We just opened the doors today for the WinningWare QuickLaunch™ “Early Access Program”, so the software that’s been under development for so long is finally ready to be sampled.  I am certain this software is going to enable professional marketers, small businesses and entrepreneurs to plan, organize and execute top-notch product launches that will help them immensely by reducing the amount of time and effort required, in addition to boosting sales results.

Here’s a video overview:

We’re providing full product access on a 5-day free trial basis, along with a steeply discounted (70% OFF) offer for a 1-year subscription for commercial use by early adopter customers.

The Early Access Program is one of the early steps in our launch process that’s recommended for software, membership sites and other online products, whereby you go from a few early customers using the product to around one hundred or so (limited), in order to fully validate your product’s readiness before launching it to the masses.

The official launch of WinningWare QuickLaunch is currently slated for late April or early May, depending on the feedback we receive from the early adopter community.

Here’s links to more detailed information, where you can access the free trial and more information.

• Detailed product information and free trial – goes into all the details on the product plus free trial access
• Launch registration and priority notification page – if you want to register for our official launch

After registering for the trial and reviewing the EAP version of the product, please post your comments here.

Enjoy! Rick

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Have you ever heard someone begin a sentence with “Our customers…“?

For some reason, whenever we make a sale to someone, there’s a tendency to believe that we somehow now “own” this customer – that they’ve somehow given up their independence and sworn allegiance to us as a vendor or supplier.

This customer ownership mentality can also lead to the mistaken belief that we have some kind of newfound control over these customers – perhaps because the customers chose us over the competitors, or appear to be reliant upon us in some way for support, future updates or other services.

In reality, nothing could be further from the truth… customers are not owned by anyone – and it’s very dangerous to think and talk this way, because we’re deluding ourselves and ignoring reality when we do.

Like everyone, customers have certain needs, selfish wants and preferences.  And in today’s world of global competition, every customer has alternatives to you and your product.  And with very few exceptions, most customers hate being reliant upon anyone or anything and much prefer their independence and self-reliance, especially when it comes to their business.

When a customer buys a product from you or uses your services, it’s much more accurate to realize that they just “hired” your product or company to get a particular job done. It’s usually as simple as that.  And if they aren’t satisfied with the kind of job you do for them, guess what happens next?  They’ll find someone else to do that job tomorrow.

Customers have a “what have you done for me lately” kind of attitude and like the boss, they have very short memories about what you’ve done right and seemingly eternal recollection of everything you’ve ever done wrong…

When companies and their people begin to think of customers in the possessive, this is often when big trouble has already set in – with complacent Support, assumptions about repeat or future business, excuses about subscription cancellations or competitive losses, etc.

This is especially true in the technology business, where one day you’re the market leader who seemingly can do no wrong and then something happens and you wake up another day only to find that you are no longer king of the hill and “your customer” is now focused on something and someone else…

Sometimes we become complacent with our success and forget about “who brung us”, to use my grandmother’s vernacular.  It’s human nature for people to become accustomed to, even take for granted, what they think they already have.  And we often don’t realize what we’ve lost until it’s too late.

Customers will only put up with bad service, complacent attitudes, non-responsiveness or other forms of being taken for granted until they have another alternative.  And customers who receive poor service or get ignored repeatedly quickly find there are others who are still hungry enough to give them their full attention – for just a little bit of their money.

So the next time you hear or say those telltale words “my customers”, stop and take a close look in the mirror. They’re not going to be “yours” for very long.

Customer relationships have to be earned every single day.

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Excellent progress on WinningWare QuickLaunch™ this week. We are very close to being both code complete and content complete, with just a few remaining items that will be in place by early next week.

Customer testing also going well; excellent early feedback is helping to shape the product very nicely through use in actual product launches.

New QuickLaunch Launch Landing Page is now up on WinningWare.com – register for priority notification to join our launch list.

We plan to announce the WinningWare QuickLaunch “Early Access Program” very soon. This program will make QuickLaunch available to a limited number of additional early adopter customers, at a very substantial discount (like 70% off), along access to both QuickLaunch and the WinningWare “Launch Patrol” experts team.  More on the EAP next week or so…

Our updated WinningWare Affiliate Program is also now operational. This program pays affiliates up to $499 per sale today and will include WinningWare QuickLaunch for both the EAP and final release.

Oh yeah, we now have a logo for the product…

More updates as they occur to me.  For now, time for a (brief) break.

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The Relationship Development System

In prior posts, I have talked a lot about how important relationships are to making money online and how our sales process needs to include a Relationship Development System.  When a website visitor arrives at our website, blog or reads our article the first time, we are effectively strangers at the onset.  When things are structured properly, this visitor undergoes a series of relationship development stages, as shown below.

Let’s look at a visitor’s online pre-sales relationship and how it develops over time until that first sale is consummated.

Our journey begins with the Awareness phase, where the visitor becomes aware of their need and your product or site as a possible solution or information source. This could involve one or more exposures to our product—through word-of-mouth, social media, search engine ads or results,  radio, TV and the like. This is where your marketing reaches prospects and they go from unaware to an aware state.

For example, we become aware that analog TV signals are no longer available, which causes us to decide it is time to get a new high-definition TV set. We become aware of a need and something triggers us into bringing this TV need into the “foreground” in our life.

