Sales and innovation both aim to enable the making of better progress, both leverage the same progress levers, both feed each other. It’s time to bring innovation closer to you day-day operations.
What we’re thinking
In the Progress Economy, the traditional distance between sales and innovation makes little sense as both are about enabling better progress.
- Sales is convincing a Seeker your proposition best enables them to make progress (closest aligned to progress origin and progress sought, with lowest progress hurdles and quickest value recognition)
- Innovation is the act of creating propositions that best enable a Seeker to make progress (through some combination of aligning closer to progress origin and progress sought, lowering one or more of the six progress hurdles and improving value recognition frequency)
The similarity is more than coincidence. Both are powered by the same progress levers and support each other. Innovation should make the sales process easier, and the sales process may result in local innovation (which can then be replicated in the general proposition)
Sales and Innovation
Traditionally, sales and innovation sit in different worlds.
Sales is part of the day-to-day business engine – meeting targets, managing accounts, closing deals. Innovation is often separated out, handled by a dedicated team or tucked away in an R&D lab. Outside of a few industries, like pharma, the two rarely meet in a meaningful way.
In the Progress Economy, that separation makes little sense. Both are, at their core, about enabling better progress.
- Sales is the act of convincing a Seeker that a particular proposition’s progress origin and progress offered align most closely with their own progress origin and progress sought, that the six progress hurdles are lowest and that value can be recognised the fastest
- Innovation is the act of creating or evolving propositions with some combination of improving the alignment of progress origin and progress offered and a Seeker’s progress origin and progress sought, reducing one or more of the six progress hurdles, and increasing the frequency or likelihood of value recognition.
The similarity is more than coincidence, they are powered by the same progress levers and support each other. Innovation should make the sales process easier, and the sales process may result in local innovation (which can then be replicated in the general proposition)
Let’s progress together through discussion…