Timing is Everything

While I was working in product marketing, I always heard people talking about “time-to-market,” and how important it was to get products to market as quickly as possible. Instinctively, this sounds good, but in reality what is important is “timeliness to market.” What that means is that you need to get your product to the market just before the market starts to develop.

I am reminded of a parable that was told to me by a great mentor while I was at Texas Instruments concerning timing. It was called Unfolding a Rose.

A young student, whose wife had just bore him a baby girl, was walking with his wise Teacher in a garden, explaining his loss at understanding life, his daughter's purpose, and how was he, who knew nothing, expected to shape a new life.

The old man simply plucked a rose bud from a large, very old vine. "Here, open this without tearing or damaging any petals."

He tried as the Teacher had bid him; yet, but he could not unfold the rose without damaging it, no matter how gentle and careful he was. "Sir, I cannot do this with causing harm."

The elder man pulled down an open rose and deeply inhaled, "This one did fine on its own, without our help, did it not?"

The student simply nods. "My good friend trust in God, have faith in the order of the Universe, for the rose bud will unfold as is its nature.”

The elder Teacher puts his arm around the young father's shoulders, "Let your little girl be the rosebud, nurture her, love her, and give her what she needs to grow, she'll unfold in time, as I did long ago, and as you are now..."

While you cannot expect products to sell themselves, the parable is poignant because if you release products when the market is ready, it seems like everything unfolds just as you planned it. The trick is timeliness.

Comments

The Moldy Middle

While taking statistics during my quest to get an MBA and while earning my engineering degree, the professors always emphasized the importance of finding the statistical mean of any population by using the Central Mean Theorem (a.k.a the highest point of the Bell Curve). As an engineer, this was essential in order to maximize throughput, minimize cost and waste, and ultimately make a better, faster, cheaper widget. A funny thing happened on the way to the dark side of marketing. I discovered that the only thing in the middle of the road was quite literally dead road kill. I do not know if you remember stores like Bradlees, Ames and Service Merchandise (just to name a few), but they all folded because the environment changed and they were caught trying to service the mythological “average customer.” Part of that change came when Wal-Mart began its juggernaut with the discount department store. Wal-Mart did two things right: 1) Focused on “mobile” consumers, and 2) Fo...

The Saleman's Litmus Test

If your goal is to become a great company or even improve your existing one, every employee in you company should be able to “sell” the product or service that you are merchandising. Since that is usually not the case, you are forced to hire sales people to help implement the objectives laid out by upper management. A national study indicated that less than 3% of the population has an inherent penchant for sales, and as much as 50% of all salespeople really do not know how to sell. During my 20 odd years in sales, I have hired, worked with, and observed great sales people (yes, both men and women). Being the observant type and believing in best practices, I have complied a listing of questions you should ask any salesperson before you hire them, and should use this Litmus Test to review of your existing sales force to determine whether to keep them or cut them loose. I hope you find it useful. Psyching Out the Test : People always try to answer questions the way they thin...

Traits of an Entrepreneur

I will begin and end this article with two quotations. The first is from Edward Rogers: "You don't deserve to be called an entrepreneur unless you've mortgaged your house to the business." --Edward S. (Ted) Rogers This one sentence pretty much says it all. Entrepreneurs are not necessary gamblers, but they are willing to put everything they own, or go all in, in order to make it happen. In the classical sense an entrepreneur is define as anyone who has possession of a new enterprise, endeavor, venture or idea, and assumes significant accountability for the inherent risks associated with the development, growth, and outcome. He or she is an organizer who combines land, labor, material resources, and/or capital to create and market new goods, products, or services. The term "entrepreneur" is loaned from the French and was first defined by the Irish economist Richard Cantillon, where the term was applied to the type of persona who was willing to take upon th...

The Profit Prophet

Search This Blog