Sales-based vs. Marketing-based businesses?

Philipp Shay
11 replies
If you prioritise sales over marketing, you run the risk of establishing a connection between the sales team and the customer but not between the product and the customer. Often the sales team closely interacts with the customer's team, forming strong bonds between them. A business owner needs to establish a connection between the product and the customer. Over time this proves to be a more beneficial strategy.

Replies

Ruslan Kurman
It seems to me that there are advantages to each approach. The choice of strategy depends on the initial configuration of the product, and the team, and if you look at the overall strategy I am closer to the marketing-based approach because this channel is more understandable and can be scaled.
Philipp Shay
@ruslan_u Losing your fantastic team that your customer is connected to is riskier and easier than losing the connection between your product and the customer. Am I correct?
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Philipp Shay
@olenabomko Thanks for reply! it is more about building connection between your product and your customers.
Liam Roberts
Ah, the age-old debate. Sales-focused businesses typically have high-touch, complex products that need a sales team to close deals (think B2B SaaS, enterprise solutions). Marketing-led companies usually have a product that's easier to understand and can be sold through advertising or content (like D2C brands, mobile apps). Both have their merits. Sales can offer customization and strong client relationships. Marketing scales easier and can hit a wide audience fast.
Philipp Shay
@roberts24liam what do you prefer? That’s the question
Charis Sfyrakis
I think what you are describing is Product Led Vs Sales Led Growth..
Daniel Zaitzow
@charis_algomo 100% right - I think its a resource allocation question at the end of the day. How is your team structured - are you dev heavy - are you ops heavy - is it a self serve model or are you looking for big fish doing UPD for enterprise level clients. Theres no right or wrong direction - just depends on the org goals.