The area of sales force automation and product management is quickly becoming one of the most common ROI components for many of our customers. Product management is a quite complex area.  It is divided into several areas including product conception, product development, product launch, product sustenance and product discontinuance.  In each of these areas BLUJACKET can be of enormous utility in keeping sales management and product management personnel aware of how their products are perceived by sales people, channel partners, support personnel and most importantly by customers 

Most people have bought BLUJACKET originally as an outbound communication and measurement platform but as we shall see once you have built a BLUJACKET communication network with sales people, channel partners, support people and customers that same network can also be used to glean extremely valuable information to augment product marketing from those same people.

 

Product Planning

The product planning process is one of the most controversial within any company. Everyone wants a hand in new product definition and almost everyone will have contributions that will make a new product successful. With all these interested parties, you are going to need a system to help you decide which ideas have the most merit. This system also needs to incorporate customer feedback, assure that important new product ideas are approved, and that development of them gets initiated immediately. A BLUJACKET enabled product planning process allows product managers to utilize BLUJACKET surveying of sales, support, channel partners and customers on a regular basis without the heavy lifting that polling this number of people would otherwise require.  Stay on top of what customers like and don’t like.  Find out what they’d like to see added to a product or things about the product(s) that need improvement.  Be better able to stay on top of market trends and competition by asking sales people and channel partners what they need to stay competitive.  Through BLUJACKET product marketing can better stay on top of industry trends and plan new products or changes in existing products that meet the demands of their target consumers.

Product Development

The Product development cycle starts when a product is funded and continues through beta test until the time of a product release.  It encompasses team meetings, refining requirements during the cycle, running focus groups, and beta testing. BLUJACKET can be of great value to product marketing during this phase.  Get immediate feed back though BLUJACKET surveys and assessments about a groups understanding of what was decided in team meetings, what focus groups think and how good or bad beta testing is going.  Get the immediate input required to fine-tune a product while it’s still in development.

Product Launch

The most intense part of a product cycle is the period where the product has been announced to the outside world but the first order has yet to be placed.  A successful product roll-out requires careful timing and coordination with many people internal to the company as well as external resources.  Product launch includes a product introduction plan, pricing, press relations including: press kit, speaking with press and analysts, press release, reviewer's guide, data sheets and brochures, customer evaluation guides, sales guides, , notifications to customers and channels, product presentation, advertising, bills of material and inventory, web updates and promotions. These many components that make up product launch usually mean that many people are involved with many different viewpoints. 

Using BLUJACKET as a device to test each one of these items to internal staff as well as to channel partners and selected customers makes the various components come together in an integrated manner instead of like they were put together by a lot of different people which, of course, the were.  BLUJACKET surveys and opinion polls of the various components make sure that common ideas that are of the most importance to various groups make it into the launch materials across all applicable components.

Product Sustenance

A product requires constant attention while it is being sold.  Product updates and promotion are key elements of maximizing a Product’s success.  Product sustenance includes writing newsletters and bulletins, road shows and seminars, customer councils, programs, promotions, price changes, and running or participating in sales meetings. Delivery of newsletters and bulletins via BLUJACKET means immediate feedback is not only possible but measurable without a huge amount of effort.  Shows and seminars can more easily be evaluated for their value and promotions and price changes presented through BLUJACKET get understood the first time or can be automatically remediated until they are understood.  BLUJACKET mitigates risk that all programs are fully coordinated and that all participants are all “on the same page”.  Customer councils don’t have to be conducted with a few customers maybe once per year at a central location but can be managed remotely with many customers guaranteeing better accuracy so that the product(s) stay in tune with customer requirements and industry trends for greater periods of time.

 Product Discontinuance

Regular discontinuance of products is vital to keep a company healthy.  Many companies have failed because they needed all their resources just to sustain existing products and couldn’t perform new product research and development to remain competitive.  Product discontinuance includes deciding when a product should be discontinued, writing a discontinuance plan, and notifications.

 Using BLUJACKET to stay on top of customer interaction helps greatly to know when it’s time to discontinue and older product or a product that isn’t right for a product line.  Once a decision to discontinue a product has been made BLUJACKET can be a valuable tool in formulating the time and way that a product is to be discontinued buy surveying distributed sales personnel, service personnel and customers. 

Using BLUJACKET as the notification tool keeps customers involved in the process and avoids surprises from customers for whom a product that is to be discontinued is strategic to their business.  Knowing that some customers highly value a product that is to be discontinued also can offer up some unexpected opportunities to orchestrate a “last buy” opportunity for sales.

Product managers have ultimate responsibility for the product and the product’s success in the market.  Using BLUJACKET to close the understanding and knowledge gap between product management and customers, sales people, support people, service people and channel partners just makes good sense.  Lifecycles of products are always subject to trends.  Things are always changing.  BLUJACKET is a two way communication and verification platform that allows product management to take advantage of those trends by allowing product management to stay on top of changes and to take advantage of change instead of becoming a victim of those changes.

Please contact us for more details on BLUJACKET Product Management Solutions.