Today, Go-To-Market (GTM) is often equated with launch campaigns and a product marketing strategy. Find out why GTM can do much more and why it deserves a central part in your company's business development.
Photo: Jeremy Bishop
For Speed Readers:
Definition of Go-To-Market
For a long time there was no clear definition of Go-To-Market (GTM). Over time, however, it became increasingly clear what Go-To-Market is not:
Go-To-Market is not just a strategy, not a one-time process, nor is it only relevant for young companies that want to establish themselves in the market.
But what is Go-To-Market?
GTM is a change process to accelerate your market launch together with your revenue team to deliver a comprehensive customer experience.
The 4 Core Elements of GTM
From this definition, four important pillars of Go-To-Market can be derived, which you should internalise:
1. Process
As mentioned in the introduction: Go-To-Market is not "just" a strategy. GTM is also not a plan or a project. Go-to-market is an ongoing process. Thus, it can be deduced that you have to work on it continuously if you want to grow and develop your business in a scalable way.
2. Market
Of course, GTM is almost all about the market and the various stakeholders in the market. It is important to have a good understanding of your TAM (Total Addressable Market) and especially your TRM (Total Relevant Market) right from the start. GTM is about focusing on the potential customers who are most relevant to the product you have on the market today.
3. Revenue-Team
We have been talking about marketing and sales alignment for a long time. Good interdisciplinary cooperation is also essential for GTM - but we don't stop at marketing and sales, because: GTM will only work if you can count on a strong revenue team where all members from marketing, sales and customer success work closely together.
4. Customer Experience
You can think of Go-To-Market as a transmitter between the business strategy and the customer experience. GTM communicates your company's vision to customers and what added value they can expect from using your product or service. This shows once again that Go-To-Market is an operational job and "only" serves the corporate strategy.
Why Go-To-Market Matters
The arguments for Go-To-Market are numerous and are not limited to marketing and sales, but open up competitive advantages for the entire company. However, the four most important reasons can be summarised as follows:
1. Constant Change of Market Conditions
We live in a VUCA world in which many things change very quickly. That is why it is of utmost importance that you and your company adapt to new market conditions. Whether it's changing search behaviour, new regulatory frameworks or new competitors in the market - standing still is not an option.
Go-To-Market can support you here particularly well, as you continuously analyse where you have the greatest potential for growth and know what your customers want at all times through the collaboration of Marketing, Sales and Customer Success. So don't become a second Nokia that hasn't taken Go-To-Market to heart and continuously work on your growth.
Sangram Vajre, author and co-founder of Terminus, sums it up simply in his latest book MOVE:
To keep it all going, you have to keep growing.
2. Product innovation Alone Isn't Enough
Sad but true: even if you have a great product, sooner or later your growth will stall - or not happen at all. Because without marketing, sales and customer success, you won't write record sales. It's as simple as that.
That's why you should really set up a GTM team that continuously exchanges information on how the existing products can best be marketed or for which potential new launches there is a high demand, so that you can react in time and generate sales.
3. Silos Need to Be Teared Down
Although we all know that marketing & sales alignment is central to business success, it does not work in countless companies.
Because Go-To-Market focuses on the entire value creation process, it can be a powerful driver for alignment. By focusing on the flywheel and sales, the traditional goals of the different departments also become less important compared to the common goal: growth. Of course, Marketing will still attract many new leads, Sales will win many new customers and the Customer Success team will continue to have high retention.
4. Sustainable Ressource Planning Is Essential
We are seeing a pronounced shortage of skilled workers in various sectors. So that your company is not suddenly inhibited in its growth, you must ensure that the right talents are recruited in good time.
And GTM can help out here, too. Because by continuously assessing the current status and market potential, your CEO also has a good decision-making basis for planning resources across the entire company.
3 Phases of GTM Transformation
Go-To-Market has made a name for itself especially among start-ups. However, as the following three phases and stages of maturity show, GTM is of central importance for every company that wants to develop further and grow in the long term.
Photo: MOVE The 4-Question Go-To-Market Framework, Sangram Vajre and Bryan Brown
1. Ideation
You are in the ideation phase if you still have the following questions:
Do I have a solution that fits the market at the moment? Is the market big enough?
In the ideation phase, the focus is on the problem-market fit. To prove this fit, your business will focus on cold calling, leads and conversions in the funnel. You can't target your ideal customers too specifically yet, because you first have to find out who exactly your ideal customers are - i.e. who can derive the greatest added value from your solution.
Therefore, you need to do a lot of ad-hoc measures and tests on your TAM to get new insights and data for your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile).
Stay agile so that you can always react to new impulses and initiate new measures.
2. Transition
If you are thinking deeply about the following question, you are in the transition phase:
How can I bring the product to market more efficiently?
In the transition phase, companies focus on product-market fit. In contrast to the Ideation Phase, you now know exactly what your Ideal Customer Accounts look like. Instead of shooting at sparrows with cannons, as you might have done in the Ideation Phase, you can now tackle the really big accounts with laser focus.
The goal of this phase is to increase efficiency and thus grow faster. Your company can achieve this by targeting your marketing and sales activities at your ideal accounts in the most promising segments and opening up new distribution channels.
3. Execution
If you are thinking deeply about the following question, you are in the Execution Phase:
In which products/markets can I grow even better?
In the execution phase, you have already established yourself in the market with one or more products and have a well-filled pipeline. In order to scale your success and continue to grow, you focus on the platform market fit.
Whereas in the transition phase you have opened up new segments with the existing product portfolio, in the execution phase it is much more about introducing new products to your existing customers or even completely new markets in order to base your success on many different pillars and thus sustainably increase customer lifetime value and turnover.
You're Still Not Sure in Which Stage You Belong To?
Then take the assessment designed by Sangram Vajre.
Ask Yourself These 4 Questions to Grow Sustainably Now
No matter what level you are currently at with your business, the MOVE framework will help you identify stumbling blocks and new opportunities.
Photo: MOVE The 4-Question Go-To-Market Framework, Sangram Vajre and Bryan Brown
Market: Whom to should we sell?
Operations: What do we need to work more effectively?
Velocity: When can we scale our business?
Expansion: Where can we grow the most?
If you can answer the questions Who, What, When and Where you want to market, you are already a good step further. So take enough time together with your GTM team to answer the 4 core questions and take the appropriate measures. And don't forget: GTM is a continuous transformation process and therefore requires regular review and adjustment so that you can really grow scalably as a company.
This article first appeared on 05.11.2021 as a guest article on marketing.ch.
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