How to Build Memorable Sales & Launch Kits

When you’re bringing a new product to market, your goal is to show it off in its best from the first moment of your launch. You also want to create high enthusiasm in your sales force and make it as easy as possible for them to demonstrate its features and benefits, and impress prospects. It should, literally, shut down the competition, strengthen your brand image, and make it the product customers will want.

These are all worthy goals, but what do you need to do to accomplish them?

What You Should Consider When Planning Your Launch Kit?
These days, stock templates simply will not do. With all the innovations in packaging, taking a bold and creative approach to the design and contents of your launch kit is critical to breaking away from the competition – you can be assured that they are going to be taking advantage of every conceivable option for getting noticed.

Creating a First Impression
The design elements of your outer box are critical. After all, everyone is familiar with the quote “you never get a second chance to make a first impression”. The packaging will need to be faithful to your company’s overall branding, in terms of colors, fonts, logo and so on, but you need to make sure those elements are being used to best advantage and manipulated in such a way as to say, “I’m new! I’m exciting! You’ve never seen anything like this before!” A unique shape, structure or coating can fire up the imagination and entice salespeople and retailers alike to want to look inside and see what is waiting for them.

Engaging the User
While creating that kind of visual attraction will draw in your audience, you must ensure that the user experience is just as pleasurable. Can they open the package easily, or will they struggle with it? Once inside, can they easily access the contents in a smooth flow that tells your story—or perhaps the story that they want to hear? What is your message? What do you want the user to think, feel, experience? Transporting a user to another time and place are all part of engagement, whether the past, the future, or the “now” on the beaches of an exotic tropical isle or a luxurious penthouse overlooking the lights of the city.

What IS inside?
A sales kit includes the product, along with instructions or directions if the package is going to be placed on shelves. Additionally, it should include the sales components, such as brochures, sales sheets, and any media you have created—although, more and more, companies are saving on media and displaying it on digital devices. This is often determined by whether it will be shown strictly as a presentation or it will be a leave-behind for the person to whom you are presenting the package.

In any case, the components should be integrated into the package in a cohesive way that, by their position alone, leads the user—salesperson or consumer—through the interaction.

Make It a “Keeper”
Closing a sale on the spot is, in the words of Shakespeare, a “consummation devoutly to be wished,” but it is not always possible. While all salespeople do their best to deal directly with the person who can make the decision and sign a purchase order, they are often faced with their contact having to confer with a higher-up in the organization. As enthusiastic as a contact might be, it is unlikely that they will be able to make as cogent and interesting a presentation as your salesperson made to them. This means that your kit must speak for itself.

Another point to consider is that the ultimate decision maker may be unavailable for a day, a week, or even longer. An appealing kit—even if set aside for a time—is not forgotten. It is often picked up, re-examined, and shown to colleagues, whose excitement can be contagious and, possibly, generate even more orders.

The point is that your sales kit can go a long way to making your product more desirable and your brand more memorable, so why squander the chance?

Corey S. Gustafson serves as the President at JohnsByrne, a custom packaging and print solutions provider.