Ratio’s product launch guide presents a proven ten-step method emphasizing deep understanding of the Buyer Matrix and effective communication focused on problem-solving over technology features.
1. Create a Timeline
Establish a clear timeline. A successful product launch often aligns with a particular event, anniversary, or strategic point in the buying cycle. Without a documented timeline, milestones, and launch date, readiness is elusive. This timeline not only maintains organizational focus and accountability but also fosters realistic expectations.
Avoid crafting your timeline in isolation. Assemble a cross-functional team including representatives from Product, Marketing, Sales, Customer Service, and the Executive teams. Collaborate to unveil and ensure understanding of all essential touchpoints, recognizing that a product launch encompasses contributions beyond any single department’s scope.
Prioritize your customer throughout the process. This mindset will reveal current process obstacles that impede your product launch. Identifying these challenges in advance allows ample time for resolution. Don’t allow procedural issues to hinder your optimal launch. While your timeline may need slight adjustments based on product development progress, your focus on customer success remains paramount.
Achieving a balance between the product launch and marketing rollout is key to success. However, this balance can become problematic if exaggerated features fail to materialize or launch schedules need adjusting. Ensuring customer satisfaction and avoiding setbacks is essential to maintaining goodwill and achieving a successful launch.
Establish a comprehensive master timeline encompassing all teams, as every department requires sufficient lead time to optimize resources.
Formulate goals and corresponding metrics for tracking, and be prepared to fine-tune them as launch approaches (refer to step #7).
2. Gather Feedback and Innovate
Before investing resources, ensure your product’s viability. Likely, you’ve been attuned to customer feedback, addressing the problem your product targets. Many HealthTech and SaaS companies falter by prioritizing technology over market demand. A successful launch springs from customer insights, which you can gather through surveys or interviews. Develop a concise set of questions for your existing clients, sharing their responses across your cross-functional team.
- What have your clients said they wish your product could do?
- What is lacking in your industry?
- What will save your target audience time and money?
3. Beta Test with Current Clients
Real validation comes from real customers who stress-test, question, and innovate with your product. Their trials and feedback are the true markers of success, ensuring your readiness for the market. Select your top existing customers for beta testing, as their vested interest drives productive collaboration. But don’t stop there; involve new customers for fresh insights. Close alignment between product, development, and user testing is vital. Gather data from both current clients and new users, leveraging cross-functional teams to extract valuable insights from test results.
- Engineering will learn the limits of the product — and where there is the most potential for improvement
- Marketing will hear experiences and phrases that they can develop into usable materials
- Customer Service will discover what obstacles to overcome and how to respond
- The C-Suite will gain confidence and see the possibilities
4. Go to Market with a Functioning Product
At launch, your product needs to strike a delicate balance between being a minimally viable product (MVP) that will require well-orchestrated iterations to get it up to full speed and a fully-functioning, benefit-focused product that meets the needs of your users (at least most of them). A key step to achieving that balance is through your beta testing.
There are two important extremes when it comes to the functionality of a B2B HealthTech go-to-market scenario:
- Your new product is over-engineered and can’t be easily grasped and assimilated (a common scenario)
- It’s under-engineered, and you haven’t solved the basic problems of your users.
In either scenario, you’re not going to see success.
If the product isn’t everything you hoped it would be at launch but is still the MVP, make sure everyone throughout the process knows the details so that the message remains clear and consistent. Don’t allow Sales, Marketing, or an executive to tout a feature not in version 1.0.
Likewise, if you decide to postpone the launch, communicate the reasons why throughout the organization so there is no confusion or resentment. Keep the healthy tension on the schedule and move to your new launch date.
Note: the product will never be perfect. But a launched product is always better than a product never launched. Be wise, but be bold.
5. Create a New Product Demo and Sales Deck
Once the MVP is in place and has undergone initial testing, it’s time to refine your product for the final launch stages.
Choose the suitable demo approach:
- Opt for a video or photo walkthrough?
- Create a sandbox version enabling customers to interact with real data?
- Craft an interactive experience involving a salesperson and a potential customer?
Irrespective of the chosen demo, a sales deck is imperative. Create a deck harmonizing marketing and sales efforts. Marketing can outline core messages and address customer issues, while Sales can customize the deck to fit different presentation requirements.
