Been ruminating on a Drucker quote lately. And thinking about how do you REALLY talk to customers.
There will always, one can assume, be need for some selling. But the aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself. Ideally, marketing should result in a customer who is ready to buy. All that should be needed then is to make the product or service available. - via Fouroboros in comment exchange (from his MBA course notes; a condensed version here)
And then I heard an illuminating presentation at lunch from Mark Leslie, Managing Director of Leslie Ventures and former Founding CEO / Chairman of Veritas Software, about the sales learning cycle, which is an enterprise effect and not just about the sales department (encompasses product, marketing and sales). It's most applicable advice for B2B companies - for which this kind of information seems to be lacking. I'll write down more highlights in a day or two (although I won't do it complete justice as there are quite a few quantitative parts that require charts, curves, etc.).
Leslie is on the board of countless start-ups as well as public companies. He took Veritas from a 12-person start-up to a billion dollar powerhouse. (In 2000, Veritas Software was the 10th largest independent software company by revenue and the third largest by market capitalization.) He contends the primary risk in an emerging company is in the go-to-market stage where one is building traction and crossing the 'chasm' (stages: seed, development, go-to-market, market expansion, harvest).
I'm paraphrasing below, but I got the gist down in my notes. Anything in bold is an actual literal quote. He repeated this twice (and it was a fast-moving presentation so there was emphasis here):
Don't race to version 2.0 - which everyone thinks is nirvana. Take the time instead to talk to customers and make sure you're building the right thing. 2.0 won't matter if it's not right. Set in expectations with investors and stakeholders that you are doing some learning.
The salesperson you hire in the earlier stages of the company and later are different.
Until the sales reps are breaking even on their cost (accounting for sales engineering support as well), they are of a different breed - they must be able to help the company "learn", including establishing a dialogue with customers, fleshing the product enhancements and working out the sales model.
I asked him to clarify what he meant by "learning" and 'talking" to customers and whom should be talking and here are the parts I jotted down:
I like to be direct. Be straightforward. We just finished the beta and we'd like to ask you....Just ask your customers for feedback one-on-one without selling. [Who does the talking? Here he hints it's not just sales that has a dialogue and of its strategic importance.] The leadership sets the tone for the company. Leadership is much more than cashing the big check.
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