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The Second B2B Product Launch Process Step

February 5, 2016 //
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In our first B2B product launch process step, I recommended you get the fundamental information together and check your facts. Once done, you’re ready for the second step.

This step is to have your kick-off meeting or call. If you’re well organised, it shouldn’t matter if you can’t get people to a physical meeting. A call should be fine.

In this call you need all the major players – or else their delegated representatives – in the product launch to be present. This is where you set your ground rules, make sure expectations are aligned and roles and responsibilities understood. The kick-off is a great opportunity for all those who don’t know each other to get acquainted and understand how their own contribution will butt up to or overlap with the contributions of others.

On this call it’s a good idea for people to share their expectations and their requirements for the project so that everyone is aligned towards the overall objective for the launch – whatever the project team decides that overall objective should be. You can’t do any decent planning without the over-arching objective agreed, so it’s important to agree this before proceeding. This is also an important time for establishing what any dependencies or interdependencies might be for elements in the project. What stages can run in parallel, what have to be sequential, what the rate-determining steps are.

From an interpersonal and cultural perspective, the kick-off is the chance for the project manager of the launch – which might be you – to set the tone for the meetings, how they should be run and what the protocols are for reporting, meeting attendance, escalation procedures and so on.

You can use software or design fancy spreadsheets to help you automate much of the operational stuff, especially with large or comprehensive launches. You still, however, have to get the basics right – the basics I’ve outlined above.

With a good kick-off call under your belt and your objective and requirements defined, you’re all the set for the next stage.

 

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Categories Communication, Customers, Marketing, Sales, Strategy

Finish Early

February 3, 2016 //
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Some people have job roles where they’re in a lot of meetings. Typically managers of people have this issue. Back-to-back meetings, or worse still, meetings that over-run and put them behind all day.

I often find myself in a position where I need to create stuff. I need thinking time, planning time and writing time. Meetings are the enemy in this situation. Sure, they have their purpose, and a very useful one at that, when managed properly, but not if I need sustained ‘me time’ to get my work done.

My approach to meetings is under-promise, over-deliver. Ask someone for more time than you need – don’t go mad, it’s a balance between taking their time and taking liberties – and book that time in the calendar. Then, aim to finish the meeting early. 45 minutes is a good length of time to ask for a meeting. Even if you finish on time, in all probability they’ll have a precious quarter-hour before their next commitment.

There are few things better than a meeting finishing early and giving you some of your hour or day back. And you’re grateful to the person who organised or chaired the meeting for that. It shows you that the person values your time and doesn’t waste it.

Were you ever at a school that managed its timetable in 50-minute slots, and started each class at the top of the hour? Those little 10 minutes back every hour are great for getting fiddly stuff out of the way, running quick errands and getting your head right for the next meeting.

Aim to finish your meetings early. Control them so that they do. Tell the other people that you’re done and that you’re giving them back some of their day. They’ll respect you for it and will be more inclined to grant you their time again.

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Categories Communication, Marketing, Planning, Sales

Re-Work

February 1, 2016 //
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Very little in work is genuinely new and original. The huge majority of it is re-examined, revised, re-worked. A document used as a base for something else, a presentation template where you can borrow the formatting and graphics, a white paper where you can adapt the ideas: it makes sense to do this.

Working from a solid base that has already found acceptance is sensible, a productive use of your time and investment.

That’s not to say that we shouldn’t strive for something that starts from a blank sheet of paper. Sometimes it’s the only way to come up with something that’s fresh, exciting, or game-changing.

But in the day-to-day passage of getting things done, re-work, re-use and recycling is a good thing.

It’s not plagiarism, where you’re passing somebody else’s work as your own and plagiarising their intellectual property. Properly acknowledged, cited or quoted, someone’s work you have built on is generally the better for it.

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Categories Communication, Customers, General, Marketing, Sales

The First B2B Product Launch Process Step

January 27, 2016 //
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OK, so you’ve seen the signed-off roadmap, or heard about the launch, or perhaps you’re already involved in the earlier steps of the product management lifecycle. Regardless of your personal situation, the first step in the B2B product launch process is this – check your facts.

Sounds obvious doesn’t it? It is, but not everyone does it. Here are some facts you want to consider before anything else:

  • Who’s on the launch team? Who’s the executive sponsor? Who’ll work on the project day-to-day? Who’s project managing the launch? You need a good project manager with good communication skills to stay on track. If it’s you project managing it, great 🙂
  • What are the milestone dates? When will development be done? When will you alpha and / or beta the product? To whom? Work back from when you plan to GA (make the product Generally Available) and build in buffer at every stage
  • How much of the strategy is done? Have you sight of a business case document so you can understand the market analysis, objectives, pricing, positioning, features, benefits etc?
  • What other background documentation is there to help you build a picture? The more there is, the less you need to create, and the less time you need to make with people to interview them for the background, their insight and preferences
  • When’s the launch kick-off call? If one isn’t organised, apply pressure for it

Get armed with these facts and you’ve already won half the battle.

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Categories Communication, Customers, Marketing, Sales, Strategy

The 7-Step B2B Product Launch Process

January 25, 2016 //
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The product lifecycle can be a complicated beast and varies significantly within industries and regions. Not only that, the roles of people in an organisation who either contribute to or manage the product launch can differ quite markedly too. So, with that preamble done, am I drowning a whole series of process-forming posts before I’ve even started?

Not really, no. While job titles and jobs may vary, there are still some generalities and best practices that work for companies selling stuff – products or services – to other companies.

I see 7 broad stages to the B2B product launch process, and I’ll devote my usual post length – long enough to get your attention but not so long as to distract you from other priorities – to each one of them.

