Bringing a new product to market is a learning curve for any organisation. The salesforce initially cannot to cover its own costs, let alone carry the remainder of the organisation. However, over time, the organisation learns how to sell, perfects its offering and builds up case-studies of success, becoming more efficient and eventually profitable.

The challenging thing is that the most valuable enterprises are the ones where a totally new product is brought to market. These product owners find it very difficult to differentiate between a great product that is still learning and a product that will never get to profitability.

As the bridge between Sales, Customers and Product owners; Marketing should be the core driver of this learning activity, tracking the progress and efficiency of the salesforce so a realistic projection of costs before profitability can be put forward.