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7          2                                    2009




End Boring
Marketing Now
Why a focus on sales leads and
marketing ROI causes online
marketing failure




                                                  How to Turn
                                                 Sales Engineers
                                               into Your Biggest Fans


                                             Goals, Readiness
                                           and Constraints:
                                         The Three Dimensions
                                       of Product Launch


                                I Know Nothing
                              about Product Naming
                            (but that Doesn’t Stop Me from Doing It!)
EE eBook
                                                    FR




            The Strategic Role
         of Product Management
How a market-driven focus leads companies
  to build products people want to buy
                                                      By Steve Johnson



                                                         This free e-book explains why product management can and should
              Role of
The Strategic         GEMENT
         ANA                                             play a strategic role in a technology company. One which ensures
PRODUCT MHow a market-driven focus
                              build
                  leads compa
                               nies to                    products are created not just because they can be, or because
                                want to buy
               prod ucts people
                                           n
                                  By Steve Johnso
                                                          someone thinks it is a good idea but because someone has listened

                                                           to the market, identified an urgent and pervasive problem, and

                                                           determined that people are willing to pay to solve it.




                                                              Download at
                                                     www.PragmaticMarketing.com/srpm

                         T h e I n d u s t r y S t a n d a r d f o r Te c h n o l o g y P r o d u c t M a n a g e m e n t a n d M a r k e t i n g
The Pragmatic Marketer ™
             8910 E. Raintree Drive
                                                       Inside this issue:          Volume 7     Issue 2 • 2009
             Scottsdale, AZ 85260
          Pragmatic Marketing, Inc.
                Founder and CEO
                   Craig Stull
                 Editor-in-Chief                                               4     End Boring Marketing Now
              Kristyn Benmoussa                                                      Why a focus on sales leads and marketing
                      Editor                                                         ROI causes online marketing failure
                  Linda Sowers                                                       By David Meerman Scott
  —————————————————                                                                  Creating a World Wide Rave, in which other
    Interested in contributing an article?                                           people help to tell your story, is a way to drive
                                                                                     action. You can create the triggers that get millions
Visit www.PragmaticMarketing.com/submit
                                                                                     of people to tell your stories and spread your ideas.
                                                                                     But first, you’ve got to lose control.
No part of this publication may be reproduced,
stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in
any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical        12   How to Turn Sales Engineers into Your Biggest
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the            Fans
prior written permission of the publisher.
For advertising rates, call (480) 515-1411.                  By Darrin Mourer
Other product and/or company names mentioned                 Here are some tips not only for a successful, working
in this journal may be trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective companies and                 relationship, but also the fundamental activities that will
are the sole property of their respective owners.            turn SEs into the PM’s biggest fans.
The Pragmatic Marketer, a Pragmatic Marketing
publication, shall not be liable regardless of the
cause, for any errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or
other defects in, or untimeliness or unauthenticity             20      Goals, Readiness and Constraints:
of, the information contained within this magazine.
Pragmatic Marketing makes no representations,
                                                                        The Three Dimensions of Product Launch
warranties, or guarantees as to the results obtained                    By David Daniels
from the use of this information and shall not be
liable for any third-party claims or losses of any
kind, including lost profits, and punitive damages.
                                                                        Many companies mistakenly believe their product will
The Pragmatic Marketer is a trademark of
                                                                        sell itself and overcome any adversity. This couldn’t be
Pragmatic Marketing, Inc.                                               farther from the truth. A successful product launch requires
Printed in the U.S.A.                                                   skill, experience, market knowledge, and a process.
All rights reserved.
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ISSN 1938-9760 (Online)
                                                                27      I Know Nothing about Product Naming
About Pragmatic Marketing®                                              (but that Doesn’t Stop Me from Doing It!)
Pragmatic Marketing provides training seminars,
onsite workshops, consulting services and an                            By April Dunford
online resource center for technology product
managers, product marketers and the executives                          As a marketer for a new product, naming is something you
who lead them.                                                          may have to do even though you know nothing about it. There
Over 60,000 product management and marketing                            isn’t a magic formula for creating a good product name, but
professionals at 4,500 companies in the United
States, Australia, Canada, England, Finland, France,                    a well-considered, rational process for picking the least awful
Germany, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore and                         name out of all of the possible awful names out there is better
South Africa have been trained with the Pragmatic
Marketing Framework, a practical, market-driven                         than anyone’s gut feel—and, frankly, the best you can do.
approach to creating and delivering technology
products. More than 10,000 have become Pragmatic
Marketing Certified, the world’s leading product
management certification program.
Creators of the best-selling book Tuned In: Uncover
the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to
Business Breakthroughs, Pragmatic Marketing has
been recognized three times by Inc. magazine as
one of America’s fastest growing private companies
(2000, 2007, 2008) and named a Comerica Bank
Arizona Company to Watch in 2008.
Visit www.PragmaticMarketing.com to learn more.




                                                                                   The Pragmatic Marketer   •   Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009
                                                                                                                        ,                •   3
END BORING MARKETING NOW
Why a focus on sales leads and marketing ROI causes online marketing failure
                                                     By David Meerman Scott




4   •   The Pragmatic Marketer   •   Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009
                                             ,
Matt Harding is the creator of one of the coolest series of YouTube videos I have ever seen. You’ve
probably seen them, too. Harding describes himself as “a 32-year-old deadbeat from Connecticut,
who used to think that all he ever wanted to do in life was make and play videogames.”
On a trip wandering around Asia several years ago, Harding was in Hanoi when a friend suggested
that he film a particular silly dance that he occasionally does when the moment is right. Some time later,
a friend posted the video of Matt on his blog, and people passed around a link, one to another, until
a lot of people had seen it.


So where is Matt?                                         was shot in San Francisco on a cross-country road
                                                          trip, and then he set out abroad. The round-the-
Fast-forward to 2006. Marketing people at Stride          world journey required six months and 76 airplane
gum had seen Harding’s video and contacted him,           flights. The last clip was shot in Seattle a few days
saying, “We like what you’re doing. We want to            after his final landing.
help you.” They agreed to sponsor a six-month
trip through thirty-nine countries and all seven
continents. “In that time, I danced a great deal,”        What’s the ROI from 1 million happy people?
                                                                               1
Harding writes. The resulting video, which he             I particularly like that the sponsor of the trip only
posted to YouTube is called Where the Hell is             gets a two-second “thank you” from Harding at the
Matt? —and has been seen more than 11 million             very end. Stride’s logo did not appear throughout
times. “I didn’t do anything to promote the video         the video (the opposite of what most companies
myself,” he says. “It was a featured video on the         would have insisted on), and he didn’t do anything
YouTube site, and that was the kick start. But            to overtly promote the sponsor, such as holding
if people don’t pass it around, a video won’t             Stride gum in his hand while he danced. The
get a lot of views. It has to be real for people          product never appears; and yet, the video is so
to be interested.”                                        powerful that you’re almost compelled to watch
Matt Harding created what I call a World Wide             until the end and see the credits, where Stride is
Rave: when people around the world are talking            finally mentioned.
about you, your company, and your products—               Most importantly, the people at Stride did not
whether you’re located in San Francisco, Dubai,           require registration to see the video. They did not
or Reykjavík. It’s when global communities eagerly        insist on a marketing ROI that was tied to sales.
link to your stuff on the Web. It’s when online           Stride stepped back and let the World Wide Rave
buzz drives buyers to your virtual doorstep. And it’s     spread, and tens of millions of people were exposed
when tons of fans visit your website or read your         to the brand as a result.
blog because they genuinely want to be there.
                                                          “When the 2008 video was released, the 10,000
After that first trip, things settled down for a while.   people on my invite list all got a link to the video,
And then, in 2007, Harding went back to Stride            helping to generate a lot of early views,” Harding
with another idea. “With the release of the 2006          says. “There has been a lot of media coverage.
video, we created an email list on my site and            The New York Times did a story on the front page
invited people to sign up,” Harding says. “Many           of the Arts & Leisure section, and six stills of
people danced with me, and we showed some                 the video were shown as photos. It was a really
of that in an outtake video. I showed [the people         generous piece. That fed more media, because so
from Stride] my inbox, which was overflowing              many members of the media read the Times. Lots
with emails from all over the planet. I told them         of other stories came out, and many new people
I wanted to travel around the world one more time         went to the video.”
and invite the people who’d written me to come
out and dance, too.” Stride agreed and, again,            Where the Hell is Matt (2008) is a smash-hit
sponsored his journey.                                    World Wide Rave (more than 11 million people
                                                          have seen it on YouTube and on his site). But if
The resulting video, Where the Hell is Matt? (2008),      Harding or Stride gum had tried to use the sorts of
is remarkable both for Harding and for Stride. The        measurement that most executives insist on, this
video was 14 months in the making, and it features        success never could have happened. Without their
a cast of thousands. This time, Harding visited 42        willingness to lose control, the video never would
countries, from Bhutan to Zanzibar, and danced in         have been made, let alone become a hit.
all of them with enthusiastic locals. The first clip
                                                                 The Pragmatic Marketer   •   Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009
                                                                                                      ,                •   5
End Boring Marketing Now: Why a focus on sales leads and marketing ROI causes online marketing failure


What do you have to lose but control?                         Yes, this advice will come as a shock to many
                                                              marketers steeped in the tradition of direct mail
You don’t have to be a dancing machine to have                advertising—a form of marketing that always
nothing to lose.                                              requires disclosure of personal information via a
Yes, it’s inspiring that the Matt Hardings of the             toll-free phone call or Business Reply Card (BRC).
world can reach millions and transform their lives            Marketers who learned the secret workings of
and businesses through the power of the World                 BRCs, the ins and outs of buying contact lists, and
Wide Rave. But even the biggest, most conservative,           the subtle coercion tactics required when creating
multi-national corporations will find appropriate             “offers” naturally want to transfer these esoteric
ways to capture the power of “word-of-mouse” to               skills (some might even say “black arts”) to the
spread their ideas in new ways and to generate                Web. As a result, many folks create valuable and
buzz that leads to increased sales. And they might            interesting information online and then do the exact
even have some fun and reconnect with their                   wrong thing to distribute it—require viewers to
customers along the way. (When was the last time              provide personal information first.
your marketing was fun?)                                      This forced control is a terrible strategy for
Creating a World Wide Rave, in which other people             spreading your ideas. (However, if your only goal is
help to tell your story, is a way to drive action.            to build a mailing list, then the strategy may still be
One person sends it to another, then that person              valid. But how many companies are in the business
sends it to yet another, and on and on. Each link             of just building a list?) When you make people give
in the chain exposes your story to someone new,               an email address to get a whitepaper or watch a
someone you never had to contact yourself! It’s               video, only a tiny fraction will do so; you will lose
like when you’re at a sporting event or concert in            the vast majority of your potential audience.
a large stadium and somebody starts “the wave.”               You need to think in terms of spreading ideas,
Isn’t it amazing that just one person with an idea            not generating leads. A World Wide Rave gets the
can convince a group of 50,000 people to join in?             word out to thousands or even millions of potential
Well, you can start a similar wave of interest online,        customers. But only if you make your information
a World Wide Rave. You can create the triggers                easy to find and consume.
that get millions of people to tell your stories
and spread your ideas.
                                                              Sales leads are the wrong goal
But first, you’ve got to lose control.
                                                              I’m often confronted with the issue of how to
                                                              measure an online initiative’s results. Executives at
Spreading ideas and telling stories                           companies large and small, as well as marketing
For your ideas to spread and rise to the status of a          and PR people, tend to push back on the ideas of
World Wide Rave, you’ve got to give up control. Make          a World Wide Rave, simply because they want to
your information on the Web totally free for people           apply old rules of measurement to the new world
to access, with absolutely no virtual strings attached:       of spreading ideas online.
no electronic gates, no registration requirements,            The old rules of measurement used two metrics that
and no email address verification necessary.                  don’t matter for spreading ideas, especially online:
                                                                1. We measured leads—how many business cards
                                                                      we collected; how many people called
                                                                        the toll-free number; how many people
                                                                          stopped at the tradeshow booth; and
                                                                           how many people filled out a form
                                                                            on our website, providing their
                                                                            email address and other personal
                                                                            information.
                                                                              2. We measured press clips—the
                                                                                 number of times our company
                                                                                 and its products were mentioned
                                                                                 in mainstream media, such as
                                                                                 magazines, newspapers, radio,
                                                                            and television.


