Month: September 2010

There are many stakeholders
involved in every new product launch.

Each stakeholder wants something
and often that something
adds costs to the product.

If you, as the project manager,
said ‘yes’ to every request,
you’d have serious cost creep
(or as they call it
with projects – gold plating).
Then either the price has
to be increased
or margins are squeezed.

So a big part of project management
is managing these special requests.

How I do it
is ask the requester
if the number of units sold
will increase by, at least, the cost/effort
of the special request.

If that special blue
marketing wants for the cap
costs 20% more than the standard blue,
will having that color
sell 20% more units?

If the marketer says ‘yes’,
I ask for that in writing
(forcing her to think twice
about her answer)
and I’ll then consider the special request.

If she says ‘no’
than she is saying ‘no’ to her own request.
There are no hard feelings.

Manage your special requests.
Keep your products as simple as possible.

Next week
will mark the release
of the 8th story
under one of my pen names.

I suspect it will be my breakout hit.

Why?

Because I’ve slowly been building
a readership
and it has grown close
to that special level
we call critical mass
(or the tipping point).

Because it is part of
a very high selling series.

Because it is one of my best stories.

Because it taps into
a large under-serviced target market.

All these elements may combine
to give me a breakout hit.

Or it may not.

My breakout story may be
the following story
which, once again,
intentionally combines
many of the same elements.

Breakout hits or products
ARE about luck
but they are also about
combining the same success elements
again and again
until that breakout happens.

Success Magazine
has a great interview with Usher.

He greatly believes in mentorship
and in asking questions.

“You’ve got to ask questions;
you have to be willing to open your mouth.
A quiet baby doesn’t get fed.
There is a ton of information,
opportunity out here;
you’ve got to go after it.
It’s not going to come to you.
Eventually, if you do the right things,
then success will follow you.
But you have to create
a profile in life
that speaks to the individual
you will grow to be,
not just the current situation you’re in.”

I was once a quiet baby.
I’m naturally an introvert.
But you know what I figured out
early on in life?
Quiet people have a tougher time
achieving success.

I wanted success
so
I would force myself
to ask questions.
Now, like any action repeated,
asking questions is a habit.

Don’t be a quiet baby.

Publisher calls for submissions
are very similar to RFP’s
(request for proposals).
There are guidelines set
and every submission should meet
these guidelines.

The idea,
of course,
is that author/vendor provides
the publisher/customer
with an individualized solution.

That’s great for the customer.
Not-so-great for the vendor.

What I try to do
is ensure there is a secondary customer
for every submission.

If one publisher is looking for stories
between 10,000 and 15,000 words
featuring werewolves, vampires, or dragon shifters
and another publisher wants stories
between 12,000 and 20,000 words
featuring vampires, witches, or gargoyles,
I’ll write a story
between 10,000 and 12,000 words
featuring vampires.
If publisher A doesn’t want it,
I’ll then send the story to publisher B.

It takes a little bit more upfront work
to find a secondary customer
for a ‘unique’ product
but it is well worth the work.

Always ask yourself
‘who else could benefit from this product?’
and ensure that you don’t isolate
that other customer.

A buddy of mine
is writing a steamy romance
with a policeman lead.

I asked how she made the handcuff scene fresh.
She made a face
and said she doesn’t have a handcuff scene
because it is such a cliché.

Of course it is a cliché
but it is a cliché
because readers (i.e. customers) expect it.
If she doesn’t address that expectation,
she will disappoint readers
and/or look like she’s a poser in that sub-genre.

To truly know a market,
you should also know the clichés.

Does every company in the industry
talk about freshness?
There’s a reason for that.
It is because freshness is a concern
for customers.

Oh….
and be very, very careful
about making fun of clichés.
Clichés represent a customer need
and many customers will take
ridicule of a cliché personally.

We all know that during brainstorming,
we shouldn’t tell anyone
their ideas suck donkey balls.
That’s the fast track
to a brainstorming shut down.

According to Hazel Wagner,
author of
Power Brainstorming:
Great Idea At Lightning Speed,
we shouldn’t tell anyone
their ideas are wonderful either.

Why?

“If someone says,
‘That is a great idea!’
everyone else in the room
subconsciously compares it
to what they were about to offer
and may choose not to mention it.”

So zip it
until all the ideas,
the good, the bad,
and the strange,
are spat out
and recorded.

That good idea
might flatten a great idea.

In the September/October
The Costco Connection magazine,
entrepreneur turned venture capitalist
Robert Harjavec
talks about his secrets to success.

“Success is the million little things
you do every day.
It’s the way you answer your phone,
how clean your office is,
how shiny your shoes were
when you went to make that presentation.

That’s what makes business hard;
it’s not a one-time thing you do,
but a lot of stuff
that you have to keep doing every day.
But that’s how you build a successful business –
with a million well-considered actions and decisions.”

Yep, the small stuff
REALLY does count.