Part One: Foundations for Success
Launching your product requires an investment of time, energy, and organization in order to be effective and ensure the greatest success. Many people underestimate what it takes to effectively launch their product/program, and the result can be either a loss of profit or an unnecessary degree of stress and disorganized, reactive behavior for the company.
Enfusionize™ has worked with hundreds of clients to discover the key elements that comprise a successful program and product launch. Click Here to discover how!
BANDWIDTH
Before you even hire a team or invest, you need to assess your bandwidth. Bandwidth in this sense means expanse of time. What kind of time do you have to commit to your product or program launch? Do you know what is essential for your particular style of launch? Do you have the resources? Staff time? Comprehensive list of tasks? An understanding of the work flow arrangement? If you are already stretched to the max in your business and your personal life draws your time and energy, then you are not in the right place to launch anything, and it is necessary to first consult with someone who can assist you with moving in the right direction for your business at this time.
Some individuals prefer to initiate a launch with a low-key, low-impact approach. This allows you to test the field, get to know the constraints in your sales flow, and understand how your team works together under pressure. Knowing these things allows you to gauge the amount of time certain tasks take, so that if you do decide to scale it up, you will be more effective at managing it. It’s best to know what you are getting into before you dive in. Once you have a sense for what it takes, you can move forward, adding things on the fly without overwhelming your team. Regardless of whether you start low key or go big right out of the gate, you’ll want to be sure you have sufficient time to commit to the success of your product launch.
STRATEGIC TEAM WORK
It is important to have a really clear, cohesive strategy going in as well as a follow-up/follow-through strategy. Having the systems in place to manage, maintain, and track the progress of the launch is essential if all is to run smoothly. A competent and experienced team, with the skills and knowledge to develop refined systems and the know-how to handle the bumps and curves that invariably come up along the way, can make all the difference in a product launch. An experienced team means that you have people who have an idea of what could go wrong, know dynamic steering, and can maneuver accordingly. When the going, well, get’s going, they know how to handle it, from technological glitches to shifts in marketing approach, they are always maintaining clear guidance in front of the launch. Your team is the foundation of your success, so make sure the channels of communication are open and that the team is collaborative in nature, mutually supportive, and focused on developing and problem solving (not blaming, complaining, or buckling under pressure).
Although it’s tempting to formulate how to do a launch, in truth, each situation is unique. There may be multiple teams collaborating, for example, and it is important that each team have a strong foundation and that the teams be able to communicate clearly with one another. You may have a strong team, but they may be collaborating with another team that is less developed. So in essence, be conscious of whom you choose to collaborate with, and if there are blocks to communication and flow, then make sure to address them long before your launch. It is always better to be prepared with a solid strategic team foundation. This is tantamount to the foundation of a house on which much complexity is constructed. You can solve problems within the team, introduce tactics to the teams you are collaborating with, and implement solutions much more easily if it is not under the pressure of launch time for your product.
DO YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TEAM IN PLACE?
Use these questions to determine whether you have your A++ team in place to provide the foundational support for launching your product:
1. Do you know who the Key Decision Makers are in your company and for the launch?
2. Do you have a seasoned team in place already that will be working on THIS LAUNCH?
3. Describe the team support you have in place for:
- Customer Support
- Automation Marketing
- Affiliate Management
- Shopping Cart
- Product Delivery
4. Is your current support sufficient for the volume of sales you’d like to achieve?
5. What type of support team would you like before launching?
6. Do you have any of the following? (provide answers below)
- Virtual Assistant : ___Yes ___No
- Tech Person: ___Yes ___No
- Video Person: ___Yes ___No
- Copywriter: ___Yes ___No
- Web Developer: ___Yes ___No
- Graphic Designer: ___Yes ___No
- Launch Manager: ___Yes ___No
- J/V Manager (where applicable) : ___Yes ___No
- Social Media Team/Manager: ___Yes ___No
7. What tech/assets do you already have in place?
- Do you use Infusionsoft? Answer here
- Email Auto Responder? If so, which company? Answer here
- Shopping Cart? If so, which company? Answer here
- Merchant Account? If so, which vendor/bank? Answer here
- URL for product? If so, what is it? Answer here
- URL for launch? If so, what is it? Answer here
- Web Hosting? Which company? Answer here
This is just the tip of the iceberg in order to enable you to begin asking essential questions before you prepare to do a launch of any style/size/caliber so you may have a better foundation upon which to build a solid platform for the future of your business. In Part 2 we will discuss Product Preparation, including data gathering, surveying, and demographics. If you are ready to discuss your next potential launch project with a launch-qualified rep from Team enfusionize™, click here and fill out this form to get started.
