12 New Rules of B2B Product Launch

12 New Rules of B2B Product Launch

www.b2bproductlaunch.com

You may post this to your corporate
intranet,
© Advanced Industrial
Marketingblog…or forward to others.


Why new rules? Why now? First, the internet is changing
everything. Most B2B transactions now occur when the
customer finds the supplier—not the other way around. If
someone deep inside a prospect company can’t find you,
your new product just lost to a competitor’s.
Second, B2B marketers have been following the rules of
B2C marketers for way too long. Compared to their
consumers, our business customers are more insightful,
rational, interested and fewer in number. Advantage
B2B… but only if we follow new rules. Our rules.
Third, much more rigor is needed by most B2B suppliers.
Products are “released” casually, budgets are spent
inefficiently, and prospects respond "underwhelmingly."
I worked inside large corporations
for 29 years, mostly in marketing
positions. It was great fun, but I
believe the best is yet to come for
B2B marketers. I hope you’ll find
some new rules here that ignite your
next product launch. Meet me at the
end of this e-book for more ideas.

Dan Adams
AIM, Inc.
12 New Rules of B2B Product Launch
© 2009-2012 Advanced Industrial Marketing, Inc.
This e-book—in its entirety—may be posted to your corporate intranet or blog.
www.b2bproductlaunch.com


12 New Rules of B2B Product Launch

© Advanced Industrial Marketing

www.b2bproductlaunch.com

Table of Contents
Rule

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Be easy to find… when your prospect is ready

1

Link “early-stage” to “late-stage” marketing

3

Get inside their minds with positioning

5

Help prospects advance along the buying cycle

7

Use engagement—not interruption—marketing

9

Customize for industry concentration & position

11

Use online articles to boost “findability”

13

Use word of mouth to build buzz

15

Use powerful new online marketing tools

17

Integrate traditional media in your strategy

19

Make your sales pros look like geniuses

21

Pull it all together in a launch plan

23

Appendix: Training & Software from AIM

25


◄ TOC

Rule

1

Be easy to find… when your

prospect is ready

B2B transactions today…

You’re about to launch a great new product and your job
is to hunt down prospects and close some sales, right?
Well, partly… but that’s so 20th century.

20%
80%

In 80% of B2B transactions today, the customer finds the
supplier—not the other way around.1 What does this mean
to you? For starters, you must answer new questions:
 What will prompt a Google search by prospects, and
what search terms will they use?

Supplier finds Customer
Customer finds Supplier

 How can you hold their interest? It’s hard to avoid a sales
rep, but “good-bye” now sounds like a mouse-click.
 Who are your real targets… among the many job
functions typically involved in B2B buying decisions?
 How do you meet prospects where they are?... Some just
starting to explore… others comparing specifications.

The 12 new rules in this e-book will help you answer these
questions and more. So happy hunting. And being hunted.

-112 New Rules of B2B Product Launch

© Advanced Industrial Marketing

-2www.b2bproductlaunch.com

1

For business decision makers. B2B Lead Generation Handbook, MarketingSherpa, 2008, p 99.


◄ TOC

Rule

2

Link “early-stage” to
“late-stage” marketing

Deliver the Right Product to the Right Market using the
Right Message through the Right Media :

When I’m asked to explain marketing, I break it down
into early-stage marketing—when you find out what
customers want—and late-stage marketing, when you
promote your new product to them.

Early-Stage
Marketing

Late-Stage
Marketing

Design
Product

Develop
Product

Deliver
Product

Front-End
Work

Heavy
Spending

Product
Launch

The latter is more glamorous, but without solid work in
the “fuzzy front end,” you’re headed for a new product
belly flop. You really must do both stages well to win big.
In fact, you need to link your early-stage and late-stage
marketing… by intentionally gathering customer information in
the front end for later use in your launch. To do this well,
replace the 4 Ps you borrowed from consumer marketing
(product, price, place, promotion) with a new B2B model:

-312 New Rules of B2B Product Launch

© Advanced Industrial Marketing

To get the Right Message, data-mine your front-end
interviews to uncover customers’ hot-button language. For
the Right Media and Right Market, add two questions to
customer interviews and surveys:
1)
2)

How does your company learn about new ideas?
Who decides which ideas to pursue?

