New Product Launches - Briefing the Sales Team

In my last post on NPD I examined the Presenter. Many people call this the deck, the focus, trade folder etc. Whatever you call it though, get it to the team early.

Bring your sales team together in a forum that focusses on three essential areas. Knowledge – what they know about the new product. Skills - how they apply what they know. Attitude - how confident they are with the new line.

Too often time and budget constraints create a “technical handover” by marketing and leaves the sales people to their own devices. This creates an inconsistent message to your market. Again, if one of the biggest issues in NPD is speed to and traction in the market, how many favours are we doing ourselves when the sales team’s only opportunity to develop and practice their sales conversation is in the field?

Most sales organisations target their top 20% of outlets in the first couple of weeks of any new product launch. An underprepared sales team will undersell and possibly damage your relationships through sales calls that take too long and fail to meet buyers’ needs.

So bring the team together and develop an integrated agenda that gives them the knowledge they need:

• Technical information (pricing, ATL spend, POS, trade support etc)
• Anticipated retailer needs for the product
• Features, advantages and benefits that we can link back to their needs
• Expected buyer objections and useful responses
  

The skills to apply that knowledge:

• Building rapport
• Questioning and Listening
• Selling Benefits
• Overcoming Objections
• Closing the Sale
• Negotiating the Terms
• Use of the presenter
  

And fosters the attitudes needed: confidence, enthusiasm and tenacity.

• Sharing experience in discussion and syndicate groups
• Skills practice to trial, customise and cement their approach to the trade
  

Imagine! A salesperson that uncovers needs quickly and uses the right benefits to maximise the retailer’s value proposition. Exactly the grounding you need to seek more facings, better display, less trade spend, promotional compliance and greater stockweight.

If you're looking for a suitable agenda and suggested content, email me.

There is one last thing that needs to be done before the team is unleashed:

Measure Your Message
Don’t limit measurement merely to distribution or display objectives. Focus the sale on the drivers necessary for sell through:

• Prominent positions
• Facings
• Correct ticketing
• Off locations
• Correct and attractive POS
• Speed to market. Set it up now.
• No out of stocks
• Compliance to the promotional program
• Outlet level marketing to enhance the launch for local conditions.
  

Design a measurement tool specifically for your launch. Designed correctly it allows you to:

• Develop timely strategies for specific Trade issues, for example low facings.
• Develop timely strategies for specific Team issues, for example high trade spend may indicate poor negotiation skills.
  

Again, let me know if you'd like some pointers on suitable measurement approaches.

There is no silver bullet for successful Sales Launches. However, with the right research, preparation and measurement you can reach higher distribution, more display objectives, better coverage and lower trade spend. After all, that’s why you have the sales team in the first place.


Jason Wenn

New Product Launches - Speed and Traction

In my last post, I was looking at many of the issues that occur in the field during new product launches. Too many it is exasperating. To me it is simple. We send the sales team out to practice on their best customers and consequently don't get the level of sell in required - hence our low speed to market. More importantly, the sales team aren't equipped to engage the customer in such a way that we maximise their commitment to the new line - hence our lack of traction.

Now before you go and cancel the NPD budget, consider this potential checklist of successful launches:

Do Your Research
Ensure that marketing’s research goes beyond the end consumer:

• Anticipate retailers’ needs. For any new line we can usually nominate the questions they will ask and the needs they want met.


• Determine how the new product and accompanying support will meet the retailers need for sales, margin and peace of mind.


• Develop a matrix of features, advantages and benefits that meet your retailers typical needs.


• Prepare for their expected objections with appropriate positioning statements.

Develop Your Message
It is important to remember two pertinent facts:

• You don’t have a lot of time in the sales call.


• Only 25% of the population prefer to receive information from a salesperson talking. The rest of us want pictures, charts, product and POS samples and interactive discussion.

The simple answer? Get a presenter and ask more questions.

Ensure that your team are equipped with a presenter that:

• Is as short as possible. No more than 10 pages – we don’t want retailers thinking that they’ve got War & Peace to get through. Find a way to leave the folder of forms and out of date or marginal brochures in the car.


• Starts with a front page listing typical retailer needs for this product. Our salesperson can use that list to start the conversation - “Before I start, this is a list of the most common needs our retailers want from any new lines. Can you tell me 2 or 3 that are important to you right now?”. This starts the conversation quickly and assists the sales person to get to the heart of the matter quickly – What’s In It For Me!. Its even stronger if your market research has determined more precise retailer needs for this particular launch.


• Is a concise means of explaining the new product launch to the retailer - Simple but impactful language, Visual representation, Large print


• Outlines the key features of the new product and accompanying support: Usually 1-2 per page, with a list of advantages and benefits that the salesperson can relate easily back to the retailers needs.


• Durable. The presenter must last the distance of the launch.


• Attractive. Make it different to your standard presentation tools. That way the retailer knows that something different is coming.

We only use the presenter to highlight particular points, provide a visual stimulus to the buyer and overcome issues of retailer misunderstanding through language, inexperience and lack of knowledge.

