I have often referred to the psychologist’s five stages of grief when I have been helping companies understand what might be going wrong with their new product or program launch.

The TLC Group in Dallas has an interesting article on applying the grief stages to other traumatic life events, including an amusing and informative example of dealing with a dead car battery.

With thanks to them, I will apply the same model what I have seen in many companies.

1. Denial — What is the first thing you hear? “The reports must be wrong!” Or “the reporting is missing the real data.”
2. Anger — Once this reality sets in, many companies blame the sales force or channels for failing to get the story out. Or they blame the customers for being stupid. It is usually someone else’s fault.
3. Bargaining — This can consist of begging the channels or sales force to give it one more shot. Or can involve begging management for more advertising money or more time for the product or program to just catch on.
4. Depression — In the corporate world, many start to worry about their jobs and look for transfers out of the department. This can be a harsh reality for many people.
5. Acceptance — OK, so the product or program is a dud. Let’s either shut it down or reinvent it based on what is working well.

In my view, successful companies move through all these stages but do it quickly. They want to give new products and programs a fighting chance, and they also want to stop the bad ones as early as possible.

What about your products and services? What stage are you in?

In my conversations with CEOs and General Managers I hear three consistent themes:

a.                   Top-line growth is vital to the success of the company, now that we are climbing out of the tech recession.

b.                   Companies need to look for new strategies for products, services, alliances, go-to-market approaches, etc.  The business world is different, and same-game strategies are no longer good enough.

c.                    They want their CMOs to step up to the challenges of the full range of strategy, alliances, product/service development, and lead generation.

At the same time, many leaders say their current marketing teams fall short of this set of challenges and they are wondering what to do.  It is possible these companies need to upgrade their marketing leadership and key team members.  But it is also possible that CEOs need to demand the most from their marketing team, and give them the latitude and requirement to take the company to new places.

I will share five starter questions for CEOs to discuss with their marketing team that will open the dialog and quite possibly open the team’s horizons:

1.          “Why exactly do our customers buy from us?”  Many companies are simply happy that their customers are buying, and have lost touch with the real motivations.  In my experience, few executive teams can clearly articulate their value proposition, and instead refer to strings of vague PowerPoint bullet-points that could apply to almost any company.  Those companies that learn what motivates their customers are best positioned to reinforce those attributes, seek other customers who would value those, and reduce wasted investment in unrelated attributes.

2.          “Are we learning everything we can about our customers and how they use our products/services?”  It is amazing to see all the useful customer information that companies “spill on the floor.”  Every point of contact, even to resolve problems, is an opportunity to learn more about the customer.  One leading company set a goal to learn two new things about every customer at every touch point, while avoiding asking the same question twice.  For example, has your telephone company ever asked you whether you use cable or satellite TV services?  Think of how easy that would be for them to do during one of your calls, and how much it would help them market their new services. Harrah’s is a leader in this effort.  Then once you are collecting the data, the question becomes:  “What are we doing to properly use the insights?”

3.          “Do we provide a complete solution for our customers, and if not then what are we missing?”  Many products and services require customers to do some work to create the full solution to meet their needs.  For example, people who buy high-end sound systems often need help setting it up, companies who buy software need to install it and need extra hardware to run it.  Too many technologies are products in search of a market.  If your solution is incomplete, then by what channels and alliances can you complete the solution better than your competitors do?

 4.         “Are we meeting the needs of our customers across their entire lifecycle?”  Many companies are discovering that delivery schedules, customer service, or upgrade ease are proving to be bigger differentiators than the core product/service itself.  The CMO should be responsible for defining the entire customer experience.

5.          “Do we make appropriate use of new media to increase our market impact at lower cost?”  Many realize that the days of mass-media advertising are behind us, and the future lies in narrowcasting, product placements in other media, blogging, podcasting, etc.  Netscape built a leading national brand without spending much, if any, on traditional advertising.  Check whether your marketing department wants a bigger media budget and wants to win a Clio advertising award, or whether they have new experimental ideas for meeting your marketing targets at half the budget.

I encourage CEOs to try these discussions with their marketing groups.  They might be surprised by the response.

In my time at Accenture, clients would often ask me to list the "4 Ps" of marketing (product, pricing, promotion, and place) to help them organiize a marketing plan or new product introduction plan.  I argue that any marketing plan should address 8 Ps instead, to be complete:

1. Prospect:  It is so important to know which customers you are targeting, so all the other Ps can align.  This is different than a boil-the-ocean segmentation program.  And it is important to go beyond "there are two types of customers.. those who will buy our product/service and those who won't".
2. Product/Service:  Describe the major features of the product or service.  Note that I include both products and services because more product companies are getting service components in their business (e.g., warranty and maintenance support) and more service companies are getting into hard products (e.g., telephone companies with DSL modems).
3. Price:  This one is still important, and it is becoming increasingly important to look at all the "terms" elements of price as part of the equation.  For example, with cellular companies, the set-up charge, phone cost, phone-upgrade flexibility, cancellation charges, etc. are all part of the price equation.
4. Proposition:  With the first three elements defined, it is essential to define the compelling value proposition for why a target customer will want to buy this products/service versus other options, including doing nothing.  At the planning stage it is critical to push the envelope on the proposition, to apply superlatives as much as possible (fastest, cheapest, easiest, only, etc.)
5. Place:  The distribution channels are still important, and it is as important to think about the value proposition for the channel partners as it is for the end consumers.
6. Promotion:  There are more options for promotions today than there were 10 years ago, and wise companies get creative about exploring those.  Seth Godin offers some of the most interesting and compelling ideas on new-age promotion that I have seen.
7. Process:  It is essential to define the end-to-end, lifetime experience you want your customers to enjoy.  Some marketers leave that to others in the organization, such as the shipping department or the customer service team, but it is up to marketers to define this completely.
8. Profits:  Marketers are primarily responsible for revenue growth and customer growth, but must also understand the economic levers of the business and demonstrate how they are building the profits of the business over the long run.