In the last 2 years of transitioning from a 6-figure course creator and coach into leading a full-service launch agency at Love To Launch, my team have generated over £7m in sales for our clients. We’ve worked on evergreen launches all the way up to 150,000 live multi-day experiences, on low ticket memberships to high ticket coaching offers, to running a launch solo to leading a 30 strong team. We're proud to work with the biggest leaders in the online space and now at ACLP we train launch managers to this standard.

It’s fair to say that I’ve done a lot in this crazy launch world, and what I know to be true is that the launch team is the secret sauce – and a great launch manager can completely turn around even the toughest of launches. But you can’t out-strategise a bad team! Meaning that no matter how good your ads are, how epic your sales page is, or how much energy you poured into your webinar training – if the team is weak, your launch won’t get the results you want. 

That's why I'm glad you're here to talk all things hiring!

Perhaps you’re here because you’re an entrepreneur who needs to hire a launch manager, or perhaps you’re wondering whether you’re even ready for one? In this blog I’m going to break it all down and if you want a guide you can download and read at any time – then click here to grab my Ultimate Guide to Hiring a Launch Manager.

In this blog I’m going to be answering….

What responsibilities a launch manager has

When you need to hire one

How to hire a launch manager

How to train a launch manager

Launch Manager Responsibilities

At ACLP, we believe that a great launch manager operates at their best when they are able to lead launch strategy + launch management + partner management (it’s why we designed a certification program that covers all 3 strategies).

You can’t be world-class at team and task management, unless you understand the why.

Equally you can’t be good at managing the launch, unless you understand how a launch team needs to operate to achieve their strategic goals.

And if you really want to scale – knowing how to generate predictable, scalable traffic for the launch is literally the launch dream come true! (Hint: use partner programs!)

Here’s some of the responsibilities an LM can take on:

• Working with the launch leader to create a high-converting launch strategy that works best for the offer / audience.
• Developing a powerful referral partner program to recruit partners to promote the launch.
• Planning the launch runway and working with the team to create innovative strategies to hit the launch goals.
• Strategising on powerful launch assets such as copy, landing pages, event content and social content.
• Creating and measuring KPIs, reporting back on issues and ensuring there’s a plan for action where needed.
• Delegating tasks to team members and ensuring launch tasks are delivered on time and on budget.
• Work with team members to strategically solve problems during the launch and clearing any bottlenecks.
• Developing online systems and setting up / monitoring project management software to assist the productivity of the team and complete launches effectively.
• Developing new launch systems and SOPs to improve efficiency and find better ways of working.
• Motivating partners to fulfil the commitment they made to promote launch, supporting them in their promotional efforts.
• Working with team members to drive a launch to completion, assessing against benchmarks to make sure they hit your goals.
• Book internal resources and team meetings as needed, document calls so tasks are actioned, keep team up to date with launch progress.
• Following up on launch meetings to ensure all tasks have been completed and issues resolved.
• Document the launch learnings to help the whole company scale, and creating a powerful debrief full of data-driven insights.
• Use learnings gained in our launches to optimise the launch next time round.

There’s so much to the role, and if you’re reading this thinking “I don’t even do half of that and I’m the business owner!” then your biggest priority is finding a launch manager to help implement the things that are going to help you scale. All our certified launch managers are trained in the above skill set.

When is the right time to hire a launch manager?

If you have the profit in your business and you're ready to make a hire, then a launch manager can be even more advantageous than a marketing or project manager because of the direct ROI you can achieve. This is even more of a recommendation if you are utilising partner programs because the launch manager trained in both launches and partner strategy can be working on that throughout the whole of the year.

Ultimately the best approach here is to create a list of your priorities for achieving growth over the next 12 months, assess what helped you get to this point (e.g. was it launches, sales call strategy, referrals) and whether that will help you get to the next level and answer the question – Who do you need on your team to deliver that?

If the answer is scaling your launches, sometimes achieving your planned growth is simply a case of getting implementation tasks off your plate so you can focus on leading your launch yourself and focusing on needle movers rather than being in the weeds.

Some people enjoy working on their own launches, especially if they have a marketing passion, so then it might make more sense to get the ops off your plate by hiring a launch manager whose focus is project management.

But if you don't enjoy launch strategy and you don't have time to implement then hiring a good launch manager is the key to getting back your time and creating more success with your launches.

 

How do you hire a launch manager?

The big question! Usually it comes down to whether you have more budget or more time! 

If you have enough profit in your business then you can hire an experience launch manager. They'll be up to speed quicker and have already have achieved launch success for other people. Freelance launch managers who have been certified by us have a breadth of knowledge in launch strategy, launch management and partner management and have the ability to be able to slot into your launches with ease. You could advertise a role for a launch manager and hire direct into your team instead. This is a more challenging path as most successful LMs aren't looking for jobs in-house, but you can attract talent who want to be in your business long-term if you can put together an amazing salary package with results-based bonuses.

If you don't have the budget, but you have time then training someone on your team or hiring a less experienced team member and training them up can be a great way to start with a lower budget. There's actually a huge benefit of training from within when it comes to launches – they already “get” your business from the ground up, they're more likely to stay in a role with you long term and they'll be more intra-preneurial rather than wanting to build a business, so it keeps costs down long-term and creates team-stability. If you get the right launch manager training, they don't need to have launch experience. In fact, we've trained LMs from ZERO experience to deliver multiple 6-figure and 7 -figure launches! The key is getting someone who has the right characteristics and desire to thrive in this role, the skill-set can be taught!

If you have neither budget nor time, then the best strategy is for you to be your own launch manager for now and upskill yourself – get your launches more profitable, then make that hire as soon as have the profit. One thing is for sure, if you make the right hire then you'll have a team member who gives you an incredible ROI (look for someone with the above skill set).

 

How do you train a launch manager

The best way to train a launch manager is “on the job” but I'm not a huge fan of the deep end approach where you throw someone into your launch an expect them to implement with no support! It's beneficial to have new team members go through your launches as if they were a customer to gain the perspective of what that journey feels like if you have the runway to ease them in gently, but with the right support you can train someone from zero.

We are often asked to train team members who are new to launches, a process that takes between 3-6 months depending on what launch style you're using or whether you are utilising the power of partner programs (which requires more time)

If you're curious on how our program can help you become, train or hire a launch manager grab the details here.

If you have any more q's – drop a comment below and I'd be happy to answer!