In many product organisations, there is an unspoken belief that product managers should stay above the fray of selling. Discovery, strategy, and roadmapping are the noble pursuits. Sales is something other people do. Roeland Delrue thinks this separation is not just wrong. He thinks it is actively harmful to the product.
At PR_D_CT DAY 2025 in Ghent, Roeland brought the perspective of Aikido Security, a fast-growing Belgian cybersecurity startup, to challenge the audience's assumptions about where product management ends and sales begins. His argument: in a B2B startup, the product manager who refuses to sell is the product manager who builds in a vacuum.
The talk was provocative by design. For an audience of product professionals who take pride in their craft, the suggestion that they should also be selling was met with both discomfort and recognition. Many had experienced the consequences of the product-sales divide firsthand.
Original Presentation Slides
Download the slides from this talk as presented at the gathering.
