“Some companies take off like a rocket while others fizzle
on the launch pad,” I said as we assembled for the weekly nosh and natter.

“I suppose you’re going to tell us why,” Rick suggested.

Gail anted with, “Nope. He would rather let us thrash
around trying to catch up with something he’s been thinking about for a week,
right Fletch?”

“True,” I said, I have been thinking about the question but
a lot longer than a week.”

“So,” Rob said.

Kate gave me that over the glasses look and said, “Get on
with it.”

“All of us have worked with new companies at one time or
another,” I started. “Some have been successful and others haven’t. The
successful ones, to me, have been a little bit of a mystery in some cases but
pretty obvious in others.

For instance, the ones I’ve known were going to be
successful had these things in common:

A good idea that meets a user need in a new way that is an
improvement over the old way.

Taking an incremental approach—doing one thing at a time—not
having to accomplish one huge task to be successful.

Better knowledge or more complete research into the market.
Successful entrepreneurs don’t see themselves as taking risks rather they can’t
understand why others don’t see the opportunity!”

Kate, our sales expert interrupted, “Let’s go back to that
first one. You left out a critical element. It has to be what the buyer
prefers.”

“She’s right,” said Chris. 
And if it is an online business you can find out real quick what is
preferred.”

“And tweak it,” said Rick. The companies I’ve worked with
used the incremental approach to direct marketing I helped develop on top of
their own sort of engineering driven step-by-step approach to make it.”

Gail said, “My experience is that you have to have an entrepreneurial
oriented leader in the equation, preferably one that can be very persuasive. If
that person, guy or gal is inside a company they have to convince the powers
that be to give them the time and resources to bring the idea to life. If they
are on their own, it is all about the money. And they have to be just as
persuasive…only more frequently.”

Rob summarized, So you need to be risk aversive, sort of
innovative and willing to get to success step-by-step. Right?

What would you add?

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Jerry Fletcher stopped counting successful new product introductions at 207 Learn more at www.JerryFletcher.com

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