Our sales staff's biggest fear was that we would tell the customer the unvarnshed truth about the server's capabilities, or shortcomings. Engineers are trained to, and tend to be naturally inclined to be critical.
Funny thing is, most of the customers in that segment were techies and got that their were issues and nothing was perfect. If something did come out, they mainly wanted to understand what was being done to address it. They seemed most bothered by not being told, not the defect itself.
So the dance may have been counter productive in that it damaged trust.
Bingo.
That's why I've loved having Sales Engineers in the past. You take the sales guy who has huge technical knowledge, or the technical guy who is good with women, and stick them in the in-between role where you can dial them in or take them to the meeting with you. They get comped on the team's quota and can help out with all of the stuff that is over the sales rep's head.
Those guys are worth their weight in gold.