I walked into the conference room feeling great about the new product launch results. We’d scored more than a dozen earned media news placements, contributed an authoritative feature-length article to a key industry publication and leads were pouring in – the paid advertising hadn’t even started yet. I was planning to present the next steps to capitalize on the successful launch, and then, “What do you mean the product is dead???”
“Yes, we’re getting a lot of serious leads and we’re quoting a lot and a number of people are testing, the lead generation has been great,” my client began. “But everyone who’s tested it so far has said no and their feedback has been very sensible – it’s just not a great product, no one really needs it.”
People often say a great product sells itself but can a poor product sell even if it’s supported by superior marketing and sales support?
In other cases, the new product may offer a novel approach but not offer quite enough value compared to the status quo to earn the sale. For example, when launching a portable cooler that keeps kegs cold at outdoor events, the new product launch began by joining a beer industry trade association and renting a direct mail list with companion emails. This highly targeted campaign successfully tapped interest from a team at one of the world’s largest beverage companies. They tested one. Given this company’s infinite budget, the cooler manufacturer was thrilled as they calculated the potential profits if rolled out nationally.
“Meh.” No sale. Thanks anyway.
Yes, the marketing worked but the product, though a clever idea, wasn’t solving pressing problems or relieving any pain points. Even a skilled and experienced sales person would struggle to sell a product like this one that probably needed more time in market research before launch.
In another case, the new product may solve a problem but doesn’t really have a customer. For example, when asked to develop a new product launch campaign for a machine that converted consumer plastic waste into blocks suitable for recycling, I asked who would buy the machine and how the plastic bags and other waste would be collected. This hadn’t been fully addressed. Despite the societal desire to recycle consumer plastics and the manufacturer’s innovative approach, this machine had no audience to target. There was no one responsible for plastics recycling, no proven market for selling the blocks, and it was probably destined to struggle for traction at the outset.
So how many leads does marketing need to generate for the sales team to sell a product nobody really wants to buy?
Brilliant marketing can give hope to a sales team tasked with selling a poor product but if there’s no compelling reason for anyone to buy then all you’re really generating is rejection, frustration, and costly disappointment for everyone involved. It’s better to invest in figuring out if the new product is saleable at the design stage rather than find out after investing much more in production and marketing.
Note: certain details have been generalized or modified to preserve confidentiality while illustrating the marketing principle.
