity. We talked with other partners. We revamped pricing from 80+ SKUs down to 12 (the product family was hardware appliances), aligned engineering to kill license keys and simplify activation.

Two quarters later, sell-through doubled. Not because the product changed. But because the product became easier to sell.

The key lesson I learnt: Adding more features is not the only answer.

One thing you can do this week:

Sit with a front line rep, channel, SDR, AE, and ask:

“Where does the product slow you down?”

Don’t defend. Don’t explain. Just listen.

Making your product better is good. Making it easier to sell is how it moves in the field.

Dear PM: Keep going. What you do matters. Make it matter more by mastering GTM.