How to get the most from your next SaaS Product Launch
In the fast-paced world of SaaS and technology, launching a product can often feel like planning a grand event – all the focus is on launch day, the big moment of release. However, as a career-long Product Marketer and now Chief Marketing Officer, I’ve long held the belief that being truly successful in new product launches requires a shift in mindset from treating it as a one-off celebration to approaching it as a long-term commitment. Much like preparing for a life, long happy marriage rather than just the wedding day. Spoiler alert, I’ve launched some wildly successful products generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue AND I celebrated twenty years of marriage recently.
Understanding the Analogy: Wedding vs. Marriage
Imagine a wedding – the meticulous planning, the anticipation, and the excitement leading up to the big day. Everyone gets to be involved, there are many opinions. Every detail, who stands where, who says what, who sits next to who is meticulously planned. Analogous to the detailed preparations made for product launch.
Ensuring everything is in place for a successful new product introduction, from sales strategies, to product messaging and demand generation, to customer onboarding and success, is typically the responsibility of the Product Marketing Manager. She leads the strategic planning and program management, as well as the execution of many of the tasks. In larger organizations, I’ve been fortunate to have had awesome program managers lead some of the project management aspects. Perhaps they’re the wedding planners?. However, just as a wedding marks the beginning of a marriage, a product launch is merely the start of a journey toward long-term success.
Rethinking Successful Product Launches
The Pitfall of Short-Term Thinking
For that reason, we need to shift our focus from the wedding to the marriage? It starts with a change in mindset. We need to stop thinking of product launches as one-off events and start thinking of them as the beginning of a long-term commitment.
This means investing in ongoing training for sellers, developing sustainable marketing strategies, and building strong relationships with partners. Therefore, it means measuring success not just in terms of initial sales, but in terms of customer satisfaction, repeat business, and long-term revenue.
The Pitfalls of Short-Term Launch Thinking
I’ve seen many product and marketing teams fall into the trap of viewing the launch as the ultimate goal. Frankly, I’ve seen executive teams fall into the same trap too “just get to launch, we’ll figure out the details later.” This focus on short-term execution, while fulfilling to see progress against product deliverable milestones, neglects the long-term goals. Successful launches generate buzz, whereas true success is measured by what follows in the months and quarters ahead. Generating pipeline, and most importantly exceeding revenue goals.
Shifting Product Launch Focus to Long-Term Success
To achieve long-term success, it’s essential to shift focus from the event itself to what comes after – the marriage. Here are some practical steps on how to go about it.
Build Your Go-to-Market Strategy Backwards
I always coach my product marketing teams to plan launch plans backward. What? Start with the goal. What does success look like 1- 2 years out? Then, build the backward sales plan or reverse waterfall by quarter, month, or segment to support that. Then, and only then marry the demand, brand, and content tactics to support the plan. Too often, marketing teams start with a bunch of tactics, webinars, content, events, and email, with no broad alignment of the goal.
Let’s give a simple example. You’re launching a new product with a revenue goal of $1M in the first year, and $3M in the second. You need to build a sales and marketing plan that provides enough opportunities to meet those goals. If your team is successfully closing 33% of deals (a respectable close rate in SaaS), you are going to need $3M and $9M of pipeline coverage across the first two years. At an average deal size of $100k, that’s 120 opportunities the GTM team needs to get into qualified pipe. That should be the focus of the marketing plan over the first two years.
The same approach can be applied to each of the pillars of marketing strategy. If your goal is to expand cross-sell revenue through a land and expand strategy, agree on the goal and work backward. If your goal is to own a category, define what that looks like, and work backward. A key metric may be Leadership Position in a Gartner Magic Quadrant. Map the steps you need to take to make your end state a reality. Ultimately the plan needs to focus on the end goal – revenue, and an appropriate mix of strategies and tactics to support it.
Ensure Sales and Partner Readiness and Long-Term Success
Equip your sales teams with the tools, knowledge, and ongoing training they need to thrive beyond the initial excitement. Well in advance of launch day, ensure all sellers are trained, and certified in new features and capabilities, refine the discovery process for new accounts that new products create. Sales and marketing should be working together to provide Target Account lists that can be worked. Develop a clear strategy for nurturing leads into conversions, and invest in building strong relationships with partners who can help promote and sell your product effectively. This could include co-marketing initiatives, training programs, and incentives to drive mutual growth.
