Failure to Launch: 5 Reasons Product Launches Fizzle

Today we have a guest blog from Elizabeth Andreini:

Are you one of the many companies that have recently released new or enhanced products or services or are preparing to launch new offerings later this year? Recently, I was talking to a company getting ready to release several new products this fall using a product launch plan (their first ever!), I thought it might be timely to highlight five common reasons product launches fail and how to avoid that fate. Hopefully you won’t fall prey to any of these!

5 Reasons Product Launches Fail and Products Don’t Sell

1.    “It’s a Can’t Miss ‘Cutting Edge’ Product/Service!”
Sometimes a great idea (based on anecdotes from a key sales person or executive) gets turned into a product offering before the company identifies a market that really needs or wants it – and finds out after the fact there is little interest and no real market. Another issue may be that the product offering is not a high need or want product. It could be a “nice to have” offering that there is no urgency to buy. Prospects can use substitutes or “do nothing” as an easy alternative. Make sure there is a clearly identified market and prospects have a reason to buy (and buy now). Define the “complete” product offering – including services needed – before you release to the marketplace.

2.    “We Have to Release on Time!”
We all work to deadlines. Sometimes as a deadline gets closer we realize that a product or service offering isn’t ready. At the last minute shortcuts get made and things get cut – or moved into “Phase 2.” Getting to market on time is only critical if key features or capabilities are ready, otherwise prospects won’t be interested. Alternatively a company may make the target launch date but the product offering is not completely ready (and is released anyway). The company likely knows the offering isn’t market ready and isn’t fully committed to its success. Quality issues slow purchase and will result in even more problems including longer term damage to the company’s reputation. Be precise in defining what has to be in a product or service and clarify what key benefits/capabilities have to be ready – and if it isn’t ready don’t launch it. Validate the final offering against the initial requirements, communicating early on if there are any discrepancies.

3.    “Ta Da!”
The product is done and “released.” Or at least it is available for sale, but no one is ready. The company works in silos and manufacturing, sales and customer service are not in sync. Employees within the company are not trained and ready to sell and support the product. The market, and competitors, figure that out fast. Put together a cross-disciplinary launch team and ensure that all parts of the company are “Go!” before launching. Every part of the company needs to be fully trained and ready to support the product when it launches.

4.    “I Didn’t Know You Had…”
Have you ever heard a customer say, “Oh, I didn’t know you had [blank].” If you don’t effectively and repeatedly communicate to the market and prospects - as well as current customers - they may not even realize you have a new product offering until after their budget is spent. They can’t buy what they don’t know about. Have a marketing plan in pace that covers communication to all key audiences internally and externally. Communicate to all audiences that a product is coming, again when it is released and finally again after the launch.

5.    “It’s Complicated.”
Got sales training? The company gives the sales team information on the new product it is launching, but the product doesn’t get sold. What happened? Maybe the sales team doesn’t have enough information or the product offering seems too complicated which could result in lots of questions that a sales person doesn’t have the answers to. Maybe the sales person doesn’t fully understand the information provided during training. A sales person might not admit that they wouldn’t sell a product because of all the questions prospects ask, which could slow down the sale of other products. Make sure the sales team is fully ready and practiced. Quota and track sales of the new product to catch sales problems early.

Consider these questions to help make sure your product launch is successful:

1. When new products are being considered, are clearly defined market needs documented, target audiences defined and a competitive analysis conducted? Are feature and benefit priorities clearly understood so the company can make accurate decisions on when the product offering is really ready to launch?
2.  Do you have the value proposition & market offering defined so that you know you are offering a “complete product” that resonates with prospects’ needs and wants?
3. Does your company have a coordinated rollout process across departments so that when a product or service offering launches all groups are ready and fully trained to sell and support it?
4. Has a communication plan been created that provides information on the new product, its benefits and pricing, to internal stakeholders as well as external audiences, including prospects in the target market as well as customers?

ELIZABETH ANDREINI

As the President of Accelerate Marketing, LLC, Elizabeth Andreini, is the "secret weapon" CEOs turn to at key growth points when they need to transform marketing and product management to grow their customer base, increase revenue & scale their business.  In addition to providing experienced executive insight and guidance, Elizabeth often works as an interim CMO or VP to provide the hands-on leadership needed tore architect marketing and product management and improve execution from the inside.  

Elizabeth Andreini, founder & president of Accelerate Marketing, LLC Accelerate Marketing, LLC
206-769-3420 or elizabeth@accelerate-marketing.com
www.accelerate-marketing.com
Twitter: @acceler8mkting
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethandreini

The One Critical Question about Marketing Every CEO Should be Asking

Today we have a guest blog from Elizabeth Andreini:

You were probably one of the millions who watched the recent Seahawks Super bowl victory and accompanying ads. What you may not have realized is that a 30-second spot at the 2014 Super bowl costs approximately $4 million, and that’s only airtime, not the cost of creating the ad. Hearing that fact is when most people make snide comments or an uncomplimentary sound about wasting money on marketing. And although I’m a marketer, I agree.

