INSIGHT
75%of new telecoms
products fail
Good Products with Bad Omens
Why do bad things happen to good products? Research reveals over 75% of new telecoms products fail so
why is that? Ian Hunter says many point to a fear of change and a skills shortage being to blame for a great
many products failing in a competitive market - but what is the reality?
With over 30 years spent
in the channel it would
be fair to say that I
have seen an awful lot
of coming and going in terms
of products and services. Of
course, a lot of that has been
down to technological change
and innovation causing the death
of hitherto healthy products.
Likewise, deliberately ignoring
such market trends and carrying
on with development of legacy
product portfolios has caused
near death experiences for even
the largest of vendors over the last
ten years.
Are there numbers behind
my anecdotal ramblings? Well
it appears there are in the
form of a new benchmarking
study into the future of the
telecoms industry by Huthwaite
International which has revealed
a staggering 88% of companies
experience a new product failing
each nancial year, despite high
anticipation. e study also
revealed a crippling sector skills
shortage is often to blame, with
a lack in sales skills, strategy and
the ‘over-hyping’ phenomenon
aecting the success of quality
new products launching to
market.
On surveying senior decision
makers within the telecoms
sector, including network
operators, infrastructure vendors,
and new innovators in the
market, Huthwaite’s research has
unveiled that 42% of industry
specialists believe products
are failing once launched to
market because customers are
resistant to change, with a lack
in competitive pricing (41%)
following closely behind.
If there was ever going to be
evidence that vendors do not
know what their customers
want look no further than the
survey ndings that nearly a
third (30%) of sales professionals
blamed product specs not
meeting the client’s needs for
failures.
Really?
However, it appears telecoms
companies are overlooking
a crucial factor within the
sales process. Whilst the
research found that 43% of
respondents considered the
ability to solutions sell rather
than feature sell to be the most
important attribute in the
perfect sales professional, just
26% of respondents believed the
sellers’ inability to identify and
address buyer’s concerns as being
responsible for impeding sales of
new products to market . is
must demonstrate further lack of
planning and preparation at the
very least.
Of course, eective sales
training must always form part
of the overall mix in any new
sales launch process but to be
honest I’m thinking that this
is far from being just a sales
problem and that this research
could be seen as a case study in
how not to get a launch plan
together.
At this point I have to fess up
that I was a student from the
four ‘Ps’’ School of Marketing
but accede that this Product,
Price, Place and Promotion
mantra of my day has seemed a
bit more than quaint for quite a
few years now.
Today, the mantra is all
about having a customer led
strategy for the whole business
rather than stripping out the
marketing function as just
another legacy based silo
that does not communicate
(collaborate) eectively with the
other stakeholders in the quest to
drive customer service excellence
through understanding what
customers like, don’t like and
want for the future.
At times like these, being
the old school bu that I am, I
frequently turn the page back
to my trusty 4Ps, well at least a
couple of them, and in this case,
Product and Price.
If your new product oering
has been designed by the
marketing team you need to
know what input they took
from your existing customers.
Ask yourselves, are you going
to sell them a new product your
marketing team think your users
want or one that the users have
told you they want? You see the
problem?
And the same reasoning
could apply to the price of the
new product; is it based on cost
accountant analysis or customer
purchasing manager input.
Finally, I thought that today
received wisdom was that
instead of features and benets
we were instead to be selling
outcomes.
Oh well, just saying.
34 | Comms Business Magazine | March 2020 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
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