FREE E-book

Free eBook

Here’s a selection of insights from what I’ve learned at internal sales meetings and conferences at customers of mine. It’s a summary gleaned from various parts of programmes I’ve delivered over the past fifteen or so years. Aimed at helping to sell more new products, and not falling in to the all-too common trap of never selling enough of them, it’s condensed into a handy e-book form:

The new product selling pitfalls I describe and propose remedies for are as follows:

1. Not Grasping The Point

Electing to forego sufficiently deep analysis of why someone would want to buy your new product can let ineffective propositions take centre stage.

2. Unclear Ambition

Without articulating what you hope to achieve at the outset, any undertaking is liable to fall short of expectations, and selling new products is no different.

3. No Anchor

What messages can you build on that mean you’re not re-inventing the wheel whilst simultaneously creating an instant positive image in the mind of your prospect?

4. Accepting Neophobia

The very thought of something ‘new’ can throw people into a troublesome spin. How do you address this before you begin and what steps can you take to prevent it from elongating campaigns?

5. Open Doors Unknocked

Thankfully some people enjoy the very latest the market has to offer. What can be learned from their actions, and how do you find such potentially lucrative people?

6. Sales Substitution

The net effect of this demon is that a company’s overall sales at best stay flat, and more often than not, they decline, despite the enormous airtime given to the new product’s launch.

7. Incentives Hinder Motivation

The commission policy that rewards salespeople for winning new product deals can often tip the balance between project success and failure all by itself.

8. Inaccurate Competitor Intel

You can counter negative rumblings with careful positioning, rather than outright denials, by striving to capture such intelligence quickly, and instantly share and build on it.

9. Blank Gap Analysis

Where are the holes in customer buying patterns that you should plug, leading to extra early sales both easy to seal and of potentially great magnitude.

10. Big Bang Release

You must avert the strike of destructive launch pressures and consider measured and structured initial sales launches.

11. Unaligned Tracking Process

Even if you already have a ‘system’, the demands of monitoring how your new product fares are different to those of existing everyday activity.

12. Post-Sale Absence

Could you leave yourself open to sell-and-run misgivings? Continual delivery consistency and avoiding fire-fighting are not as elusive as you may think.

Bonus: Ignoring The Buyer’s Perspective

A leading procurement practitioner shares their expertise on what goes on in a buyer’s mind when we make our first new product sales presentation.