High-definition TVs have been around for many years, but for whatever reason they remained in the “background” for many of us—until recently. So, we begin noticing ads for HD TVs. We actively look around at them online and at stores, and we begin discussing them with our friends and family. This is awareness.  These ads and devices have been around for many years, but suddenly we begin to actually take notice of them.

In the next phase, our marketing creates Interest in what we have to offer. Interest results when your marketing grabs the prospects’ attention and often is the direct result of an initial offer (e.g., a money magnet offer) that captures their attention. We must create interest, or we will never get the prospects to progress any further toward buying.

It is very tempting to try and “short-circuit” the process and jump straight to the close… FAIL!  How many times our impatience comes back to bite us.  Good things cannot be rushed – and a sale is a very good thing!

Continuing our HDTV example, our presentation of benefits and features, cool-looking pictures and demo videos trigger increased interest, because we realize we can now watch sports in high-definition, and then the seller really grabs our attention with a great price for a nice HD TV unit. You need to create the same level of incremental interest with your online marketing processes.

Interested prospects become open to learning more about what you have to say and offer. If your messages and product offerings resonate with the prospects, Desire begins to build in their mind. They are now evaluating various aspects of what you have to offer and they now have decided that they “want it” but aren’t yet ready to buy—they still have questions and concerns that you must address.

At this stage, they will likely be involved in various “self-talk” about where they’d put that new HDTV, how they are going to justify spending the money on it, and where that money will actually come from.  It is very important not to disrupt this thought process.

In the next stage, we begin a Bonding process with the prospect. We begin to create strong associations in their minds that bond them to the product. For example, GoDaddy.com uses NASCAR racing and high-profile racers like Danica Patrick as one way of bonding with their target audience. Racing has absolutely nothing to do with domain names, but it has everything to do with bonding and credibility (and sex sells like nothing else through association).

You can bond with your prospects in a variety of ways: by entertaining or amusing them, by giving them free stuff they enjoy and get immediate value from, and by sharing stories they identify with, among other ways.

What you are really doing during the bonding phase is anchoring positive, motivating associations between you, your site and/or product within the prospect’s mind. This is incredibly powerful when done correctly, as it begins to create a “preference” for you and your product vs. the prospect’s alternatives.

Remember that metaphorical “Bridge of Trust” across the “Chasm of Doubt” we talked about earlier? In the next phase, your prospect will reach a critical state of Trust for you—at least enough to consider buying from you. Everything you have done up until now has either created trust, eroded trust, or had no impact on trust development at all.

Avoid any marketing that causes suspicion or detracts from your prospects’ trust in you. For example, have you ever received an email from a marketer where the email subject line says something designed to grab your attention and get you to open that email? So, you open it. Inside the email, the content has absolutely nothing to do with the subject line and there’s some vain attempt to bridge from that subject line to the actual email content.

How do you suppose this makes your prospects feel?  When it happens to me, I feel tricked. Tricking your prospects is not a way to build a trusting relationship!  In fact, it says you care more about getting your way (making that sale) more than you do about your prospective customer.  This is not lost on most people.

Instead, our actions need to build trust and reinforce that we are trustworthy. Many aspects of our marketing can act together so that prospects begin to trust us.

Creating trust is a complex topic. Fortunately, there are many proven ways to develop trust and help your prospects across the Chasm of Doubt.

At some point, it is time to pitch the prospect. Now that they desire our product, have bonded with us and prefer our product, and trust us enough to do business with us – then we can close the sale.

So, you enable your prospect to engage with your online sales process as a buyer. We call this the Activation phase, because the prospects are now actively entering a buying mode. They decide to invest some of their time and actively pursue a solution.

Various triggers can activate your prospects. Before going deeper into activation, let me ask you something. What do suppose would happen if your prospects hadn’t bonded with you and didn’t yet trust you and you tried to force activation too soon?

Once they are activated into a buying motion, you’d just be yet another option for the prospect to choose from.

Moreover, if they trust someone else more than they trust you, they will probably make their purchase elsewhere.

They might actually look at and consider you as an alternative, but their fears and concerns about doing business with a stranger or someone less trustworthy could easily cause them to steer away once they are engaged in an active buying motion.

Have you ever bought something from Amazon.com without looking for a better price elsewhere?  There’s usually a better price if you just look.  But we don’t usually look, do we?  It’s because we have bonded with Amazon.com as a brand and prefer to deal with a known quantity vs. going through the entire RDS process as a buyer with someone new. And Amazon.com does a great job making it better to stick with them, with customer reviews and even access to those cheaper 3rd party deals through Amazon!

We can trigger activation of prospects by making them an offer they simply cannot refuse. This offer is compelling enough to overcome “procrastination inertia.” Procrastination occurs when people avoid taking action on something they know they want to do or even should do, but continue to delay for various reasons.

They might say (in their minds or to their spouse): “I’m just not sure.” “It’s a lot of money.” “Maybe I’ll find a better one if I keep looking.” “I’m too busy right now” or “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

When you activate your prospects, you essentially light a fire under them to take action now. You give them multiple reasons to act now; e.g., discount pricing, time-limited extras/bonuses, special financing terms, limited quantities, and such.

This is a critical moment.  At this point, the prospect is serious about buying from you, but very likely still has questions and possibly some objections.  It is important they be able to find answers to the remaining, burning questions and get them answered completely.

