Momentum Indicators

Among stockbrokers, the ability to accurately determine share price momentum indicators is often the difference between profit and loss.  There are several ways of judging this, looking at various combinations of closing prices, ranges and trends.  Naturally, the greater the understanding of momentum, the better the chance of making money.

This concept can be tweaked for use when selling a new product.  When I work with a salesteam seeking to give renewed impetus to a recently launched product, the growth in revenue achieved shortly after launch often looked promising, but rather than continue to rise, it inexplicably spiked before tailing off.

The reasons for this are manifold; one involves momentum indicators.  Are you talking about them properly?  There can be a significant difference between the pitches used on day one of a product to those that work best as the product matures.

The key issue is that no analysis of the new product’s performance is constructed that focuses on the growth pattern on said product.  In other words, most prospects remain unaware of any impressive momentum gathering pace.

Joining such momentum can provide a compelling urge for someone to take the plunge on your new product.  How you use this as an enticement can emanate from two main arenas.

Isolation	Firstly, raw sales data may be enough to get across success.  For that one new product alone, initial sales may have outstripped expectations, a certain target return achieved quicker than planned, or month-on-month increases speak for themselves.
Relative	Then there are sales numbers which can show a favourable comparison with other products.  These can be your own earlier incarnations of goods, or competitive offerings.  In either case, when compared to sales of these other ones, your initial performance can look attractive.

In both cases, being able to talk about reasons like why “a quarter of your customer base has already gone ahead”, or “this is currently our quickest ever selling new product launch” with the figures to back them up can be the final encouragement a wavering prospect needs to commit.

One final point on data.  It can be notoriously difficult to pinpoint precise figures within the sprawling and dark warehouse that can be an organisation’s sales figures.  Should such numbers be outside your personal field of vision, then often someone like the product manager for your new product will have both access to the overall picture and time to compile such momentum indicators.  They’ll likely be happy to provide you with the figures and stories you need, especially if they qualify for a bonus based on the new product’s sales.