SRIP It Up & Start Again

Met a fella earlier today in charge of releasing new products to a hopefully ravenous sales team.  He’d enjoyed a career of 16 years mainly involved with getting new products out.  One constant was not positive.  Every time a new product was launched, it was either:

• released to the salesforce to a fanfare, yet no-one felt comfortable selling it
• no-one knew about it being available and it died a death

Both ways, the impact was less than hoped for.  One way of trying to overcome this, was an idea he’d picked up from guys at Shell.  It was always to release a new product with a SRIP; sales ready implementation pack.

It doesn’t seem to have a brand new approach to what gets communicated, but it is different in how communication takes place.  The point is that everything a sales person needs to know is in one official release of info.  Typically, they get a glossy brochure, a sheet of tech-specs, new order forms and a demo.  In-depth insight into what it’s all about seems to be in the SRIP.

And the other element, is that a product is only ever piloted, rather than given to the entire team. So all the lessons from an initial few sales experiences can help mould success for everyone else.