Activation can create buying momentum that is sometimes sufficient to overcome our prospect’s procrastination inertia – and possibly even enough to get them to dismiss their remaining questions and tell themselves something like – “it comes with a money-back guarantee – what do I have to lose?”.

Activation causes them to begin actively going through your sales process. During activation, your prospects become “buyers”. They begin looking at their options and are about to make a purchase – from you.

The online selling process answers their questions, overcomes their objections, and motivates them to buy from us and to buy right now, before they change their mind, or the phone rings, or the dinner bell rings…

The prospects then decides to buy, and they press that magical button.

That single click represents their buying decision (Buy Now button, Add to Cart button, Join Now button).

Once the buyer completes the checkout process, the Sale is consummated and you now have a new customer.

The Relationship Development System (RDS) is a proven process that increases online sales conversion rates.

Why do you suppose long form sales pages are structured the way they are?  Because they are designed to take the reader on a rapid RDS “journey” through the entire process.  However, in reality it often takes several visits to a typical website and sales page before a buying decision is made – unless the RDS process has taken place beforehand (via email, a blog, a video or some combination of RDS actions).

Without a functioning RDS in place, the best you can probably expect in direct-selling of visitors to your site is perhaps 1% to 2%. With a high-performance RDS in place, your aggregate conversion rates could well reach 5% to 10% (or more when prospects are “referred” by someone they already trust).  This is why an auto-responder follow-up system is so critical to every online business’ profitability.

Of course, developing and nurturing relationships takes time. Fortunately, this can all be automated so it is taking place 24/7. For the most part, it is a hands-free set of activities managed by the auto-responder, except for adding new offers and occasionally freshening (and testing and optimization).

Whatever combination of technologies you choose to use, follow the RDS steps more deliberately and you will make more sales.  I might suggest an “RDS Audit” of your existing selling process – to identity and fill any holes or sticking points that may be present.  Of course, you should always A/B split-test any change you make and measure the actual effects over time.

You will know when your RDS is working because the sales ticker will speed up and that “cha-ching” sound will happen more often – and your bank balance will go up more often than down (if you control your spending).

In 2008, I documented this entire process in The Online Leadership Guide.  There is also a free 5-part mini-course available where you can learn more.

I hope you have an effective RDS in place for each of your products and sites.  If not, what are you waiting for?

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Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about fishing.  I recently realized just how much marketing and fishing actually have in common…

One of my favorite ways to unwind is to hop in my boat and head out from my lake house into the lake to enjoy a few hours of bass fishing.

For me, it’s helpful to get away from business and technology to enjoy some quiet time and the beauty of nature.  I have been fishing since I was old enough to hold a rod and reel, when my grandfather used to take me saltwater fishing from bridges in Mississippi, Louisiana and Florida.

Growing up, we lived on Greens Bayou in east Houston. I had an aluminum boat with an old beat up 9 horsepower Mercury engine. I would hop in my boat as a youngster and head upstream a few miles then park my boat and cross over the bank from the bayou to a small pond out in the woods – miles from civilization back then.

I would carry my tackle box and a couple of rods and reels to my little private piece of heaven and escape the rest of the world – to go fishing.  Over the past forty-plus years of fishing, I’ve had a lot of experiences.  In my twenties and thirties, I even enjoyed competitive tournament bass fishing clubs and money tournaments around Texas.  Fishing teaches us a lot about life, values and finding solutions to complex patterns and problems.

Fishing requires patience – a lot of patience. So does marketing.  If we constantly change advertisements, positioning, messaging and get impatient for results, we’re very likely to fail.  Marketing and advertising programs require many exposures to have their full effect, yet as marketers we often lack the patience to stick with it long enough to succeed.

Fishing requires belief. Marketing requires belief – in your understanding of your buyers, your products and your marketing strategy and plan.

Fishing requires the confidence – to choose the right place to fish, the right bait to use, the correct presentation of that bait and to stick with it long enough to achieve results.  Marketing requires the confidence to choose  our positioning, messaging and then invest in advertising and marketing programs and give these programs the time they require to succeed.

When you’ve been fishing as long as I have, you understand that some days you’re going to come home with great stories about how many fish you caught, a huge stringer and bragging rights for your accomplishment.  You also fully understand the realities of coming back from your fishing trip empty-handed (called getting “skunked”), with nothing to show for it except a sunburn and sore muscles. And on a really bad day, perhaps a hole in your boat.

This is the reality of fishing.  It’s also a reality of marketing.

With fishing, it’s not as much about the results of the catch as it is about getting away and doing something you enjoy. At least that’s how it is with “recreational” catch and release fishing…  Professional fishing is quite another matter.

Professional fisherman realize that their livelihood depends on their success every day – just like professional marketers do.  If you don’t catch, you don’t eat.  Failure is not an option.

Whether an amateur or a professional, fishing and marketing also have a lot in common with hunting. We are in search for our “prey” and we have to compete in the “wild” in order to succeed.  Here’s ten things that marketers can learn from fishermen:

1. Understanding - understanding our prey is central to success. Knowing as much as possible about the fish, how they think, their behavior, their decision-making and habits is core to success.  Without this understanding, a fishing trip requires more luck than skill.  With this understanding, skills becomes more important than luck.  Do you truly understand your buyers and their habits like a professional fisherman does?