In my next post, I'll look at how you brief the team to maximise traction.

Jason Wenn

New Product Launches - Does This Sound Familiar?

In my last post, I looked at the huge issues that companies face in New Product Launches. Today I wanted to look some of the common issues that occur during the launch.

Let’s start at the beginning…

We’ve seen it so often before. At a monthly meeting, marketing turn up to brief the sales representatives on the latest new line. The salespeople are furnished with some brochures (occasionally), numbers about advertising spend and samples to help sell the line. They might get to view the relevant media, but the marketing collateral/POS might not arrive in most markets for a couple of weeks.

The real clincher though is the ‘deals’ offered to close the sale.

Then in the trade, the conversation will go like this….

“I’ve got a new line to show you…” - Buyer typically rolls eyes and mutters obscenities about out-of-date/seasonal lines that didn’t work either.

“It…” - You fill in the gaps here. Generally a description of the vast list of features and characteristics offered by marketing. Sometimes accompanied by some pictures and charts.

“It’s a great product, you should try it…”. - Of course we’re going to say that. It wasn’t likely to get through R&D and consumer trials if it isn’t a great product.

“We’re spending $5 million on advertising” - Better, but what happens after advertising slows? What needs to be done at this location to maxise ongoing sell through?

Buyer interjects with an objection or two…

“No Space…” or “It didn’t work last time…” or “Too much stock” or “Won’t work here” or “Too many variants” or even “I’ll stock it when they ask for it”

Salesperson responds to each in turn, eventually resorting to…

“I can offer you a great deal…” - Typically a winner. But, what has happened to the brand? Retailers need stock. How committed is the retailer to a line that cost them little to range? If its cheap enough, they’ll try anything.

Result: Buyer ranges new line, at the minimum stock level. Display is good, but not outstanding. Trade spend increases. Both parties expect that the line will be specialled out within 6 months.

Fast forward a couple of weeks to where we find that the constant exposure to standard objections sees our salesperson more adept at putting their case – if only to the benefit of shorter call time and better coverage in their territory.

Assuming that the call cycles have been set to target your top 20% accounts first, the additional issue here is that your sales people have been practicing on those accounts that matter most. Hence a scenario that severely risks their volume sell in and ability to negotiate effective sell through strategies.

In my next post I'll be looking at what you can do to gain greater traction of new product in the market.

Jason Wenn

The Great Sales v Marketing Divide - New Product Launches

Saw this great post from Sales Machine. It reminds me of a discussion that often takes place at home. I studied Marketing as an Economics Major at an institution where the leading marketing academic was an aging hippy who wore sandals, a pony tail and had never left the hallowed halls of Tas Uni.

Having now worked in sales for over 15 years I have a firm opinion on the value and function of the marketing team. My wife has a Masters in Marketing from one of the world's leading marketing faculties. You can guess how the debate often goes...

I'm not as "assertive " as Geoffrey, but I am continually amazed at the level of disfunction that occurs between sales and marketing.

The one area that is most disappointing is new product launches. Disappointing because this is one area where marketing and management should be working together well.

Let's look at new product launches in the wholesale/retail world. Ask yourself if scenario sounds familiar?

• You have a meticulous and structured market research function that has discovered either new consumers that you haven’t met or existing consumers demands you haven’t met.


• You have identified the specific needs of those consumers


• You have designed a product to address those unmet needs


• You have a well funded marketing budget for a coordinated product launch


• You launch the product


• You measure the results

…..and within 3 years the product is withdrawn.

By the time you have finished reading this post, another new product will have been launched somewhere on the planet.

In 2006, according to Mintel’s Global New Products Database, 105,000 food and drink products were launched – one every 5 minutes. An increase of 8% from the previous year!

In the time it takes you to say “This product will not be one of the 80% that fail to make it past 3 years” US marketers collectively will have spent $40,000 on NPD advertising alone.

Now consider this….

A survey by Schneider & Associates in 2002 found that 33% of people surveyed could not recall the name of a single product launched that year. The same survey the following year found that 50% could not recall a single product launched that year. Disappointing considering that they had another 33,681 products to choose from. More disappointing for the marketers who had upped their advertising spend by $16 billion at the same time.

The lack of “impression” is not limited to new products only. Paco Underhill, in his pioneering book, Why We Buy suggests that upwards of 60% of customers with purchasing intentions have no brand in mind when they enter store.

Don’t get us wrong, marketing is good. But it seems to me that if you’re going to do one thing right, then it absolutely has to be your distribution and merchandising. Certainly, while marketing and advertising itself can create a fair multiple on sales, augmenting it with strong creative POP display in multiple locations can quadruple that same multiplier.

With the right mix, you maximise impulse and product recall. With the wrong mix, the product will quickly become a collector’s edition.

Is there a silver bullet to successful launches? I don’t know that there is, but my experience suggests that there are certain elements to a successful execution.

In my next post I'll look at some of the common problems we see in New Product Launches.

Jason Wenn