Sales Validation Teams vs. Account Managers
Sales validation teams and account managers perform fundamentally different functions within a company. Understanding the importance of both roles is crucial to successfully launching new products.
The Misconception
There's a common belief that once an innovation team validates a value proposition, the account managers must "sell" this to existing customers. However, in my opinion, they have a completely different role.
Role of Account Managers:
- 1 Role of Account Managers:
- Customer Relationships: Account managers are vital for maintaining relationships with existing customers.
- Feedback: They provide incremental feedback that is essential for continuous improvement of the relationship (often involving tailor-made adjustments for one customer).
Role of Sales Validation Teams:
- 2 Role of Sales Validation Teams:
- Market Introduction: Their primary role is to figure out how to effectively introduce a completely new product into a new market.
- Process Development: They develop a process that is both repeatable and teachable.
- Strategic Feedback: During this process, they collect detailed feedback crucial for fine-tuning product features, optimizing the business model, and making strategic pivots to ultimately scale your sales efforts.
Different Stages:
Sales validation is focused on a different stage of your product lifecycle that demands a unique combination of mindset, skills, and character.
When introducing a new product to the market, you can't copy what worked for your other products. It would be best if you had a differently skilled team to be successful.
Don't create unicorns,
Let's breed blue whales.
🐋
