Sales and customer development

Photo by Cody Engel on Unsplash

What's the difference between sales and customer development?

Not a trick question. I've mixed these up in the past and approached a conversation with the wrong intent. More recently, I've had this conversation twice in the last week and a few things struck me that might help others get clarity or even reframe the type of conversation they are having.

- Sales and customer development differ in that sales is more “restricted” by the product on offer, while customer development still allows for changes to the product and features.

- With customer development, a potential customer showing disinterest is actually a really helpful signal for getting closer to finding the correct market (and product), whereas in traditional sales, it might be a signal of a clear "no".

- In customer development, a clear “no" is a really valuable data point! Its also a great place to start a secondary conversation to find out why :)

What else?