The first question tells you their preferred media use. The
second helps you target key prospects in the company.
Of course, there’s more you can do, but these simple
steps will do wonders for your next product launch.
-4-

www.b2bproductlaunch.com


◄ TOC

Rule

3

Get inside their minds

with positioning

Principle #3
Your goal is to be the first
to occupy mind-space for
your category.

Over 30 years ago, Ries and Trout brought us Positioning:
The Battle for Your Mind.1 Much of their thinking still
applies today. Consider these principles adapted for B2B:

Principle #1
Once a prospect’s mind
is made up, it is very
difficult to change it.

Principle #4

However, prospects’
minds are usually open
to new information.

A ?
B C

If you don’t already own a category, look for an
unoccupied category you can claim. Webex, for example,
claimed web-conference-based business collaboration.

Principle #5

D

In an over-communicated
society, use an oversimplified message.

This makes “news” a great form of promotion. Think
news releases, presentations on new technology, webinars
with new info, or (ahem) e-books with new rules.

© Advanced Industrial Marketing

Simple

Create a simple message and keep beating the same
drum… in every medium you use. Think FedEx speed,
Cisco connectivity or DuPont miracles of science.

-512 New Rules of B2B Product Launch

Your Brand

If you can’t be first,
create a new category
where you can be.

In B2C, advertising is too weak a force to overcome
Principle #1. You can be more persuasive in B2B, but a
direct frontal assault on a competitor’s position is costly.
Principle #2

McKinsey

If you “plant your flag” first in the customer’s mind, it’s
easy turf to defend. Don’t abandon your position by
letting clever ad agencies stray from your core message.

Avis
is #1

Hertz
is #1

IBM WSJ

-6www.b2bproductlaunch.com

1

Al Ries and Jack Trout, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981)


◄ TOC

Rule

4

Help prospects advance
along the buying cycle

Buying Cycle Stages

In the good old days—when suppliers found prospects
instead of the other way around—you knew how to pitch
your product. There was a time to cultivate, a time to
compare, a time to close. You knew which time it was if
you knew how to listen to your prospect.

Consideration

But what if your prospect finds you on the internet, and
you have no idea where her head is? She could be at any of
these stages…

Product
Awareness

1. Oblivious to the problem you’d like to solve
2. Thinking about the above problem
3. Aware of your product
4. Considering buying your product
5. Ready to negotiate for your product
A one-size-fits-all marketing message won’t work, so
what do you do? Let the prospect decide when to move to the
next stage. Provide a stream of “offers” that prospects can
accept when they are ready. Here are some examples…
Price Estimator Calculator

Technical Paper

In-Depth Brochure

Webinar

Technical Consultation

Case Study

White Paper

Product Sample
-7-

12 New Rules of B2B Product Launch

© Advanced Industrial Marketing

Prospect agrees to
buy your solution

Purchase

Prospect wants your solution
… under the right conditions

Negotiation

Prospect actively evaluates
best way to address need

3

Need
Awareness
Oblivious

2

1

5

4

Prospect is aware of your
solution to his problem

Prospect recognizes a problem
or opportunity worth addressing

Prospect isn’t thinking about the
problem you’d like to help solve
Time

3
2

Make it easy for prospects to move to
the next stage by providing “offers”…

such as white papers & webinars.

-8www.b2bproductlaunch.com

6


◄ TOC

Rule

5

Use engagement—not
interruption—marketing

Got an exciting product? Can’t wait to tell prospects how
amazing it is? Steady now: If your prospect is at an early
stage in the buying cycle, patiently employ engagement
marketing. Don’t rush in with interruption marketing.
Interruption marketing occurs when the supplier barges
into the prospect’s world. It’s an ad unrelated to the
magazine article the prospect is reading… an e-mail during
the prospect’s busy day ranting about a new product.
In engagement marketing, the supplier is invited into the
prospect’s world. More than anything else, engagement
marketing is useful content from the prospect’s perspective.
Think how this works for you. You don’t appreciate
commercial hype. But how about a free white paper or
webinar concerning your problems, your interests, your

industry? And if the sponsor drops a slide or page in at
the end suggesting how they might “help you more,”
you’re OK with that, right? (Ever eager to be helpful,
we’ve provided an example at the end of this e-book.)
That’s engagement marketing. You’ll have time later in
the buying cycle to tell prospects about the wonders of
your new product. For now, it’s all about them.

