Three factors influencing the decision to invest heavily in both product and sales/marketing concurrently.

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I was recently speaking with an entrepreneur who wanted to heavily invest in both product and sales/marketing at the same time. Is that a good idea … well it depends!

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What is the overall trajectory and cash position of the business?

Are you growing >10% MOM (month-over-month) or >100% YOY (year-over-year)? Does making investments in both put you on a short cash runway? Fundamentally if things are going well and you want to do more of both that can be time to put more fuel on the fire. But if you are struggling to grow and reach profitability, spending heavily on both at the same time may be difficult.

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Why are you winning/losing customers?

While the product always needs more work and you always want more sales, how do you determine which area to focus? I look to analyze why you are winning/losing deals. Is the product good enough to close deals and retain customers, yet you just need more leads? Or are you getting leads but struggling to close given product deficiencies? Are customers signing up but not retaining due to product or value proposition gaps? Usually one area is doing better/worse than the other and can give you clues where to spend your time.

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What is the team’s bandwidth/focus?

Lastly, a team can be spread very thin diverting focus across multiple areas. With a large enough team this may be easier, but for a smaller team this can be especially distracting. I usually prefer to focus and quickly get one area turned around and then move onto the next one. Trying to split time on both usually takes longer and has more complications.

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If things are going well you may be able to tackle both, but in most circumstances it is likely better to focus efforts on product or sales/marketing, improve that area, and then move on to the next one. There are always things you can tweak in each area, but be wary of heavy investment in both at the same time.