6   •   The Pragmatic Marketer   •   Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009
                                             ,
End Boring Marketing Now: Why a focus on sales leads and marketing ROI causes online marketing failure


While applying these forms of measurement might            •	 How many people are engaging with you and
be appropriate offline, using them to track your             choosing to speak to you about your offerings?
success on the Web just isn’t relevant; they don’t
capture information about the way ideas travel.            ROI makes you boring
Worse, the very act of tracking leads hampers
the spread of ideas.                                       Once you understand that the metrics of a World
                                                           Wide Rave are different from what marketers
People know from experience that if they supply            typically measure, you’ll need to think differently
their personal information to an organization,             about ROI. Again, I often get pushback on this idea
they’re likely to receive unwanted phone calls             from executives, who demand that their marketing
from salespeople or to find themselves on email            ROI be measured in precise financial terms.
marketing lists. Most won’t bother. In fact, I have
evidence from several companies that have offered          It seems that business schools teach their
information—both with and without a registration           students to obsess over measurement and insist
requirement—that when you eliminate the                    that marketing results be treated in the same way
requirement of supplying personal information,             you’d treat electricity use at company headquarters
the number of downloads or views goes up by as             or revenue from the Canadian market. These
much as a factor of 50. That’s right—if you require        executives want to know exactly how much revenue
an email address or other personal information,            each dollar spent on marketing is producing,
as little as 2% of your audience may bother to             and they want to see it in detailed, campaign-by-
download your stuff.                                       campaign spreadsheets.
Obsessing over sales leads and press clips is likely       This trend is causing marketers to become too
to be counter-productive and is highly likely to lead      cautious and boring. Measuring ROI for everything
to failure of your World Wide Rave.                        means choosing techniques such as direct mail
                                                           programs, where you can measure exactly how
For decades, companies have offered Web content as         many business reply cards are returned. While
lead bait. But the goal should be to get the word out      that information is useful, lusting after it often
about your organization, not to misuse the Internet        prevents marketers from investing in efforts that
for the sake of an outdated technique.                     could become World Wide Raves—solely because
Similarly, measuring success by focusing only on           traditional measurement data is not available
the number of times the mainstream media write or          from those efforts.
broadcast about you misses the point. If a blogger is      For many executives, an obsession with ROI is just
spreading your ideas, that’s great. If 10 people email     a convenient excuse to shy away from something
a link to your information to their networks or post       new and untested. Yet that’s exactly what the best
about you on their Facebook page, that’s amazing.          ideas for creating a World Wide Rave are—new
You’re reaching people, which was the point of             and untested.
seeking media attention in the first place. But most
PR people only measure traditional media, and this         Here’s the contradiction: The same executives
practice doesn’t capture the value of sharing.             who insist on ROI measurements from marketing
                                                           departments, happily invest huge sums of money
To create a World Wide Rave, forget about sales            on other things whose returns are also incalculable
leads, and ignore mainstream media. Instead, focus         from an ROI perspective—such as the design of the
on spreading your ideas. Make your information             lobby, the fresh coat of paint in the hallway, or even
totally free, with no registration required.               the accounting staff. When CEOs and executives
Here are some questions that can help you learn            resort to ROI excuses, I ask, “What’s the ROI of the
to measure a World Wide Rave:                              army of landscapers who are constantly at work on
                                                           the plants around your corporate headquarters?”
•	 Howmany people are being exposed                        Usually my question is met with embarrassment.
 to your ideas?
                                                           Take a chance. Make the assumption that if millions
•	 How   many people are downloading your stuff?           of people are sharing your ideas (that’s a number
                                                           you can measure), then some percentage of them
•	How often are bloggers writing about you and
                                                           will ultimately buy your products.
 your ideas? (And what are those bloggers saying?)
•	 Whereare you appearing in online search results
 for important phrases?

                                                                  The Pragmatic Marketer   •   Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009
                                                                                                       ,                •   7
End Boring Marketing Now: Why a focus on sales leads and marketing ROI causes online marketing failure


Make it free                                                  The Email Marketing Metrics Report was first
                                                              released October 2004. “Initially we required
Search for the phrase “email marketing metrics”               registration to get the report [downloaders needed
on Google, and you’ll find nearly 400,000 hits,               to supply an email address], and we got some initial
plus dozens of paid advertisements. This is a                 interest, but not big numbers,” Khera says. “When
hot search phrase because people who want to                  we opened it up and made the report available
manage an email marketing program for their                   totally free, we found that 20 times the number
organization—small business owners, consultants,              of people downloaded it. Thousands of people
people who work in marketing departments of                   were getting it.”
large organizations, and nonprofit employees—often
search for important email marketing benchmarks               Wow, stop and think about that. Many companies
(things such as click-through rates and the best              put registration requirements on their most valuable
days to begin campaigns).                                     information. But here is real evidence that, if
                                                              you do, only a fraction of potential readers or
With so many companies fighting over the high                 viewers will request it. As mentioned earlier, other
search positions for the phrase “email marketing              companies have cited that as few as one person
metrics,” only one can be the top dog. Meet                   in fifty will download something if personal
MailerMailer, the company that controls the                   information is required, compared to when the
Number 1 position. MailerMailer sells an online               same information is offered totally free.
tool that makes it easy to create, send, and track
email campaigns. The tool is used by musicians,               Clearly, having one of the most popular and
restaurants, software companies, event promoters,             most referenced sources of email marketing data
nonprofits, and other organizations. This small               is a huge marketing asset. When people read
company is Number 1 because of its free Email                 about email marketing metrics in a report from
Marketing Metrics Report.                                     MailerMailer, they naturally consider purchasing
                                                              MailerMailer products and services to help them
Of course, it’s no surprise that the Number 1                 with their email marketing programs. The report
spot for an important search term was garnered                contains a free trial offer for MailerMailer services.
by a company that creates some very valuable                  “We’re one of the top 10 companies in the email
information—and offers it to anyone for free. “We             marketing space,” says Khera. “The product
analyzed over 300 million opt-in email newsletters            promotes itself.”
and campaigns sent by a sample of over 3,200
MailerMailer customers in the second half of 2007,”
says Raj Khera, CEO of MailerMailer. “This free               Stop making excuses
report reveals the most recent email marketing                Excuses. I constantly hear excuses.
trends.” For example, readers will discover which
industries experienced the highest percentage of              Marketing people have excuses for why they
email opening rates and how frequently to send                can’t create a World Wide Rave. CEOs, company
emails to reach the most people. Chock-full of                presidents, and other executives have excuses
charts and graphs, the valuable data made available           for why their particular product, service, or
for free would likely command a price of $10,000              organization doesn’t have potential to spread online.
(or more) if a consulting firm provided it.                   Authors and musicians offer excuses for why their
                                                              books or music aren’t selling.
Twenty or one: which is better?                               Often, the excuse comes to me like this: “But David,
                                                              we’re a _______. We can’t do that.” You can fill
The free Email Marketing Metrics Report has helped
                                                              in the blank with your organization’s excuse. I’ve
MailerMailer create a World Wide Rave. “Our
                                                              already heard most of them: big company, small
metrics are now quoted all over the Web, in places
                                                              company, public company, venture-funded company,
like eMarketer and MarketingSherpa, and by ad
                                                              nonprofit, church, accountant, blood donation
agencies, companies, bloggers, reporters, analysts,
                                                              center, indie rock band, famous university, blah,
and others who use it for data in their stories and
                                                              blah, blah. Sorry, but they’re all just excuses.
reports,” Khera says. “We’ve seen over 500 blogs
pointing to the data. There was a tremendous
amount of industry recognition about the report.”




8   •   The Pragmatic Marketer   •   Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009
                                             ,
Portions of this article appear in World Wide
                                                                   Rave, the new book by David Meerman Scott,
                                                                   published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. March 2009.
If you’re obsessed with ROI measurements that worked               ISBN 978-0-470-39500-4. Used with permission.
in an offline world, then you’re just making an excuse.
If you worry about losing control of your message, then
you’re making an excuse.                                           World Wide Rave,
Another excuse I hear a lot these days comes from                  the new book from David Meerman Scott
people pointing to polls and research reports that ask             A World Wide Rave is when people around
questions such as “Do you read blogs?” or “Do you use              the world are talking about you, your company,
social media?” or “Do you go to video-sharing sites?”              and your products—whether you’re located in
Often the data show rather small use compared to those             San Francisco, Dubai, or Reykjavík. It’s when
who, say, use search engines or email.                             global communities eagerly link to your stuff
This sort of data is misleading and dangerous to an                on the Web. It’s when online buzz drives
organization’s overall marketing and PR efforts, dangerous         buyers to your virtual doorstep. And it’s when
enough that I’ve decided to close with this point. Why?            tons of fans visit your Web site and your blog
Because these data are used by resistant executives to             because they genuinely want to be there.
justify sticking exclusively to the methods that worked            How do you start one?
decades ago, such as image advertising, direct mail, and           It helps to know the rules:
the yellow pages. I frequently hear CEOs, CFOs, and VPs
of marketing say things like: “See, social media, blogs,
and YouTube are not important, so we won’t do them                 Rules of the Rave
here. They’re a waste of time.” Others say: “I don’t read          •	 Nobody cares about your products
blogs, so how important are they?”                                   (except you).
These excuses miss two tremendously important points:              •	 No    coercion required.
•	 First,
        practically everyone regularly uses Google and             •	 Lose    control.
  other search engines, and the searches frequently
  return blog posts, YouTube videos, and other social              •	 Put   down roots.
  media content high in the results. So even though                •	 Create
                                                                           triggers that encourage
  people may report “no” when asked if they use social               people to share.
  media, nearly everyone finds this content via search.
                                                                   •	 Point   the world to your (virtual) doorstep.
•	 Similarly,
            when people who are not regular users
  of social media ask their (non-social-media) networks            You can trigger a World Wide Rave too; just
  for advice, they often do it via email. Frequently the           create something valuable that people want
  answers that come back include URLs to company                   to share, and make it easy for them to do so.
  and product pages. And those links from friends,
  colleagues, or family members often include blog
  posts and other social media content. A mother may
  ask her friends a question such as: “What’s the best
  baby stroller to buy?” The answer may include a link
  to a blog post or a site with an embedded video.
  Again, the person asking for advice probably
  didn’t even know she’d been sent to a blog or
  video-sharing site.




                                                             The Pragmatic Marketer      •   Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009
                                                                                                     ,                •   9
End Boring Marketing Now: Why a focus on sales leads and marketing ROI causes online marketing failure


Many people who reach information via search                   While this all seems simple enough, it’s rarely
don’t know what sort of “media” they’re enjoying!              practiced. But those who adopt these ideas usually
Don’t let your bosses diminish the hidden value                win big.
of social media as search engine fodder and as
valuable sources of information that people share              Most important, you can only be successful if you
with their networks.                                           lose control. Your challenge is to let go of your
                                                               excuses and corporate inhibitions. Go out and
A World Wide Rave—having others tell and spread                create something interesting that people will be
your story for you—is one of the most exciting                 eager to share.
and powerful ways to reach your audiences. It’s
not easy to harness that power, but any company                What do you have to lose? (Besides control.)
with thoughtful ideas to share—and clever ways
to create interest in them—can, after some careful
preparation, become famous and find success
on the Web.
The biggest requirement is that you change your
behavior, so let me remind you of the most
important strategies for successful marketing in a                              David Meerman Scott is a
world of social media:                                                          marketing strategist, entrepreneur,
                                                                                keynote speaker, seminar leader,
•	 Stop obsessing over the old measurements of
  sales leads and marketing ROI.                                                and the author of a number-
                                                                                one, best-selling business book,
•	 Make your valuable online content free, and don’t                   The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How
  require registration.                                                to use news releases, blogs, podcasting,
•	 Give away lots of good information (videos,                         viral marketing & online media to reach
  photos, data, graphs, audio, blogs, e-books, and                     buyers directly, which is being published
  the like) to enthusiastic or curious people                          in 22 languages. He is also a co-author
  interested in your products and services.                            of Tuned In and the developer of the
                                                                       Pragmatic Marketing, Inc. seminar, The New
•	 Encourage     an organizational culture of sharing.
                                                                       Rules of Marketing. His new book World
                                                                       Wide Rave was released in March 2009.

                                                                       Check out his popular blog at
                                                                       www.WebInkNow.com or follow him on
                                                                       Twitter at http://twitter.com/dmscott




10   •   The Pragmatic Marketer   •   Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009
                                              ,
Book Review                                                By Steve Johnson


          Some marketers focus on pushing their message with branding
          and PR and creating “buzz.” David Meerman Scott has another
          approach: get your customers to tell your story.
          Few of us are fooled by traditional PR, particularly for
          technology products. After all, the reporters generally know
          less on the subject than their readers. And few of us are fooled
          by fake buzz. On IMDB, it’s fairly common to read a glowing
          review of a just-released movie by a person who has written
          only one review. Gee, could that be a PR staffer who is trying
          to prime the pump? Like that guy who laughs so loudly at a
          comedy routine that you realize he’s a shill. Happily, IMDB and
          bloggers in general are savvy enough to spot such fake behavior
          and call them out.
          Instead of creating artificial buzz, Scott advocates marketing your
          products by helping your customers tell your story. Talk about
an industry problem (that naturally your product or company can solve)
and watch customers tell their friends. Create chat rooms and discussion
forums to help customers connect with each other; create funny videos
and electronic product content that can be shared. Write something real,
something that matters!, and be amazed that people share it, pass it
along, comment on it, include it in their social networks.
When was the last time you clicked on a link to a YouTube video sent
by a corporation? Likely never. But if the link comes from a friend,
you’ll certainly check it out.
World Wide Rave is a how-to book on using social media in your
marketing mix. Or perhaps, using social media AS your marketing mix.
If you insist on getting personal information like name, title, buying
intention, email, and mailing address, people will most often just walk
away and never read your product information. Write an ebook, share it
freely (without trying to make it a leadgen vehicle), and you’ll get leads
anyway. And better still, the leads are people who came to you instead
of you coming, hat in hand, to them.
The old rule was “beg reporters for coverage.” The new rules bypass the
established order of press and advertising to embrace real people with
real stories that persuade.
Great marketing programs start with “There’s a problem in the industry
today.” They don’t start with “Our product...” Read World Wide Rave for
using social media to get your customers to tell your story and bring
customers to you.



