Typically, when companies roll out new products or services, the main focus is external - that is, on the customer. This makes a certain amount of sense, since the customer is where your revenue comes from. But have you sufficiently sold this product or service internally? Are the people in your company as excited about this new product or service, as you want your customers to be? Is everyone singing the same lyrics to the same tune? If not, you might want to delay that launch. You've got some internal selling to do.

To whom do you need to sell, internally, before you can effectively sell to your external customers? Practically everyone in your organization!

SALES - The obvious starting point. If your sales force does not understand or believe in your product, they will not sell it effectively. Salespeople are human beings (mostly!); they want to make a good impression, and they want to be confident in what they are saying to customers and prospects. Therefore, the better they are schooled in the uses of your product/service, and the advantages that they bring to the customer, the more likely they are to conduct an effective sales pitch to that customer. Taking it another step further, the better they are compensated for selling a particular product or service, the more effective their sales pitch will be.

MARKETING - In order to position the new product/service so that it reaches its intended audience, the marketing team has to understand your customer's needs, and be able to articulate exactly how your product/service can provide value to the customer. It's not enough to know the features on the widget; they've got to know what problem needs solving, and how this widget can help solve it. Only then can they effectively and accurately position the widget to the proper audience.

CUSTOMER SERVICE - The minute that a new product/service is launched, customers are certain to have questions, concerns, and comments. The customer will reach out to the service department, and will expect them to be experts on this product/service. Customer service representatives should know their company's products, especially their newest ones, from top to bottom. Customers count on that, and when they deal with a service rep who is unsure of a product, it shakes their confidence in the entire business.

TECHNICAL SUPPORT - It's not enough to know how something works, or should work. Tech support has got to understand how your customer wants it

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