Companies launch a dazzling array of new products every year. Some are designed to be significant revenue producers or game changers. A few are “bet the company” entries into the market. All too often, new product sales disappoint. Some may blame the market, the timing or even the product itself. Alternatively, new products sales often fall flat because the investment in improving the sales team’s ability to sell the new product is inadequate. Why?
- Sales rep skill development is rarely reinforced so it doesn’t “stick”
- Sales managers don’t coach sales reps to sell the new product
- Sales reps go back to selling what they know because it’s easier to sell
Don’t Let Your Next Product Launch Fail!
Beyond product knowledge, successful salespeople must craft a sales strategy for the new product. A common pitfall when selling a new product is failing to acknowledge that it almost always involves new selling challenges. ?When sales reps are left on their own to figure out how to sell new products, the sales results are often disappointing. But there’s one strong, underlying factor that “encourages” salespeople to sell a new product – they have developed the knowledge and skills to know how to do it.
When selling a new product, top sales performers follow three best practices, which are the focus of the white paper – Don’t Let Your Next Product Launch Fail. They are:
• Understand the Market, including the forces creating the need for the new product
• Target the Right Companies so they can increase the probability of success
• Understand the Buying Process, including key players and competitive threats
When launching a new product the goal is not time-to-market; it’s time-to-market share. This means the sales training investment should be made and sales training implemented before the new product is launched. The more innovative the product and more extensive the training, the more important it is to start the skill development before the launch.
The FREE white paper, Don’t Let Your Next Product Launch Fail is available as a pdf file.