Steve Johnson is a recognized thought-leader on the strategic role of
product management and marketing. Broadly published and a frequent
keynote speaker, Steve has been a Pragmatic Marketing instructor for
more than 10 years and has personally trained thousands of product
managers and hundreds of company senior executive teams on strategies
for creating products people want to buy. Steve is the author of the Product
Marketing blog. Contact Steve at sjohnson@pragmaticmarketing.com
                            The Pragmatic Marketer   •   Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009
                                                                 ,                •   11
How to Turn Sales Engineers into
Your Biggest Fans                                                                                   By Darrin Mourer


Let’s assume you are the product manager (PM) at a startup that is gaining a lot of traction.
You meet with lots of prospects alongside executive management. Often, you are the only person
in the meeting who truly understands your product. You have the entire feature set memorized.
You understand how it was constructed. You probably even know why a button was placed
just so in the interface.

Then the company begins to grow. The founders don’t have time to pursue all the opportunities
directly, so they decide to hire a sales force. Once that happens, everything changes. The account
executive assumes the role of the corporate executive, and a sales engineer (SE) takes on most
of the role you were playing in front of customers. You now have a much different (and
welcomed!) problem: How do you convey what you know to salespeople and SEs?

In reality, it doesn’t matter much if you are hiring a sales force for the first time or
are a PM in a large, multi-national corporation. The stakes are high in the PM’s
ability to work with salespeople and enable the SEs who support them.

I have worked with many gifted SEs and                         or a roadmap
PMs who were able to function beautifully                      topic needs direct
together—both inside and outside the office                    committal.
walls. I have also witnessed more than
my fair share of strife between these two                      But you may be
organizations. Along the way, I uncovered                      surprised to learn
some tips not only for a successful, working                   that some PMs are
relationship, but also the fundamental                         highly sought after
activities that will turn SEs into the PM’s                    by the sales force,
biggest fans.                                                  and some are avoided
                                                               unless absolutely
A fan is an SE with a genuine passion for                      necessary. What is the
promoting your product to your customer                        difference? The two key
base. If you’ve spent any time with a large                    components are the passion
sales organization, you’ll notice that there                   you bring and your depth
are many reps and SEs who go through the                       of knowledge. Translating
motions of selling, but who don’t bring the                    that passion and knowledge
same enthusiasm to the presentation that                       to the sales force brings substantial
you might. In other words, they are treating                   rewards by allowing you to scale
it like someone else’s baby, whereas you                       your responsibilities as your
treat it as your own.                                          company grows.
                                                               To complete this transition, be aware
Substantial rewards                                            of three critically important needs:
Have you ever wondered why sales teams                         •	 Transparency    (understanding)
love to get a PM in front of customers,
when others on the sales team could have                       •	 Formal   process (consistency)
accomplished the same task? There are
                                                               •	 Transference   (scalability)
certainly cases where your “title” is needed


12   •   The Pragmatic Marketer   •   Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009
                                              ,
Transparency                                          •	 Sharethe roadmap. I’ve heard arguments for
                                                         and against sharing roadmap information with
                      Transparency is a combination      Sales. Regardless of your position, know this
       of openness and honesty. The underlying           unmistakable fact: If SEs are not well informed
principle is trust, which is the most important          on the subject, they will be less passionate about
building block for having passionate SEs. Without        your product. You no doubt hold in your head a
trust, you will not be able to create a higher level     plan for world domination, which serves as the
of performance in the SE force. These suggestions        aquifer feeding your passion. Transfer that
are meant to give you the edge in building trust         passion to your SEs.
across the sales/SE force.                               Even if you feel the need to hold back your
•	 The Pragmatic Marketing Framework . Despite
                                     ™                   roadmap from sales reps (a separate issue),
  being in the field as an SE for many years,            withholding this information from SEs deprives
  I did not have a full appreciation for product         them of a critical piece of ammo they may be
  management until I began studying the                  able to use with a customer. Give them advance
  role in more detail. One primary driver of             insight into your plans apart from reps; you will
  miscommunication is the abstract nature in             see this trust reciprocated.
  understanding how products are designed and            I will make you three promises as to what will
  built. Here are three key points I’ve learned          happen if you are very open with your roadmap:
  from the Pragmatic Marketing seminars that             1) You will have more passionate SEs, 2) this
  all SEs need to know:                                  information will occasionally be misused and will
  1. Competencies, personas, and target markets.         backfire, and 3) the benefits of sharing it will far
     Develop personas for your target audiences          outweigh any negative effects. You want your
     and introduce your SEs to them. Paint a very        customers to understand and buy into your vision.
     clear picture of why personas are important         Communicating this to the SE force is the only
     and how SEs can use them to qualify                 way to make this happen on a large scale.
     an opportunity.                                   •	 InvolveSEs in product direction. The first step is
  2. Feature selection process. SEs need to              articulating your vision. Moving beyond this, you
     understand how a feature makes it into a            need to push into participation and ownership—
     product. Having a nebulous cloud where              where SEs have a direct impact.
     feature requests go in and sometimes emerge         SEs will often provide generalized feature
     in the product takes a huge bite of morale          requests based on their experiences with a
     out of the SE force.                                handful of customers. Realize, however, that
  3. Provide the “why.” One reason PMs make              an SE’s commission is often directly tied to
     effective product presenters is that they are       product direction as it relates to his/her accounts.
     typically better equipped to provide the            Because of this, SEs are very attentive to customer
     “why” behind product features, direction,           feedback. Because this feedback is generated
     or perceived weaknesses. SEs not only need          during the sales process, you need to qualify
     to understand the reason behind specific            these data points—but ignoring them is another
     features, they need to understand what isn’t        huge morale killer. Qualify, yes. Discount, no.
     in the product and the reason behind those          You likely know who your top SEs are. Get them
     decisions. Customers are usually willing to         together and ask for a trusted volunteer (maybe
     accept a perceived shortcoming if they have         it’s an SE manager) to represent the sales force
     a clear explanation of the reasoning that           during your strategy calls. Finally, and most
     went into the design. Providing SEs with            importantly, you need to communicate back to
     this information gives them a greater sense         the SEs when this input has a direct effect on
     of confidence in handling objections, which         product direction. When SEs feel they can help
     ultimately leads to shorter sales cycles.           influence product direction, they develop a sense
                                                         of accountability that translates into a genuine
                                                         desire to see your product succeed.




                                                            The Pragmatic Marketer   •   Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009
                                                                                                 ,                •   13
How to Turn Sales Engineers into Your Biggest Fans



Formal process                                                       Too often, feature conversations devolve into
                                                                     defensive posturing. Having a well-defined
                                Not only is a formal                 and well-communicated process allows you to
                process for product releases essential               separate emotion from input—and leads to more
       with large, multi-product corporations, but it is a           collaborative discussions.
     key growth enabler in smaller companies. A formal               There are four areas to consider in developing your
     process is vital because it leads to what we crave—             formal process:
     consistency. Consistency is yet another building
     block of trust. Set clear expectations up front                 •	 Releasecycle. Involving SEs as official stakeholders
     for your SEs, and always deliver or exceed those                  in your release cycle is critical. Make it super
     expectations. SEs won’t have a strong opinion on                  simple for SEs to get involved early in the
     the process you follow, just that you have one you                process. Not only do SEs feel like they get a
     stick to and that they can follow.                                sneak peek, the usability feedback they provide
                                                                       will be invaluable if you obtain it early enough to
                                                                       make corrections before launch. Never solicit this
                                                                       feedback, however, unless you plan to use it.
                                                                       What’s more, this early involvement ensures that
                                                                       things like Sales training are scheduled with
                                                                       appropriate lead times—so your sales force is
                                                                       ready to start selling your product from day
                                                                       one of your launch.
                                                                     •	 Enhancement  requests. I cringe when I speak
                                                                       with a PM who manages requirements in a
                                                                       spreadsheet. It’s not so much the medium itself,
                                                                       but that those PMs who use spreadsheets this way
                                                                       typically don’t have a standardized—let alone
                                                                       transparent—process.




Critical	Components	for	the	Release	Process
It really doesn’t matter what your release process              •	   Don’t	ask	for	market	research. That’s your job.
is, just that it exists and includes these basic                     Too often I hear, “Will you tell what the dollar
components:                                                          value is of this feature?” That question signals a
                                                                     PM team is not aware of the market.
•	   Use	a	standard	submission	form. Even if you
     have to stand up a web server under your desk to           •	   Always	provide	a	response	and	a	reason.
     create a web form to capture all of your required               Though SEs may be disappointed, we all
     fields, do it. Do not constantly ask, “Will you send            understand not all features can make a release.
     me an email on that?”                                           Always provide a detailed explanation of why a
                                                                     feature was denied or deferred and what you plan
•	   Keep	it	closed	loop. Automate as much of the
                                                                     to do about it in the future.
     service as you can. Always provide a way SEs can
     check status without emailing you. It’s even better        •	   Build	the	community.	In other words, don’t waste
     if the system automatically sends a tickler update              SEs time. Expose all features currently on the list,
     to the submitter letting them know it’s still                   and let SEs contribute data to existing entries—
     being evaluated.                                                rather than entering entirely new ones. This also
                                                                     helps automatically bubble up trends.
                                                                •	   Have	a	priority	flag.	Allow for instances where an
                                                                     SE needs immediate feedback if a deal hinges on
                                                                     your response.
14    •   The Pragmatic Marketer   •   Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009
                                               ,
Fr M                                     Po                         A
                                                             g ng and
                                                                  ®
                                                                                                                                               er
                                                          in                                                                                tom ion
                                                       et anagi                                                   les
                                                                                                                Stay current
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                                                                                       ne                       Sa ess                  Cu tent
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                                                                                                                   c
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                                    M el                                                                                                            nch
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  If you don’t nail the enhancement request process, you can write
                          gmt-Drive
  off creating passionate SEs. Why? Because SEs need to feel that                       Pri
                                                                                           cin
                                                                                                g              with industry
                                                                                                                      M em
                                                                                                                        uir
                                                                                                                            et s
                                                                                                                        ark ent                  Lau lan
                                                                                                                                                    P
  their customers’ inputa heard, and SEs need a standard vehicle
                                                                                                                     eq
                      Pr isarke
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                                                                                                                                 ct                      gr
                            M
   for communicating deal-breaker requirements that require                                         uild r                     du ap                  ro t
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   immediate action. A                                          ark g
                                                               M zin                        Bu Partn                          oa                      St
                                                                                                                             R
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   Believe it or not, it is great to have “too many” feature requests                                        t                       du g
                                                                             ct                         d uc                      r o ni n
                                                                                                                                P n
                                                 ve
   coming from SEs. When they stop, it’s time to worry, because ce       du                          Pro t folio
                                              cti                    Pro rman                                                    Pl
                                                                                                                                    a
                                           tin tence
   they’ve reached a state of indifference. Actively seek out input,                                  Po
                                                                                                         r
                                        Dis pe for this feedback.      rfo                                           t                     er
   and always exude extreme appreciation   m                        Pe                l                          uc                     Us nas
                                        Co
   Nothing would endear me more to a product manager than this.na                                            o d egy
                                                     et                          ati
                                                                                    o
                                                                                                          P r at                          rso
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•	 Engagement process. From time to time, M ea involvement O M
                                                your                       in the                e         St
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   sales process is required. And it is almost always invaluable.                           t iv                          on
                                                                                                                                                  e
                                                                                                                                               Us rios
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   From a Sales standpoint, you are a “free” resource, so you will ant i ys
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                                                                    t                            oss                                                ele tone
                                                                                                                                                   R s
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                                                   C
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                                                             a                          Wi alys                                                    Mi
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   “available” and well organized.                                                           n                   Visit the
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                                                        AT

   A common complaint is that PMs are unresponsive; theirg              lo t
   inboxes and voicemail boxes are black holes. Whateverosmen   ech s
                                                                     n system
                                                                                                         PragmaticMarketing.com
                                                              R


   for engagement you choose, communicate it well andse        T enforce it
                                                           ST


                                                                  s
   consistently. If you claim to take product roadmapAquestionsive
                                                                               tit
   in a specific forum, but occasionally respond to email requests,is       pe                          •	 Review 9 years of Annual
                                                                        om alys
                                                                      C n
   you are invalidating your own process.                                 A                                Product Management and
                                                                                                             Marketing Survey results
•	 Playnice in the sandbox. In large organizations with multiple
                                                                                                                                                        eI
  product groups, it is important that you adopt consistent                                              •	 Attend  a webinar by one of               Th
  corporate processes. You’ll win more points than you know                                                  today’s industry thought-leaders
  by adhering to standard practices that make it easy for SEs
  to “do business with you.”                                                                             •	 Read   hundreds of articles on
  Reach out to other PM teams when you notice that practices                                                 product management, marketing
  aren’t shared. You won’t convert everyone, but if you are seen                                             and leadership strategies
  as a leader in streamlining processes that impact Sales (and
  other departments), you’ll make many friends in those ranks.                                           •	 Read   blogs from Pragmatic
  Only after you have standardized the process will it become                                                Marketing thought-leaders and
  repeatable. And when you have achieved repeatability in your                                               other industry experts
  dealings with SEs, your responsibilities can scale along with                                          •	 Stay connected with your
  your growing company.                                                                                      industry peers by joining a local
                                                                                                             Product Management Association

