Thoughts on how introduce a new product Thoughts on how introduce a new product. The creators of new technology generally do a poor job of describing it to their customers. Admittedly when they have come up with something really new the client base has no idea what's going on and they do nned to get educated. But what do you tell them?
Rule Number 1: Don't try to "educate" them. Only talk about the issues on which they need to take action. Only talk to them about "action items". What's an "action item"? An action item is something the prospective buyer needs to consider. If the color is important discuss it. If your widget is installed behind the wall color is probably not an issue, so don't discuss your product's color in literature or presentations. The same is true of all the other possible descriptors. For example the fact that you use a custom chip rather than use a couple of off-the-shelf chips in your product is not an "action item" for the customer. It was a big "action item" for your engineering department. The engineering department will probably tell any one who will listen about the chip, the effort to get it right, and so on. When a new product is introduced all to often there are always a lot of "facts" that provided by the empty suits in your ad agency. They got a lot of those facts from your engineers. Don't discuss facts in your literature and presentations that aren't customer "action items" and don't confuse your "action items" with your customer's. It was the solution your engineering department chose, and you can't change it now, not for any customer. Keep your message simple. Omit needles facts. Omit needles facts. Omit needles facts.
Rule Number 2: Who you chose to talk to under non-disclosure depends on where you are in the development cycle. You always want to be "first to market" and you have designed a timetable to do that. Who you talk to and when should be driven by your customer's implementation cycle. If your customer's project cycles are annual and start in the spring then start talking with the managers and planners in the fall (Rule 2a). Start talking with the technical people in the winter (Rule 2b).
Rule 2a: If you are more than a couple months from first shipment talk under non-disclosure only to Managers and Planners . Do not talk to your customer's technical people (see Rule 2b).
Rule 2b: Don't talk to technical people under non-disclosure more than 16 weeks before the product will be in their hands. Technical people are "doerbees" they need to deliver stuff to make the company run. Their project cycles are generally short. (Partly because their mangers have a planning horizon of about five minutes.) If you tell them about a wiz-bang solution that would solve a lot of problems for them, but wont be available for their current (or next) project you are probably going to hurt their morale. If they don't like your technology (and technoids, dweebs, and geeks have strong opinions about technology) you give them lots of time to shoot it down before you can deliver and you can't take money for it until you can deliver it.
