Crash Course in Product Development Part 4

Go to Market.

Look at you! You’ve R&D-ed your product, conceived and realized it, and developed and built it. That means there’s only one thing left to do: go to market. And that’s exactly what we’re about to dive into.

After months (or years) of testing, tweaking, and arguments about the product name and color scheme, you’ve finally decided it’s ready. So what happens next? This happens next:

You launch.

Use effective channels to connect with customers, and offer appealing adoption options. For instance, if your customers respond best to banner ads on your website, email, and calls from their sales reps, use those channels.

Coordinate field activity.

Getting face-to-face with prospects is a powerful way to represent your new product and overcome concerns. This could include anything from highly targeted and direct selling, to promotions, merchandising, auditing, demos, road shows, and other events.

Internal training.

Make certain your team is ready to speak to your new product. While sales, marketing, and support will need the more in-depth product knowledge, everyone in your company should have at least a high-level understanding of what you new product is, and why it’s important.

Product & quoting setup.

The final part of going live is ensuring the process of setting up SKUs and templates for Sales is done correctly. Test each type of SKU across every step necessary in your system before going live.

That’s a wrap on our Crash Course in Product Development series. By following the aforementioned advice—shared in bite-sized pieces over the last few weeks—you’ll be well positioned to successfully develop and launch new products.