                                                                                                         •	 Read  profiles of companies who
                                                                                                             have achieved success using the
                                                                                                             Pragmatic Marketing Framework™

                                                                                                         •	 Participatein online
                                                                                                             networking with LinkedIn
                                                                                                             and Facebook groups

                                                                                                         •	 View  a list of recommended
                                                                                                             books and software tools for
                                                                                                             product managers and marketers
How to Turn Sales Engineers into Your Biggest Fans


                                                                  – Case studies rule the day. Though not fully the
     Transference                                                   domain of Product Management, ensuring
                                                                    Sales has real-life sizing studies from large
                                                                    beta customers (for example) is useful to SEs.
                    Transference is your ability to                 For the most part, exact sizing comes after the
            impart product knowledge to SEs so                      sale. Before the sale, the customer needs to
    they will be as successful as you are in front                  know whether or not your product will scale
 of customers. Essentially, this means removing                     for them, along with rough budget numbers.
 dependence on you for Sales-related functions,
 which removes you from the loop.                                 – Keep them updated. More granular sizing
                                                                    data will become available after the product
 Documentation and training make up the majority                    has been in production for a while. Engage
 of your opportunity to transfer your knowledge.                    with SEs/Services who oversee large
 Though it is one of the most mundane aspects                       deployments to ensure these insights make
 of PM work, it exerts inordinate influence on the                  it back into your documentation. If you skimp
 perception of the product—and of you—to the                        on the documentation, Sales might not be
 field. Make the most of these opportunities.                       comfortable selling your product to their
                                                                    largest customers.
 The following activities will make you a master
 in enabling the SE force:                                     •	 Competitive
                                                                            Data. Many SEs from different
                                                                types of companies all say the same thing:
 •	 The   “D” word—Documentation. Everyone knows
                                                                Our competitive information doesn’t give
     we need it, and everyone hates doing it. If you
                                                                me what I need, and it is usually outdated.
     follow my advice and add the SE organization to
                                                                This doesn’t need to be the case. I have seen
     the product release process, you will gain a head
                                                                competitive data beautifully orchestrated.
     start in developing documentation and product
                                                                Coincidentally, these products also had extreme
     collateral, as the SEs will be able to clearly
                                                                backing from the sales organization. If you want
     communicate message points to the team
                                                                passionate fans, follow these guidelines for
     developing documents.
                                                                providing competitive data:
     The Pragmatic Marketing maxim holds true:
                                                                  – Constantly update information. The need
     If you don’t create the collateral, others will fill
                                                                    for constant updates is so profound that
     the void. Start by engaging the Sales and SE
                                                                    many PMs have turned to wikis for more
     organizations to determine a standard set of
                                                                    fluid information. With that said, outdated/
     collateral templates. Then incorporate them into
                                                                    inaccurate data is worse than no data at all.
     your standard launch plan checklist, and assign
     someone on the product team to be accountable                – Be honest. Don’t be afraid to call your baby
     for monitoring all points of communication with                ugly. Articulate your target market and
     internal departments and customers.                            personas, and explain exactly when your
                                                                    product is best and when it is not. Let Sales
 •	 Performance      Data. SEs understand it is difficult to
                                                                    make the determination about how/when to
     create performance data for enterprise software
                                                                    overcome competitive weaknesses. Let me be
     because replicating enterprise environments is
                                                                    clear here: Marketing spin has no business
     tricky. Still, customers ask, so you need to give
                                                                    in your competitive analysis.
     your SEs a good answer. Here are some
     specific guidelines:                                         – Include feature/function comparisons. A
                                                                    common mistake is performing a business
         – Formulas are good. Providing small, medium,
                                                                    comparison without an in-depth, feature-by-
           and large implementation examples is better
                                                                    feature comparison. For example, an SE is
           than nothing, but they will be an endless
                                                                    working with a customer to define success
           point of debate. It is better to provide
                                                                    criteria in the proof of concept (POC). If they
           variable formulas that can approximate
                                                                    know the competitor (which they almost
           actual customers.
                                                                    always will) and have a feature-by-feature
                                                                    breakdown, the SE can customize the POC
                                                                    around your product’s strengths.




16   •   The Pragmatic Marketer   •   Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009
                                              ,
How to Turn Sales Engineers into Your Biggest Fans


   – Make competitive products available to SEs.         Bringing it together
     Within the spirit of your license (you are
     actually touching the competitive products,         Another fantastic Pragmatic Marketing maxim is that
     right?), let SEs get their hands on it. Not only    Product Management should be focused on helping
     does it give them a better understanding of         sales channels, not sales people. In order to build
     the usability, but it increases their tactile       effective channels, communication with SEs must
     learning, which is far more effective for           flow freely and be bidirectional.
     internalizing information.                          To have open communication, you need a high
•	 Training.
           Training is a difficult medium to master      degree of trust. Trust is established by being
  because you are dealing with many different            transparent (open and honest) and consistent
  audiences and skill levels. Here are some specific     (via a standard process).
  tips to maximize your training investment:             This process isn’t really about converting SEs into
   – Train the trainers. Unless you have a small         passionate fans—it’s about understanding that your
     sales force, don’t plan to train everyone in        fellow employees are some of your most important
     person. Identify the trainers and give them         customers. Anticipating and responding to the needs
     access to all the information they can stand.       of your internal customers to this degree connects
                                                         everybody to your vision. And it sets you up for the
   – Record and publish every session. With travel       highest levels of success.
     budgets undergoing cuts, enable the rest of
     the sales force to attend remote training.
   – Provide several formats. Not everyone learns
     the same way. Provide for instructor-led and
     self-paced training for maximum impact.
   – Hold training early. Schedule first rounds of
     training in your pre-release phase. Eighty
     percent of your SEs should have training before
     General Availability, or you risk a slow launch.
   – Minimize slideshows. Most SEs learn best
     by tactile learning. Have plenty of lab
     systems (if applicable) and spend most of
     the time working in the product itself. With a
     hands-on understanding, SEs will be able to
     pick up the qualification and other supporting
     information far easier.




                     Darrin Mourer is a veteran SE, SE Manager,
                     and is Pragmatic Marketing Certified. He is
                     also the editor of thesalesengineer.com, a blog
                     dedicated toward applying principle-centered
                     business practices to sales engineering. Contact
                     Darrin at www.thesalesengineer.com




                                                               The Pragmatic Marketer   •   Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009
                                                                                                    ,                •   17
Are your product management and marketing teams
         overloaded with tactical activities, spending too much
          time supporting Development and Sales rather than
                      focusing on strategic issues?

The Pragmatic Marketing Framework                              ™




                                                                                 © 1993-2009 Pragmatic Marketing




                                           Visit www.PragmaticMarketing.com or call (800) 816-7861

18   •   The Pragmatic Marketer   •   Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009
                                              ,
Product Management training
learn industry best practices
                                Practical Product Management defines the strategic role of product management
                                using the Pragmatic Marketing Framework™ (left). From how to identify market
                                problems to delivering a successful product plan.
                                Requirements That Work shows you a repeatable method for writing clear
                                requirements your team will read and use. It discusses techniques for prioritizing
                                and organizing market requirements and clarifies the roles for team members.
                                Pragmatic Roadmapping teaches techniques for developing, consolidating and
                                communicating product plans, strategy and vision to multiple audiences—both
                                inside and outside the company.


                                    Product Marketing training

                                Effective Product Marketing teaches how to create successful go-to-market
                                strategies using a structured, repeatable framework that supports an organization’s
                                goals for growth in revenue, market awareness and customer retention.
                                New Rules of Marketing shows how to harness
                                the power of online marketing using blogs,
                                viral marketing, podcasts, video, search engine
                                marketing and thought-leadership to reach
                                buyers directly.




                           In addition to the extensive published schedule, training can be conducted
                          onsite at your office, saving travel time and costs for attendees, and allowing
                                    a much more focused discussion on internal, critical issues.

                                     Pragmatic Marketing’s seminars have been attended by more than
                                         60,000 product management and marketing professionals.
                                                                            The Pragmatic Marketer   •   Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009
                                                                                                                 ,                •   19
Goals,                                             Organizations spend millions of dollars in research
                                                               and development to create the next great product,

     Readiness and                                             only to severely underfund the product launch


       Constraints:
                                                               process. Many mistakenly believe the product will
                                                               sell itself and overcome any adversity. This couldn’t


      The Three
                                                               be farther from the truth. A successful product
                                                               launch requires skill, experience, market knowledge,


  Dimensions of
                                                               and a process.




 Product Launch                                                Product launch is a topic that either elicits
                                                               nightmares or euphoria—there is no middle ground.
                                                               Those terrified by the thought of planning the next
                                          By David Daniels
                                                               product launch understand the expectations are
                                                               high and failure is not an option. On the other
                                                               hand, those with great excitement can lack the
                                                               experience to know what can go wrong.




                                                                  3.0


20   •   The Pragmatic Marketer   •   Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009
                                              ,
Launch story                                            reporting feature promised for Widget 3.0 won’t be
                                                        in the release, and he’s worried about the backlash
At Company A, great excitement surrounds the            he will get from Bob and the sales team, who are
upcoming launch of Widget 3.0. Robin, the product       likely promoting the missing feature.
manager, has been focusing all her energy on
finalizing Widget 3.0. She’s under enormous             Chen meets with Rebecca in Marketing
pressure; especially given the product is over budget   Communications to explain that it’s crunch time.
and six months late. Everyone in the company            The sales team is expecting brochures, web content,
believes this version will take the market by storm.    and the usual collection of sales tools—and they
The product is so good, it can’t fail.                  expect it now. Chen is under enormous pressure
                                                        to make the launch of Widget 3.0 a success. The
Chen, the product marketing manager, has been           fact that it’s late and missing a key feature doesn’t
sitting on the sidelines nervously awaiting word        matter. When Rebecca asks what Chen needs for
from Robin that Widget 3.0 is finally in a state        the launch, he requests one of everything, hoping
where he can start planning the launch. There           that it will satisfy the sales team. With a little luck,
have already been two false starts. The first was       something will stick and cause the market to take
an unforeseen technical problem. The second             notice and buy in droves.
happened when Development—in a moment of
false bravado—claimed the product would be ready        Chen hastily pulls together sales training for
to ship in a week. Both times, Chen invested his        Widget 3.0 to explain all the great, new features.
time and energy into planning the launch, only to       He delivers a standard sales presentation and demo.
stop, regroup, and try to save face with Sales. Now,    Rebecca then explains the “air cover” Marketing will
he isn’t going to move forward until he is certain      provide to the sales team. During the sales training
Widget 3.0 is ready.                                    Q&A, Chen and Robin are grilled and ridiculed
                                                        for dropping the promised feature, which the sales
Meanwhile, Bob, the VP of Sales, is growing more        team believes is critical to hitting its numbers.
anxious each day the product isn’t ready. He has a
quota for Widget 3.0; and, even though the launch       Chen knows that with greater visibility into
is six months behind schedule, the CEO still expects    what was happening with Widget 3.0, he could
Bob to “make it happen.” Realizing he doesn’t have      have better positioned it to the sales team—
the luxury of time, Bob instructs his sales team        acknowledging that, while the missing feature is
to start prospecting for Widget 3.0 customers—          clearly important, there is plenty of value in the
even when the final details of the product              other new features.
are not available.
                                                        On launch day, Widget 3.0 is announced.
So the sales team starts calling on prospects,          Unfortunately all of the prospects in the pipeline
with the hopes of building a pipeline for Widget        were expecting the dropped feature—and, as a
3.0. They create their own sales tools (without         result, become lost opportunities. The sales team
Chen’s input); and, before long begin to see            now has to build the Widget 3.0 pipeline from
their prospecting work transition into a pipeline       scratch, and they have lost confidence in the
of opportunities.                                       product. Under pressure, they focus on selling
                                                        other products to make their quota.
The saga continues                                      Sound familiar?
Robin, satisfied that Widget 3.0 will soon be ready,
meets with Chen to discuss the launch. With her
back against the wall, Robin provides a delivery
date, but little in the way of direction or product
positioning. Chen learns from Robin that the new




                                                             The Pragmatic Marketer   •   Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009
                                                                                                  ,                •   21
Goals, Readiness and Constraints: The Three Dimensions of Product Launch


The mythical product launch checklist                          Product launch goals
Too often, the people responsible for a product                One of the most critical aspects of planning
launch seek out the mythical product launch                    a product launch is to decide, up front, the
checklist that transforms any product launch into              expectations. Without a specific goal, there is
the realm of the iPhone. It doesn’t exist.                     no way to measure what winning looks like.
                                                               Management’s expectations will go unrealized.
Don’t get me wrong: Product launch checklists do               Resources will be misaligned. Budgets will either
exist. They just aren’t very effective, because they           be too high or too low. Without a goal, it is not
give the illusion of thorough planning. Successful             possible to measure Return on Investment (ROI),
product launches require a planning process that                            which leads to skepticism about how
examines multiple dimensions and adjusts according                          wisely money is being spent.
to prevailing conditions.
                                                                           Management’s expectations for the
Assuming the product actually works and isn’t                              success of a product launch are usually
a liability, there are three critical product launch                       too high. It starts when unrealistic
dimensions to evaluate during the planning process:                        expectations are set early in the
•	 Launch	goals                                                            product planning process, and is
                                                                           compounded by unbridled enthusiasm
•	 Launch	readiness	                                                       that the product is so good it can’t fail.
•	 Launch	constraints                                                      Because launch goals are often unclear,
Once the dynamics of all three dimensions are                              the budgets that support product
understood, then a product launch checklist can                            launches are all over the map. Without
be effective in specifying specific deliverables and                       goals as a cornerstone, budgets can
activities tailored for each product launch’s unique                       swing wildly based on opinion and
go-to-market circumstances.                                                internal political clout—rather than on
                                                                           fact-based rationale.
                                                                           When management’s expectations
                                                                           aren’t met, they begin to question the
                                                                           credibility of the people planning the
                                                                           product launch. The loss of credibility
                                                                           bleeds over to subsequent launches,
                                                                           where every expenditure is questioned
                                                                           and requires justification.
                                                                           Launch goals provide the anchor
                                                                           for a successful product launch.
                                                                           Unfortunately many launches aren’t
                                                                           grounded in goals that are specific,
                                                                           realistic, or attainable.




