Comments on: The Sharp End of the Stick http://steveblank.com/2009/05/04/the-sharp-end-of-the-stick/ Entrepreneurship and Conservation Mon, 13 Feb 2012 02:39:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Marketing Supports Sales Steve Blank « « Iain’s Chips & Tech http://steveblank.com/2009/05/04/the-sharp-end-of-the-stick/#comment-1763 Wed, 21 Oct 2009 21:40:05 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1634#comment-1763 [...] Marketing Supports Sales » Steve Blank It became clear to me that the mission of marketing in most companies has to be to support sales. … “Sales is the sharp end of the stick, and marketing at best, is the stick.” » Steve Blank The Sharp End of the Stick [...]

]]> By: Michael F. Martin http://steveblank.com/2009/05/04/the-sharp-end-of-the-stick/#comment-432 Fri, 22 May 2009 02:15:46 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1634#comment-432 One of the more useful features of Steve’s point about sales being the sharp end of the stick comes about from considering why it’s true or when it would not apply. The sharp end of the stick is probably always sales in a financed company, which has (or should have) as its goal the maximization of the residual profits for its owners. But many organizations have other goals, and as somebody pointed out above, the sharp-end of the stick may even change over time. Very useful way to think about “Management By Objectives.”

]]> By: steveblank11 http://steveblank.com/2009/05/04/the-sharp-end-of-the-stick/#comment-431 Thu, 21 May 2009 23:57:09 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1634#comment-431 Yes.

]]> By: Tyler Fields http://steveblank.com/2009/05/04/the-sharp-end-of-the-stick/#comment-430 Thu, 21 May 2009 23:52:51 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1634#comment-430 Steve, do you think “the sharp end of the stick” could also be called the “heart of the company”? To identify the sharp end it helps for me to think about which department would kill the company if it stopped beating.

]]> By: Paul Henderson http://steveblank.com/2009/05/04/the-sharp-end-of-the-stick/#comment-320 Fri, 08 May 2009 04:38:15 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1634#comment-320 Spot on. If no one is clearly leading, then no one is following, either. What you get then looks a lot like The Boneless Chicken Ranch…

]]> By: Michael F. Martin http://steveblank.com/2009/05/04/the-sharp-end-of-the-stick/#comment-306 Wed, 06 May 2009 18:20:37 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1634#comment-306 Thanks YA and heykeenan. It’s funny how familar those answers look. At the end of the day, those are the problems that everybody needs to be solving. I like the general notion that the different departments may have a leading role at different times during the life of a company. But sales is certainly the point.

]]> By: Naveen JP http://steveblank.com/2009/05/04/the-sharp-end-of-the-stick/#comment-305 Wed, 06 May 2009 09:09:32 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1634#comment-305 This reminds me that free, fair and equal is logically not possible. Equality would imply a compromise on being free and fair and hence wouldn’t work.

]]> By: heykeenan http://steveblank.com/2009/05/04/the-sharp-end-of-the-stick/#comment-300 Tue, 05 May 2009 13:09:44 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1634#comment-300 Martin –

Sales teams, like customers operate from perceived value. To get a sales team to adopt a new product with a non-existing market you have to sell them.

The sales team will need to see how they can create this “non-existent but potentially much larger market” without a decline in sales, ie: compensation. When you are asking them to change, you are asking them to take risk. You need to mitigate the risk. They will need to understand how it will improve their customers environments. They will need to understand the process; is it a shorter or longer sales process, does the buyer(s) change, who is the competition, how do I position it etc.

When rolling out a new product to a sales team, you are a now the sales person. Identify a few of the more influential, successful members of the sales team. Educate them. Arm them with as much information and support as possible. Make it so they can’t fail. If you can make a few of the most influential sales teams folks successful, the rest will follow.

]]> By: heykeenan http://steveblank.com/2009/05/04/the-sharp-end-of-the-stick/#comment-299 Tue, 05 May 2009 13:01:36 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1634#comment-299 Steve, spot on!!!! Well said. I’ve learned when and a functional group recognizes they are in a support role their goals align with the lead group. They recognize the win comes from the sharp end. Support functions should always have at least one of their key goals align with the lead team.

You can quickly identify organizations who understand this, just look at each teams mission, vision and goals.

Fantastic post!

]]> By: YA http://steveblank.com/2009/05/04/the-sharp-end-of-the-stick/#comment-298 Tue, 05 May 2009 12:31:59 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1634#comment-298 “How do you handle the situation when Sales is happier selling an existing product that has a smaller but already established market than a new product with a non-existent but potentially much larger market?”

And that is exactly what Business Development department is paid for.

Which brings us to BDSM (BusDevSalesMktg) formula.

]]> By: links for 2009-05-04 « Blarney Fellow http://steveblank.com/2009/05/04/the-sharp-end-of-the-stick/#comment-295 Tue, 05 May 2009 00:16:24 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1634#comment-295 [...] The Sharp End of the Stick « Steve Blank (tags: marketing business) [...]

]]> By: Michael F. Martin http://steveblank.com/2009/05/04/the-sharp-end-of-the-stick/#comment-294 Mon, 04 May 2009 23:00:18 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1634#comment-294 Naive question: How do you handle the situation when Sales is happier selling an existing product that has a smaller but already established market than a new product with a non-existent but potentially much larger market?

Your thoughts are much appreciated.

]]> By: alancommike http://steveblank.com/2009/05/04/the-sharp-end-of-the-stick/#comment-291 Mon, 04 May 2009 16:24:44 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1634#comment-291 This is so true, i’ve seen it time and again. The downward death spiral starts when departments begin to stovepipe and they’re there for their own self preservation and not the mission of the company.

Steve, I’ve never seen this written so clearly and succinctly.

…alan

]]> By: Bill Allred http://steveblank.com/2009/05/04/the-sharp-end-of-the-stick/#comment-290 Mon, 04 May 2009 16:24:43 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1634#comment-290 It occurred to me while reading this that another way to look at it is the following: Marketing has an additional ‘customer’, and that’s Sales. Any support department should be able to describe a day in the life of its lead department the same way a customer development team should intimately know a day in the life of the end user.

If a company behaves this way you avoid optimizing a single component at the cost of the entire system.

]]> By: hackrnews hacker http://steveblank.com/2009/05/04/the-sharp-end-of-the-stick/#comment-289 Mon, 04 May 2009 15:29:52 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1634#comment-289 Isn’t google a perfect example of a “going out of business” strategy? Sales and Marketing is the “lipstick on a pig” strategy. Build the best product at the best price and your options are limitless.
btw: “stay agile, stay focused.” -lmao

]]> By: Twitted by sharemefg http://steveblank.com/2009/05/04/the-sharp-end-of-the-stick/#comment-288 Mon, 04 May 2009 14:21:13 +0000 http://steveblank.com/?p=1634#comment-288 [...] This post was Twitted by sharemefg – Real-url.org [...]

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