Since our recent launch of Market2Mill, F2M’s new recycled fiber product, I have been repeatedly asked how Forest2Market is able to launch its many products with overwhelmingly positive response.
The answer is this: it takes a combination of knowledge and skills that you don’t learn in school. At least, I didn’t learn them in forestry school. At Forest2Market, the product launch process looks something like this (not necessarily patented by F2M):
1) The Big Idea – I wish we could claim some sort of brilliance here, but most of our ideas come from customers who ask us to help them solve a problem. Sorting through these requests to separate the ones that are marketable to a wider customer base from those that are custom requests can be challenging; however. Then because our products report pricing data, we start by receiving an anti-trust opinion from an attorney.
a. The anti-trust opinion – This requires a long process of education and a startling amount of money. In fact, get ready to shell out so much to lawyers that the beach home your wife dreams of becomes a weekly rental 5 blocks from the ocean and scholarships for your children’s education become a necessity.
b. WAIT A LONG TIME.
c. Find an anti-trust attorney who is knowledgeable about the industry.
d. Educate the attorney on the finer points of the product and the industry.
e. WAIT EVEN LONGER.
f. Finally, get your long awaited opinion; mortgage your house to pay the bill.
2) Develop the Product – Here we start by gathering information.
a. Get on a plane, visit customers, and get input.
b. Repeat 2a….repeat 2a…..repeat 2a.
c. Build consensus among customers as to what the product will include and how the data will be presented.
d. Develop the database.
e. Build the reports.
3) Sales – Going from zero to critical mass takes time, patience and a knack for overcoming objections.
a. The pricing products that F2M builds require customers contribute their pricing data. The first customer will find little value in it at first. That sale goes something like this: please pay me money, so you can see your own pricing data. I promise, you will love the service. Not a very compelling pitch, is it?
b. Plug along (for what seems like a lifetime or two) and become an expert at addressing the same obstacles over and over during the sales process. These are the most common objections we hear:
--"No!"
--“That’s been tried before and didn’t work.”
--“We have always done it this way, so why change?”
c. WAIT, WORK, run up more travel bills.
d. Success arrives: enough customers join and we launch the product.
4) Hire a Product Lead – Along the way, look for a leader for your new business, someone who can sell the product, provide high quality customer service, oversee supplemental product development and provide top notch industry analysis and thought leadership. Luckily, two years will have passed, so you have plenty of time to look at many qualified candidates.
By following this process, what we end up with is a product that will become ingrained in the marketplace and indispensable to our customers, one that improves our customers' business and makes the market and the industry more efficient.
I make light of it here, but after six product launches in 11 years (not including geographic product expansions), this process may seem repetitive, but it's never dull. Granted, it’s always challenging, and quite often frustrating, but in the end it is very rewarding because we know that we are bringing a meaningful service to the industry.
I know I speak for all of us at Forest2Market when I say we are very proud of what we have accomplished over the years.
Be on the watch, we have some great products in the works….they are just a year (or two) away.
Pete Stewart
Forest2Market: July 14, 2023