22   •   The Pragmatic Marketer   •   Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009
                                              ,
Goals, Readiness and Constraints: The Three Dimensions of Product Launch


Product launch readiness                                 Consider the sales team in the preceding product
                                                         launch story. Chen focused sales training on
The lack of organizational launch readiness is a         the product, which is not uncommon. Share the
point that many product launch planners fail to          cool new product features. Show a PowerPoint
fully appreciate. Who is ultimately responsible to       presentation. Give a product demo. Is Chen’s job
ensure the organization is ready to sell and support     to create presentations, demos, and write content
the product? Is there a reliable way to assess           for marketing collateral—or is it to enable the
launch readiness?                                        sales team to be successful at selling Widget
Product launches can be so focused on the product,       3.0? How could Chen possibly know what level
that getting the organization ready to sell and          of training the sales team needs without a
support it gets overlooked. We worry about product       readiness assessment?
features, product quality, product documentation,        When products are thrown over the wall to the
and product training.                                    sales team without adequate training and market
Have you considered that virtually every functional      knowledge, you’ve guaranteed at least a three-
area of your organization is affected by the launch      month delay in building the sales pipeline. There
of a product? The obvious functional area is Sales.      will be multiple stops and starts while the sales
But what about Customer Support, Accounting,             team gradually figures out what works. If you’re the
Delivery, and Legal?                                     product marketing manager, you’ll be pulled into
                                                         this thrashing process. You’ll create more slides,
Successful launch managers understand that launch        write more marketing collateral, and develop more
readiness goes beyond the product, extending into        product demos until you get it right.
every nook and cranny of the organization. They
don’t assume that other parts of the organization        When conducted ahead of a product launch, the
will be ready. They ensure that other parts of           Launch Readiness Assessment provides context and
the organization are ready. They demand it. They         rationale to management for actions recommended
measure it. And they make it happen.                     in the product launch plan. If the sales team is
                                                         expected to call on a new buyer, the plan should
                                                         show how they will learn to have a conversation
The Launch Readiness Assessment                          with that buyer and the tools to use to move the
Launch readiness doesn’t happen on its own.              prospect through the buying process.
It takes an understanding of what good launch
readiness looks like for each functional area and
a way to reliably test readiness in an objective
way. One way to address this is through a launch
readiness assessment.
The Launch Readiness Assessment is a tool used by
the launch manager as a guide to determine how
ready a functional area is to support the sale and
service of a product. The information contained
within the launch Readiness Assessment is a critical
input into the development of the launch plan as it
identifies readiness gaps that must be addressed in
order to achieve the launch goal.




                                                               The Pragmatic Marketer   •   Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009
                                                                                                    ,                •   23
The Pragmatic Marketer: Volume 7, Issue 2
The Pragmatic Marketer: Volume 7, Issue 2
The Pragmatic Marketer: Volume 7, Issue 2
The Pragmatic Marketer: Volume 7, Issue 2
The Pragmatic Marketer: Volume 7, Issue 2
The Pragmatic Marketer: Volume 7, Issue 2
The Pragmatic Marketer: Volume 7, Issue 2
The Pragmatic Marketer: Volume 7, Issue 2
The Pragmatic Marketer: Volume 7, Issue 2

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The Pragmatic Marketer: Volume 7, Issue 2

