ProductMarketing.com

Is this Good for the COMPANY?

My travel service writes:

In order to ensure your company receives the optimal value from this airline ticket, it is imperative any changes or cancellations are reported prior to your flight's original date of departure. This value may have a limited time for future use so be certain to find out all the details upon cancellation.

It's certainly clear who matters to the travel service, isn't it? Not, "Steve, you have a trip coming up. Are YOU ready?" but "don't you want to make sure the company receives the optimal value?"

I think this is a negative case of buyer personas and user personas.

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

The Great Marketing and Selling Crisis of 2010 - and how to escape it

Your escape from the Marketing and Selling Crisis of 2010 begins where it should - with some meaningful conversations with customers. No harm in that. In fact, customers always say they're glad I called and gave them a chance to help, and that they think more of the CEO for hiring me to do it.

via revenuejournal.com

Is your company having a Marketing and Selling Crisis? You do if you focus more on seller's issues than the buyer's issues. Kristin really knows her stuff. Read the whole thing!

Posted via web from Steve Johnson on product management

Is any reference a good reference?

People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like. —Abraham Lincoln

A person I met at a party said, “You’ll love this book.” So I read it but hated it. Couldn’t finish it.

A waitress said, “This is my favorite dish—you’ll love it.” I didn’t.

Some people think if they like it, then you’ll like it.

A good reference is not just anyone who likes it but someone like me who likes it.

Your sales team gets these requests all the time: “can I talk to someone like me?” That’s why it’s so important to have buyer and user personas defined—and then match those personas when someone needs a reference.

Regular people don’t like to talk to innovators; they want to talk to another regular person.  Geeks don’t want to talk to non-geeks. Millennials want to talk to someone else in their group.

My neighbor is a laggard. She asked me what computer to buy. Knowing that I’d be her tech support, I recommended a Mac. She called me a week later saying that her Dell had arrived and could I come teach her how to use it. ???? What happened of course is that she checked with her father who had a Dell and liked it. She got confused: Steve says Mac; Dad says Dell. What to do? Then she saw an ad in the local paper saying that Dell is #1. The advertisement became the tie-breaker.

Your buyers ask around. They look for people like them to give a recommendation. If they can’t find anyone like them, then they’ll ask anyone. Be sure that your sales team is providing the right references with the right recommendations to the right personas.

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

8 Ways To Listen To Your Customers

Whether your customers are filling out a standardized form or having a one-on-one conversation with you, asking them for feedback allows you to get deeper insight into how they feel about your business, and what you can do to make it better.

via businessinsider.com

Nice article on research with 8 techniques you should consider for your own products.

Posted via web from Steve Johnson on product management

Friday fun: a wonderful optical illusion

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

on conjoint analysis

I don't know much about conjoint analysis but I'm told by professional researchers that conjoint is the only way to estimate revenue potential to a feature. In the latest issue of The Pragmatic Marketer, Brett Jarvis writes,

Conjoint analysis is a set of market research techniques that measures the value the market places on each feature of your product and predicts the value of any combination of features. Conjoint analysis is, at its essence, all about features and trade-offs.

Read more in http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/publications/magazine/8/2/conjoint-analysis-101

How do you prioritize?

mobilecrunch.com reports:

We just got word from Aliph that their $99 Jawbone Icon headset will be gaining support for the A2DP (music streaming) protocol tomorrow, by way of a free update made available through their AppStore-esque headset customization portal, MyTalk

A2DP is the #1 request in the Jawbone discussion boards... as shown here, 8 pages of discussion, the busiest thread. 

So... hat's off to Aliph for listening to their customers.

Are you listening to your market? Market evidence is the key to building a backlog that is prioritized for the market, rather than being a list representing opinions and politics. 

If you need help in bringing the market's voice into your product management, we're delivering the Practical Product Management and Requirements That Work seminars in Tampa on May 15-17. Come learn the best practices for how market evidence drives product decisions. 

Posted via email from Steve Johnson on product management

Spirit Airlines to become first to charge for carry-on luggage

Spirit Airlines has become the first airline in the USA – perhaps in the world – to say it will charge fliers for putting carry-on bags into its overhead storage bins. That news came this morning as part of a complicated new fee and fare scheme Spirit announced. As part of that effort -- which Spirit describes as "progressing to the next phase of unbundling" -- customers must pay to join Spirit's "$9 Fare Club" to get access to discounted fees and fares. Tucked away in that somewhat convoluted release is the mention of the carry-on fee. 

via usatoday.com

Once again, a company is focusing on their own desperate attempt to make money while completely ignoring the customer experience. The list of airlines I won't fly has increased by "1".

