Recently my company insists that the PM should be strongly engaged in sales activities like writing offers, negotiating with clients, supervising the sales process. Sometimes it happens that the PM leads the process from client request to order.
On the one hand it is good because when the project is starting PM knows what kind of work it will be, and also he develops his skills.
On the other hand, such operations sometimes interfere with actual PM's work, forcing him to do tasks, which in my opinion does not fall within the competence of Project Manager.
I wonder if it's a good direction in PM's work, and how common it is in the IT industry.
So, is it correct / valuable to have the Project Manager also conducting sales activities for the same project? What are the benefits or caveats on this approach?