Hi Folks,

It’s been awhile since we’ve last talked about product launches.  Being busy is no excuse, but it’s the one I’m using anyway.

One of the projects I’ve been working on is Launch Answers Now. It’s pretty exciting and we’re almost ready to go live so I thought I’d share it with you.

As you may already know, last summer, 45 people came together to be trained as Product Launch Managers by the Product Launch Guru, Jeff Walker.  We were all doing very well in our own businesses, and had many successful product launches, but all of us wanted to learn that extra special something so we made a sizable investment in our professional development to get personal training from the master himself.

Since we returned home many people have approached us to do a product launch for them. The problem is that very few are qualified prospects. They don’t have the resources (money, list, proven product, JV connections etc) to make it possible to do a product launch with them.

It’s been frustrating all around. We can’t serve people who have a need and people who have a need can’t get to the point of being served by us because they don’t have an option of reasonably priced resources to get them to a level where Product Launch Management is feasible.

So this is what we did. 8 Product Launch Managers from around the globe decided to form a team of experts to help take you on a journey.

We decided to set up a site where you could get your product launch questions answered by a group of top notch product launch experts so you could finally take action with confidence. To make it even nicer we’ll be doing this for free. We’ll answer your questions, give you perspective on your plan of action, give you a starting point or just get you unstuck.

What’s in it for us? First of all, we’ll help you get to a place where you qualify for Product Launch Management.  And secondly, we’ll be of service to you.  That means something. We hate just saying “sorry, we can’t help” without providing some way to assist you.

So there you have it. We hope to go live in the next week or two.  If you have thoughts on the project let me know or if you have questions hold on a bit and then keep the questions coming to www.LaunchAnswersNow.com

What is the role of a product launch manager? That’s a question I’ve been delving deep into over the few days.

The simple answer is this. A product launch manager makes lots of money for the client by marrying their great product with her great strategy. She  takes the assets of the client, create a killer marketing strategy, add the tactical elements recommended by marketing gurus like Jeff Walker, Frank Kern & Rich Schefren and voila – instant success!

While this is definitely an aspect of what a product launch manager does it is by no means the ONLY thing that she does.

Since I’ve returned from Jeff Walker’s event in Los Angeles I’ve really been ramping up my business. I’ve been entertaining larger and larger projects and this has given me pause for thought. Since the projects that I’m undertaking now are much bigger I’ve really begun to dissect the process and map it out so the margin of error in my product launches is reduced substantially.

I’ve also been prompted to look at my business very closely because I have had the opportunity to partner with people like Jared Rose, not only a highly skilled project launch manager – but also a highly skilled project manager.  He initiated a project where he is breaking down each element and systematizing it. I and a number of other product launch managers are contributing to this task so we get everybody’s expertise and varied perspectives.

Here are just a few of the roles we have come up with so far, that a product launch manager must either do or hire out and manage.

Launch Strategist, Launch Coordinator, Copywriter, Graphic Designer, Web Developer, Tech Support, JV Manager, Customer Support, Admin Support & Product Champion. Then each of these roles has umpteen responsibilities associated with it.

Daunting isn’t it?

There are a lot of balls to keep in the air. I guess that’s why over 24,500 product launches failed last year. You need to get it ALL right or you put yourself at a great disadvantage.

I’ve given you this list not to scare you, but to prepare you. If you have a good solid team behind you with the experience you need to pull this off that’s fantastic. Just make sure that you have people in these roles, define what they are responsible for, who they report to, who they manage and define their level of decision making authority. If you don’t have people for these roles start by defining their general responsibilities and then decide what knowledge and experience is required for each position. If you do this well in advance of your launch your chances of success will increase exponentially. Get your ducks in a row now -  it’s too late after you push the button.

Hope this helps!

So what do you need to know? If you don’t know who your customer really is, start there.

Now many of you think you do know who they are. You’ve gone through exercises where you’ve described your customer to a tee.  But what’s that based on? What you think you know or what you know you  know?

If you’re just guessing you’re fooling yourself and you’re not optimizing your business or serving your customers – so really think about this before you move on.

If you really know who your customers are then find out how else you can serve them.  Don’t make a product you think they should like, and then try to sell them. Ask them what they would like and then provide it to them. (Gee that sounds easier doesn’t it?)

