NOTE: This article was originally published under the title “Of Pennant Races and Product Launches” on LinkedIn on September 17, 2015. Minor edits have been made to the original version.
Before baseball payrolls became the most important factor in determining the makeup of a team, top-performing ballplayers often stayed with their clubs during periods of winning as well as losing. The great Roberto Clemente had stellar seasons for the World Champion Pirates in 1960 and 1971. Between 1961 and 1970, the Pirates were rarely within sight of a pennant, but Clemente remained a fixture in Pittsburgh. Many other stars of yesterday also played with their teams through good years and bad – see Hank Aaron, Robin Yount, Tony Gwynn, Ernie Banks, and Cal Ripken for starters.
Today, higher payrolls cause teams to “fish or cut bait” as trade deadlines loom. Weeks of speculation lead up to the decisions on how to play the remainder of the season. Some teams that are in contention load up on talent (see Toronto 2015). Other teams that have underachieved send their best players elsewhere to cut short-term expenses (see Detroit 2015). As many as half the teams in baseball make moves that are based as much on dollars as they are on the standings.
Sometimes these moves work, sometimes they don’t. There are very understandable reasons for this behavior, but one consequence that I struggle with is that a trade deadline seller is essentially throwing in the towel for the following season as well. Despite their struggles this spring, why wouldn’t we all fear a Tiger team next year that included Yeonis Cespedes, David Price, and a potentially healthy Justin Verlander?
Over my career, I have seen plenty of similar behavior from companies based on short-term sales results. If sales performance lags, new products fall to the bottom of the bag, adjacent markets go out of focus, and everyone doubles down on last year’s model. Once the momentum of new ideas has been “traded” for what worked last year, the future value of that product or market is lost. The new product will now provide about the same value as David Price will provide for the Tigers in the years to come. Price is a fantastic pitcher, but his value will go somewhere else. In the same vein, a failed launch offers up fodder for a competitor with an appetite to take the territory that has been ceded.
Just a few years ago, I was hired to lead a strategy team for a major retailer that had unearthed a great opportunity in the B2B world and paid a major consulting house handsomely to develop the idea. To this day, I believe that the concept could have driven massive long-term growth and redefined that company. However, organizational shortsightedness meant that many of us who were brought in specifically to build something new were asked to devote much of our time to a tired, failing sales model that had zero strategy behind it. We made some progress in turning the ship, but ultimately, the new ideas were spun off in favor of the old method of using the company name to be all things to all people. The biggest winners in this decision were the competitors from whom no market share was taken.
In another role, I was brought in to repair a product portfolio that had been built by repeatedly repackaging the same product based on the most common objection from the previous year’s fourth quarter. After launching a more focused product line, we were faced with some grassroots indifference. It would have been easy to give up after a couple of rough months. However, sales force education, the impact of a new marketing message, and a healthy diet of sales rep victory stories turned the tide. Our line exceeded its launch goals, altered the market structure in the segment, and became a model for products launched in other parts of the company. Rather than bailing out when the heat of the race increased, we stuck with our long-term plan and won big.
Not every product launch is based on a great idea. However, if you are objective and data-driven, you will choose to build your future around the offerings and markets of greatest opportunity. At that point, the greatest risk becomes the possibility of changes in the marketplace before launch. If your business case research has not been rendered obsolete before launch, do not allow friction to throw your investment into the scrap heap. A strategically sound new offering can make a huge difference in your company’s performance and your own future. Resistance to change within your organization is no reason to let a great idea go to waste.
If you face difficulty after launch, supplement your marketing effort with the following seven principles:
1. Celebrate the early adopters in the sales force. Do not just do this in e-mail blasts, but weave those successes into conversations and presentations. If possible, ask your early stars to share the stage with you in front of their peers and reward them in some small way for their assistance.
2. Accept all internal allies. If your early critics or internal competitors wish to join you, accept them all. There is more upside in getting their assistance than there is in keeping them away and dealing with back-channel noise.
3. Preach the gospel of upsell. Make sure that both sales and upper management know how your new offering sets the table for future business. Explain how it will be easier to know how or when to approach existing customers about upgrading or adding on.
4. Give support above and beyond what’s asked of you. When supporting the new line, add something to the mix that wasn’t there before or commit to responding faster. Make your salespeople, dealers or VARs feel like the new product line is a step up across the board.
5. Share customer feedback whenever possible. Speak to as many early customers as possible. When discussing the new offering with your team or field counterparts, attribute responses to customers when you can. Good salespeople can read you. If you speak for customers when discussing products your credibility is much higher.
6. Never stop educating. This goes for salespeople, customers, other departments and your boss. They don’t know everything that you know. The more that you teach, the more likely others will be to believe as strongly as you do. This can be formal settings (i.e. sales webinar) or informal settings (coffee with order fulfillment manager).
7. Be flexible and proud of it. If something needs tweaking that will not do damage to your launch, consider the suggestion. When you adopt a suggestion be sure to attribute that suggestion. This tells your team that you will do what it takes to help them win and will be less resistant to letting go of the old offerings.