  • 1. 7 2 2009 End Boring Marketing Now Why a focus on sales leads and marketing ROI causes online marketing failure How to Turn Sales Engineers into Your Biggest Fans Goals, Readiness and Constraints: The Three Dimensions of Product Launch I Know Nothing about Product Naming (but that Doesn’t Stop Me from Doing It!)
  • 2. EE eBook FR The Strategic Role of Product Management How a market-driven focus leads companies to build products people want to buy By Steve Johnson This free e-book explains why product management can and should Role of The Strategic GEMENT ANA play a strategic role in a technology company. One which ensures PRODUCT MHow a market-driven focus build leads compa nies to products are created not just because they can be, or because want to buy prod ucts people n By Steve Johnso someone thinks it is a good idea but because someone has listened to the market, identified an urgent and pervasive problem, and determined that people are willing to pay to solve it. Download at www.PragmaticMarketing.com/srpm T h e I n d u s t r y S t a n d a r d f o r Te c h n o l o g y P r o d u c t M a n a g e m e n t a n d M a r k e t i n g
  • 3. The Pragmatic Marketer ™ 8910 E. Raintree Drive Inside this issue: Volume 7 Issue 2 • 2009 Scottsdale, AZ 85260 Pragmatic Marketing, Inc. Founder and CEO Craig Stull Editor-in-Chief 4 End Boring Marketing Now Kristyn Benmoussa Why a focus on sales leads and marketing Editor ROI causes online marketing failure Linda Sowers By David Meerman Scott ————————————————— Creating a World Wide Rave, in which other Interested in contributing an article? people help to tell your story, is a way to drive action. You can create the triggers that get millions Visit www.PragmaticMarketing.com/submit of people to tell your stories and spread your ideas. But first, you’ve got to lose control. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical 12 How to Turn Sales Engineers into Your Biggest photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the Fans prior written permission of the publisher. For advertising rates, call (480) 515-1411. By Darrin Mourer Other product and/or company names mentioned Here are some tips not only for a successful, working in this journal may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies and relationship, but also the fundamental activities that will are the sole property of their respective owners. turn SEs into the PM’s biggest fans. The Pragmatic Marketer, a Pragmatic Marketing publication, shall not be liable regardless of the cause, for any errors, inaccuracies, omissions, or other defects in, or untimeliness or unauthenticity 20 Goals, Readiness and Constraints: of, the information contained within this magazine. Pragmatic Marketing makes no representations, The Three Dimensions of Product Launch warranties, or guarantees as to the results obtained By David Daniels from the use of this information and shall not be liable for any third-party claims or losses of any kind, including lost profits, and punitive damages. Many companies mistakenly believe their product will The Pragmatic Marketer is a trademark of sell itself and overcome any adversity. This couldn’t be Pragmatic Marketing, Inc. farther from the truth. A successful product launch requires Printed in the U.S.A. skill, experience, market knowledge, and a process. All rights reserved. ISSN 1938-9752 (Print) ISSN 1938-9760 (Online) 27 I Know Nothing about Product Naming About Pragmatic Marketing® (but that Doesn’t Stop Me from Doing It!) Pragmatic Marketing provides training seminars, onsite workshops, consulting services and an By April Dunford online resource center for technology product managers, product marketers and the executives As a marketer for a new product, naming is something you who lead them. may have to do even though you know nothing about it. There Over 60,000 product management and marketing isn’t a magic formula for creating a good product name, but professionals at 4,500 companies in the United States, Australia, Canada, England, Finland, France, a well-considered, rational process for picking the least awful Germany, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore and name out of all of the possible awful names out there is better South Africa have been trained with the Pragmatic Marketing Framework, a practical, market-driven than anyone’s gut feel—and, frankly, the best you can do. approach to creating and delivering technology products. More than 10,000 have become Pragmatic Marketing Certified, the world’s leading product management certification program. Creators of the best-selling book Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to Business Breakthroughs, Pragmatic Marketing has been recognized three times by Inc. magazine as one of America’s fastest growing private companies (2000, 2007, 2008) and named a Comerica Bank Arizona Company to Watch in 2008. Visit www.PragmaticMarketing.com to learn more. The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009 , • 3
  • 4. END BORING MARKETING NOW Why a focus on sales leads and marketing ROI causes online marketing failure By David Meerman Scott 4 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009 ,
  • 5. Matt Harding is the creator of one of the coolest series of YouTube videos I have ever seen. You’ve probably seen them, too. Harding describes himself as “a 32-year-old deadbeat from Connecticut, who used to think that all he ever wanted to do in life was make and play videogames.” On a trip wandering around Asia several years ago, Harding was in Hanoi when a friend suggested that he film a particular silly dance that he occasionally does when the moment is right. Some time later, a friend posted the video of Matt on his blog, and people passed around a link, one to another, until a lot of people had seen it. So where is Matt? was shot in San Francisco on a cross-country road trip, and then he set out abroad. The round-the- Fast-forward to 2006. Marketing people at Stride world journey required six months and 76 airplane gum had seen Harding’s video and contacted him, flights. The last clip was shot in Seattle a few days saying, “We like what you’re doing. We want to after his final landing. help you.” They agreed to sponsor a six-month trip through thirty-nine countries and all seven continents. “In that time, I danced a great deal,” What’s the ROI from 1 million happy people? 1 Harding writes. The resulting video, which he I particularly like that the sponsor of the trip only posted to YouTube is called Where the Hell is gets a two-second “thank you” from Harding at the Matt? —and has been seen more than 11 million very end. Stride’s logo did not appear throughout times. “I didn’t do anything to promote the video the video (the opposite of what most companies myself,” he says. “It was a featured video on the would have insisted on), and he didn’t do anything YouTube site, and that was the kick start. But to overtly promote the sponsor, such as holding if people don’t pass it around, a video won’t Stride gum in his hand while he danced. The get a lot of views. It has to be real for people product never appears; and yet, the video is so to be interested.” powerful that you’re almost compelled to watch Matt Harding created what I call a World Wide until the end and see the credits, where Stride is Rave: when people around the world are talking finally mentioned. about you, your company, and your products— Most importantly, the people at Stride did not whether you’re located in San Francisco, Dubai, require registration to see the video. They did not or Reykjavík. It’s when global communities eagerly insist on a marketing ROI that was tied to sales. link to your stuff on the Web. It’s when online Stride stepped back and let the World Wide Rave buzz drives buyers to your virtual doorstep. And it’s spread, and tens of millions of people were exposed when tons of fans visit your website or read your to the brand as a result. blog because they genuinely want to be there. “When the 2008 video was released, the 10,000 After that first trip, things settled down for a while. people on my invite list all got a link to the video, And then, in 2007, Harding went back to Stride helping to generate a lot of early views,” Harding with another idea. “With the release of the 2006 says. “There has been a lot of media coverage. video, we created an email list on my site and The New York Times did a story on the front page invited people to sign up,” Harding says. “Many of the Arts & Leisure section, and six stills of people danced with me, and we showed some the video were shown as photos. It was a really of that in an outtake video. I showed [the people generous piece. That fed more media, because so from Stride] my inbox, which was overflowing many members of the media read the Times. Lots with emails from all over the planet. I told them of other stories came out, and many new people I wanted to travel around the world one more time went to the video.” and invite the people who’d written me to come out and dance, too.” Stride agreed and, again, Where the Hell is Matt (2008) is a smash-hit sponsored his journey. World Wide Rave (more than 11 million people have seen it on YouTube and on his site). But if The resulting video, Where the Hell is Matt? (2008), Harding or Stride gum had tried to use the sorts of is remarkable both for Harding and for Stride. The measurement that most executives insist on, this video was 14 months in the making, and it features success never could have happened. Without their a cast of thousands. This time, Harding visited 42 willingness to lose control, the video never would countries, from Bhutan to Zanzibar, and danced in have been made, let alone become a hit. all of them with enthusiastic locals. The first clip The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009 , • 5
  • 6. End Boring Marketing Now: Why a focus on sales leads and marketing ROI causes online marketing failure What do you have to lose but control? Yes, this advice will come as a shock to many marketers steeped in the tradition of direct mail You don’t have to be a dancing machine to have advertising—a form of marketing that always nothing to lose. requires disclosure of personal information via a Yes, it’s inspiring that the Matt Hardings of the toll-free phone call or Business Reply Card (BRC). world can reach millions and transform their lives Marketers who learned the secret workings of and businesses through the power of the World BRCs, the ins and outs of buying contact lists, and Wide Rave. But even the biggest, most conservative, the subtle coercion tactics required when creating multi-national corporations will find appropriate “offers” naturally want to transfer these esoteric ways to capture the power of “word-of-mouse” to skills (some might even say “black arts”) to the spread their ideas in new ways and to generate Web. As a result, many folks create valuable and buzz that leads to increased sales. And they might interesting information online and then do the exact even have some fun and reconnect with their wrong thing to distribute it—require viewers to customers along the way. (When was the last time provide personal information first. your marketing was fun?) This forced control is a terrible strategy for Creating a World Wide Rave, in which other people spreading your ideas. (However, if your only goal is help to tell your story, is a way to drive action. to build a mailing list, then the strategy may still be One person sends it to another, then that person valid. But how many companies are in the business sends it to yet another, and on and on. Each link of just building a list?) When you make people give in the chain exposes your story to someone new, an email address to get a whitepaper or watch a someone you never had to contact yourself! It’s video, only a tiny fraction will do so; you will lose like when you’re at a sporting event or concert in the vast majority of your potential audience. a large stadium and somebody starts “the wave.” You need to think in terms of spreading ideas, Isn’t it amazing that just one person with an idea not generating leads. A World Wide Rave gets the can convince a group of 50,000 people to join in? word out to thousands or even millions of potential Well, you can start a similar wave of interest online, customers. But only if you make your information a World Wide Rave. You can create the triggers easy to find and consume. that get millions of people to tell your stories and spread your ideas. Sales leads are the wrong goal But first, you’ve got to lose control. I’m often confronted with the issue of how to measure an online initiative’s results. Executives at Spreading ideas and telling stories companies large and small, as well as marketing For your ideas to spread and rise to the status of a and PR people, tend to push back on the ideas of World Wide Rave, you’ve got to give up control. Make a World Wide Rave, simply because they want to your information on the Web totally free for people apply old rules of measurement to the new world to access, with absolutely no virtual strings attached: of spreading ideas online. no electronic gates, no registration requirements, The old rules of measurement used two metrics that and no email address verification necessary. don’t matter for spreading ideas, especially online: 1. We measured leads—how many business cards we collected; how many people called the toll-free number; how many people stopped at the tradeshow booth; and how many people filled out a form on our website, providing their email address and other personal information. 2. We measured press clips—the number of times our company and its products were mentioned in mainstream media, such as magazines, newspapers, radio, and television. 6 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009 ,
  • 7. End Boring Marketing Now: Why a focus on sales leads and marketing ROI causes online marketing failure While applying these forms of measurement might • How many people are engaging with you and be appropriate offline, using them to track your choosing to speak to you about your offerings? success on the Web just isn’t relevant; they don’t capture information about the way ideas travel. ROI makes you boring Worse, the very act of tracking leads hampers the spread of ideas. Once you understand that the metrics of a World Wide Rave are different from what marketers People know from experience that if they supply typically measure, you’ll need to think differently their personal information to an organization, about ROI. Again, I often get pushback on this idea they’re likely to receive unwanted phone calls from executives, who demand that their marketing from salespeople or to find themselves on email ROI be measured in precise financial terms. marketing lists. Most won’t bother. In fact, I have evidence from several companies that have offered It seems that business schools teach their information—both with and without a registration students to obsess over measurement and insist requirement—that when you eliminate the that marketing results be treated in the same way requirement of supplying personal information, you’d treat electricity use at company headquarters the number of downloads or views goes up by as or revenue from the Canadian market. These much as a factor of 50. That’s right—if you require executives want to know exactly how much revenue an email address or other personal information, each dollar spent on marketing is producing, as little as 2% of your audience may bother to and they want to see it in detailed, campaign-by- download your stuff. campaign spreadsheets. Obsessing over sales leads and press clips is likely This trend is causing marketers to become too to be counter-productive and is highly likely to lead cautious and boring. Measuring ROI for everything to failure of your World Wide Rave. means choosing techniques such as direct mail programs, where you can measure exactly how For decades, companies have offered Web content as many business reply cards are returned. While lead bait. But the goal should be to get the word out that information is useful, lusting after it often about your organization, not to misuse the Internet prevents marketers from investing in efforts that for the sake of an outdated technique. could become World Wide Raves—solely because Similarly, measuring success by focusing only on traditional measurement data is not available the number of times the mainstream media write or from those efforts. broadcast about you misses the point. If a blogger is For many executives, an obsession with ROI is just spreading your ideas, that’s great. If 10 people email a convenient excuse to shy away from something a link to your information to their networks or post new and untested. Yet that’s exactly what the best about you on their Facebook page, that’s amazing. ideas for creating a World Wide Rave are—new You’re reaching people, which was the point of and untested. seeking media attention in the first place. But most PR people only measure traditional media, and this Here’s the contradiction: The same executives practice doesn’t capture the value of sharing. who insist on ROI measurements from marketing departments, happily invest huge sums of money To create a World Wide Rave, forget about sales on other things whose returns are also incalculable leads, and ignore mainstream media. Instead, focus from an ROI perspective—such as the design of the on spreading your ideas. Make your information lobby, the fresh coat of paint in the hallway, or even totally free, with no registration required. the accounting staff. When CEOs and executives Here are some questions that can help you learn resort to ROI excuses, I ask, “What’s the ROI of the to measure a World Wide Rave: army of landscapers who are constantly at work on the plants around your corporate headquarters?” • Howmany people are being exposed Usually my question is met with embarrassment. to your ideas? Take a chance. Make the assumption that if millions • How many people are downloading your stuff? of people are sharing your ideas (that’s a number you can measure), then some percentage of them • How often are bloggers writing about you and will ultimately buy your products. your ideas? (And what are those bloggers saying?) • Whereare you appearing in online search results for important phrases? The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009 , • 7
  • 8. End Boring Marketing Now: Why a focus on sales leads and marketing ROI causes online marketing failure Make it free The Email Marketing Metrics Report was first released October 2004. “Initially we required Search for the phrase “email marketing metrics” registration to get the report [downloaders needed on Google, and you’ll find nearly 400,000 hits, to supply an email address], and we got some initial plus dozens of paid advertisements. This is a interest, but not big numbers,” Khera says. “When hot search phrase because people who want to we opened it up and made the report available manage an email marketing program for their totally free, we found that 20 times the number organization—small business owners, consultants, of people downloaded it. Thousands of people people who work in marketing departments of were getting it.” large organizations, and nonprofit employees—often search for important email marketing benchmarks Wow, stop and think about that. Many companies (things such as click-through rates and the best put registration requirements on their most valuable days to begin campaigns). information. But here is real evidence that, if you do, only a fraction of potential readers or With so many companies fighting over the high viewers will request it. As mentioned earlier, other search positions for the phrase “email marketing companies have cited that as few as one person metrics,” only one can be the top dog. Meet in fifty will download something if personal MailerMailer, the company that controls the information is required, compared to when the Number 1 position. MailerMailer sells an online same information is offered totally free. tool that makes it easy to create, send, and track email campaigns. The tool is used by musicians, Clearly, having one of the most popular and restaurants, software companies, event promoters, most referenced sources of email marketing data nonprofits, and other organizations. This small is a huge marketing asset. When people read company is Number 1 because of its free Email about email marketing metrics in a report from Marketing Metrics Report. MailerMailer, they naturally consider purchasing MailerMailer products and services to help them Of course, it’s no surprise that the Number 1 with their email marketing programs. The report spot for an important search term was garnered contains a free trial offer for MailerMailer services. by a company that creates some very valuable “We’re one of the top 10 companies in the email information—and offers it to anyone for free. “We marketing space,” says Khera. “The product analyzed over 300 million opt-in email newsletters promotes itself.” and campaigns sent by a sample of over 3,200 MailerMailer customers in the second half of 2007,” says Raj Khera, CEO of MailerMailer. “This free Stop making excuses report reveals the most recent email marketing Excuses. I constantly hear excuses. trends.” For example, readers will discover which industries experienced the highest percentage of Marketing people have excuses for why they email opening rates and how frequently to send can’t create a World Wide Rave. CEOs, company emails to reach the most people. Chock-full of presidents, and other executives have excuses charts and graphs, the valuable data made available for why their particular product, service, or for free would likely command a price of $10,000 organization doesn’t have potential to spread online. (or more) if a consulting firm provided it. Authors and musicians offer excuses for why their books or music aren’t selling. Twenty or one: which is better? Often, the excuse comes to me like this: “But David, we’re a _______. We can’t do that.” You can fill The free Email Marketing Metrics Report has helped in the blank with your organization’s excuse. I’ve MailerMailer create a World Wide Rave. “Our already heard most of them: big company, small metrics are now quoted all over the Web, in places company, public company, venture-funded company, like eMarketer and MarketingSherpa, and by ad nonprofit, church, accountant, blood donation agencies, companies, bloggers, reporters, analysts, center, indie rock band, famous university, blah, and others who use it for data in their stories and blah, blah. Sorry, but they’re all just excuses. reports,” Khera says. “We’ve seen over 500 blogs pointing to the data. There was a tremendous amount of industry recognition about the report.” 8 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009 ,