So what are the basic steps? Get a survey program. That’s simple. There are all kinds of online programs that are simple to set up and even have free basic services. Some people like surveymonkey.  I use surveygizmo. That’s because it was recommended to me by the survey king, Dr. Glenn Livingston. It’s always done the job for me.

Decide on what benefit you can offer your people for participating. We’re in the business book summary business so we offered free additional summaries. What online bonus could you give your people?

Next decide what questions to ask.  The fewer the better (no more than 7 or 8).  If you don’t have a real good idea of your customers start with requesting basic demographic and psychographic information. If you are doing a product launch and you’re looking for holes in your offer ask about the objections they’d have to the offering. If you’re using the survey to create an entirely new product from scratch use the question Jeff Walker loves: “What’s your biggest frustration?” It’s a great way to start the dialogue. The next question might be: “What’s important about that?”

Don’t survey your entire list at the same time. When you get answers to the first layer of questions ask the next segment of your list to answer different questions one level down. For example, if your first group of respondents told you their biggest frustrations was communication, you could ask the next segment of your list: “Who do you have the biggest problem communicating with?”and/ or “When do you get tripped up the most in a difficult conversation?” and/or “Do you have problems communicating up or down, in large groups or one-on-one?”

You can drill down as many levels as you like. (We’ve done as many as 5 levels down.) Boy do you ever get killer info!

Now for the really fun stuff! This is where you get your customers/prospects on the phone.  How do you do this? Do you call randomly? Do they get ticked off? Do they want to talk to you?

This is what we do and it works like a charm. The last question in the online survey asks them if they’d be willing to participate in a 20 – 30 minute telephone interview. They get a small additional gift for participating. If they wish to participate they give us their telephone number and 3 times during the following week they are available. We follow up in an email confirming the time and then call them.

Every single person either kept the appointment or contacted us to reschedule. They took this seriously. We went over their survey results on the phone and asked them questions to really get a flavor for what they wanted and how they wanted it, it their words, with their emotions. You know going in that certain issues are important to them. On the phone you can learn why they are important to an entirely new degree. By simply asking the question: “What’s important about that?” perhaps many times, you really start to uncover the base emotions at play. By asking for stories about their lives when they’ve been encountered with that problem, witnessed that problem or seen people solve that problem, your understanding of their situation skyrockets.

People are exceptionally candid in these interviews so be prepared. I have no formal coaching training and yet people opened up for me and they will for you if you come in willing to really listen and with an intent to help them move forward.

Getting to know and connect with my customers has been one of the single most beneficial and rewarding experiences of my business life.  I hope I have encouraged you to walk down this path and really have a customer driven company with all of the benefits it entails.

Why do people with mediocre content make 10Xs more than recognized experts in 25% of the time?

Come on now that doesn’t seem fair – but fair or not, it happens ALL the time.

The biggest and best authors – the name brand, top-notch, recognized experts are making a fraction of what the upstarts are making.

Most highly coveted business authors make a comfortable living. They have risen to a certain place in their careers where they are courted by publishers and welcomed by large audiences around the world. They have achieved a certain level of success.

But if I were them I’d be really frustrated knowing that they spend years of their lives buried in their home offices cranking out book after book only to hop on plane after plane, going to city after anonymous city promoting their latest creation and selling their speaking services – while the guy without a fraction of their skills is working 3 months a year never having to leave the comfort his own home.

So why the gap? How can mediocre content providers charge way more for their content, and spend a fraction of their time marketing it with far superior results?

Established authors are playing by the old rules. They understand the traditional ways to make money. They write and speak.  They promote in traditional media, do countless radio, print, online and TV interviews.

There are two problems with the old way of doing business. Firstly, this way of making money takes a tremendous amount of time and energy. It wears on you. Secondly, it is nowhere nearly as lucrative as the methods being used by the upstarts.

To make the money you truly deserve you’ve got to change the way you do business. Conventional wisdom just doesn’t cut it. I just saw a PR firm that promotes authors advertise virtual book tours like  it’s a new idea – man, if this is something that people are buying it’s no wonder this industry is in such bad shape!

What’s really needed is a total paradigm shift. This industry – like every other industry for that matter – needs to see what is working like gangbusters and emulate that success, not just do things like promote online and call it revolutionary (that almost makes me laugh, except it’s so sad).

