With clients struggling to nail their product launches recently, I thought it might be helpful to summarize a webinar I participated in a few months ago called Captain Your Launch: Mastering B2B Product Launches. Host Rowan Noronha was joined by Julien Sauvage, Tamara Grominsky, and myself. We covered the gamut on launches, sharing our experiences, examples, and best practices to help product/portfolio marketers create more impactful launches. Read on for the top takeaways from our discussion.

Takeaway 1: Create overarching launch goals and plans, and break them down by different launch audiences.

Just like any other initiative, launches should have a clear business objective (e.g., gaining share against a competitor, improving customer retention, expanding into a new market or category) with specific quantitative goals (e.g., X number of qualified opportunities by Q3). Consider the critical launch audiences, both internal and external, that are needed to make the launch successful. Internal audiences include sales, other customer-facing teams, and other colleagues — from executives to engineering. External audiences include customers, prospects, channel players, and influencers. Create launch plans with goal-oriented outcomes for each of these audiences that link to the broader launch goals and increase the probability of success.

Takeaway 2: Segment your customers, and zero in on those with the strongest need.

While companies tend to want to target the largest market segments, it is more important to find segments that have the strongest need for your offering and therefore have the greatest propensity to buy. Targeting any or all customers, or customers that are in a very large and broad market, can lead to situations where sales cycles take longer, might require price concessions, or result in churn down the road. As Rowan explained, you want to avoid “margin-sucking” customers who have a larger cost of acquisition, may not pay full price, may require extra servicing, and have short lifetimes. Use customer insights from primary and secondary research to identify the customer segments that have the strongest need for your offerings and that are willing to pay for them. This will help create higher average-per-customer revenue and increase lifetime value.

Takeaway 3: Get feedback from potential customers throughout the launch process.

Product managers and portfolio marketers should always speak to customers to get firsthand feedback on the product definition and go-to-market efforts for the launch. Trialing new concepts, MVPs, and beta testing earlier in the development process is necessary to understand the problem you are trying to solve, the product-market fit, and key features and capabilities. Conduct message and pricing testing to reveal the strongest value propositions, define packaging options, and crystalize the pricing strategy. For example, Tamara described using paid ads to test three different value propositions to identify which resonated the most with target customers; the results informed both the product roadmaps and their messaging, creating a strong response for the related launch.

Takeaway 4: Structure launch teams based on the launch tier for faster time to market and higher impact.

Launches can be complex projects involving multiple functions, people, and activities. To create the right level of impact without an excessively heavy process, product marketers should set up structured launch teams relative to the scope and tier of the launch. For bigger launches (tier 1 or 2), three teams might be required: 1) a cross-functional leadership group that provides executive sponsorship, makes strategic decisions, and handles escalation and resourcing issues; 2) a core team that executes the work (events, content, demand, communication, sales, etc.); and 3) an extended team that should be informed about important launch factors or decisions (e.g., finance, legal, compliance, operations). Lower-tier launches can often be handled by the product marketing and product managers and a few additional core team members and functional leaders as needed.

Takeaway 5: Determine the most appropriate launch strategy.

Launches can get their own go-to-market campaign or be part of a broader campaign with integrated efforts spanning reputational, demand, sales, and customer communication activities. You can use a classic big bang effort to unveil something new and exciting all at once, a rolling thunder approach with a coordinated series of activities over time, or limited releases to allow for rollout to different customer segments. Regardless of the launch strategy, Julien stated his inclination to use an external influencer — a thought leader, analyst, or customer — who provides third-party credibility and validates the claims you’re making for the launch.

Takeaway 6: Create a one-page launch overview to get everyone “on the same page.”

While detailed project plans ensure timely completion for the launch, Forrester has found that a one-page launch overview is extremely helpful for aligning everyone’s understanding of the launch. Lay out the following sections on one page to make it easy to read: the launch overview with tier, objective, and goal; the target audiences including target market segments and buyers; the offering overview with the value proposition, differentiator, packaging options, and pricing; and the launch strategy, including a timeline of activities and events leading up to the launch, at launch, and post-launch. Use this one-pager to align internal audiences, from executives and sales to product teams and engineers. Internal clarity helps create external clarity.

Takeaway 7: Establish a launch retrospective to continuously learn and improve go-to-market efforts.

No matter how much customer feedback you get in advance of a launch, bringing something new to market provides a wealth of new information. Are we finding our target buyers? Is the message resonating? Is the pricing on target? Are there new competitors we didn’t know about? Include a launch retrospective in your plan a few weeks or more after the launch to gather feedback from your launch team(s) on what worked, what didn’t, and what you should keep doing, stop doing, or change. Make sure to capture any unanswered questions and think about how you might get the answers.

Launches continue to form a critical piece of go-to-market strategy for B2B organizations; successful launches can begin a trajectory for successful commercialization of new innovations and capabilities. Leverage these launch best practices to make sure your launches are in top form. For more information, you can review the webinar here: Mastering B2B Product Launches. For more in-depth discussion or help, set up a conversation with me or connect with me on LinkedIn.