But this is not what their sales reps needs to make the product launch and themselves a success. While generally enthused about the launch of a new product, foremost on the sales rep's mind is "how am I going to sell this?" Unfortunately, the product engineers can tell them only about - you guessed it - product features. Marketing offers information about benefits but not within the context of a sales call which, of course, is where the sales reps will apply the knowledge.
Your reps really need to learn how to sell the product; how to ask the right questions to uncover needs that the product might fill and how to position the product as a solution to a client problem. After your reps have a good grasp of the products features and benefits, and have enjoyed all the hoopla around the product launch, lead a discussion about the kinds of problems the product will solve for customers. Get them to think through actual questions they should use to determine if a customer is qualified for the product solution. Then run some role plays so that they have an opportunity to practice the skills before using them on a real customer.
You may also think about training the product technical experts to help during the early stages of the product launch. We have learned a couple of things here. Yes, you should train techies to sell. God knows they need it. One IT genius told me that he sells upgrades by telling the customer, "Now that you've screwed up this program, you going to have to buy our upgrade. Take it or leave it." We have found that it is equally important to train sales reps to manage the tech expert during the sales call. If the tech expert (or senior executive for that matter) is not managed on a sales call, they can become a loose cannon and wreak havoc on progress towards the sale.
Making your new product launch a success - To learn more about this author, visit John Brennan's Website.
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John Brennan
(Visit John's Website)
John Brennan Ed.D.
Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal
Development, LLC, a training and
development firm. Interpersonal
Development has provided sales training
and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps
from over 100 companies.
A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan
received his doctorate from the University
of Rochester. His dissertation researched
the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling
Technology in training people in
interpersonal skills. While he has spent
most of his career designing or delivering
training, he was also a Vice-President of
Sales of a training and development
franchise with operations in 25 markets.
Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered
sales training in North America, Asia,
Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He
has been a guest speaker at numerous
national and regional professional
conferences.
When Microsoft wanted Best Practices
articles on sales for their web site, they
called Dr. Brennan. The results are at office.microsoft.com/e
n-us/FX011387391033.aspx
His firm’s clients have included Volvo,
The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman
Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the
Economist Group and countless small
businesses.
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