6 Strategies To The Most Frequently Asked Questions About Glock 26 Shops

Handguns aren't new. In fact they've been around for a long period. Everyone knows pretty much what they appear like, what they do, and who makes them. The marketplace is dominated by such big name firms as Smith & Wesson, Heckler & Koch, Sig Sauer, Beretta, and Steyr. You would not believe that that even the best product manager available would stand a chance of being able to introduce a brand new product into this crowded market.

Apparently nobody told Gaston Glock this. As described in a new book, Glock: The Rise of America's Gun, Gaston just happened to be within the right place at the right time back in 1980 and overhead two Austrian colonels talking 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 in this case was the Austrian defense minister. The minister agreed to allow Gaston to bid on the handgun contract. Gaston then had to put together 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 in order to discover ways to build an even better 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 since it was the 17th gun that Gaston made) was made out of industrial plastic which both made it lighter and many more resistant to corrosion. The handgun was also built out of several subgroups that made it easy to eliminate and replace. Gaston won the handgun contract with the Austrian military.

Since we product managers are all too aware of, just having a greater product won't assure your product of success and isn't good sufficient 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 case of the Glock guns, it was Karl Walter who took the Glock to the usa. 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 upon 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 tv shows.

Once the Glock was adopted by the likes of the Secret Service and the FBI the game was over. glock 26 handguns had won. What Glock had shown is the fact that a carefully managed promotional campaign will help even a whole new product to enter a market and to capture a considerable market share.

You may not be the product manager for a firearm, although 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 will not mean that you have to copy the products that will be already being sold there.

Innovation is a word that is tossed around a whole lot right now, but it holds a special meaning for product managers. If we take the period to concentrate on what our customers' real needs are before we begin to define our product, then we possess the real possibility of doing what Glock did and transforming our market. Almost sounds like this really is something that you would find in a product manager job description, does not it?

Simply 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 individual who is responsible for making sure that the word gets out about how wonderful your product is. Follow the example that has been given to us by Glock and your product should have a shot at being successful.