2. Location - it seems obvious enough, but unless you go where the fish are, you can’t possibly catch them. And since you cannot see underneath the water, you have to look for other signs of where the fish are located; certain types of “structure” that attracts them like humps, dropoffs and creek channels.  With marketing, we need to identify the “places” that our buyers like to hang out, too.  Are you fishing in the right locations where your buyers hang out? Do you know where these buyers like to feed?  Where they like to go to rest?

3. Bait - in fishing, our goal is to “hook” the fish; however, first we must attract the fish using the right bait.  There’s “live bait” and “artificial baits” called lures. The purpose of bait is to attract the fish and get them to “bite”.  Live bait is usually more effective than artificial baits.  However, artificial baits are more flexible and durable, unlike live bait.  When we choose the right bait for the circumstances that the fish are in (muddy water, clear water, low light, etc.), we catch more fish.   How effective is the marketing bait you’re using at attracting buyers?  Do you use the same bait all the time or do you choose the bait to match the circumstances of your buyers?  Do you appear “live” to your audience (or at least in recorded videos) or do you rely strictly on artificial, online bait?

4. Presentation - how the bait is presented makes all the difference in fishing, in terms of speed of presentation, depth, rhythm, sound, color and other aspects of how the bait is perceived by the fish.  Fishermen know to vary their presentation for the circumstances in order to catch more fish.  How well does your marketing presentation match the circumstances of your buyers?  Do you have a single presentation for all buyers, or do you tailor it for each “buyer persona”?  Do you use text, images, video, audio, and color in combinations that entice your buyers to “bite” (or does it annoy, bore and repel them)?

5. Patterns - there are a huge number of possible combinations of location, baits and presentation characteristics.  Depending on the season and the prevailing habits of fish on a given lake, certain combinations work consistently. For example, on a windy, overcast day a spinner bait with larger copper blades on a point often works best vs. on a clear, calm day, smaller silver blades that reflect the sun when fished near brush and cover work better (because the fish are hiding from the bright sun in the brush).  Do you understand the patterns that work best to land the most buyers under various conditions?  Do you look for and find these patterns, then leverage this knowledge to replicate your success at every lake (advertising/traffic venue) you visit?

6. Setting the hook – one of the most important moves you must make in fishing is picking the right moment to set the hook. If you fail to set the hook, the fish will get away once they realize something’s wrong and they’re being caught. Do you pick the right time and way to set the hook and close your buyers?  Or are you losing many of your buyers before or after the “hookset”?  Does the same close work on everyone or do you use different ones that are appropriate for the circumstances?

7. Catch and release – once the fish is hooked, the fun begins – playing the fish and reeling them in. Once they are landed, we admire our catch, weigh them and either place them in the live well or release them. Do you still enjoy catching and landing your buyers?  Do you still weigh each one and appreciate the catch or have you grown so accustomed to the catch that it’s now mundane and repetitive?  Do you provide great service after the catch or just throw them back to be caught by another fisherman?

8. Schools - one way to catch a lot of fish is to locate schools of fish. Fish gather into schools in the same location in order to feed.  Buyers gather together in order to feed, too – to learn buyers go to events, seminars, trade shows, webinars, forums, blogs and other venues.  Are you fishing where your buyers school?

9. Trophies - every once in a while, we catch a fish to be really proud of – one that’s bigger and better than the average fish, perhaps even one for the record books.  Landing a trophy fish typically requires more planning and preparation. If your line is old and frayed, trophy fish will break it.  If your hooks aren’t sharp, the hook won’t penetrate and hold. If you don’t play the fish right, they will wrap your line up around a log and break it.  If you take too long to reel a big fish in, they’ll wear your line out with their bigger, sharper teeth and break the line.  Big fish are smart.  They grew big for a reason and they don’t fall for the same tricks that younger, smaller fish do.  Do you prepare and plan properly for landing a trophy fish?  When you land a trophy account, do you make the most of it you can?

10. Equipment - in fishing, using the right line, reel, rod and other equipment makes a big difference in how accurate your casts are and how productive you are at catching fish.  Do you have the right equipment in place for your buyer?  Is your marketing equipment in good working order?  Does it capture a buyer’s interest, attract them to look closer, opt-in to become a lead (fish on!)?  Does your sales process nurture leads and build a relationship with them?  Does it close the sale or do most of them get away?

Now clearly there are many differences between fishing and marketing – and between fishermen and marketers.  But there are also many similarities.  It’s often helpful to look at what we do from a different perspective to see things we otherwise miss from our usual vantage point.

I hope these insights and change of perspective help you see your buyers and your marketing/selling processes in a different light.  As in fishing, there are many patterns that catch a few fish and only a few that work consistently. Choosing the right approach under each circumstance is the challenge.

Boy, all this talk about fishing makes me want to hop in the boat and get going.  I can’t wait for the weather to improve so the fish will be more active and productive for catching.

Meanwhile, there’s plenty of buyers just waiting for the right bait to swim by…

In addition to enjoying fishing, I also enjoy being a “fishing guide” – helping others to catch fish.  If you think having  a “marketing guide” could benefit your business, please take a moment to check out our “guide services”.

