Posts Tagged ‘sales’

What Sells a Product: Marketing or Functionality?

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

In both my day job and with KikScore, there is a raging debate…what really drives consumers to buy your product or service?  If you talk with the product team, it’s the features and capabilities of your product.  Customers are stunned by the available features of your product and must have it.  The sheer elegance of this service makes your product a customer priority.

On the other hand, the sales team is convinced it can sell “ice to an Eskimo”…that regardless of the product, through persuasiveness, a salesperson can convince a shopper to become a customer.   Don’t even get me started on the branding team…they literally believe that the choice of font will dictate the annual revenues.  They may be right, but it’s only for really cool fonts.

Who’s right?  This is an important question, as it really dictates how resources are allocated.  For KikScore, we’ve been working hard on product features and new services.  Sounds like a good idea, but that means we are not applying time and money towards marketing and sales/creating new channel relationships. 

There really is no way to find out the right balance.  Successful products magically seem to have great features, slick marketing and a very solid sales team.  Is it a chicken and egg scenario?  Or do all of these need to exist before your product takes off?

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Posts Tagged ‘sales’

What's the Final Verdict for 2009 Holiday Onlines Sales? You May Have Sold More, But Did you Make More This Year.

Monday, January 4th, 2010

By all accounts, the 2009 holiday sales numbers seem pretty strong.  In a recent post, TechCrunch highlighted that the recent comScore assessment of online sales this year.  It touted that the revenue was up,  compared to the 2008 holiday season, 5%.  As we have alluded to in earlier posts, it not necessarily an indication of overall health of the economy, as that growth is likely coming at the expense of Bricks and Mortar shopping.  In addition to a growing acceptance of eCommerce versus fighting the crowds at the mall, 2009 included another wildcard that likely built up the number — the massive snow storm that plagued the East Coast for most of the holiday season. 

No one is going to argue that 5% growth isn’t great — most companies, in this economic environment, would love to have that type of growth.  But a valuable lesson that I learned in business school — it’s pretty complicated concept — the bottom line is a better indicator of business health than the top line.  So, though revenue may be up, what’s the profitability look like for the 2009 holiday shopping season?  Were shoppers buying low margin items with that cost a lot to resell?  It seems that may be the case.  According to comScore, this holiday shopping season saw a lot of high price ticket items (with not a lot of room for mark-up) that were the big sellers this year.  In fact, consumer electronics saw a 20% increase in sales this year, with jewelry and watches also as strong items.

So the question I pose to all online sellers is this — did your profitability rise at the same rate as your revenue this season?

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