Take a look in the internet marketing world, see what’s catching on and spreading like wildfire to the real estate world and the personal development field. What is it? What are the grizzled veterans in these fields starting to embrace?

It’s a proven way of demonstrating the value you have to offer to your prospects and customers, building anticipation for the release of your product, getting an army of affiliates and joint venture partners to promote you, proving upfront to the people who need your knowledge that you’re the source to go to – all in a way that doesn’t make you hop from city to city on an endless gerbil wheel of interviews and book signings.

How do you do this? Learn how to launch your product. That’s what I did. I found the most effective marketing techniques being used today and adapted them to my industry. I studied under people who are marketing geniuses like Dan Kennedy, Jay Abraham, Frank Kern, Dr. Glenn Livingston & Jeff Walker.  It took a lot of work, and made a number of mistakes along the way but I get it now, so it’s been worth every minute of it. The results speak for themselves.

Why am I telling you all of this? It’s not because I get paid to promote any of these guys, it’s just that there’s a golden opportunity for people to use their methods in fields where they don’t have any presence. But of course time is ticking on and you need to start learning what to do to make the most of this opportunity while it’s not commonplace in your industry.

Why am I focusing on authors? Two reasons. Firstly, as an owner of a business book summary service for the past 11 years I’ve had a lot of opportunity to work with authors, understand their value and see that they’re not making the most of their tremendous assets. That drives me nuts! Secondly, high-end authors have information that, once packaged and repositioned properly, would make for a KILLER launch.

I know that this is true for high-end authors, the real experts in their category – but how about you? Do you have special knowledge that could take your industry by storm if you broke off the shackles of conventional marketing and embraced marketing strategies that have worked like gangbusters in other verticals?

Really think about his before you dismiss this idea and move on to the “next important thing” in your day.

You’ve spent your entire business life adding value, learning, teaching and credentializing yourself. Isn’t it time you cashed in?

We’ve all heard prominent marketers talk about how imperative it is to pace the relationship you have with a prospect. The analogy they usually use is that you don’t ask someone to marry you on your first date. Of course that makes sense.  It’s so critical to foster relationships with your prospects before you ask them to trust you with taking the big step – taking the credit card out of their wallets and actually making the purchase.

This is probably one of the reasons that I found the product launch sequence used by Jeff Walker in his Product Launch formula so compelling. It gives those of us who provide services online a way to “court” our clients in the prelaunch sequence. We share our story, we provide great content, we give away some of the best stuff we have. This allows us to build trust and value in the eyes of our prospects. It’s a solid way to really build a long standing relationship.

This being said few, far too few marketers actually follow this strategy. Even though they know that a tiny fraction of people who land on a sales page will buy, they think that somehow their situation is different and in their case they’ll be successful.

Now, you’re wondering why is the title of this post referencing Egypt? This is where it all gets tied together. J

Two years ago I went on an amazing adventure around Egypt. There’s always a constant barrage of people who are relentlessly going after tourists to sell them their wares. For the most part they’re just selling commodities that can be purchased one more street down so there’s never any real pressure to make a purchase at that time. With a thousand perfume shops, a thousand tshirt shops a thousand statue shops why buy now? So the success of most merchants relies on two things: price and luck. Hopefully they are offering a cheap enough price or they’re just lucky enough that that person is ready to buy now.

That’s the way it is with most internet marketers. There’s a ton of choice “around every corner” so you rely on luck and price.

Here’s where the smart marketers in Cairo really shined. They didn’t try to sell me. They engaged me in some unalarming way while walking down the street. Then they invited me in for tea. They shared stories with me about their culture and their city. They treated me as a friend. Eventually they introduced the benefits of their products and given the relationship we started and the law of reciprocity I bought willingly, even when I wasn’t in the market for what they were selling. The funny thing is – I don’t regret any of the purchases. They were sound products and I enjoyed the experience. I knew what was going on but still I was brought into the buying experience because of their skill in engaging me without trying to sell me.

We’re all tempted to get the quick sale – but remember how inefficient it is. Take your time with your prospect. Give him value before you ask for it in return. Date before you propose or walk (and sell) like an Egyptian.