Product Launch

Sales Readiness Strategies and New Product Development

New product development includes selecting a sales readiness strategy. One of the goals of sales readiness is that customers will not abandon purchases because something is missing or unfinished.

This episode is a companion to my December 2008 Visions magazine article titled “Proactive sales readiness strategies can help companies sell new products more efficiently.” You can link to this sales readiness article from the OpLaunch web site.

A common belief about sales readiness

You may have heard the phrase “build it and they will come.” The wishful implication is that once a new product is built, an abundance of sales will follow. A more comprehensive statement was made by Ralph Waldo Emerson in Decatur, Illinois and recorded by Daily Republican on 19 May 1882.

“If a man can write a better book, preach a better sermon, or make a better mouse-trap than his neighbor, though he builds his house in the woods, the world will make a beaten path to his door.”

Just building a new product doesn’t guarantee abundant sales. Achieving abundant sales requires more effort. An appropriate sales readiness strategy is a critical part of any new product development effort.

Common perceptions about sales readiness

What are the common beliefs associated with the phrase ‘sales readiness’ that address activities that are most visible after the core product is built and introduced?

From the buyer’s perspective, sales readiness implies that the product is available for purchase. It implies that the product can be found on the shelf or online and that it is ready for the intended use. When a product is sales ready, customers expect to find pricing information, online product reviews, and support.

From the producer’s perspective, sales readiness may imply that sales of the new product are beginning to contribute to quarterly revenues. Internally, this signals that the development team can be re-assigned to the next project or other new responsibilities.

Perhaps the most common marketing reference for the phrase ‘sales readiness’ is from Pragmatic Marketing. The copyrighted Pragmatic Marketing Framework specifies sales readiness as a tactical activity that includes “channel training, collateral and sales tools, white papers, and competitive write-up.”

It is common for the sales organization to complain about tactical sales readiness activities. One way to improve the tactics is to refine the strategy.

Without an appropriate strategy, the sales readiness information will be unorganized, duplicated, or obsolete. The sales organization will complain that it takes too much time to find the best resources.

Contributors to sales readiness

In new product development, preparation for sales readiness includes contributions from developers, domain experts, market experts, and managers. Sales and distribution organizations provide another group of potential contributors. In addition, customers can contribute to sales readiness.

With so many potential contributors, how do organizations coherently improve the sales readiness of new products? With so many options, coherence is the key to selecting appropriate strategies. One approach builds on historic patterns. Another approach attempts to manage emergence.

A rigid approach to sales readiness

Some organizations demand strict adherence to documented processes, established practices, and templates. Components are collected from previous projects and they are combined with items imported from popular literature. Sometimes new types of components are assimilated from new team members.

Typically, sales readiness items related to channel training, collateral and sales tools, white papers, and competitive assessments are produced as a result of a formally budgeted process and a perception of what seemed to work in previous projects.

Unfortunately, there is a problem. Components that may have been successful on previous projects are not guaranteed to be successful in different contexts. Hopefully, capable team members can make the appropriate adjustments to these components to produce acceptable results.

A strategy to manage emergence

A strategy to manage emergence is appropriate when there is more than one way to obtain a solution. The solutions that will provide the best results are not known in advance. An emergent approach embraces distributed cognition. Web 2.0 capabilities, such as feedback and user generated content, are required to support emergent approaches. This strategy is based on a complex adaptive system model. My favorite author on this subject is Dave Snowden at Cognitive-Edge.

An emergent approach is characterized by lighter constraints and it seeks to manage emergence. This coordinates efforts and minimizes lost opportunities.

As described in the Visions article, the SAVO Group product supports this capability. Representative from the sales, marketing, development, and management collaborate to improve the development process and the sales process.

Recommended sales readiness strategies

Maximizing sales readiness requires more than following documented processes, established practices, and templates. You can not guarantee the best strategy by polling the sales representatives and ranking the results. The preferred strategy must have the capacity to handle actual variability and unknowns.

To maximize the robustness of a sales readiness strategy, consider a program that produces a comprehensive set of resources that are available near product introduction. This requires qualified leadership to select and implement the appropriate strategy elements and the appropriate budgets for implementation. Rigid choices are made to meet prerequisites. There are preconceptions about the results that will be produced.

After product introduction, consider a strategy that evolves. A strategy that manages emergence within boundaries benefits from distributed cognition because it leverages the cooperation of individuals, formulation of a community, and feedback. An emergent approach has the greatest impact when leadership actively includes this strategy as part of new product development by supporting tool sets required and rewarding those that contribute.

Over time, the sales readiness implementation selected for your new product can evolve into the strategy for your current and legacy products. Then it can become vital to new sales representatives and new customers. Ultimately, your sales readiness strategy impacts the sustainability and growth or your company.

Listen to Sales Readiness Strategies and New Product Development [9:16 minutes, 4.7 MBytes, (m4a)] Apple QuickTime / iTunes is required]

Gates as Gatekeeper

How do new product development contributors (such as designers and developers) maximize their effectiveness with high profile management representatives at project review meetings? 

