I haven’t cleared this topic with my co-bloggers, so please let me say up-front: I take full responsibility for this post. – Alan Armstrong Twice on the phone today the topic [ … ]
Who’s in charge of price? (Hint: It’s the person who speaks with the buyer.)
Eigenworks is shopping for a product. Over the last few months I’ve been looking to license some software from a vendor. The price is not astronomical, but it’s a significant [ … ]
A Product Manager’s homage to David Carradine
Just what happened to David Carradine? As I kicked open my morning browser, I was shocked by the news of his sudden death and of course by the questions of [ … ]
How to get a lost account to speak with you
One of the most difficult things in Win/Loss Analysis is getting someone from a lost account to speak with you. Why would they spend the time, and why would they [ … ]
Competitive intelligence using lost deals
Another idea for PMs who lack permission to do win/loss analysis Many PMs and PMMs complain that they lack the authority to perform Win/Loss analysis. And yet Win/Loss is one [ … ]
Contacting lost accounts
Customers will normally schedule time to speak with you, but it’s not easy to get ahold of lost accounts. My hit ratio is about 50%, meaning that if I want [ … ]
Marketing on a shoestring: Lunch spot gets prime-time news coverage for $250
Everyone’s talking about saving money these days. But how about boosting demand with very little money to spend? Here’s a story about a corner lunch spot that has spent about $250 in a month and received a huge amount of free publicity and local buzz.
Socks in awe: Customer interviews vs. User observation
Yesterday’s article about primary product requirements generated a great deal of traffic and several interesting and insightful comments. To recap, I was talking about examples of products from every-day life [ … ]
Primary product requirements
Some products do myriad impressive things, but simply don’t solve the primary problem, or enable the primary use-case of the buyers. Those products are, um, a much more difficult sale.
Product Managers: Do the opposite!
If the product management surveys are to be believed, most product managers spend very little time doing the things we know that we should be doing, and instead spend all [ … ]