The Sales-Allocated Roadmap Budget
by Jason Lemkin • Founder & CEO at SaaStr
Creator of SaaStr, the world's largest community for B2B founders. Previously CEO/Co-founder of EchoSign (acquired by Adobe for $100M+ ARR).
🎙️ Episode Context
Jason Lemkin shares a masterclass on building a B2B sales engine from scratch, debunking common myths about hiring VPs of Sales too early. He details exact frameworks for hiring the first two representatives, structuring early compensation, and managing the tension between product roadmaps and sales requests.
Problem It Solves
Sales teams constantly derailing the product roadmap with 'deal-breaker' feature requests that change weekly.
Framework Overview
A governance structure where Sales is given a fixed percentage of engineering capacity (e.g., 10%) per quarter. This empowers Sales leadership to prioritize their own requests without disrupting the core roadmap.
🧠 Framework Structure
Fixed Allocation: Dedicate a specific...
Sales-Owned Prioritization: The VP of...
Weekly Alignment: Product and Sales l...
Objective Boundaries: If a request ex...
When to Use
When the tension between Product and Sales becomes toxic, or when the roadmap is constantly volatile due to 'urgent' deal requirements.
Common Mistakes
Allowing individual sales reps to lobby individual PMs/Engineers directly, bypassing leadership prioritization.
Real World Example
A Head of Product attending a board meeting saved a deal by understanding a large customer wanted to 'deconstruct' the product (use backend only), something a sales rep wouldn't have the authority to approve.
Give your head of sales a certain budget... and when you do this, things will radically change... because even the best VPs of sales, they change the wind.
— Jason Lemkin