Hopefully you don’t think that is what smart marketing is, spending beaucoup bucks with little chance of a significant revenue impact. That’s like thinking of marketing as a method of transportation and thinking you have to choose between a $100,000+ Tesla car and walking. If you are walking you probably aren’t going to get very far very fast, and at the same time there are a lot of other viable transportation options before you shell out $100,000+ on a fancy  electric car.

Some businesses don’t think that they do marketing or need to do marketing. They expect sales to promote their products (and assume that they are all saying the same thing) or believe their products and services “speak” for themselves. To those CEOs I say look honestly at your sales efforts and ask the question: “How am I getting word out about my company and its services when a sales rep isn’t in the room?” If you don’t have mindshare when your sales rep is outside the room then you are in trouble, maybe not today but tomorrow, or in the next economic downturn.

Marketing isn’t as useless as most Super bowl ads; it serves a purpose by building awareness and knowledge, even preference of your products and services – without having a one on one conversation. It also helps keep you top of mind for potential customers and referrers. Marketing helps create a consistent story about the benefits of your product and services that everyone hears. For those who don’t believe in “marketing” or are uncomfortable with “marketing” then let’s call it what it really is “relationship building.” (Hint: sponsoring events is marketing.)

Marketing helps you remind referral partners and customers that you offer great products and services, tell them about new offerings and help build and maintain strong relationships – and who doesn’t want that?!

Here are some questions to think about:

1. How strong a market presence does my company have when a member of the sales team isn’t in the room?
2. If I look at my company’s sales pipeline, am I relying too heavily on a few referral sources or passive responses to requests for proposals?
3. How many unsolicited inbound leads are coming to our company?
4. How is my company continuing to stay in front of past customers to keep mind share and encourage repeat business or referrals?
5. How effective is my company at rapidly communicating new and special offers to the market? 

ELIZABETH ANDREINI

As the President of Accelerate Marketing, LLC, Elizabeth Andreini, is the “secret

weapon” CEOs turn to at key growth points when they need to transform marketing and

product management to grow their customer base, increase revenue & scale their

business. In addition to providing experienced executive insight and guidance, Elizabeth

often works as an interim CMO or VP to provide the hands-on leadership needed to

rearchitect marketing and product management and improve execution from the inside.

Elizabeth Andreini, founder & president of Accelerate Marketing, LLC 

206-769-3420 or elizabeth@accelerate-marketing.com

www.accelerate-marketing.com

Twitter: @acceler8mkting

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethandreini

Curiosity is Key to Innovation

Today we have a guest blog from Earl Bell:

To win in the game of business, begin by asking the right questions while replacing fear of the unknown with curiosity and a desire to innovate.  The value of an insatiable intellectual curiosity is immeasurable if you want to stay ahead of competitors.  

To get you started on creating game-changing activity at work, begin by asking questions like these during the annual strategic planning and budgeting process:

• What changes can be made to increase the value provided to customers?  What investments in people, process or equipment are required to achieve this goal?
• What is currently being done that needs to stop?  Why not stop immediately?
• Applying the 80/20 rule, which 20% of customers, products, or services produce 80% of profits?   Why not sell more of the profitable stuff and less of the non-profitable stuff? 
• What strategic investments in training, coaching or consulting will be made next year to increase leadership and management capacity, employee retention, or product/service innovation?
• What can be done to increase effective two-way communication so that employees are more aligned with mission and vision while leaders are quickly made aware of problems that can stop a company in its tracks?
• What is the “pink elephant” in the room that no one wants to talk about?  What is the cost of doing nothing about it?

Key principles to remember are that: (1) there is huge value in asking the right questions, (2) not asking the right questions is akin to business negligence and (3) knowing what to focus on greatly increases probability of success.

By the way, listed above is only a partial compilation of what I believe are essential questions that must be asked each year.  What else would you recommend be included on this list?  Will you commit to ensuring that your leaders, managers and other employees will be given opportunity to ask the right questions during the annual strategic planning and budgeting process?  If not, what’s holding you back?

EARL BELL

EARL BELL is the author of, Winning in Baseball and Business, Transforming Little League Principles into Major League Profits for Your Company, which provides a roadmap to success for leaders that desire to build thriving companies in a very competitive 21^stcentury business environment.  Earl believes that “everything you need to know about business, leadership and team building can be learned from Little League baseball.”

Earl conducts workshops, coaches and consults with owners, business leaders and their teams, teaching them how to dramatically reduce the time it takes to improve profitability, customer experience, employee engagement and company value, while simultaneously increasing discretionary time and reducing both stress/employee burnout.  He believes the secret to winning in baseball, business and life can be summarized in a simple formula:  Winning = Service + Humility. His motto is that Winning in Business is a Team Sport!

Earl has served in the Chief Financial Officer role for numerous companies throughout North America. His personal passion is youth sports and he has coached 28 teams since 2002.  Earl is a CPA, graduated from SU (Seattle University) with a BA in Accounting and from the MILL (Mercer Island Little League) with a Master’s in Youth Baseball.