Posted via web from Steve Johnson on product management

7 things customers hate

7 things customer hate in a retail or restaurant environment

via amazingserviceguy.com

The Amazing Service Guy offers these 7 things that customers hate. Sometimes marketers are so concerned with branding and campaigns that they forget where brands are formed: in consistent delivery on the brand promise. Whether it's customer support or innovative products, the brand results from the promise you keep, not the promise you make.

Posted via web from Steve Johnson on product management

integrating two companies' products into a unified product suite

I was asked recently about the best practices in integrating two companies' products into a unified product suite. 

I posted a note to Twitter and got these replies:

@ditkis: Banks?  JP & Mutual, Wells and Wachovia for geo coverage & service diversification

@DavidWLocke No. I think the literature is very clear, M&As fail. Still the acquiring company does get to keep some things that work.

In http://hbr.org/product/m-a-needn-t-be-a-loser-s-game/an/R0306D-PDF-ENG

Three out of four acquisitions fail; they destroy wealth for the buyer's shareholders, who end up worse off than they would have been had the deal not been done. But it doesn't have to be that way, argue the authors. In evaluating acquisitions, companies must look beyond the lure of profits the income statement promises and examine the balance sheet, where the company keeps track of capital. It's ignoring the balance sheet that causes so many acquisitions to destroy shareholders' wealth

In a case I'm familiar with, two companies with complementary product lines merged. My product was the only one in direct competition within the two companies. I think we did the ideal integration, choosing the best features from each product to create a new superset suite. But it was an incredible political problem--not a technical one. Sales people got involved. The branding loonies did too. So did executives who hadn't seen a line of code in decades. Yeesh.

In the end, I spent most of my energy on getting the politics out of the way. The developers created the best-of-both with a clear path for our customers. And don't just think programs: many changes will require customers to convert data and scripts too. (Think of the reaction the world had to Office 2007. See "I Hate Office 2007" at http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?joel.3.455976.20 ) 

People don't want better as often as they want consistency. Make the change painless to your customers and do your best to ignore the irrelevant complaints from within the building.

Friday fun: Better World Books

Got this in my email today.

We're just checking in to see if you received your order from Better World Books. If your order hasn't blessed your mailbox just yet, heads are gonna roll in the Mishawaka warehouse! Seriously though, if you haven't received your order or are less than 108.8% satisfied, please reply to this message. Let us know what we can do to flabbergast you with service.

And yes, I'm inclined to order more from this company. Wouldn't you?

Focus on personas and problems

Here's a success story on personas and their problems. Skullcandy makes headphones designed for snow boarders. Because they involve their personas in the product design, they get products that snow boarders want to buy and they tell their friends. To the tune of $85M in revenues.

Watch the video on MSN.

Lessons: Immerse yourself in your personas and their problems and you'll design a remarkable product. But it's not just about design, it's about careful marketing through the right distribution channels.

Thanks to Alain for sharing this video with me.

New rules of selling. Service.

I recently bought a Toyota Camry. Nothing special. Nice car. Good stereo. Good mileage. Nothing bad happened in the buying cycle. The sales person insisted on getting my email address "for our records" and sure enough, I've gotten an email every month for new car specials. Low financing. Lots of inventory.

In effect,

if you still have any money, we want it. BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY BUY.

Dang it, when will sales people learn that people don't want to be sold? Instead of thinking about selling me, they should be using their email access to support me.

Here's what I would respond to:

We've just gotten new GPS software. Come to us for your 10,000 checkup and get your GPS updated, all for only $99. [Just for fun, try to find GPS updates on any car website]

February is a slow month for us so we're offering oil changes for $35 instead of our regular price of $46.55. We're just as convenient as your local oil change shop. Let us prove it.

Winter is the hardest time on a car. It taxes your battery, your tires, and your gasoline consumption. Click here to read our ebook on getting the most from your car during the worst of winter.

Did you know that most drivers rarely check the air pressure in their tires? A recent survey showed that the average driver checks tire pressure only when the tire is visibly deflated. Click here for a video on how to check your tires. Or come into our shop for a free tire pressure check. We'll inflate any low tires and show you how to do it yourself.

In effect,

We'd like you to think of us first when you need to service your car (and when you buy your next one).

I abandoned my Lexus dealer without hesitation. After purchasing two cars from Lexus, I realized that they didn't offer a better buying experience or a better service experience. Lexus is just more expensive. So why not buy the same car from Toyota for half the price? Same car; different logo.

We buy a car every few years; we buy service every few months. Who will we return to? The new rules of selling: service what you sell and you'll sell more.

