Be The First To Read What The Experts Are Saying About Glock Handguns

Handguns aren't new. In fact they've been around for quite a while. Everyone knows just about what they appear like, what they do, and who makes them. The market is dominated by such big name firms as Smith & Wesson, Heckler & Koch, Sig Sauer, Beretta, and Steyr. You wouldn't feel that that even the top product manager available would stand the possibility of having the ability to introduce a whole new product into this crowded market.

Apparently nobody told Gaston Glock this. As described in a whole new book, Glock: The Rise of America's Gun, Gaston just happened to be in the right place at the correct time back in 1980 and overhead two Austrian colonels speaking about the Austrian military's requirement for new pistols. Gaston then did what any good product manager would do, he went and talked with the customer.

The customer within this case was the Austrian defense minister. The minister agreed to allow Gaston to bid on the handgun contract. Gaston then had to come up with a product to sell. He knew nothing about handguns so he went out and bought his competitor's products and proceeded to take them apart to be able to discover ways to build a greater product.

The gun that he ended up creating was nothing like the guns that have been currently in the marketplace. The Glock 17 (so called because it was the 17th gun that Gaston made) was made out of industrial plastic which both made it lighter and more resistant to corrosion. The handgun was also built out of several subgroups that made it easy to remove and replace. Gaston won the handgun contract with the Austrian military.

Since we product managers are too aware of, just having a better product doesn't assure your product of success and isn't good enough to put on your product manager resume. If you really want to capture a substantial part of your market, then you will be going to should do some serious marketing.

In the example of the Glock guns, it was Karl Walter who took the Glock to the country. He faced an uphill battle getting this new and fairly ugly looking gun to be a success. At the time, the Smith & Wesson company ruled the market.

Walter did what any good product manager should do, he focused on getting the Glock to be considered by men and women that were going to be buying a gun. He did this by getting the Glock to be featured in the October 1984 edition of the Soldier of Fortune magazine. He followed this up by getting Glocks used in product placements in both Hollywood films and television shows.

In the event the Glock was adopted by the likes of the Secret Service as well as the FBI the game was over. glock pistols had won. What Glock had shown is the fact that a carefully managed promotional campaign can help even a brand new product to enter a market as well as to capture a vital market share.

You might not be the product manager for a firearm, but the story of how the Glock handgun was created and what made it successful probably has a story for you. Just because you are trying to enter a crowed, well established market doesn't mean that you will need to copy the products which are already being sold there.

Innovation is a word that is tossed around a great deal currently, but it holds a special meaning for product managers. If we take the time to focus on what our customers' real needs are before we start to define our product, then we possess the real possibility of doing what Glock did and transforming our market. Almost sounds like this is something that you'd find in a product manager job description, will not it?

Just because you make a superior product will not mean that the world will probably beat a path to your product management door. Instead, you are going to be the person who is accountable for ensuring that the phrase gets out about how wonderful your product is. Follow the example which has been given to us by Glock as well as your product should have a shot at being successful.