Twas the week before launch day
We’ve spent nearly a month getting our customers to fall in love with us. We’ve decorated our online world with sparkling lights of love and adoration. We’ve visited with our online family and friends. We’ve sung songs, recorded videos, and given tons of great gifts.
Just like Santa preparing for his delivery, we are preparing for ours on Launch Day.
And now Launch Day is quickly approaching and like Santa in the last half of December, we’ve got all of our little elves putting the final touches on our products for that special day.
Like Santa we’re checking our lists (email lists) and making sure our sleigh (shopping carts) are all in order. We are focused on that day with maddening commitment.
But in the midst of the holiday launch festivities, I want to give you two things to think about as that special day approaches. There’s one thing Santa does that I think would really help you…and one thing you need to do different.
Be like Santa
If you’ve ever watched a documentary on Santa (ok, maybe they’re not documentaries…maybe they’re Christmas shows), then you know he works hard all year for that one special day. Once that day arrives, the big red guy works his tail off to make sure that everything goes according to plan. When his work is done, he returns home where he, Mrs. Claus and the elves celebrate another successful year.
But as soon as that celebration is over, everyone gets to work immediately on the next year’s goal.
When you launch your product in the next few days, you’ll be working YOUR tail off to make sure everything goes smoothly. Once things start being delivered and you get your milk and cookies (or cold hard cash), you’ll start celebrating, as you should! I hope you, your loved ones, and your friends celebrate in true Santa fashion.
HOWEVER, I want you to already be thinking about the day AFTER. Just like our overweight holiday icon and his height challenged minions, we need to be focused on our next goal right after that celebration.
Why?
- Because this is a business
- Because we want to cash in on our own momentum
- Because we want to see the next Christmas be successful too (and by Christmas, I mean Launch Day)
Use the momentum, the confidence boost, and the adrenaline of your launch to immediately begin planning your next big thing.
Be better than Santa
There’s no denying that Santa is one successful entrepreneur. While his business model might be a bit unclear to most of us, he must be doing well to have a giant house, a workshop full of employees, and enough land to have no neighbors in site (not to mention the exotic animal collection of flying AND glowing reindeer!)
But Santa is a lot more famous than you and me; he even puts our hallowed “A Listers” to shame! This guy has centuries of personal branding and marketing to his advantage.
Which means that after his special day, he doesn’t worry about marketing or making personal appearances for almost 11 months; no one is concerned with whether or not they are on the good list in January.
No one thinks about Santa between his Launch Days because Santa doesn’t keep us loving him for most of the year.
Don’t do that!
Once you are done with your product and you’ve begun working on the next one, make sure that you continue to cause your customers to fall in love with you. While the Customer Love challenge will have officially only been 28 days, the truth is we all need to be working on this every day.
Focus on getting your customers to love you year round.
The problem with Santa is that he only gets his people to love him for a small portion of the year. Because of this, if ole Red were to ever have the chance of delivering something that he hadn’t planned for, the reception would be much lower. No one leaves out milk and cookies in July because no one thinks about Santa at that time.
You don’t want to be in that position. You want your customers to constantly be loving you so that whenever you make a business move, they are ready to respond to it.
So be good for goodness sake
Launch day is coming. Keep busting your tail getting ready for it. Make sure everything is in order and ready to go. Celebrate when it goes well.
But remember two things to start doing immediately after your celebration:
- Start working on your next product
- Continue working to make your customers love you
Do those things and you can have more than one special day a year.
PS – If you know where to get flying and/or glowing reindeer, let me know. I have my reasons.
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David, what a superb analogy here. Really good points you raise too. Most businesses fail to operate any plan or have any idea as to what they are trying to achieve.
Thank you so much for the compliment! I try and find analogies that stand out a bit from the norm (Santa, Unicorns, etc) so that people have a higher chance of remembering them. Also, I hope that it triggers the thought later when they see Santa (or unicorns frolicking in the wild) and they remember the post.
I do think that businesses (i.e. business people) tend to operate without a defined plan a lot of times. It’s difficult to balance that learning curve with intentional action.
Glad you liked the article!