6. Get Buy-In from Your Entire Organization
Successful software product launches extend beyond Product, Marketing, or Sales teams. The responsibility encompasses your entire organization, necessitating readiness and alignment.
Establishing a cross-functional team from the outset streamlines this phase, rendering it more efficient and impactful.
At this juncture, your messaging is solidified, demos and sales decks are performing well, and all departments are abuzz, with Finance holding its breath.
Initiate several live internal training sessions or webinars to introduce the product and address vital FAQs. This is also an opportunity to disseminate collateral and documentation for consistent messaging across teams, known as “internal communications alignment.”
7. Recalibrate Measurable KPIs
Reflect on the goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) established at the outset. Are they still the appropriate metrics for gauging success, or do adjustments need to be made? Determine whether any should be removed, added, or modified.
For a product launch, your KPIs could include:
- Achieving a 75% surge in website traffic within three months of launch
- Upselling 30% of clients within the initial three months
- Securing 25 new deals within six months of the launch
- Sustaining a 90% client retention rate within a year
Base your goals on previous launch successes (if applicable), market demands, timing, and available resources.
Remember, the essence of a successful goal is its attainability. Goals should challenge but not overwhelm departments. Overambitious goals can lead to shifting goalposts rather than cultivating extra effort.
Like product messaging, distribute and update these KPIs across the organization. Post-launch, share progress transparently, celebrating achievements and pointing to benchmarks to foster continuous determination.
8. Determine Pricing
A new product launch is the perfect time to evaluate your pricing.
Your new product’s introduction sets a precedent. Consider implementing a universal price hike, positioning the new product as premium while offering slight discounts for existing ones, or strategizing a blend.
Revamped products, especially those with UX/UI enhancements, emphasize heightened value compared to their predecessors. Leverage the novelty of your new product while it’s fresh. Additionally, consider limited-time sales incentives allowing buyers to acquire the new product at former pricing before the increase. The objective is to ignite sales velocity, prompting the exploration of various strategies to match your offering.
9. Create a Product Launch Plan
The primary aim of a product launch plan is straightforward: generate momentum and accelerate sales.
A new product launch is a potent fuel for your sales pipeline, driving renewals from existing customers and expanding the wallet share of new business. As you craft your product launch campaign, focus on two pivotal launches: targeting current customers and reaching out to potential customers.
Existing Customer Launch Equip yourself with a migration plan to alleviate concerns surrounding potentially disruptive transitions (based on product complexity). Your new product’s true inauguration occurs when you begin marketing to current clients.
Before launch, ensure a cost-effective and hassle-free migration strategy is in place to retain existing customers; neglecting this could lead to customer loss.
Furthermore, establish a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for upgrading a specific percentage of your client base within a defined timeframe, in line with your “old” product’s sunset plan.
The goals of this launch plan include:
- Retaining and potentially upgrading existing customers
- Diminishing the appeal of competitor alternatives
- Disrupting competition targeting your customers
Prospective Customer Launch Optimal timing is crucial for approaching new clients. Launching too early risks losing momentum and excitement, while launching too late may compromise the needed pre-launch velocity. The opportunity for pre-launch incentives, aiding sales goals, is also missed.
A product launch campaign for potential customers targets two essential audiences:
- Dormant leads familiar with you but chose not to purchase your product or opted for a competitor.
- New prospects who are just now becoming aware of your brand.
Employ pay-per-click ads, content, emails, and collateral materials to create a pre-launch blitz, harnessing momentum.
The goals of this launch plan include:
- Elevating brand visibility through marketing and PR activities around the launch time
- Amplifying the number of product demos and trials conducted by your Sales team
- Increasing product sales to new clients
Set measurable KPIs, such as new deals, inbound leads, or demos, by specific dates. Post-launch months are when momentum peaks, so capitalize on this period.
For both scenarios, an effective blend of marketing automation and personalized human interaction ensures a smooth process.
10. Launch
As the Sales team has been creating anticipation in the market for months, launch day marks the official readiness for product purchase, migration initiation, website unveiling, and the commencement of PR endeavors.
Key Takeaways
For a successful product, a well-crafted go-to-market strategy is essential. This demands concerted efforts, coordination, strategic planning, and unwavering focus. If you’re seeking assistance in creating the ideal launch plan and go-to-market strategy, our skilled team of marketing professionals is at your service to help you achieve perfection.