  • 9. Portions of this article appear in World Wide Rave, the new book by David Meerman Scott, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. March 2009. If you’re obsessed with ROI measurements that worked ISBN 978-0-470-39500-4. Used with permission. in an offline world, then you’re just making an excuse. If you worry about losing control of your message, then you’re making an excuse. World Wide Rave, Another excuse I hear a lot these days comes from the new book from David Meerman Scott people pointing to polls and research reports that ask A World Wide Rave is when people around questions such as “Do you read blogs?” or “Do you use the world are talking about you, your company, social media?” or “Do you go to video-sharing sites?” and your products—whether you’re located in Often the data show rather small use compared to those San Francisco, Dubai, or Reykjavík. It’s when who, say, use search engines or email. global communities eagerly link to your stuff This sort of data is misleading and dangerous to an on the Web. It’s when online buzz drives organization’s overall marketing and PR efforts, dangerous buyers to your virtual doorstep. And it’s when enough that I’ve decided to close with this point. Why? tons of fans visit your Web site and your blog Because these data are used by resistant executives to because they genuinely want to be there. justify sticking exclusively to the methods that worked How do you start one? decades ago, such as image advertising, direct mail, and It helps to know the rules: the yellow pages. I frequently hear CEOs, CFOs, and VPs of marketing say things like: “See, social media, blogs, and YouTube are not important, so we won’t do them Rules of the Rave here. They’re a waste of time.” Others say: “I don’t read • Nobody cares about your products blogs, so how important are they?” (except you). These excuses miss two tremendously important points: • No coercion required. • First, practically everyone regularly uses Google and • Lose control. other search engines, and the searches frequently return blog posts, YouTube videos, and other social • Put down roots. media content high in the results. So even though • Create triggers that encourage people may report “no” when asked if they use social people to share. media, nearly everyone finds this content via search. • Point the world to your (virtual) doorstep. • Similarly, when people who are not regular users of social media ask their (non-social-media) networks You can trigger a World Wide Rave too; just for advice, they often do it via email. Frequently the create something valuable that people want answers that come back include URLs to company to share, and make it easy for them to do so. and product pages. And those links from friends, colleagues, or family members often include blog posts and other social media content. A mother may ask her friends a question such as: “What’s the best baby stroller to buy?” The answer may include a link to a blog post or a site with an embedded video. Again, the person asking for advice probably didn’t even know she’d been sent to a blog or video-sharing site. The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009 , • 9
  • 10. End Boring Marketing Now: Why a focus on sales leads and marketing ROI causes online marketing failure Many people who reach information via search While this all seems simple enough, it’s rarely don’t know what sort of “media” they’re enjoying! practiced. But those who adopt these ideas usually Don’t let your bosses diminish the hidden value win big. of social media as search engine fodder and as valuable sources of information that people share Most important, you can only be successful if you with their networks. lose control. Your challenge is to let go of your excuses and corporate inhibitions. Go out and A World Wide Rave—having others tell and spread create something interesting that people will be your story for you—is one of the most exciting eager to share. and powerful ways to reach your audiences. It’s not easy to harness that power, but any company What do you have to lose? (Besides control.) with thoughtful ideas to share—and clever ways to create interest in them—can, after some careful preparation, become famous and find success on the Web. The biggest requirement is that you change your behavior, so let me remind you of the most important strategies for successful marketing in a David Meerman Scott is a world of social media: marketing strategist, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, seminar leader, • Stop obsessing over the old measurements of sales leads and marketing ROI. and the author of a number- one, best-selling business book, • Make your valuable online content free, and don’t The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How require registration. to use news releases, blogs, podcasting, • Give away lots of good information (videos, viral marketing & online media to reach photos, data, graphs, audio, blogs, e-books, and buyers directly, which is being published the like) to enthusiastic or curious people in 22 languages. He is also a co-author interested in your products and services. of Tuned In and the developer of the Pragmatic Marketing, Inc. seminar, The New • Encourage an organizational culture of sharing. Rules of Marketing. His new book World Wide Rave was released in March 2009. Check out his popular blog at www.WebInkNow.com or follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/dmscott 10 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009 ,
  • 11. Book Review By Steve Johnson Some marketers focus on pushing their message with branding and PR and creating “buzz.” David Meerman Scott has another approach: get your customers to tell your story. Few of us are fooled by traditional PR, particularly for technology products. After all, the reporters generally know less on the subject than their readers. And few of us are fooled by fake buzz. On IMDB, it’s fairly common to read a glowing review of a just-released movie by a person who has written only one review. Gee, could that be a PR staffer who is trying to prime the pump? Like that guy who laughs so loudly at a comedy routine that you realize he’s a shill. Happily, IMDB and bloggers in general are savvy enough to spot such fake behavior and call them out. Instead of creating artificial buzz, Scott advocates marketing your products by helping your customers tell your story. Talk about an industry problem (that naturally your product or company can solve) and watch customers tell their friends. Create chat rooms and discussion forums to help customers connect with each other; create funny videos and electronic product content that can be shared. Write something real, something that matters!, and be amazed that people share it, pass it along, comment on it, include it in their social networks. When was the last time you clicked on a link to a YouTube video sent by a corporation? Likely never. But if the link comes from a friend, you’ll certainly check it out. World Wide Rave is a how-to book on using social media in your marketing mix. Or perhaps, using social media AS your marketing mix. If you insist on getting personal information like name, title, buying intention, email, and mailing address, people will most often just walk away and never read your product information. Write an ebook, share it freely (without trying to make it a leadgen vehicle), and you’ll get leads anyway. And better still, the leads are people who came to you instead of you coming, hat in hand, to them. The old rule was “beg reporters for coverage.” The new rules bypass the established order of press and advertising to embrace real people with real stories that persuade. Great marketing programs start with “There’s a problem in the industry today.” They don’t start with “Our product...” Read World Wide Rave for using social media to get your customers to tell your story and bring customers to you. Steve Johnson is a recognized thought-leader on the strategic role of product management and marketing. Broadly published and a frequent keynote speaker, Steve has been a Pragmatic Marketing instructor for more than 10 years and has personally trained thousands of product managers and hundreds of company senior executive teams on strategies for creating products people want to buy. Steve is the author of the Product Marketing blog. Contact Steve at sjohnson@pragmaticmarketing.com The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009 , • 11
  • 12. How to Turn Sales Engineers into Your Biggest Fans By Darrin Mourer Let’s assume you are the product manager (PM) at a startup that is gaining a lot of traction. You meet with lots of prospects alongside executive management. Often, you are the only person in the meeting who truly understands your product. You have the entire feature set memorized. You understand how it was constructed. You probably even know why a button was placed just so in the interface. Then the company begins to grow. The founders don’t have time to pursue all the opportunities directly, so they decide to hire a sales force. Once that happens, everything changes. The account executive assumes the role of the corporate executive, and a sales engineer (SE) takes on most of the role you were playing in front of customers. You now have a much different (and welcomed!) problem: How do you convey what you know to salespeople and SEs? In reality, it doesn’t matter much if you are hiring a sales force for the first time or are a PM in a large, multi-national corporation. The stakes are high in the PM’s ability to work with salespeople and enable the SEs who support them. I have worked with many gifted SEs and or a roadmap PMs who were able to function beautifully topic needs direct together—both inside and outside the office committal. walls. I have also witnessed more than my fair share of strife between these two But you may be organizations. Along the way, I uncovered surprised to learn some tips not only for a successful, working that some PMs are relationship, but also the fundamental highly sought after activities that will turn SEs into the PM’s by the sales force, biggest fans. and some are avoided unless absolutely A fan is an SE with a genuine passion for necessary. What is the promoting your product to your customer difference? The two key base. If you’ve spent any time with a large components are the passion sales organization, you’ll notice that there you bring and your depth are many reps and SEs who go through the of knowledge. Translating motions of selling, but who don’t bring the that passion and knowledge same enthusiasm to the presentation that to the sales force brings substantial you might. In other words, they are treating rewards by allowing you to scale it like someone else’s baby, whereas you your responsibilities as your treat it as your own. company grows. To complete this transition, be aware Substantial rewards of three critically important needs: Have you ever wondered why sales teams • Transparency (understanding) love to get a PM in front of customers, when others on the sales team could have • Formal process (consistency) accomplished the same task? There are • Transference (scalability) certainly cases where your “title” is needed 12 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009 ,
  • 13. Transparency • Sharethe roadmap. I’ve heard arguments for and against sharing roadmap information with Transparency is a combination Sales. Regardless of your position, know this of openness and honesty. The underlying unmistakable fact: If SEs are not well informed principle is trust, which is the most important on the subject, they will be less passionate about building block for having passionate SEs. Without your product. You no doubt hold in your head a trust, you will not be able to create a higher level plan for world domination, which serves as the of performance in the SE force. These suggestions aquifer feeding your passion. Transfer that are meant to give you the edge in building trust passion to your SEs. across the sales/SE force. Even if you feel the need to hold back your • The Pragmatic Marketing Framework . Despite ™ roadmap from sales reps (a separate issue), being in the field as an SE for many years, withholding this information from SEs deprives I did not have a full appreciation for product them of a critical piece of ammo they may be management until I began studying the able to use with a customer. Give them advance role in more detail. One primary driver of insight into your plans apart from reps; you will miscommunication is the abstract nature in see this trust reciprocated. understanding how products are designed and I will make you three promises as to what will built. Here are three key points I’ve learned happen if you are very open with your roadmap: from the Pragmatic Marketing seminars that 1) You will have more passionate SEs, 2) this all SEs need to know: information will occasionally be misused and will 1. Competencies, personas, and target markets. backfire, and 3) the benefits of sharing it will far Develop personas for your target audiences outweigh any negative effects. You want your and introduce your SEs to them. Paint a very customers to understand and buy into your vision. clear picture of why personas are important Communicating this to the SE force is the only and how SEs can use them to qualify way to make this happen on a large scale. an opportunity. • InvolveSEs in product direction. The first step is 2. Feature selection process. SEs need to articulating your vision. Moving beyond this, you understand how a feature makes it into a need to push into participation and ownership— product. Having a nebulous cloud where where SEs have a direct impact. feature requests go in and sometimes emerge SEs will often provide generalized feature in the product takes a huge bite of morale requests based on their experiences with a out of the SE force. handful of customers. Realize, however, that 3. Provide the “why.” One reason PMs make an SE’s commission is often directly tied to effective product presenters is that they are product direction as it relates to his/her accounts. typically better equipped to provide the Because of this, SEs are very attentive to customer “why” behind product features, direction, feedback. Because this feedback is generated or perceived weaknesses. SEs not only need during the sales process, you need to qualify to understand the reason behind specific these data points—but ignoring them is another features, they need to understand what isn’t huge morale killer. Qualify, yes. Discount, no. in the product and the reason behind those You likely know who your top SEs are. Get them decisions. Customers are usually willing to together and ask for a trusted volunteer (maybe accept a perceived shortcoming if they have it’s an SE manager) to represent the sales force a clear explanation of the reasoning that during your strategy calls. Finally, and most went into the design. Providing SEs with importantly, you need to communicate back to this information gives them a greater sense the SEs when this input has a direct effect on of confidence in handling objections, which product direction. When SEs feel they can help ultimately leads to shorter sales cycles. influence product direction, they develop a sense of accountability that translates into a genuine desire to see your product succeed. The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009 , • 13
  • 14. How to Turn Sales Engineers into Your Biggest Fans Formal process Too often, feature conversations devolve into defensive posturing. Having a well-defined Not only is a formal and well-communicated process allows you to process for product releases essential separate emotion from input—and leads to more with large, multi-product corporations, but it is a collaborative discussions. key growth enabler in smaller companies. A formal There are four areas to consider in developing your process is vital because it leads to what we crave— formal process: consistency. Consistency is yet another building block of trust. Set clear expectations up front • Releasecycle. Involving SEs as official stakeholders for your SEs, and always deliver or exceed those in your release cycle is critical. Make it super expectations. SEs won’t have a strong opinion on simple for SEs to get involved early in the the process you follow, just that you have one you process. Not only do SEs feel like they get a stick to and that they can follow. sneak peek, the usability feedback they provide will be invaluable if you obtain it early enough to make corrections before launch. Never solicit this feedback, however, unless you plan to use it. What’s more, this early involvement ensures that things like Sales training are scheduled with appropriate lead times—so your sales force is ready to start selling your product from day one of your launch. • Enhancement requests. I cringe when I speak with a PM who manages requirements in a spreadsheet. It’s not so much the medium itself, but that those PMs who use spreadsheets this way typically don’t have a standardized—let alone transparent—process. Critical Components for the Release Process It really doesn’t matter what your release process • Don’t ask for market research. That’s your job. is, just that it exists and includes these basic Too often I hear, “Will you tell what the dollar components: value is of this feature?” That question signals a PM team is not aware of the market. • Use a standard submission form. Even if you have to stand up a web server under your desk to • Always provide a response and a reason. create a web form to capture all of your required Though SEs may be disappointed, we all fields, do it. Do not constantly ask, “Will you send understand not all features can make a release. me an email on that?” Always provide a detailed explanation of why a feature was denied or deferred and what you plan • Keep it closed loop. Automate as much of the to do about it in the future. service as you can. Always provide a way SEs can check status without emailing you. It’s even better • Build the community. In other words, don’t waste if the system automatically sends a tickler update SEs time. Expose all features currently on the list, to the submitter letting them know it’s still and let SEs contribute data to existing entries— being evaluated. rather than entering entirely new ones. This also helps automatically bubble up trends. • Have a priority flag. Allow for instances where an SE needs immediate feedback if a deal hinges on your response. 14 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009 ,
