Why are you in business? Is it for the fun of it, or are you hungry for profits?

That might look like a dumb question, but it’s worth considering if you are working hard in an activity you like but where the return for your effort doesn’t satisfy you.

My dad ran an engineering company for 28 years. When talking about it he would often say that his products had ‘great potential’. But the years went by and that potential remained elusive. The sales stayed flat until he finally sold up. But the new owner had a different approach and made far more money building on the platform of what my father had begun.

How come one succeeded in making good profits and the other didn’t? The answer lies in understanding the difference between a ‘Product-led’ and a ‘Sales-led’ approach.

Product-led describes a situation where people make their main focus the development of a technically superior item – higher performance, longer-lasting, easier to use etc. They may be so occupied with this quest that they largely ignore the sales dimension.

Sales-led organisations ask themselves different questions – ‘How many customer contacts did we make this week?’, ‘What are we doing to find more of them?’, ‘Do our existing clients have additional requirements that we can help them with?’.

It's unwise to neglect either factor, a strong business balances both. How does yours measure up?

You will find a source of specialised sales hints for ‘techie’ companies in the ‘Selling for Engineers’ manual at the link below.