How to Ensure a Successful Product Launch

The Bottom Line: Strategic planning is essential for a successful product launch, requiring thorough market research, goal setting and collaboration with a strategic partner to ensure effective pre-launch preparation, launch execution and post-launch evaluation.

Strategic planning is the cornerstone of a successful product launch. It paves the way for actionable sales training, multichannel marketing and effective execution. This article will guide you through the process, ensuring you launch your new product or machine with a comprehensive roadmap. 

Don’t let your latest offering be a missed opportunity. Learn to captivate your audience and find the right strategic partner to set the stage for long-term success. A good strategic partner should provide a full-service program: sales and marketing support, educational training, a product implementation plan, and, ultimately, an ongoing partnership.

Educate the industry

When fabricators plan their capital investments and new product offerings, it’s crucial to set clear, concise and strategic goals. These goals should not only aim to capture new customers or create new revenue streams but also educate the market. By showing how the new product solves real problems and addresses pain points, you can ensure a successful product launch.

It’s all too common to see fabricators stumble in their product launches due to inadequate market research or ineffective sales and marketing strategies. This can be a costly mistake, considering the time, money and energy invested in new capital equipment or product development. By being aware of these risks, you can take steps to avoid them and ensure a successful product launch.

Find a strategic partner

It’s important to underscore the value of finding the right strategic partner. This is not just about finding a supplier, but about finding a partner who can help you overcome your biggest challenges and provide comprehensive support throughout your journey. A strategic partner is a company that consistently works with your team, ensuring your success.

When fabricators begin searching for a new product, machinery or ERP, they should also look for a strategic partner who will ask targeted questions and learn about their business while working directly with their team to create tailored solutions. Whether these goals are to increase production, create new revenue streams or differentiate product offerings, the strategic partner should provide efficient solutions to the fabricator’s needs and wants.

Three steps to a successful product launch

Now that you have developed your goals and conducted extensive market research—customer feedback, plant visits, performance comparisons, sales team conversations—let’s examine the three steps to successfully launch your new product, and how having the right strategic partner can make all the difference.

1 | Pre-launch 

This step sets the stage to ensure your new product launch is as compelling as it is confident. This is where the bulk of the work is done. It is now that the strategic partner has begun to work hand in hand with the fabricator to understand their market research, i.e., discovering customer needs and pain points while also confirming the target audience.

During this step, a strategic launch plan is developed by both parties, ensuring substantial training while educating CSRs and the sales team, developing targeted marketing collateral, ensuring operational readiness, and finally, outlining clear communication and coordination across the teams.

During the pre-launch phase, training and educating your sales staff cannot be overstated. For a product launch to be successful, you need to train them on the features and benefits of the new product or machinery and help them understand and believe in its advantages. The strategic partner should outline a plan that includes education on crucial value propositions, product differentiators, product usage and product demos. 

The plan should also include training on which key product features to demonstrate, required sales materials and a review of the regional distribution area, competing products and competitors. Lastly, review common questions the fabricator and their glass shop customers may encounter and how to resolve them.

2 | Launch

While this day is an exciting time for your company, it is also the day that everyone—from the CEO to the sales reps to the CSRs—should be promoting this new offering. It is also the day of mass coordinated communication across all channels to your customers and prospects. The strategic partner should have put together a marketing plan collaborating with the fabricator to ensure a press release was sent to all industry publications, industry advertisements were published, and social media was promoted and shared by the fabricator and its sales reps. 

It is essential to figure out in advance where and how your customers and prospects receive news and updates, and send them the information as appropriate, i.e., email, social media, phone calls, personal meetings, etc. During the entire process, from pre-launch to launch, aligning your marketing and sales teams to ensure a cohesive message and seamless customer experience is crucial. Now that we’ve explored the exciting launch phase let’s pivot to why what happens after the launch is just as crucial to the success of your product.

3 | Post-launch 

It’s essential to give the product adequate time for new marketing opportunities. We recommend reviewing the status of the new product offering 120 to 180 days post-launch. It is time to work with your strategic partner to review the goals, examine them from the beginning, and strategize what, how and where to improve to make a significant difference.

For instance, did you exceed your sales projections or fall short? Did the product/machinery generate new market share? 

Getting insight from the sales team and customers is also imperative, which helps with necessary adjustments to improve your overall strategy. Ask customers how they’re using the product. Where are they seeing success? Do they understand the product’s features and benefits? Are there any technical or warranty questions? 

At this stage, the strategic partner should speak with the executive team, listen to their feedback, and make recommendations to help the fabricator reach its goals. Whether through new sales promotions or re-targeting different markets, a good solutions partner should have actionable insights on how to assist. Most significantly, listening, embracing and implementing feedback is crucial to your product’s long-term success. Gathering vital insight is as good as gold and will help make the necessary adjustments to improve your overall strategy.

Keep the momentum going

One of the most valuable aspects of a new product launch is to keep the momentum going. After the launch date, the excitement and promotion do not have to end. There are still opportunities to use special offers and showcase customer testimonials, product implementation(s) or success stories. 

The strategic partner can also create new and exciting marketing materials or videos; feature the product/machinery through webinars, trade shows, lunch-and-learns and open houses; and, most importantly, continue training new employees. I also suggest having a recurring training session to continue the energy and reinvigorate the sales teams. Your strategic partner should be coming up with new ideas, collateral and visuals to help promote and advertise the product or machine launch. We know that most fabricators are busy and don’t have the time or resources. Therefore, a strategic partner will help initiate and implement these marketing ideas.