People have written 250-page books on managing the product launch. Then again, they’ve done the same for the B2B marketing process, sales cycle, and customer buying cycle, which are other B2B topics that I have addressed before with a total series length that wouldn’t stretch to a chapter.

But these aren’t text books. They’re the distilled experiences of mistakes I’ve made, lessons I’ve learned and the wisdom of people greater than I. I hope you enjoy them.

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Categories Communication, Customers, Marketing, Sales, Strategy

Short Term – erm – Memory

January 18, 2016 //
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Short term memory. Lots of people complain that they have short term memory, fear that they’re losing their marbles.

Nothing of the sort. I forget things I heard in the recent past, but it’s not because I have short term memory issues. It’s because I haven’t engaged my brain properly.

There are plenty of self-help books to improve people’s recollection of names, people, events. The key thing to do is to listen – actively. There is of course a difference between hearing someone and listening to them, between seeing someone and looking at them, watching them. When you actively listen, when you put something small on the line that makes you establish a connection and fire a few more synapses than normal, you remember something, for a long time.

I can remember the names of attractive women I might have met only briefly at a party three decades ago. I can do the same with telephone numbers and car registration plates. Why? Because I had an interest in making the connection, so it elevated the information to a different part of my mental filing system.

So, if you want to get better at retaining information, concentrate more. Concentrate on actively listening and watching and making the right connection.

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Categories Communication, Customers, General, Sales

Enough to be Dangerous

January 13, 2016 //
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Ah, it’s a terribly fine line sometimes. A coin toss if you will. A little knowledge can be all you need to get you started, get some forward momentum and learn as you go. Sometimes it’s all the time you have, otherwise you miss the boat.

Then again, it’s not coincidental that we use the phrase ‘enough to be dangerous’.

A couple of decades ago, a friend of a friend of mine went to live with a Spanish-speaking family to improve his basic language skills. In his first week there, they went out to dinner together. The daughter was 17. During the course of the conversation something was said to make her blush. He wanted to ask her if she was embarrassed.

Unfortunately, he didn’t know the Spanish for embarrassed so took a guess. Worse still, his effort – embarazada – means pregnant. Not good. The father went apoplectic and he had to leave the family shortly thereafter.

Knowing enough cuts both ways. Ask yourself this, do you feel lucky? 🙂

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Categories Communication, Customers, General, Language, Marketing, Planning, Sales, Strategy, Technology

Team Ethos

January 11, 2016 //
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A well organised, well prepared team will always beat a disorganised, unprepared team with a few stellar players. We’ve all seen it, from amateur teams all the way through to the elite professional levels. The world-beating teams are there because of their painstaking approach to preparation, strategy and execution, and having stellar players doesn’t hurt.

I was recently watching the BBC annual sports love-in called Sports Personality of the Year. It’s not really about personality as such, although you do get the odd winner with personality, like cyclist Bradley Wiggins a few years ago. Last year’s winner was tennis player Andy Murray, who freely admits he’s a touch short-changed on the charisma front and who gets tagged a lot with the d-words: dogged, dour, determined.

Except that Andy Murray beat out the other 11 finalists – who were all world champions and world number ones – to take the crown.  Andy is at the time of writing world number 2 but won no grand slams or the end of year bash last year. He won it principally because Great Britain won the Davis Cup for the first time in about a thousand years. As a side note, thank goodness it’s a Britain thing, because England would be in the bottom tier if the 3 nations competed separately.

The Great Britain team also won the team award as well.

A good team trumps good individuals. It’s the same in business, and especially in sales and marketing. All the more reason for us to stay focused on preparation, strategy and execution.

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Categories General, Marketing, Sales

Intensity

January 8, 2016 //
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Do you know what really helps accelerate the sales cycle? Intensity.

Oftentimes you’ll hear about sports people – players or pundits – talking about having good intensity, or lacking intensity when their performance was flat. Intensity is about being fully engaged in the sale, and fully engaged with the customer, for want of a better word.

Intensity in a sales and business context is a word similar to the phrase ‘rightful impatience’, which a former boss of mine used to use. And you can add to that adjectives like enthusiastic, passionate and committed.

When you have the right intensity, you’re ‘in the moment’ more often with your customer, in sync with their requirements, their hopes and their concerns. This has the effect of bringing them more swiftly on the journey towards buying from you. You’re sweeping them up with your emotion, in a good way, a way that is focused on the mutual goal of their satisfaction.

In a selling relationship, it’s often not okay to be intense. This is a characteristic that some customers find difficult to work with. However it’s good to have intensity in your approach. There is an important difference here. Good intensity make good things happen more quickly.

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Categories Communication, Customers, Planning, Sales, Strategy

Workflow – Work Slow

January 6, 2016 //
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Sometimes, when you’re too busy to see the work for the trees, it’s difficult to take a step back from what you’re doing and analyse if you could be doing it better.

Process is so important to what we’re doing. You have to get the right steps in place and then make sure you’re doing the steps in the right order.

When I was much younger I was staying in my Uncle’s pub for a while and I was washing his car. After a few minutes he came out and said, ‘what are you doing?’ ‘I’m washing the wheels,’ I replied. You see, the wheels are the fiddly filthy bits that I wanted to get out of the way first.

‘Yes,’ he said, ‘but now the water’s filthy for washing everything else. Start with the windows and glass first, then go from the top of the car down to the bottom. And start again with clean water.’

Process. You have to get the order right, and you have to do the right things too.

Workflow, as the name suggests, is about the flow of work, the process you go through. If you don’t get the workflow as good as it can be, you work slow, or you work poorly.

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Categories Communication, Customers, General, Marketing, Sales, Strategy
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