  • 15. Fr M Po A g ng and ® er in tom ion et anagi les Stay current ss s ne Sa ess Cu tent k usi se ar for M Re c B a C Pro M el nch tic Mod a n If you don’t nail the enhancement request process, you can write gmt-Drive off creating passionate SEs. Why? Because SEs need to feel that Pri cin g with industry M em uir et s ark ent Lau lan P their customers’ inputa heard, and SEs need a standard vehicle eq Pr isarke best practices R a ct gr M for communicating deal-breaker requirements that require uild r du ap ro t et y, B e Pro dm P ra immediate action. A ark g M zin Bu Partn oa St R Si or c t Believe it or not, it is great to have “too many” feature requests t du g ct d uc r o ni n P n ve coming from SEs. When they stop, it’s time to worry, because ce du Pro t folio cti Pro rman Pl a tin tence they’ve reached a state of indifference. Actively seek out input, Po r Dis pe for this feedback. rfo t er and always exude extreme appreciation m Pe l uc Us nas Co Nothing would endear me more to a product manager than this.na o d egy et ati o P r at rso ark rch per etrics r Pe • Engagement process. From time to time, M ea involvement O M your in the e St R es sales process is required. And it is almost always invaluable. t iv on e Us rios t a is ati ena From a Sales standpoint, you are a “free” resource, so you will ant i ys t rke s Inn ov Sc always have more requests than you can handle. m Ma le Always budget n al Qu rob best to have A ase P some time for customer-facing sales activities. It’s t oss ele tone R s it on the same set of days, so you are perceived rkebeing n/L is le C as is a Wi alys Mi M al ys I “available” and well organized. n Visit the EG A An y online community at AT A common complaint is that PMs are unresponsive; theirg lo t inboxes and voicemail boxes are black holes. Whateverosmen ech s n system PragmaticMarketing.com R for engagement you choose, communicate it well andse T enforce it ST s consistently. If you claim to take product roadmapAquestionsive tit in a specific forum, but occasionally respond to email requests,is pe • Review 9 years of Annual om alys C n you are invalidating your own process. A Product Management and Marketing Survey results • Playnice in the sandbox. In large organizations with multiple eI product groups, it is important that you adopt consistent • Attend a webinar by one of Th corporate processes. You’ll win more points than you know today’s industry thought-leaders by adhering to standard practices that make it easy for SEs to “do business with you.” • Read hundreds of articles on Reach out to other PM teams when you notice that practices product management, marketing aren’t shared. You won’t convert everyone, but if you are seen and leadership strategies as a leader in streamlining processes that impact Sales (and other departments), you’ll make many friends in those ranks. • Read blogs from Pragmatic Only after you have standardized the process will it become Marketing thought-leaders and repeatable. And when you have achieved repeatability in your other industry experts dealings with SEs, your responsibilities can scale along with • Stay connected with your your growing company. industry peers by joining a local Product Management Association • Read profiles of companies who have achieved success using the Pragmatic Marketing Framework™ • Participatein online networking with LinkedIn and Facebook groups • View a list of recommended books and software tools for product managers and marketers
  • 16. How to Turn Sales Engineers into Your Biggest Fans – Case studies rule the day. Though not fully the Transference domain of Product Management, ensuring Sales has real-life sizing studies from large beta customers (for example) is useful to SEs. Transference is your ability to For the most part, exact sizing comes after the impart product knowledge to SEs so sale. Before the sale, the customer needs to they will be as successful as you are in front know whether or not your product will scale of customers. Essentially, this means removing for them, along with rough budget numbers. dependence on you for Sales-related functions, which removes you from the loop. – Keep them updated. More granular sizing data will become available after the product Documentation and training make up the majority has been in production for a while. Engage of your opportunity to transfer your knowledge. with SEs/Services who oversee large Though it is one of the most mundane aspects deployments to ensure these insights make of PM work, it exerts inordinate influence on the it back into your documentation. If you skimp perception of the product—and of you—to the on the documentation, Sales might not be field. Make the most of these opportunities. comfortable selling your product to their largest customers. The following activities will make you a master in enabling the SE force: • Competitive Data. Many SEs from different types of companies all say the same thing: • The “D” word—Documentation. Everyone knows Our competitive information doesn’t give we need it, and everyone hates doing it. If you me what I need, and it is usually outdated. follow my advice and add the SE organization to This doesn’t need to be the case. I have seen the product release process, you will gain a head competitive data beautifully orchestrated. start in developing documentation and product Coincidentally, these products also had extreme collateral, as the SEs will be able to clearly backing from the sales organization. If you want communicate message points to the team passionate fans, follow these guidelines for developing documents. providing competitive data: The Pragmatic Marketing maxim holds true: – Constantly update information. The need If you don’t create the collateral, others will fill for constant updates is so profound that the void. Start by engaging the Sales and SE many PMs have turned to wikis for more organizations to determine a standard set of fluid information. With that said, outdated/ collateral templates. Then incorporate them into inaccurate data is worse than no data at all. your standard launch plan checklist, and assign someone on the product team to be accountable – Be honest. Don’t be afraid to call your baby for monitoring all points of communication with ugly. Articulate your target market and internal departments and customers. personas, and explain exactly when your product is best and when it is not. Let Sales • Performance Data. SEs understand it is difficult to make the determination about how/when to create performance data for enterprise software overcome competitive weaknesses. Let me be because replicating enterprise environments is clear here: Marketing spin has no business tricky. Still, customers ask, so you need to give in your competitive analysis. your SEs a good answer. Here are some specific guidelines: – Include feature/function comparisons. A common mistake is performing a business – Formulas are good. Providing small, medium, comparison without an in-depth, feature-by- and large implementation examples is better feature comparison. For example, an SE is than nothing, but they will be an endless working with a customer to define success point of debate. It is better to provide criteria in the proof of concept (POC). If they variable formulas that can approximate know the competitor (which they almost actual customers. always will) and have a feature-by-feature breakdown, the SE can customize the POC around your product’s strengths. 16 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009 ,
  • 17. How to Turn Sales Engineers into Your Biggest Fans – Make competitive products available to SEs. Bringing it together Within the spirit of your license (you are actually touching the competitive products, Another fantastic Pragmatic Marketing maxim is that right?), let SEs get their hands on it. Not only Product Management should be focused on helping does it give them a better understanding of sales channels, not sales people. In order to build the usability, but it increases their tactile effective channels, communication with SEs must learning, which is far more effective for flow freely and be bidirectional. internalizing information. To have open communication, you need a high • Training. Training is a difficult medium to master degree of trust. Trust is established by being because you are dealing with many different transparent (open and honest) and consistent audiences and skill levels. Here are some specific (via a standard process). tips to maximize your training investment: This process isn’t really about converting SEs into – Train the trainers. Unless you have a small passionate fans—it’s about understanding that your sales force, don’t plan to train everyone in fellow employees are some of your most important person. Identify the trainers and give them customers. Anticipating and responding to the needs access to all the information they can stand. of your internal customers to this degree connects everybody to your vision. And it sets you up for the – Record and publish every session. With travel highest levels of success. budgets undergoing cuts, enable the rest of the sales force to attend remote training. – Provide several formats. Not everyone learns the same way. Provide for instructor-led and self-paced training for maximum impact. – Hold training early. Schedule first rounds of training in your pre-release phase. Eighty percent of your SEs should have training before General Availability, or you risk a slow launch. – Minimize slideshows. Most SEs learn best by tactile learning. Have plenty of lab systems (if applicable) and spend most of the time working in the product itself. With a hands-on understanding, SEs will be able to pick up the qualification and other supporting information far easier. Darrin Mourer is a veteran SE, SE Manager, and is Pragmatic Marketing Certified. He is also the editor of thesalesengineer.com, a blog dedicated toward applying principle-centered business practices to sales engineering. Contact Darrin at www.thesalesengineer.com The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009 , • 17
  • 18. Are your product management and marketing teams overloaded with tactical activities, spending too much time supporting Development and Sales rather than focusing on strategic issues? The Pragmatic Marketing Framework ™ © 1993-2009 Pragmatic Marketing Visit www.PragmaticMarketing.com or call (800) 816-7861 18 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009 ,
  • 19. Product Management training learn industry best practices Practical Product Management defines the strategic role of product management using the Pragmatic Marketing Framework™ (left). From how to identify market problems to delivering a successful product plan. Requirements That Work shows you a repeatable method for writing clear requirements your team will read and use. It discusses techniques for prioritizing and organizing market requirements and clarifies the roles for team members. Pragmatic Roadmapping teaches techniques for developing, consolidating and communicating product plans, strategy and vision to multiple audiences—both inside and outside the company. Product Marketing training Effective Product Marketing teaches how to create successful go-to-market strategies using a structured, repeatable framework that supports an organization’s goals for growth in revenue, market awareness and customer retention. New Rules of Marketing shows how to harness the power of online marketing using blogs, viral marketing, podcasts, video, search engine marketing and thought-leadership to reach buyers directly. In addition to the extensive published schedule, training can be conducted onsite at your office, saving travel time and costs for attendees, and allowing a much more focused discussion on internal, critical issues. Pragmatic Marketing’s seminars have been attended by more than 60,000 product management and marketing professionals. The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009 , • 19
  • 20. Goals, Organizations spend millions of dollars in research and development to create the next great product, Readiness and only to severely underfund the product launch Constraints: process. Many mistakenly believe the product will sell itself and overcome any adversity. This couldn’t The Three be farther from the truth. A successful product launch requires skill, experience, market knowledge, Dimensions of and a process. Product Launch Product launch is a topic that either elicits nightmares or euphoria—there is no middle ground. Those terrified by the thought of planning the next By David Daniels product launch understand the expectations are high and failure is not an option. On the other hand, those with great excitement can lack the experience to know what can go wrong. 3.0 20 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009 ,
  • 21. Launch story reporting feature promised for Widget 3.0 won’t be in the release, and he’s worried about the backlash At Company A, great excitement surrounds the he will get from Bob and the sales team, who are upcoming launch of Widget 3.0. Robin, the product likely promoting the missing feature. manager, has been focusing all her energy on finalizing Widget 3.0. She’s under enormous Chen meets with Rebecca in Marketing pressure; especially given the product is over budget Communications to explain that it’s crunch time. and six months late. Everyone in the company The sales team is expecting brochures, web content, believes this version will take the market by storm. and the usual collection of sales tools—and they The product is so good, it can’t fail. expect it now. Chen is under enormous pressure to make the launch of Widget 3.0 a success. The Chen, the product marketing manager, has been fact that it’s late and missing a key feature doesn’t sitting on the sidelines nervously awaiting word matter. When Rebecca asks what Chen needs for from Robin that Widget 3.0 is finally in a state the launch, he requests one of everything, hoping where he can start planning the launch. There that it will satisfy the sales team. With a little luck, have already been two false starts. The first was something will stick and cause the market to take an unforeseen technical problem. The second notice and buy in droves. happened when Development—in a moment of false bravado—claimed the product would be ready Chen hastily pulls together sales training for to ship in a week. Both times, Chen invested his Widget 3.0 to explain all the great, new features. time and energy into planning the launch, only to He delivers a standard sales presentation and demo. stop, regroup, and try to save face with Sales. Now, Rebecca then explains the “air cover” Marketing will he isn’t going to move forward until he is certain provide to the sales team. During the sales training Widget 3.0 is ready. Q&A, Chen and Robin are grilled and ridiculed for dropping the promised feature, which the sales Meanwhile, Bob, the VP of Sales, is growing more team believes is critical to hitting its numbers. anxious each day the product isn’t ready. He has a quota for Widget 3.0; and, even though the launch Chen knows that with greater visibility into is six months behind schedule, the CEO still expects what was happening with Widget 3.0, he could Bob to “make it happen.” Realizing he doesn’t have have better positioned it to the sales team— the luxury of time, Bob instructs his sales team acknowledging that, while the missing feature is to start prospecting for Widget 3.0 customers— clearly important, there is plenty of value in the even when the final details of the product other new features. are not available. On launch day, Widget 3.0 is announced. So the sales team starts calling on prospects, Unfortunately all of the prospects in the pipeline with the hopes of building a pipeline for Widget were expecting the dropped feature—and, as a 3.0. They create their own sales tools (without result, become lost opportunities. The sales team Chen’s input); and, before long begin to see now has to build the Widget 3.0 pipeline from their prospecting work transition into a pipeline scratch, and they have lost confidence in the of opportunities. product. Under pressure, they focus on selling other products to make their quota. The saga continues Sound familiar? Robin, satisfied that Widget 3.0 will soon be ready, meets with Chen to discuss the launch. With her back against the wall, Robin provides a delivery date, but little in the way of direction or product positioning. Chen learns from Robin that the new The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009 , • 21
  • 22. Goals, Readiness and Constraints: The Three Dimensions of Product Launch The mythical product launch checklist Product launch goals Too often, the people responsible for a product One of the most critical aspects of planning launch seek out the mythical product launch a product launch is to decide, up front, the checklist that transforms any product launch into expectations. Without a specific goal, there is the realm of the iPhone. It doesn’t exist. no way to measure what winning looks like. Management’s expectations will go unrealized. Don’t get me wrong: Product launch checklists do Resources will be misaligned. Budgets will either exist. They just aren’t very effective, because they be too high or too low. Without a goal, it is not give the illusion of thorough planning. Successful possible to measure Return on Investment (ROI), product launches require a planning process that which leads to skepticism about how examines multiple dimensions and adjusts according wisely money is being spent. to prevailing conditions. Management’s expectations for the Assuming the product actually works and isn’t success of a product launch are usually a liability, there are three critical product launch too high. It starts when unrealistic dimensions to evaluate during the planning process: expectations are set early in the • Launch goals product planning process, and is compounded by unbridled enthusiasm • Launch readiness that the product is so good it can’t fail. • Launch constraints Because launch goals are often unclear, Once the dynamics of all three dimensions are the budgets that support product understood, then a product launch checklist can launches are all over the map. Without be effective in specifying specific deliverables and goals as a cornerstone, budgets can activities tailored for each product launch’s unique swing wildly based on opinion and go-to-market circumstances. internal political clout—rather than on fact-based rationale. When management’s expectations aren’t met, they begin to question the credibility of the people planning the product launch. The loss of credibility bleeds over to subsequent launches, where every expenditure is questioned and requires justification. Launch goals provide the anchor for a successful product launch. Unfortunately many launches aren’t grounded in goals that are specific, realistic, or attainable. 22 • The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009 ,
  • 23. Goals, Readiness and Constraints: The Three Dimensions of Product Launch Product launch readiness Consider the sales team in the preceding product launch story. Chen focused sales training on The lack of organizational launch readiness is a the product, which is not uncommon. Share the point that many product launch planners fail to cool new product features. Show a PowerPoint fully appreciate. Who is ultimately responsible to presentation. Give a product demo. Is Chen’s job ensure the organization is ready to sell and support to create presentations, demos, and write content the product? Is there a reliable way to assess for marketing collateral—or is it to enable the launch readiness? sales team to be successful at selling Widget Product launches can be so focused on the product, 3.0? How could Chen possibly know what level that getting the organization ready to sell and of training the sales team needs without a support it gets overlooked. We worry about product readiness assessment? features, product quality, product documentation, When products are thrown over the wall to the and product training. sales team without adequate training and market Have you considered that virtually every functional knowledge, you’ve guaranteed at least a three- area of your organization is affected by the launch month delay in building the sales pipeline. There of a product? The obvious functional area is Sales. will be multiple stops and starts while the sales But what about Customer Support, Accounting, team gradually figures out what works. If you’re the Delivery, and Legal? product marketing manager, you’ll be pulled into this thrashing process. You’ll create more slides, Successful launch managers understand that launch write more marketing collateral, and develop more readiness goes beyond the product, extending into product demos until you get it right. every nook and cranny of the organization. They don’t assume that other parts of the organization When conducted ahead of a product launch, the will be ready. They ensure that other parts of Launch Readiness Assessment provides context and the organization are ready. They demand it. They rationale to management for actions recommended measure it. And they make it happen. in the product launch plan. If the sales team is expected to call on a new buyer, the plan should show how they will learn to have a conversation The Launch Readiness Assessment with that buyer and the tools to use to move the Launch readiness doesn’t happen on its own. prospect through the buying process. It takes an understanding of what good launch readiness looks like for each functional area and a way to reliably test readiness in an objective way. One way to address this is through a launch readiness assessment. The Launch Readiness Assessment is a tool used by the launch manager as a guide to determine how ready a functional area is to support the sale and service of a product. The information contained within the launch Readiness Assessment is a critical input into the development of the launch plan as it identifies readiness gaps that must be addressed in order to achieve the launch goal. The Pragmatic Marketer • Volume 7 Issue 2, 2009 , • 23