TL;DR: If you’re a product manager at an early-stage company that’s about to hire for sales, and you end up temporarily supporting the entire process ahead of these hires, you may need to get ahead of things. If this is where you are, skip the following intro bits and head down to the Sales Stage Forecasting Process template below.
[Read more…]Product Management & Sales – BFFs?
TL;DR: A strong product and sales relationship is crucial for any company’s success. Ideally, these teams should work together seamlessly with a shared goal and a collaborative spirit. However, tension can sometimes arise, as with any other working relationship. But if you’re in product management and don’t see the sales team as a valuable partner, it’s time to reframe how you view this critical collaboration.
[Read more…]Customer Journey Map Template
While working on a new component of a project, I had occasion to build out a Customer Journey Map. Even though I’ve done this several times before, I’d kind of just cobbled together a map using Omnigraffle or LucidChart or some other drawing program. But this time I had to do a few of them and wanted a more common format template. What I found was a ton of examples in image search, but very few usable editable templates. (There were a few behind some paywalls and seemingly sketchy download requirements, but not much else.)
[Read more…]Why Do Customers Switch? How to keep from being just a Satisficer?
Do your customers really love you or your products and services? Maybe they do. Then again, maybe you’re just a necessarily evil. In this case, they feel more like a hostage than a customer and will bail out the moment they get the opportunity. So which is it? Are your customers experiencing loyalty to you? Or just Learned Helplessness? Do you have a bright future delighting or at least satisfying your customers? Or are you just a sunk cost fallacy waiting to be realized? (I’ll explain the sunk cost issue in a moment or two.)
During the evolution of COVID-19, a lot of marketplace issues have emerged. All manner of experts from varying business categories will be studying the effects for years. But from the perspective of this topic of product switching, we’re continuing though a period when consumers are choosing to, (or have been forced to), re-evaluate product and service choices. This has sometimes been due to simple availability, but potentially also affordability. People have also had several changing or new needs. Some will be temporary, others more permanent; from home office setup, through childcare, and the list goes on and on. All this change has has dumped a variety of seemingly stable brands in a big blender where all of a sudden, they’re up for review. And if you don’t have a customer retention strategy, even if you’re company can survive a brand switch here or there, you’re likely going to leave a lot of money on the table. [Read more…]
The NFL Marketing Problem – Again
Maybe enough digital ink has been spilled already, but here’s the thing… something else showed up in my newsfeed recently that made me think, “You’re kidding, right? No one’s buying this.” (It was the AdAge Article: Out-of-Home Viewing Erased the NFL’s Ratings Deficit Last Season.) As product people, some of us focus on features, functions, benefits. And others on marketing. However, all of us should at least be interested in marketing and what the NFL faces now is a really interesting marketing business case. Whatever your level of interest in football might be, or your belief in some of the league’s issues, the legal monopoly that is the NFL has massive economic impact. While there’s some argument as to whether a stadium or Super Bowl has net positive impact on a city, (when you add in taxpayer subsidized stadium builds, etc.), football nevertheless generates massive economic activity overall. As a result, the challenges the marketplace faces should be of interest from a marketing perspective.
Event Web Sites & Postings – Best Practices
Planning an Event? Great. I’m sorry to say I can’t help you much with the event itself. What I perhaps can help you with is avoiding some major mistakes with your online presence. During a recent project, I’ve had occasion to look at a lot of events sites. And I’ve come to realize that there’s way too many folks out there damaging their prospects. Starting with the obvious; make sure to communicate the What/When/Where asap! Amazingly, many just don’t do this. [Read more…]