Reality check: are you a marketing organization with a product? Or are you a professional product developer?

I received a request from a prospective client: ‘we want to do some market research.’ After a little bit of probing, I found out the organization had:

• been in business for > 5 years
• several rounds of investment
• > 50 people on staff
• several product sku’s, two generations of product
• major distribution partners in retail
• a very large product development team
• no sales or marketing team
• no idea what their sales were

This organization would definitely fit into the “Product Development” category. The biggest tell is they had zero dedicated sales and marketing staff.

My top three recommendations:
1. start weekly reporting on the sales numbers by channel partner to see who is selling through and who needs more channel support
2. hire a retail sales channel specialist to get feedback from the channel and manage the marketing through each retailer
3. get an inventory report to see how much 1st generation product needs to liquidated (raises cash and clears space for the current iteration)

In addition, I had some grassroots tactics for Public Relations and Social Media that I shared with them.

If you are a Product Development organization that needs to grow Sales and Marketing, I am always available for a discussion.