Cranky on beta testing

Quick, what's the second word in the phrase "beta test"?

If you said anything other than "test" you should read about the Cranky Product Managers post on the Five Types of Beta Tests. Also check out Paul Young's description of 5 types of beta. Great stuff. Are there more?

on customer experience

It's ten times cheaper to keep a customer than to get a customer, according to Ryan on NBC's The Office. That's why we encourage marketers to include plans for customer retention as well as customer acquisition.

If you need current research to supports your retention programs, read more in Ardath Albee's write up of the 3rd annual report on Customer Experience Impact by RightNow Technologies and Harris Interactive. She's done the analysis so you don't have to; she writes,

• 87% have stopped doing business with a company that provided a bad experience.
• 84% will tell others about their bad experience—22% of them blog about it or post negative feedback online.
• 58% will pay more for excellence in service—even in a down economy

Yet... apparently vendors are not tuned-in to their customers because:

• 62% of companies don't view the customer experience as critical for the future

Customer retention is the goal of support but also newsletters, articles, books, and other product usage materials. As you consider your 2009 budgets, think about how you will retain your valuable clients... and plan for it. 

Losing your customers

Quick! Which is better? Keeping your customers or losing your customers?

They say that it's ten times cheaper to keep a customer than to get a customer. (At least, that's what Ryan said on The Office.) Why do we lose customers? It's not price; it's not features; it's not any of the reasons we hear from sales people.

In The reason customers leave, Kristin Zhivago explains,

It's hard enough to get customers. In tight times, the last thing you want to do, after you've gotten a customer, is to lose them. Not a good idea. But, it happens all the time to lots of companies. Why?

One reason. Yes, that's what I said: ONE reason. In every situation, for every type of product or service, in all the thousands of customer interviews I've conducted, it's obvious that there is really only one reason why customers leave. The reason:

"You stopped caring about me."

(It's true for employees too.)

In our frenzy, particularly in economic downturns or company mergers, there's so much to do and so little time to do it. So we focus on the urgent instead of the important. Isn't it odd that the same clients seem to have emergencies time after time. Maybe they've learned that the best way to get attention is to cry "Wolf!" and your company responds.

(It's true for employees too. I knew a guy who quit with great fanfare every year. And every year, the VP of International Sales would woo him back with more money and more perks. What lesson did he learn?)

Have you contacted 100% of your customers this year... without asking them for money? Maybe you need to spend some time maintaining customer relationships.

What are you doing this year (and next) to keep your customers?

PS. Another incredible comment in the article. Kristin wrote: "...in all the thousands of customer interviews I've conducted..." Talk about being able to speak with authority. This lady has some serious NIHITO.

Friday Fun: customer advisory survey

Using a customer advisory board is one way of listening to the market and keeping your product focused on solving real problems. The trick, of course, is that you should be listening more than talking. Nature gave us two ears....

CAB Exchange is conducting the first best practices survey of Customer Advisory Programs. Our friend Bill writes,

I'd like to invite your clients to participate. Those who do so will receive a free copy of the completed survey results and analysis (a $200 value). In addition, they'll receive a discount on the registration fee to next month's CAB Exchange Summit.

Take the survey here.

Learn about the CAB Exchange Summit.

on beta testing

Quick! What's the second word in "beta testing." If you said "testing", you're right. That's why beta testing should be run by the testing people in QA. However, as Paul Young writes,

If you run Product Management, especially in a smaller company, you may find yourself running the beta program.  This is a tactical activity, and you will be knee deep in beta user qualification, feedback, administration, possibly even support, but you can take positives from a good beta.

Product managers are often involved with beta testing because product managers want to validate the usability of the product (hint: do it much sooner), they want to show the product to some key customers, or maybe they just know more customers than the QA people. Read Paul's description of 5 types of beta. Great stuff. Are there more?

do you like it enough to buy it?

We discuss the idea of buying and using criteria in Practical Product Management. 

My friend Gopal takes the idea further, asking "will customers like it enough to buy it?" He explains that you want to build products that customers will BUY and not JUST LIKE.

don't sell to the wrong buyers

Yes, there is indeed such as thing as a bad buyer. Sales people can't understand it but customer support people sure can. My friend Bob has a great post on this.

He writes,

How many of you have been burned by a customer who shouldn't have bought your product but did? When a company spends perfectly good money on a vendor solution it doesn't need or can't possible use successfully, the vendor loses more than the buyer - because buyers have this strange habit of talking to each other.

Go read Bob's post. I can't think of anything to add (although I really ought to say something about the Speedo).