Content Prospects Find Most Interesting1
Case study on how a
company used a product
New research on some
aspect of your industry
How-to guide for using a
product better
Top-10 list of ways to
improve business
Interview with top analyst on
state of industry
Interview with top executive
on state of industry

Prospects are interested in their
problems & industry… not you

-912 New Rules of B2B Product Launch

© Advanced Industrial Marketing

# Prospect

Responses

- 10 www.b2bproductlaunch.com

1

Source: B2B Lead Generation Handbook, MarketingSherpa, 2008, p 315.


◄ TOC

Rule

6

Customize for industry
concentration & position

So which media will you use? How will you spread your
limited budget between 9 traditional and 9 online media?

Four factors should influence your decision:
1)
2)
3)
4)

Prospects’ media preferences
Your resources
Industry concentration

Your industry position

Industry concentration considers the number of potential
buyers. Your industry position is determined by whether
you are currently a key supplier to this market or not.
While this oversimplifies the matter, think of four quadrants:1

Quad 1: Your sales force can easily reach prospects. Invest
in sales training & tools; reinforce them with online media.
Quad 2: To build credibility with a few prospects, use
media such as customer seminars & helpful white papers.

#1 can be easily determined in your front-end work. (See
2-Question Survey in Rule 2). #2 is about your budget
and existing capabilities (e.g., sales force vs. distributors).

Quad 3: Too many to reach with direct sales. Use news
releases & search marketing to drive them to your website.
Quad 4: Use your database—and others’—to build a
“community of users” via e-mail and other online methods.

- 11 12 New Rules of B2B Product Launch

© Advanced Industrial Marketing

- 12 www.b2bproductlaunch.com

1

We use 20 scenarios—not 4—in our LaunchStar® software (shown on last page of e-book).

◄ TOC

Rule

7

Use online articles to
boost “findability”

Many people think the reason to write a press release is
so the press will write a story about them. But that’s
following the old rules. The main reason today is to
attract prospects to your website. Here’s how it works…
1) You write a news release loaded with valuable
content editors believe their online readers will love.
2) Your article is published on the web… and includes
your embedded keywords and links to your website.
3) The prospect Googles using one of your keywords,
and your article appears in his Google results page.
4) The prospect reads your article, thinks you’re clever,
and hits the embedded link to your website. Ta-dah.
The key is to write content that online magazine and
trade journal editors believe their readers will love. That’s
your real audience—not “the press.”
So that’s how it works…
Here’s when this “clicked” for me: I wanted to use the term “B2B
Organic Growth” for my newsletter, and figured I’d better Google to
see if someone else was using it. Every single hit on the 1st Google

results page belonged to me! Why? Most of the articles my publicist
and I had written used this keyword phrase. I called her and said,
“OK… I think we can start using some other keywords now!”
- 13 12 New Rules of B2B Product Launch

© Advanced Industrial Marketing

3

2
1
You issue
news
releases

Prospect Googles
using keyword and
finds your article

Articles are published
…with your embedded
keywords & links
Keyword

Article
Link

Link takes
4 prospect to
your website

Keyword

Article
Link

Keyword

Article
Link

Bonus: Links from popular sites boost
the everyday ranking of your website

How to boost your
internet “findability”
- 14 -

www.b2bproductlaunch.com


◄ TOC

Rule

8

Use word of mouth to
build buzz

Research by MarketingSherpa reveals that more business
executives are impacted by word of mouth than anything
else.1 Here are six tips for building buzz:
1) Identify and promote to industry thought leaders.
Use communications to VIP editors & bloggers.
2) Promote to people already in groups—e.g., trade shows
& conferences—so they can discuss your product.
3) Seek opinions from industry experts: Commission
lab tests… seek evaluations… create advisory panels.
4) Gain testimonials from respected early adopters.
Get advance samples in the hands of willing customers.
5) Use front-end interviews to find decision influencers at
prospect companies. Build relations with key contacts.
6) Make it easy for these decision influencers to tell
their colleagues about your product, with…
• Leave-behind presentations & sales aids
• E-mails with links to interesting videos, etc.
• Newsletters and literature rich in content

Let your prospects work for you:
• Be easy to recommend (Rule 8)
• Be easy to find (Rule 7)

- 15 12 New Rules of B2B Product Launch

© Advanced Industrial Marketing

- 16 www.b2bproductlaunch.com

1

B2B Lead Generation Handbook, MarketingSherpa, 2008, p 73.