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The New Rules of Launch

FREE E-BOOK DOWNLOAD (no registration required)

The Internet and Web have changed the rules for how we launch anything new, including products, websites, and companies – even political campaigns – using social media like Twitter and Facebook to create purpose-built launch communities and make more sales.

This 62 page e-book provides strategies, tactics and processes you can put to use in your business to launch successfully and with maximum impact, jump-starting the sales growth engines and making your product Profitable on Day One™.

The Internet and Web have changed the rules for how we launch anything new, including products, websites, and companies – even political campaigns – using social media like Twitter and Facebook to create purpose-built launch communities and make more sales.

The Web and the ubiquitous global communications it enables now interconnect over 1 billion people for the first time in human history. Practitioners who learned based on the old rules have been slow to change and adopt new methods, such as social media and building appropriate communities around their launch process.

This information in this e-book enables everyone who wants to leverage social media and Web 2.0 interactive media for launching a company, product, service, website, political campaign, or just about anything else –  to grasp how to leverage the immense power of the Internet and social media networking to do so.

Download and Read the New Rules of Launch

But be prepared to update the way you think about launches…

Download the New Rules of Launch here.

P.S. Please feel free to post copies of this free e-book document on your blog, website or email it to anyone you believe would benefit from it. This e-book is licensed under the Creative Commons License, as indicated below, which means the content may be used freely for non-commercial purposes, so long as such use is attributed properly according to the license terms.

Inside the New Rules of Launch

How to launch a product, company or
anything else via the Internet

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• The New Rules of Launch (1)
• The Truth About How To Use Twitter in a Product Launch (3)
• The 3C’s of Product Launch (0)
• Psychology of Social Product Launches – Part 3, Storytelling (0)
• Product Launch 3.0 Sales Process (0)
• New Product Launch Email Campaigns Now Available (1)
• Launching a Product (0)
• How to Launch a Product using Social Networks (0)
• WinningWare QuickLaunch – Product Launch Automation Software (2)
• Top 5 Product Launch Success Factors (and Pitfalls to avoid) (1)

Ever wish there was actually some secret formula or “system” to use for picking money-making opportunities to invest your time and money into, that are virtually guaranteed to yield a return on investment?

Actually there is, when you target the right type of buyer who’s “desperate” for a solution.

Today more than ever, it’s easier to sell to someone who is desperate for a solution to a problem they have in their business or personal life.  And a few years ago, I ran across a tremendous resource called Desperate Buyers Only, one of the few tools that I recommend for marketers looking to find new product opportunities that will make them money. It’s the same way I approach choosing and validating opportunities.

This report provides a unique perspective on how to find opportunities where buyers are “hungry” for a solution and will gladly pay you for the solution.

This information was updated in 2009, taking into account the changes that the down economy have created.

Learn more about how to identify desperate buyers in your market or pick a new market opportunity that will make money.

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Launching of products has been taking place as long as there have been products to introduce to the market. Even in the challenging economic times we see today, products must be launched – it’s not an “optional” job to be done for companies and marketers.

A great launch means the difference between success and failure – profits vs. losses – promotion vs. stagnation in your career and business.

Historically, marketers and entrepreneurs have typically lacked the resources they really needed when launching products, so doing launches right has always been a challenge.  Given the tighter budgets and fewer resources available, launching products is tougher than ever to do right today.

Even with great educational products like Product Launch Formula, Mass Control and others that provide tremendous strategic and how-to advice, at the end of the day, launches entail real “work” – and a LOT of it.  And somebody has to do all that work.

Add to those challenges the advent of relatively new, online aspects of launch marketing such as social networking, online lead-capture and nurturing, blogging, video and other online techniques – and you have a real problem.

Top that off with the requirement to launch products into markets that are tougher and more competitive than ever, with even fewer resources than before, and you have a seemingly insurmountable set of issues at hand.

All too often, the answer is comprised of taking shortcuts, reducing market coverage and compromising launch results – exactly what you don’t need.

Instead, what’s needed is a way to:

• Single-handedly plan your own launch project
• Quickly create your launch plans, schedule and content
• Outsource certain tasks to subject matter experts
• Invest more time learning and using “new media” – blogging, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.
• Invest more time creating top-quality content for your audience
• Invest more time forging partnering relationships to gain access and influence in your target market
• Invest more time ensuring the product is ready for market
• Invest more time researching market conditions and the competition to pinpoint the best positioning and messaging
• Execute a complete launch process with minimal resources

Sound insurmountable?  Well, it often is – especially for entrepreneurs, small businesses and product marketers (even in larger companies, where resources are spread way too thin).  As an entrepreneur, we don’t have many of the luxuries afforded larger companies – like marketing budgets of hundreds of thousands or more to allocate to a launch, a marcom department, the ability to hire contract specialists and PR firms, etc.

Instead, small businesses must make do with whatever tools and inspiration are available, along with a healthy dose of perspiration, hard work and long hours to get things done.  There’s nothing wrong with this, of course. Except that it demands numerous trade-offs be made that impact launch results.

That’s why I decided to automate launching products – to make launches more fun again – and more successful and predictable – and importantly, to generate increased sales and profits without as many long hours.

I simply grew weary of doing launches the hard way – the manual way. To be sure, it’s taken a lot of effort and time to develop a solution to this problem, as well.

Late last year, I posted that we were underway on some new product launch software. We’ve been heads down on product development since the middle of 2009 (and in the planning stages for several years prior). We are now in the final stages of development, working with selected customers on their actual launches using the software.