Customer Success and Experience
The excitement of the launch may initially captivate customers, their long-term satisfaction and loyalty depend on the quality of their experience post-purchase. Focus on delivering exceptional customer service, gathering feedback, and continuously improving your product to meet evolving needs and expectations. Mapping “solution pathways” that help identify current cohorts of customers, and how to migrate and deliver even more value with the new product offering. Provide robust support, address issues promptly, and release updates and new features based on customer insights and data analytics.
Measure Success and Optimize Strategies
Regularly track and measure the success of your product through sales metrics, pipeline generation, customer adoption and satisfaction metrics, and other key performance indicators (KPIs). Use this data to make informed decisions about future strategies and improvements, ensuring that your product remains competitive and relevant in an ever-changing market.
5 Benefits of Long-Term Launch Planning
Embracing the mindset of “marriage, not wedding” offers several benefits:
- Sustainable Growth – Focus on long-term success, businesses can create a solid foundation for sustained growth, rather than relying on short-lived spikes in sales. Customer Loyalty. Building enduring relationships with customers leads to greater loyalty and advocacy, driving repeat business and referrals over time.
- Adaptability. A long-term mindset encourages adaptability and innovation, allowing businesses to evolve and stay competitive in an ever-changing market.
- Resilience. Preparing for the long haul ensures that businesses are better equipped to weather challenges and setbacks, maintaining stability and momentum even in turbulent times.
- Predictability. Building a backward sales plan, and measuring success regularly, allows for more accurate forecasting and planning compared to a narrow launch mindset that leads to volatile, unpredictable revenue peaks.
Conclusion
In the journey of launching a product, it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of the event itself. However, true success lies not in the moment of release, but in the sustained growth and impact that follows. By adopting a mindset of “marriage, not wedding,” businesses can build a solid foundation for long-term success, ensuring that their products thrive well beyond the initial launch. So, as you prepare to introduce your next innovation to the world, remember to think beyond the event and focus on building lasting relationships, sustainable strategies, and a roadmap for continued growth. After all, a successful launch is just the beginning of an enduring journey towards greatness.
The Wedding: A Moment in Time
For many CEOs, CMOs, CPOs, and Product teams, a product launch is a moment in time. It’s a carefully orchestrated event where every detail is meticulously planned. Sales, marketing, customer experience, partners – everything is tee’d up and ready to go for the big day.
But here’s the thing: a wedding is just one day. It’s easy to get wrapped up in planning the event, ensuring that everything goes off without a hitch. But what happens after the confetti has been swept away?
The Marriage: Long-Term Success
Success is ultimately measured by sales and revenue in the months and quarters after the launch. Are sellers really ready to go and close their first deal? Does marketing have a repeatable, sustainable demand plan in place to create a pipeline? Are partners able to support and drive their business success?
These are the questions that matter. These are the factors that determine the “marriage” – the long-term success of the product.
Rethinking Product Launches
So how do we shift our focus from the wedding to the marriage? It starts with a change in mindset. We need to stop thinking of product launches as one-off events and start thinking of them as the beginning of a long-term commitment.
This means investing in ongoing training for sellers, developing sustainable marketing strategies, and building strong relationships with partners. It means measuring success not just in terms of initial sales, but in terms of customer satisfaction, repeat business, and market share.
Conclusion
In the end, a successful product launch isn’t about the wedding – it’s about the marriage. It’s about building a product that will continue to succeed long after the launch event is over. So let’s stop focusing on the wedding and start planning for the marriage. Because in business, as in life, it’s the long-term commitment that really counts.
Real World Examples
Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. is a prime example of a company that understands the importance of the “marriage” over the “wedding”. Every product launch, from the iPhone to the Apple Watch, is just the beginning of a long-term commitment to their customers. They invest heavily in ongoing software updates, customer service, and ecosystem development to ensure long-term success. Their focus on the “marriage” has resulted in a loyal customer base and strong repeat business.
