I like the customer development stuff, but that's really totally different. It's not an alternative to sales/marketing (but it is something you should do first

I like the customer development stuff, but that's really totally different. It's not an alternative to sales/marketing (but it is something you should do first, and in an ongoing way). If you do it right, lead gen and sales gets a LOT easier. But it doesn't get so easy that you don't need to do it. Salesforce.com spends 60-70% of their topline on sales/marketing. PG had a salesguy with Viaweb. Sales works, and for any B2B company, you have to do it (unless you're 37signals). At the end of the day, you need to get buyers and only a tiny percentage of buyers is overtly hunting for what you have-- meaning that the vast majority of your buyers are receptive but not seeking you out. Enter, sales. If you have a product that you're selling to businesses this means that someone actually hits the pavement to go fill a sales pipeline (lead gen), works to convert that pipeline to customers (sales), and works to upsell current customers to bigger and better things. This can be one person or several, more specialized people.