After managing major multi-million dollar, global product launches as Vice-President of Product Marketing for CITRIX Systems and then handling my own launches as an Internet entrepreneur, I gained firsthand knowledge that taught me what works and what doesn’t.

And as a small business owner and roll-up-your-sleeves  ”doer”, I truly gained an appreciation for what was actually needed – a software tool that automates and simplifies product launch planning, scheduling and content creation.

This was further validated by working with various customers on their launch projects, which also had to be done the old-fashioned way.  A typical launch can easily cost a client $25K to $50K for all the planning, scheduling and content development.  This is fine for venture funded startups and established companies, but beyond the reach of many small businesses.

By working with several launch customers throughout this software’s development, it also became clear that customized, step-by-step instructions that make launch execution as easy as following a recipe are also needed.

So that’s what we’ve created.  A product launch solution that’s simple enough for a first-time entrepreneur, powerful enough for an advanced marketer and affordable for everyone.

WinningWare QuickLaunch –  The Fastest, Most Affordable Way To Launch a Product Right

WinningWare is preparing to unveil a product line in a new category we’ll be calling “Product Launch Power Tools™”.  These launch power tools will do for product launches what the hand-held power drill has done to old-fashioned screwdrivers – automate and expedite a common, important job at hand – making it far easier, faster and more convenient to get the job done right in record time, and without the hassles and usual soreness that used to occur.

The product is called WinningWare QuickLaunch™.

WinningWare QuickLaunch does pretty much what the name implies – it enables a marketer to quickly plan and execute just about everything needed to launch a product properly – and to do so in record time, with as little effort as possible.  The product is a Web-based software service (SaaS), accessible from any Web browser securely over the Internet.

Here’s the latest screenshot of the Launch Control Center™ that’s nearing development completion, where all the generated marketing collaterals are accessed for a launch project:

How the above Launch Control Center is Created

The product walks a marketer through a series of wizard question/answer panels (not shown here), where information about the product launch is gathered, including product information, launch goals and objectives, audience targets, marketing messaging and offers.  The wizard is a simple, step-by-step process that typically takes no more than 30 to 45 minutes to use the first time through (and much less after that).

Then after completing the wizard steps, the software automatically “generates” what’s needed for the product launch project, including:

• Detailed, Step-by-step Launch Execution Instructions (much better than a product launch checklist only)
• Launch Plan Executive Summary (for investors and senior management teams)
• Detailed Launch Plans
• Project Schedule
• Launch Strategy
• Launch Landing Page with Countdown Timer (here’s an example generated landing page)
• Product Sales Page Template
• Launch Email Sequence, including Draft Email Content
• Launch Social Networking Plan with Step-by-step Instructions
• PR Kit with Custom Press Release Drafts
• Marketing Source Document (for working with your partners, affiliates, employees and contractors)
• Product Data Sheet

With WinningWare QuickLaunch, the entire launch planning process start-to-finish typically takes less than an hour the first time through – from the time a new customer actually signs up for the service until all of the above launch-related materials are generated and in the customer’s hands.

Then, the user simply follows the step-by-step instructions to execute the launch process.

And anytime something changes –  like the product name, messaging, positioning or other aspects of the product or plan during the launch process – it’s a simple matter of updating the project settings in WinningWare QuickLaunch, and moments later, presto – all the launch materials, schedules and plans are automatically re-generated and up-to-date.

Clearly this solution doesn’t address every launch-related challenge that product marketers and small business owners face during a launch; e.g., website development, partner and affiliate management, etc.

However, it automates the most tedious, error-prone and time-consuming tasks facing every launch manager and marketer involved in a product launch, making it so that now anyone – professional marketer or first-time entrepreneur alike – can plan and pull off a world-class product launch with minimal cost, resources and time investments.

Step-by-Step Launch Execution

Automating the creation of launch plans, schedules and all the various content is useful enough in itself. However, the rubber meets the road when it comes time to put all the launch strategies and plans into action, which is what leads to launch success.  So we decided to go the extra mile and include detailed tactical plans that anyone can follow to execute their launch plans.  It’s one thing to plan the launch – it’s quite another to execute everything involved…

As shown in the following screen snapshot, Launch Execution is divided into four distinct phases.  For each phase, there is a “tab” containing the high level objectives to accomplish during that phase of the launch:

Each phase of the launch project contains a set of links like you see above.

When you click on one of those links, it brings up a separate page containing detailed, step-by-step instructions for accomplishing the objective; e.g., reviewing the launch plan, creating the launch canvassing plan, implementing the launch landing page (not shown, but available in the “Pre Launch” tab, etc.).

Throughout each of these launch execution steps, the appropriate launch content that was generated specifically for the user’s launch is available, making launch execution as simple and easy as it gets.

So WinningWare QuickLaunch aims to provide a complete solution for launching products, taking you from the planning stages through each and every step involved in pulling off a world-class launch.

How To Learn More About WinningWare QuickLaunch

So, if you’re interested in automating your next product launch, stay tuned.  There’s more good news coming soon on the product launch automation front.  We are at this point just nearing the end of the beginning – of a new era of easier, better product launches.

If this sounds interesting, you can register to receive more information on WinningWare QuickLaunch. As our own launch days grows closer, we will be sharing additional details and insights.

