Management of New Product Launches and Other Marketing Projects - Softcover

A big percentage of marketing and sales work can and should be done as projects. These are jobs where a specific product, system or other deliverable must be produced by a specific date within a specific budget. One of the most challenging of these is a project to launch a new product - the focus of this book. Here are some of the things that must be ready on the launch date:

• the product itself including packaging, documentation and demonstration packages
• product support, including trained people and tools for customer support,
• broad-based promotion such as print ads, articles and white papers, website use, publicity releases and trade shows
• focused promotion efforts such as telemarketing, direct mail and seminars
• fully-trained salespeople to meet sales goals, guided by a sales management process
• a sales support organization ready to handle lead management
• pricing schedules along with contract terms and conditions
• marketing intermediaries, such as distributors and resellers, along with a group ready to train and support them, and
• a company-wide understanding of how customers benefit from the new product and how employees can play a role in the success if the launch.

It is the author's conviction that success in performing sales and marketing work is enhanced when formal project management methodology is consistently applied. So the early chapters provide the reader with perhaps the most clearly articulated project management methodology that can be found anywhere. At the end of the book he applies the material in the previous chapters to managing new product launches. The reader will find a very ample list of launch program tasks and see how they are related in work breakdown structures. Further, there is a set of Launch Readiness Checklists and instructions on using them to control product launch projects.

Michael W. Lodato Ph.D. is an accomplished expert in virtually every facet of marketing and sales, with over 40 years experience as a company president, senior executive, Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and as a consultant to dozens of companies in the U.S. and Europe. His focus is to regard marketing and sales as a set of processes to be integrated, managed and improved over time. It is from this vantage point that Dr Lodato has become a prolific author of books, booklets and other educational materials. He is the developer of ·Integrated Sales Process Management, ·Integrated Territory Management, ·Integrated Channel Management, and ·The MASTER Method of Selling. Dr. Lodato's uniquely effective processes have been implemented at many companies and are now available in publications to those desiring to improve the performance of their marketing and sales teams. Dr. Lodato’s books, booklets, white papers and articles provide in-depth insight and detailed understanding into how to construct, improve and manage all aspects of marketing and sales activity. His full length books: ·Integrated Sales Process Management: a methodology for improving sales effectiveness in the 21st Century ·Selling Computers and Software: the MASTER Method ·Management of New Product Launches and Other Marketing Projects are available on this web site and from other book sources. Descriptions of shorter-length publications can be found on his website http://www.marketingandsalesdoctor.com/. Michael's success with clients has made a case for a business process orientation to how a company's marketing and sales activities are managed - so that their performance can be consistently and repeatedly improved over time. With his insightful, effective methods to this challenging area, a company has a very good shot at achieving true best practice level of performance in this vital area. Michael is an avid golfer.