Do Your New Products Sell Like Hockey Sticks?

Have you heard the term “hockey stick sales” before?  This means that there are relatively few sales right after launch.  Then, some weeks or months later, sales start to increase.  The blade of the hockey stick represents the flat sales period, the handle represents the rise [Figure 1].

Figure 1

New Product Launch With “Hockey Stick Sales Curve”

Hockey-stick sales reduce developer satisfaction as market acceptance is delayed. They also slow down company sales and profits while giving customers pause for thought as they wait for others to take the plunge. The best business hockey stick has no blade, only a handle.

Do Your New Products Sell Like Hockey Sticks? [Machine Design – January 2015] discusses the many scenarios under which new product sales curves may look like a hockey stick. For the scenarios that can be avoided, or at least mitigated, suggestions on how to do it are offered.

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Note: Starting in 2015, Machine Design will no longer have a specific day of the month that an issue is published. Going forward, there will be the January issue, February issue, and so on.