Why selling a New Product fails

 

One of my Clients has just announced a 'go faster' new product.

It is not the first time I have seen this:
I was selling Disk Storage when Latency halved from 23mS to 10mS.
I was selling modems when download speed doubled from 9.6Kbps to 19.2Kbps.
I was selling double capacity Disk drives, just when Data Centres were running out of floor space,
and the competition had reliability problems!

Halving delays, doubling speeds or doubling capacities gives a FEATURE advantage,
converting that to sales is not that simple!

 

BMAC and others have researched
New Product launches and why they do not always succeed.

The inherent danger in a new 'go faster' product is that you tend talk about
"the Product and how it goes faster! "
That is not selling that is being a Talking Brochure!

To launch a New Product successfully, you MUST uncover the Client's needs for a faster product, not by telling them you have one, but by asking about their current performance. Having established the 'need for speed', you have to establish the 'value of speed', cash quantify it.
You may want to tell them about speed now, but NOT YET.

You have more work to do.

Other than 'Speed', what other Buying Criteria are there, reliability, services, upgrades, and compatibilities, ease of use, locations or PRICE? You MUST have all the Buying Criteria out and in priority order.
DO NOT ASS-U-ME speed is top, it will be there, but not always top.

The 'fastest' Car does not always win the race, if it is slow to service, does not corner well or is unreliable.
Now that you have ALL the criteria, with SPEED highlighted for both Value and Importance.

NOW SHOW how you meet ALL their criteria.

Deliver a UNIQUE Client Centric presentation (not a Product and Speed centric presentation),
which meets ALL their needs and Highlights a speed advantage.

• Ask if you have met ALL their needs
• Ask if THEY RECOGNISE that you offer a speed advantage.
• Remind them of their established 'Value of Speed'.
• Tell them the Price and then ASK them to go ahead.

BMAC runs a 4-hour workshop "Avoiding the Pitfalls of New Product Launches",
or if you want a self-study guide Contact brian.maciver@gmail.com
If you want to look at the research contact brian.maciver@gmail.com

 

 

Great blog, with research on New Product Failure by Tom Foale:

http://thesalesproposition.wordpress.com/category/product-failure/