Incidentally, the landing page with countdown timer you see at the above link was actually generated by the software then integrated with our AWeber email auto-responder.  In the past, developing a landing page like this would’ve taken several hours – it took about me about 20 minutes to take the landing page HTML template that was generated and finalize it.

Of course, it took about a man-week of effort to develop the landing page generator that’s a part of the product – something that our users can now leverage from now on.

For more information, you may also wish to download the free New Rules of Launch e-book, which provides launch strategy information and explains how and why leveraging online launch technology is so productive and effective.

Please stay tuned.  More is coming soon on the WinningWare QuickLaunch front.  In the meantime, if you have any launch-related needs, be sure to visit our WinningWare.com Launch Solutions page for more details or contact me if we can assist with your launch project.

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Today is groundhog’s day, 2010.  And one of my favorite movies was on TV this afternoon – Groundhog Day with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell.

As it turns out, I have been doing some website sales process audits and optimization for several clients over the past few days… or is it the same day, just repeating over and over and over again?

In the movie, Bill Murry figures out that he’s trapped doing the same things over and over again, with no apparent ramifications for his actions.  So he goes on a destructive binge, hognapping Punxsutawney Phil and driving off of a cliff.  Unfortunately, this scene reminded me of the website sales processes I seem to see day after day…

Cluttered home pages with so many choices to make that it’s easier to just make no choice at all – and hit the Back button to keep looking.

No compelling offer – to cause a visitor to register and become a lead that the website owner can follow up with, build a relationship with and, someday, make that first sale to when the time is right.

Direct links to product catalogs, with no sales process in place to explain what the product is, its benefits and key capabilities or answer common questions and objections prior to asking for the sale. The “Buy Now” and “Add to Cart” buttons do not close sales, in case you were wondering.

Like Bill Murray, I suddenly realize this as an opportunity – to improve the quality of life of the owners of websites (and their visitors). Instead of feeling trapped living this same dreadful day over and over again, perhaps it would be better to help everyone I can and do my best to improve myself where possible, under the cirsumstances – so here we go…

What I described above are what are commonly called “brochure sites” – websites whose design originally aimed to dispense information instead of generate leads and make sales.  Unfortunately, many of these website owners believe their sites are more than brochure sites, because they have added a product catalog and some cute graphics.

One thing they know for certain – their sites are not making them many (if any) sales at all – and most have no idea why.  These site owners have all kinds of reasons why their sites don’t sell, but in reality, when I speak to them I find they seem surprised by the realities of what’s actually going wrong.

The formula that works to escape this Groundhog Day of Website Marketing isn’t all that complicated, but it involves applying skill sets that still seem to escape many (most?) web developers today; otherwise, wouldn’t these sites be fixed and structured properly by now?

Here’s the formula for escaping Groundhog Day Website Marketing and making money:

1. Focus the home page on the most important three things you want people to do on your site – not two, not five – three.  Three is the magic number of choices that works best anytime you can keep things that simple.

2. Make at least one of those three options a compelling offer – something your ideal customer (someone who buys your product) could not possibly leave your site without. The purpose of this “money magnet” offer is to generate the gravitational forces of desire so strong that it sucks your visitors into clicking on it to learn more and take advantage of this intriguing offer.  Clicking on this offer link takes the visitor to the offer landing page.

3. Use an offer landing page as a lead-generation tool that provides more details on the compelling offer, closing the next step, which is the user providing their Name and Email address details – becoming a lead.  The leads are added to your email auto-responder, then your visitor is redirected to either: a) a page that provides what they just registered to receive (free report, video, etc.) or b) a solutions page that explains more about the various solutions the site offers to solve the prospect’s pain, needs or desires.

4. The email auto-responder consists of a follow-up sequence that delivers what was originally promised for registration, then email #2 reminds the user a few days later to “consume” what they registered for (so they actually get the value you’re delivering). Emails 3 through 5 delivers additional value, in the form of tips, strategies and useful information that moves your prospect closer to achieving the goal they seek; e.g., losing weight, landing a date that will lead to a relationship, learning how to win at poker, train the dog, train the husband, or whatever the primary job to be done is for your client.  This sequence demonstrates your expertise, builds authority and shows you are trustworthy.

5. The sixth email in the sequence makes your prospect an offer to buy – a special offer they can’t refuse if they are a qualified prospect.  This email makes a brief summary of the offer, then “sells the click” to the sales page.

6. The sales page is a long-form sales letter that closes the sale. The purpose of this sales letter is as old as direct response marketing and selling itself – to make a sale.  It hooks the reader on the primary benefit and differentiation of your product (i.e., your Unique Selling Proposition), establishes rapport with the reader and then promises to deliver a primary benefit, along with a number of secondary benefits.

The sales page then provides proof that what you say is true, in the form of testimonials and other forms of “evidence” that cannot easily be ignored and which exudes truthfulness and transparency.  Then the sales page addresses each and every major question and objection that a reasonable prospect is likely to ask and require an answer to in order to make a buying decision.  Since there is no other way to get answers to these questions (there’s not a live salesperson there), the sales page must completely answer every question and objection a buyer has – or no sale will be made.

Finally, a summary of everything you’re going to get, what it costs, the guarantee and reasons to buy today are all made in order to close the sale.

