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neotherbusiness is a business blog where you can share views and opinions about business news and developments in Newcastle and the North-East.

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James Mills is a web developer in the North East of England and founder of Refresh Teesside »

Mike Hughes is the Head of Business for the Evening Gazette. He will be blogging on all matters of importance to Teesside businesses - and some that are just worth knowing »

Jez Davison, business writer at the Evening Gazette, is a regular blogger on all things business - particularly finance, entrepreneurship and the state of the Teesside economy »

Karen McLauchlan is the Evening Gazette's deputy business and features editor - with special interest in all things industry, property and arts related »

Jeremy Middleton is a venture capitalist and the co-founder of FTSE-200 company HomeServe »

Deloitte, which has 23 offices across the UK including Newcastle, is among the country's leading professional services firms »

ClimateNE & Climate Change Schools Project support the move to a low-carbon, resilient economy and help businesses avoid risk and realise commercial opportunities. Posts by Jen Atkinson, Krista McKinzey and Harriet Thew »

July 2011 Archives

What does a business need more - innovators or sales people?

Posted by Jeremy Middleton on July 20, 2011 11:59 AM

This conundrum came to the fore in the recent series of The Apprentice where inventor Tom Pellereau beat consummate sales people to seize the prize of a £250,000 investment from Lord Sugar.

However, the answer actually is that businesses need a combination of the two.

Companies that rest on their past successes and fail to innovate and develop new products or services will stagnate and die as more dynamic competitors steal a lead.

Equally, you can have the best product in the world, but if you do not have a team with the ability to sell its qualities to potential customers then it will be doomed to fail.

Analyse most successful businesses and you will find that they employ a range of talented people in different disciplines to enable a new product or service to evolve from an idea to reality.

Inventors cannot work in isolation; they need to collaborate with smart sales professionals, astute financial advisers, experienced investors, and knowledgeable legal experts.