Introduction
As the world recovers from the pandemic, retailers are able to focus on updating operational shifts, seasonal promotions, and product launches. When launching a new product, it’s easy to get carried away imagining all of the plans, sales, and success that will result from all of your hard work, but the first thing you need to think about is your employees.
Are your employees ready for your product launching, especially if they are spread out across the globe? Do they know everything there is to know about the new product? How can you make sure there’s consistency among the different locations? If you are unsure of these questions, your company may lose valuable revenue. The most important thing to remember is that your employees are the people who will enable your product to succeed.
The right tools, the right timing, the right product, and the right customers – are the ingredients for a successful product launch.
5 Steps to Ready Your Team for a Product Launch
Build internal excitement
Involve your marketing and sales teams early in the process. They’ll probably have some good ideas, and they’ll be more excited to be a part of it. You’ll notice the buildup of excitement and how prepared they’ll be when the new product is launched. Creating a teaser or blog announcement in their social media or in your company’s social media so that your sales team has something to share with prospects and existing clients. Early communication helps sales reps to anticipate prospects’ needs and develop a sales pipeline even before launching a product. Your sales team will be able to tell customers about this new product and will be happy to sell it once it’s released.
Share the right information
You wouldn’t want to go into battle unarmed, and neither do your employees. They will only be equipped if they have access to the necessary information, and the information you share with your employees will be your most powerful weapon once your product is ready for launch. You may not want to give this minor process much thought, but providing the right technology, such as a mobile app for your retail employees, can help the entire company stay informed. Customers will always expect employees to be knowledgeable about every product in your store at all times. That is why it is critical to disseminate all relevant information to employees. Information such as:
- Product information & technical knowledge (price, materials, usages, etc..)
- Potential objections and how to deal with it
- Product storytelling
- Which message adapt for each customer persona
- Comparison between similar and competitor products
Nothing beats knowing that whatever question a customer may ask your employees, they will be able to answer confidently and engage more customers, and that is when you know you will have a successful product launch.
Measure information retention
Every new product launch requires a new investment in training. Unless, of course, you have a mobile training app. Putting them to the test by administering quick games or engaging quizzes like microlearning in a mobile app for 5-10 minutes per day will determine whether your retail employees understand the key elements of your product launch strategy.
Learn more about Microlearning: How to boost any team performance in 10 minutes per day.
Delivering product knowledge directly to the smartphones of your retail employees will empower your organization by ensuring a consistent flow of information and messaging while also learning in a fun way, enabling them to improve their memory recall in sales in order to have more meaningful conversations and provide better customer service
“Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day; teach him how to fish, and he will eat for a lifetime.”
Keep this quote in mind as you work with your sales team and prepare for the next product launch.
Pulse-check the confidence of your staff
For your employees, product launches can be a stressful and frightening event. It will take time to check on all of your employees, especially if some of them are spread out across the country. Fortunately, having an application that allows you to communicate with them and conduct surveys to determine their level of confidence in the upcoming product launch will alleviate some of their concerns while also increasing their confidence.
A mobile solution like Albert can help you provide all of the information your employees need to refresh their product knowledge with a single tap on their smartphones.
Gather feedback
It’s absolutely essential to solicit feedback from your employees about management, whether it’s positive, negative, or neutral. Whatever it is, you need to know what they think about the product and the company because this can also identify problems that you are unaware of. Your employees may also be able to provide you with some insights and ideas to help improve the launch process. The best and fastest way to collect feedback is through digital communication, where they can share some feedback with management.
Conclusion
Putting these elements together to create a successful product launch takes a lot of time and dedication; it takes a lot of careful planning and a solid understanding of a product on the part of your employees, which means you have to put in a lot of effort to get them there. With Albert, you provide your employees with a hassle-free environment for learning and planning for your upcoming product launch.
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