Earl Bell can be reached at  earl@earlbell.com and 206-420-5946

The Blind Spot

Today we have a guest blog from Dave Weedin:

Many of the newer cars out on the market today have blind spot detectors. These are preventative devices that help keep you as a driver more aware and prepared for your surroundings.  The problem is that just because you check your blind spots every once and a while, doesn't meet some unexpected danger won’t come out of nowhere. You are still required to be a masterful driver with keen senses and lacking distractions.

Your business has blind spots and all too often CEOs and CFOs think that their “blind spot detectors” are adequate to catch most all crises. On top of that, they believe they are really good “drivers” and can get out of any situation through cunning, experience, and a can-do attitude.

While this may be mostly true, getting out of that crisis situation is best done when thoroughly ready and prepared. The end results are hundreds of thousands of dollars saved of revenue, time, lost opportunity, productivity, and employee moral. This month is National Preparedness Month, which is a great reminder for assessing your current situation to determine if you’re as resilient as you think you are.

Here is my 5-step process that you can quickly implement:

1.  Allocate time to strategize and identify potential perils and hazards that could stop your business dead in its tracks; severely impede its operations; or damage your reputation.
2. Determine your tolerance for risk and triage the perils that have the highest frequency and severity concerns.
3.  Set up both preventive and contingent activities. Example for a fire: Contingent is a sprinkler system. Preventive is a visit from the fire marshal. Most business owners are light on preventive.
4.  Buy insurance and make sure it is programmed correctly. The key is a strong and knowledgeable broker or agent. Insurance should never be a price issue.
5. Monitor your plan with regular audits and planned practices (e.g. fire and evacuation drills).

Bottom line – the biggest enemies of readiness and preparedness are apathy (“That’s why I buy insurance”), complacency (“It’s never happened to me yet”), and arrogance (“I can deal with anything that happens”). If you’re not taking the time to commit to a sound prevention plan, then you are suffering from one of these maladies. But if you dedicate your time, resources, and finances to investing in crisis planning, you will end up saving yourself hundreds of thousands of dollars that never had to be used because the crisis never occurred.

Dan Weedin:

Dan Weedin helps turn his clients business risk into rewards. He is able to take the abstract concepts of risk and crisis management to help business owners prepare and respond more effectively and with less time and cost to crisis. Since he doesn’t work for an insurance company or agency, he is able to act as an unbiased advocate for his clients. You can lear ore about Dan and how he can help your business on his web site at www.DanWeedin.com.

What is YOUR Exit Goal and Process for Creating Value?

Today we have a guest blog from Earl Bell:

Being a business owner/CEO can be addictive and imagining what life will be like when you no longer “run the show” may seem like a distant blur.  However, this is EXACTLY what I’d like to suggest you take a moment and do right now!

Are the majority of your assets are tied up in the company?  If so – a sell transaction will substantially fund your retirement.  Do you know “how much money is needed” to provide financial peace of mind?  Do you know what the company is worth today?  What is the gap – in other words – how much additional value must be created before selling the business to achieve your financial goals? 

Get started by assembling the right leadership team before developing a “process for creating value.”  Great leaders know how to coach employees and inspire them to greatness in support of a company’s mission!  Conversely, ineffective leadership and guidance is like having a rudderless ship…  

So… on to the good stuff - what does a process for creating value look like? 

Well, that’s way too complicated to cover in a blog post, but let me give you a simplified model:

1.    Identify the value gap (for example – let’s pretend you want $5 million more enterprise value or $1.25 million in annual operating earnings.)

2.    Quantify what risk you are willing to take – (such as - expanding geographic territory is OK but acquiring a competitor is not OK.)

3.    Identify what creates value - automate decision making in support of this.  Think “offense” in this area – like building stronger relationships with key customers.

4.    Identify what destroys value – build process to eliminate bad decision making.  Think “defense and risk management” – such as using scientifically proven methods to make the right hires for your organization.

5.    Monitor, measure and reward progress – lead and inspire others – align rewards with achievement.

The point I want to make it this… “defining an exit goal and value creation process improves odds for achieving financial peace of mind.”  I’d suggest action sooner rather than later – the stakes are high!

ABOUT EARL BELL

EARL BELL is the author of, Winning in Baseball and Business, Transforming Little League Principles into Major League Profits for Your Company, which provides a roadmap to success for leaders that desire to build thriving companies in a very competitive 21^stcentury business environment.  Earl believes that “everything you need to know about business, leadership and team building can be learned from Little League baseball.”

Earl coaches and consults with owners, business leaders and their teams, teaching them how to dramatically reduce the time it takes to improve profitability, customer experience, employee engagement and company value, while simultaneously increasing discretionary time and reducing both stress/employee burnout.  He believes the secret to winning in baseball, business and life can be summarized in a simple formula:  Winning = Service + Humility. His motto is that Winning in Business is a Team Sport!

Earl has served in the Chief Financial Officer role for numerous companies throughout North America. His personal passion is youth sports and he has coached 28 teams since 2002.  Earl is a CPA, graduated from SU (Seattle University) with a BA in Accounting and from the MILL (Mercer Island Little League) with a Master’s in Youth Baseball.