Gates

In new product development, major project review meetings may be called gates. This designation is used in methodologies such as Stage-Gate. Typically, new product development teams are required to make presentations to management representatives every one or two months during development. These meetings are required to continue the funding for development of the new product. At the end of the review meeting, the gatekeepers provide comments about the project and make one major executive decision:

• GO - Project funding will continue. Additional work is approved.  
• Conditional GO - Project funding will continue after amendments are approved. 
• STOP - Additional funding is not approved. Additional work is not approved.
• WAIT - Funding and/or work is suspended. Additional information or a change in external conditions is required before a Go/Stop decision is made.

Gate meetings may provide an opportunity for the team to request feedback and additional support. 

HiPPO

Often, there is one prominent executive that must be favorably impressed for the project to continue. From the development team's perspective, the perceived competence of this prominent executive can range from low to high. This executive may not be involved in daily project activity. This executive's assessment of the project can be termed HiPPO. This acronym is Highest Paid Person's Opinion.

How does a new product development team ensure that the project receives a favorable assessment? In the case where the team is doing outstanding work, the team should strive to address the preferences of the reviewers. 

Some reviewers demand impressive analytical data. Sometimes, aggressive financial projections are required. Some reviewers are more likely to provide a favorable assessment when they hear a requisite number of their favorite buzzwords. In 2008, popular buzzwords included green, innovative, and de-duplication.

If the team's performance is problematic, consider postponing the review. Attempt to resolve some of the issues before the review meeting.

Bill Gates' Reviews

At Microsoft on 30 June 1992, Gates functioned as a gatekeeper for a new version of Excel. At that time, Microsoft had approximately six layers of management. Gates transitioned from his day-to-day role at Microsoft at the end of June 2008.  

Joel Spolsky is a co-founder and the CEO of Fog Creek Software. In the July 2008 issue of INC magazine, he recounts his preparation for an Excel project review meeting in 1992. Spolsky states "We used to have these things called BillG reviews, at which Bill Gates personally went over every major new feature."

The day before the review, Spolsky sent Gates a few hundred pages of project specifications. In addition, Spolsky investigated details of previous versions of Excel and Microsoft BASIC.

As the review progressed, Gates' questions became harder and more detailed. He asked a question about compatibility between the code of Excel and BASIC. To the surprise of almost everyone in the room, Spolsky provided the correct, informed answer. He knew the details because of his research the previous day.

Spolsky reports "Bill Gates was amazingly technical, and he knew more about the details of his company's software than most of the people who worked on those details day in and day out." According to Spolsky, Gates "didn't meddle in software if he trusted the people who were working on it."

HiPPOs and what to know

Since Gates was confident about the team's progress, the development team resumed their planned development activities immediately. 

Since both Gates and Spolsky were programmers, the dialog was concise. The highest paid person's opinion was venerated. 

Often the development team is technology-centric. Often the HiPPO is sales-centric, marketing-centric, or business-centric. Here are a few suggestions:

• Designate someone to take notes. Comments may range from directives to ceremonial placeholders. If a question can not be answered during the review meeting, assure attendees that the issues are being recorded and will be addressed appropriately.
• Evaluate comments using the project's major objectives. In the case of the launch success objective, welcome diverse comments and make appropriate adjustments. 
• Some comments are not project-centric. An attendee may be scouting for resources for another project. Some activity may be gamesmanship. 

An abundance of opinions are expressed in new product development review meetings. Some opinions may begin with a phrase such as "I know" or "I am sure." Someone will paraphrase what they gleaned from a recent article or book. Expect to hear opinions that reflect popular topics. Often, it is easy to have a preferential bias to the opinions of the highest paid person. It may be difficult to differentiate an impromptu comment from a decisive comment.

Resolving Conflicts

Conflicts will arise. There are several keys to resolving new product development conflicts. Briefly summarized, these are:

• New product development is best approached as a complex adaptive system. NPD is non-deterministic. Results are not guaranteed. 
• Often, the application of survey data can be misleading because of context differences.
• Experimental results from your prototypes trump opinions, anecdotes, and metaphors. In addition to the core product, this includes the design of the user interface and sales/marketing items such as advertising strategy.  

Conditional GO and Conditional Acceptance

An unconditional 'GO' decision at the end of a review meeting is rare. In practice, a more likely outcome is a 'Conditional GO' decision from the review team. 

Your team should analyze proposed project adjustments within the known constraints. The additional assignments should prompt the team to re-evaluate project commitments. Until your team has evaluated the implications of the additional requests, the acceptance of the additional work must be conditional. Previous deadlines or resources allocations may be invalid.

If the new request requires that your team commit to more work, don't agree immediately.  Don't give the impression that the original estimates were inflated. Don't commit to working more nights and weekends. Don't risk a potential drop in quality without careful analysis and the input of your team. 

Before committing to new requests, it is OK to spend a few hours to evaluate the new request and study the implications.

Listen to Gates as Gatekeeper [10:24 minutes, 5.1 MBytes, (m4a)] Apple QuickTime / iTunes is required]