And then it snows outside and we wake up to a new day – with a website that makes sales from that day forward – a website that only needs additional sources of traffic to generate even more profits each day than the day before it.

That’s the dream I awake from after each successful client project – a new day dawning where what was once a brochure site is now actually a real e-commerce site, making the site owner the money they have expected all along, but didn’t get from their original web developers, who were long ago fired and never heard from again.

So the next time you hire a web developer who shows you a great-looking design that blows you away, before approving the project for completion, ask them who’s going to actually finish your site by providing what’s outlined in steps 1 through 6 above.

Meanwhile, I have some “errands” to go run with my existing clients, because it’s still Groundhog’s Day somewhere.

P.S. I am not complaining about Groundhog’s Day Website Marketing, because we are in business to help our clients put those steps 1 through 6 in place. It’s easy to write the outline and even understand why each step is necessary, but it’s quite another to actually put a proper sales process in place.  As online marketers, this is what we do – work with website owners and web developers to turn good-looking websites into moneymakers.  Learn more about how we can help here.

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Image from: http://mwrichardson.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/

Perspective very often determines the conclusions we reach.

The visual perspective above shows a person holding the Sun. Our greater understanding and world view enables us to quickly rationalize that the Sun must be behind the person in the distance, so this is visually just an illusion. Still, this picture is very compelling to the eye, isn’t it?  This is an example of “visual perspective”.

“Cognitive perspective” is one’s “point of view” – the choice of a context for opinions, beliefs and experiences.  How we choose to evaluate product opportunities is no different.  We must choose a point of view in evaluating all the possible products we might develop, which features to add to an existing product, who to sell our products to, and who to target in our marketing.  Investors must choose which opportunities to invest in, which ones to double down on and which ones to pull the plug on.

Great products all do something “magical” for customers:

They enable the customer to “get an important job done in their business or personal life better than before”.

The important perspective here is to how we view the purpose of the product – the “jobs” perspective. This concept was first introduce by Professor Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School in his various works on disruptive innovation.

When we stop looking at the product and instead look at the job the customer needs to do, this perspective change leads us to reach very different conclusions.  Instead of becoming enamored with a particular feature, we focus on the job the customer needs to accomplish – and what kinds of products, features, services or other value we can bring to the table to do a “better” job for this customer and their circumstances.

This past weekend I saw a very innovative product that is designed to automate appointment confirmations for medical professionals. The product eliminates the need for a doctor’s office to manually call up patients and confirm their appointment. It can also be used to collect past due accounts, before turning accounts over for collections.  The value proposition of the product and jobs to be done are very clear.

However, the product was apparently originally conceived as an outgrowth of a surgeon not calling a patient back, which was a very painful and frustrating experience. This caused the founder of the company who developed this product to recognize an opportunity – to automate callbacks and staying in touch with patients (who are customers) to provide better service.

Unfortunately, many surgeons still wake up every day thinking they are godly and that the world must come to them, since they are in such demand and omni-important.  And if you are trusting your life to a surgeon on any given day, you would probably agree with them!

These surgeons still don’t care about providing good customer service – and they probably never will unless something happens to cause them to change their priorities and outlook.

So these surgeons aren’t really concerned with patient follow-up. This makes surgeons a very difficult sell for this product, because it’s not a “job” they’re trying to get done in their business nor one they value highly.  You would have to “push” this product very hard to make a sale to the average surgeon.

On the other hand, most dentists do care about customer service and satisfaction, because people have many choices when it comes to which dentist to use.  And dentists, like most physicians, want to optimize their patient workload in order to maximize their revenue. And most want referrals from happy customers, so they value providing good customer service.

So many dentist offices prioritize this job by having someone in their office call patients the day before the appointment to confirm it.  The company’s product is a great fit for dentists, because it provides a “better” way to get an important job done that dentists already do.   Most dentists would welcome the opportunity to automate follow-ups for appointment confirmations and collections – both of which are important jobs they are already doing today.

So the “secret” to winning products isn’t as much about the product as it is about the customer – and the jobs they’re doing (or want to be doing) in their business or personal life.  By taking a “jobs to be done” perspective, we can identify which customers are most likely to want to buy a particular product.

It’s a lot easier to sell a product that helps someone do a better job at something they already value and are doing vs. trying to educate someone as to why they should start prioritizing (and budgeting) a job they don’t do today.

One of the fastest paths to success is taking an existing market, where customers are already doing a job with some existing product, then determine how satisfied these customers are with the products available to them. If the market is “underserved”, then you may have found a good opportunity to introduce a better way of doing that job.

For example, I just switched over to using AT&T U-Verse and replaced DirectTV, analog phone service and Internet service.  AT&T U-Verse provides an all-in-one solution bundle that’s about half the price of all these services I was already using – a better and less expensive way to get all three of these jobs done that I’m already doing.  Home run!

Another way to identify great opportunities is looking for customers who are interested in doing a particular job, but who aren’t able to do that job today due to some limitation, such as lack of money required, lack of skills or lack of access to the solution.  By innovating in such a way that enables these “non-consumers” to overcome their current limitations and get that job done, you will have found a great market opportunity.

I sure wish I’d learned about this particular “jobs to be done” perspective about twenty years sooner…

How does this perspective change how you see your customers?  Your products?  Your job to be done?

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