◄ TOC

Rule

9

Use powerful new online
marketing tools

 Social Media: Interactive dialogues using web-based and
mobile technologies. Linked-In is especially good for B2B.
 Webinar: Good for connecting with hard-to-reach prospects,
e.g. executives and marketing. Efficient way to relay info.

Online marketing has exploded in the last 15 years… in
both B2C and B2B (especially IT, e.g. web-conferencing
& data backup). Online marketing offers strong benefits:

 Web Microsite: A part of your corporate website focused
on the needs of one audience, e.g., your target market.
 Search Marketing: Everything you do to rank high in
Google searches (aka Search Engine Optimization).

Benefits of Online Marketing

Lower cost

per lead
generated

Easier to
measure
effectiveness

Helps
prospects
find supplier

We can’t do them proper justice here, but let’s take a
quick tour of these 9 online media…

9 Online Media
Online Advertising
News Release
White Paper
Email Marketing

 Online Advertising: You pay per click, with search engine
ads or contextual ads (displayed next to related articles).

Online Presentation

 News Release: Used to be called a press release. Great
for leading prospects to your website (see Rule 7).

Social Media

 White Paper: Rich in non-commercial, useful content.
Often used to develop leads early in the buying cycle.
 E-mail Marketing: 21st century version of direct mail.
There’s a science to this: Seek professional help.
 Online Presentation: Slideshow & video embedded in a
website for online consumption. Very persuasive.

- 17 12 New Rules of B2B Product Launch

© Advanced Industrial Marketing

Webinar
Web Microsite
Search Marketing
- 18 -

www.b2bproductlaunch.com


◄ TOC

Rule

10

Integrate traditional media
in your strategy

 Trade Show: Powerful… but complex and costly. Make sure
your staff is trained & your lead follow-up is strong.

 Road Show: A multi-city tour with your technical staff. Great
for nurturing leads in fragmented markets.

Online marketing is powerful, but if you drop traditional
media, you’ll lose 3 dynamics: 1) Traditional branding
breeds familiarity. 2) Face-to-face word of mouth is highly
influential. 3) Prior relationships boost buying decisions.
Benefits of Traditional Marketing

Familiarity
from
branding

Face-to-face
word of
mouth

Prior
relationships
built

Consider 9 traditional media (and integrate them with online):
 Print Advertising: Helpful for keeping your brand
familiar…and to popularize keywords for online searches.
 Press Kit: Pre-packaged promotional materials sent to
members of the media to announce news.
 Print Article: Articles and technical papers in journals now
end up online as well… so use keywords & web-links.
 Direct Mail: Can still be effective. Many internet users have
a printed publication in their hands while searching.

 Trade Speech: A well-delivered presentation conveys lots
of complex info well… and to an undistracted audience.

- 19 12 New Rules of B2B Product Launch

© Advanced Industrial Marketing

 Customer Seminar: Like a road show… but your staff visits
one key customer at a time, using multiple presentations.
 Sales Visit: Usually the most effective—and expensive—
approach. Use disciplined lead nurturing & great sales tools.

9 Traditional Media
Print Advertising
Press Kit
Print Article
Direct Mail
Trade Speech
Trade Show
Road Show
Customer Seminar
Sales Visit
- 20 -

www.b2bproductlaunch.com


◄ TOC

Rule

11

Make your sales pros look
like geniuses

If you want a sales force full of new-product selling
virtuosos, work hard on 1) sales tools, 2) sales training,
and 3) a lead qualification system.
Sales tools: 24 Popular sales tools are shown to the

right. When planning which to use, make sure you engage
representatives of the sales force.
Sales training: Break your training into 3 categories:

1) Launch strategy… include messaging, positioning,
product overview, pricing, offers & media strategy.
2) Measuring success… describe sales goals, reward &
recognition, tracking system and lead scoring.
3) Using sales tools… cover each of the planned sales
tools; conduct role-playing to boost effectiveness.
Lead Qualification: Don’t squander your most

valuable resource—the sales force—on the wrong
prospects. Instead, create a matrix based on firmographic
scoring (how important is this prospect?) and behavioral
scoring (how ready is this prospect?). Then agree whether
marketing or sales “owns” each cell in the matrix. Finally,
decide specifically how prospects will be advanced to the
next stage of the buying cycle… closer to “sales-ready.”

