WORDS HEARD AND OUR TAKE   Title:   Ten Marketing Myths          & Building, Managing and Motivating a Successful Technology Sales Team   What:   Venture Creation Group of The Ottawa Network   Where:   St. Anthony's Parish Hall   Event Held On:   May 30, 2006 & May 21, 2006 respectively   Who:   Darryl Praill, Allen Zander, Verna Bartlett          & Edwin Morton   Quotes To Note:   "Being customer driven is not good." Praill "If you don't trust them, you've got the wrong one." Morton   What Was Said:   Praill, Zander and Bartlett, took turns exposing their top ten marketing myths, including: you can't measure marketing; being customer driven is the same as being market driven; and the technology is the most important part. Each myth was presented and refuted. For example, if you are customer driven but the customer is at the fringe of the market you have a market size of one! Marketing permits a firm to make its business decisions about customer needs from the perspective of how representative a customer's need is of the market being pursued. The slides are available from VCG or at www.darrylpraill.com Morton started his presentation by showing cartoon stereotypes of sales people: superhero on skates; flusher of products out of the company; order taker; frontline warrior; and team member. He proceeded to cover a range of topics from the selling environment, through management of the team, to the "Magic' formula. There isn't one. In place of magic Morton advised: hire with diligence; respect sales people as professionals; map the process; make sure the funnel is filled, squeezed down and emptied regularly; and, it takes time. His slides are available at the VCG website.   Our Take:   All four presenters were in accord that marketing sets the stage for sales. The sequence of the presentations, sales before marketing, was, ironically, the one most firms follow. In the words of Sun Tzu, this amounts to "Tactics without strategy… the noise before defeat.", as Praill pointed out. The title of a book by Ajay Sirsi, Marketing Led Sales Driven, perfectly captures the approved sequence perfectly. Sirsi conveys the logic underlying Praill's insight that being customer driven is tactical not strategic. Marketing led firms first classify their potential or existing customers, for example by their industry group. Then they divide or segment each such group based upon its differential needs and their value to the suppliers business. Making the choice to pursue the most profitable is strategic. The book also confirmed Praill's points that marketing is the function concerned with the business as a whole, and that marketing is directly linked with profit generation. Sirsi also provides a practical way to synchronize the work of marketing and sales. For each segment of customers needs, articulate the value proposition the business can offer to each segment. Use this as the hand-off to sales for tailoring to individual customers. Such a hand in glove fit between marketing and sales eliminates a key barrier to sustained profitable growth, sales for sales sake. Morton emphasized the need to trust sales people for them to be effective. The ability to trust requires that the firm have a solid basis for extending it. A clearly defined value proposition flowing from market to individual customer is an essential component. A marketing led sales driven firm is focused on securing a growing positive cash flow, the easy way, deliberately selling to high value customers at high margins. Put another way marketing led sales driven firms are focused on attainment of every business' fundamental objective, creation of wealth. For founders, being marketing led and sales driven has a delightful consequence - they retain more of the wealth created. They can use retained earnings not other peoples' money to finance their growth and keep control. It is the profits that make entrepreneurs into prophets.   708-350 Sparks Street, Ottawa, ON K1R 7S8, t: (613) 563 4588, f: (613) 563 4689, ourtake@acornpartners.com, www.acornpartners.com If you wish to unsubscribe, reply to this email with "unsubscribe" in the subject.