Browsing Tag

product launch

Product Launches Don’t need to suck…

Prior to leaving for my latest business trip, I had the opportunity to preview David Daniels‘s eBoook, “Is your product launch doomed?” and I was fairly thankful for that opportunity.  David’s ebook was fairly timely and provided a needed reality check for the effort which I was engaged in, a product launch.  The piece provides 10 key items for consideration during a launch – all of which are valid.  My most recent launch did so well since the launch focused on ensured that item 10 from david’s book – the team was paramount.    The initial launch roadshow which just wrapped up garnered reasonable international press, initial interest and customer excitement.  So basically – the mechanics and the emotional parts went very well, so now on to the crazy profit and revenue part.  So that’s kept me just a little busy this summer, but I look forward to posting more over the coming months.   Considerably more, wow have I learned a bunch in the last 90 days.

Looks like David has been busy too – here is a presentation I found which David did at ProductCamp Austin, it appears that his launch plan for the eBook included a roadshow of sorts as well.  Without the sound track and if you haven’t read the eBook you should still be able to get most of the parts, but I would read the long version too.

Marketing IS in the Middle: David Daniels

Before I met the next person in the series, I was facing some of the most challenging product management opportunities in my career – a new product, a legacy market and a bunch of customers who needed a little love and David put it into perspective quickly – “Jon sounds like you’re a project manager and not a product manager.”  David Daniels was right, I took his advice and put it to work in a practical way, like many organizations product management needed to be redefined under the management at the time.

David now works at Pragmatic Marketing, where I took my first course on how to improve the definition of a product manager with Steve Johnson.  I appreciate David taking his time out of his travels to participate in the Marketing IS in the Middle initiative here.

What marketing roles have you had and in what markets?

  • Product Manager (enterprise software)
  • Product Marketing Manager (enterprise software)
  • VP Product Marketing (enterprise software)
  • VP Marketing (enterprise software)

When you look at your career in marketing, what discipline/component have you found most interesting/challenging?

Product marketing was one of the most interesting and challenging roles in my career.  It was the first time I was really forced to think about markets of buyers rather than users.  Prior to that my focus was on users of products for which I was a product manager.  In the role of product marketing manager my thinking shift from using criteria to buying criteria, and that shift was a significant one.

What do you feel the most important component of a successful marketing gig?  (Product, Brand, Positioning)

Hands down the most important component of a successful marketing gig is to be the experts on your buyers: who they are, the different types, their buying criteria and the buying process.  Everything else you do in marketing becomes a whole lot easier.

Since you selected something I wouldn’t have listed, how has this contributed to revenue?

Becoming the expert on buyers ties directly to revenue outcomes that are more easily discussed with Sales and the management team.  Talking to customers (those that have already bought) rarely give you insight into how to sell more stuff.

What experiences brought you to this conclusion?

People start out being buyers and become customers after they buy.  By focusing on who buys and why they buy it becomes much easier (sometimes trivial) to develop a position and message that resonates with the people who have budget to spend.  Focusing on features drags you down into the weeds and encourages discussion that is more appropriate after the purchase.

If you could design the perfect corporate environment for a marketer to be successful what would that be?

A couple of things come to mind.  First, the head of Marketing should a peer of the head of Sales.  To make that work, the head of Marketing needs to be focused on markets of buyers and stop talking about promotional activities.  Second, the effectiveness of Marketing should never be measured on the number of leads generated.  It’s a useless and stupid measurement that doesn’t align with the real goal – revenue.  Third, Sales is not Marketing’s customer.  The sales team is an audience that Marketing needs to influence in order to achieve a revenue outcome.  Finally, put a firewall between Sales and Marketing.  Too many Sales organizations use Marketing in a sales support role, resulting in Marketing resources being spent in Sales not on important Marketing initiatives. I define “sales support” as helping one sales guy one deal.  If management understood the real cost of Sales resources they would be stunned. The old saying “everyone’s in Sales” is a load of crap.

How far is this from reality?

Light years.

He’s at it AGAIN!!!!!

So Brogan has once again “sucked me in” to write on one of HIS topics for ME/YOU. This time, he doesn’t have 100 – but 20 works. I’ll usurp one right now and 2 more look interesting, should I remember at a later date. So I chose #3 for a start.

#3. Share Five Friends– Show us five friends’ blogs and give us a blurb on why you like them.

This is a very interesting one, because normally I pass off a Chris (chris 1 and chris 2) blog on such request. The good news is I have no shortage of cool peoples blogs 5 blogs, 1 is loosely a “blog”, it has blog like capabilities and even has features called a blog, but I don’t consider myspace a pure play blog.

Salesreformschool

This is Adam Shapiro’s blog and he’s continues to keep up the content and actually shares some really good, practical, and pragmatic insights from his sales management, consulting and sales education experience. He’s also starting to meander off topic now which is getting more interesting – while I disagree with his assertion that the Blackberry Pearl is a good device, I do agree with him on google desktop.

mophopro

Mark Resch’s phone game and blog. It’s nice to see things from people’s phones. I don’t know this for sure, but I think mophopro stands for MObile PHOto PRO. COMmunity. The idea is phone photos – fun. The Cathedral in Venice

Launchclinic

David Daniels’ Product Launch blog. The business side of product management and product launch – he’s always been off topic and fun as person and as a blog operator. He’s the father of twins – like myself, and has an absolute passion for understanding information, organizations and products. He’s just one of those dangerous “knowledge consumers”. Good news is he simplifies and prioritizes his content to remain relevant and interesting, as a person and as a blog operator.

Stop, Drop and Roll

So it’s not really a blog, but it IS A CONVERSATION – a rowdy “yeeehaaw!” kind of conversation, but a conversation. What I like is they do have a desire to reach out and develop a community, plus the crazy clutter, background bluegrass and the “near seizure causing” look-n-feel is apparently NOT AN ISSUE. Not sure it proves anything, but graphics, easily read content and an appropriate use of negative space may just not mean anything.

Vacuum – EV in A2

I have not actually met Edward yet, but I intend on it on my next visit into A2, hoped to catch him over the holidays, but haven’t. This is a link blog – the interesting and the obscure. It’s more than links, more or less basically links, sometimes a paragraph or two. This guy works at his links. I recommend an interest in libraries and geography before you go, but you might just become a fan of either before you stop browsing the links. If you look real hard you just might find some interesting stuff on structuration theory.

Those are my five……but you could keep checking Leif’s blog, as I do hoping for another post. It has been more than a year of silence. I mean he took such care with the header graphic. You would think the Chris would have a corporate posting requirement at Cerado.