- 21 12 New Rules of B2B Product Launch

© Advanced Industrial Marketing

Sales Tools
Company Presentation

Company Profile

Product Background Sheet

Product Data Sheet

Product Specifications

Product Safety Data Sheet

Product Brochure

Product Reviewer’s Guide

Product Presentation

Presentation to Distributors

Leave-Behind Presentation

Technical Report/Study

White Paper

Competitive Comparison

News Release Reprint

Customer Testimonials

Case Study

Frequently Asked Questions

Product Video

Customer Evaluation Guide

Web-Based Education

Selling Guide

Qualifier Form

Proposal Template

- 22 www.b2bproductlaunch.com


◄ TOC

Rule

12

Pull it all together in a
launch plan

Great launch planning—generally started 10-12 months
before your launch date—will do 4 things for you:

1. Collect: Keep track of all your data in one place…

action plan, media contacts, budget, lead scoring, etc.

2. Plan : Provide all the tools and aids for your team to

plan a great launch… without reinventing the wheel.

3. Communicate : Inform key stakeholders of your

plans—management, sales force, ad agencies, etc.

4. Measure : Provide metrics and a dashboard to

measure progress… and to build corporate learning.

AIM’s LaunchStar® software provides a 2-page Executive
Summary that ties the whole plan together and
communicates the Strategy, Team, Activities and Results.

Strategy: Market (who to tell), message (what to tell) and

media (how to tell).
Team: Members of the core team, supporting team, and
external agencies.
Activities: Summary of a detailed Gantt chart showing
timing and responsibilities for tasks… plus budget.
Results: Post-launch performance against the sales plan
and other metrics.
- 23 12 New Rules of B2B Product Launch

© Advanced Industrial Marketing

- 24 www.b2bproductlaunch.com


◄ TOC

Appendix

Early-Stage
Marketing

Training and Software
from AIM

All we do at AIM (Advanced Industrial Marketing) is
provide training in B2B new product development. That’s
not as boring as it sounds. Our focus on just B2B has led
us to some exciting, new-to-the-world practices… and a
strong competitive edge for our clients.

Design
Product

Develop
Product

Deliver
Product

Front-End
Work

Heavy
Spending

Product
Launch

We haven’t talked about early-stage marketing so far…
we’ve just assumed you’ve done a great job in the “fuzzy
front end.” Turns out this is usually a very bad assumption.

Everything you’ve read in this e-book is part of a 1-day
workshop and an online training program. But training
that is hard to apply or easy to forget is rather useless. So
we include LaunchStar® software, which lets you…

For years, New Product Blueprinting has been used to improve
B2B front-end work all around the world. With our training
and Excel-based Blueprinter® software, your team will…

 Create a 2-page Executive Summary
(Strategy-Team-Activities-Results)
 Develop a Prospect Profile
 Deploy the 2-Question Launch Survey
 Optimize a strong value proposition
 Develop your Message Brief
 Answer key positioning questions
 Plan and justify pricing
 Plan using the Media Strategy Matrix
 Learn over 140 tips for 18 media
 Choose from 25 sales tools
 Plan comprehensive sales training
 Organize team tasks with a Gantt chart
 Utilize the Agency Screening Tool
 Develop & analyze launch budget
 Create a lead scoring & nurturing plan
 Move prospects along the buying cycle
 Monitor sales results & other key metrics

How to
Learn
More:
12 New Rules of B2B Product Launch

 Learn fundamentals of B2B interviewing
(avoiding the pitfalls of traditional VOC)
 Conduct qualitative Discovery interviews
 Use customer-centric probing methods
 Improve listening skills (PEAR method)

 Conduct effective customer tours
 Perform post-interview debriefing
 Conduct quantitative Preference interviews
 Get customer input on test procedures
 Set up competitive side-by-side testing
 Use 6 visual tools to plan the new product
 Calculate Market Satisfaction Gaps
 Identify over- and under-served markets
 Conduct remote, digital brainstorming
 Perform secondary market research
 Screen market segments for attractiveness
 Use KAI to build team effectiveness
 Build a 4-page, 12-point business case

How to
Learn
More:

• visit www.b2bproductlaunch.com
• E-mail
• Call 330-715-8709
© Advanced Industrial Marketing

www.b2bproductlaunch.com

Late-Stage
Marketing

1

• www.newproductblueprinting.com
• Download free chapters (at above)
• Same e-mail & phone as at left

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