You’ve probably already read hundreds or thousands of blogs or articles on how to design the ideal Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy for your company. Or perhaps, this might be your first time. Well, you’ve found yourself in a fortunate situation.
A product launch would not be complete without a go-to-market strategy. A GTM strategy specifies how a company should communicate with its customers to obtain a competitive edge.
Without it, it’s hard to tell if you’re entering a market too early or too late or targeting the wrong audience. I’m sure you don’t want to waste time or money promoting a product or service that isn’t profitable or will not give value to your business.
To prevent these things from happening, you need to create a killer GTM strategy for your business, so I’ll share these 8 secrets that will transform your GTM strategy.
1. Be clear with your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
Most startups, including those in the Series B and C funding, have no idea what makes up a successful GTM strategy. They’ve been heavily focused on product development.
When asked about their GTM strategy, they often say channel partner strategy or direct sales. But that’s not the answer – they need to get into the detail of how they will distribute their product and who they will target.
When we ask about their target customers, they often say “early adopters”. Again, this is a too high-level response.
If you want to increase your revenue, be clear with your ICP. Your ICP is the specific customer profile that you’re targeting. And the more specific you are with your ICP, the more likely your business to succeed.
Here’s a guide on how to develop your customer personas.
2. Refine your Value Proposition
As your company expands, the services you provide to clients expand as well, and your ICP habits may also shift significantly.
On the other hand, refining your value proposition is not a one-time task. It’s critical to revisit your value proposition.
Having a clear value proposition helps you communicate how your product or service solves an issue or benefit your target market. And while a value proposition may appear simple, it might take some time to figure out.
If you’re ready to update it, make sure to gather information and analyse all your data starting with your:
- Products/Services
- Customers
- Competitors
Once you’ve finished refining your value proposition, it’ll be easier to interact with your target audience and provide you with a foundation to build your brand’s sales and marketing strategy.
3. Find your green space in the crowded market
There will always be another company selling the same thing, no matter how unique you feel your product or service is.
That implies you’ll have to show how your product differs from the competition and how it adds more value than the competition.
That’s why it’s critical to design a strategy that will set your company apart from the rest.
So how can you find your green space in the crowded market?
Here are some suggestions that you can take into account:
- You’ll need a distinct, competitive differentiator
- Compete with yourself just like Apple does
- Choose a channel with the highest potential
- Create frictionless customer service
- Stay true to your message
- Make your business more human
The difficulty of being trapped in the crowded market is unlikely to go away anytime soon. However, if you focus first on creating a customer-centric strategy, strengthening your business operations, and preserving your brand identity, you’ll find your green space. This will guarantee the success of your GTM strategy.
4. Know the metrics that matter
Metrics get increasingly complicated as a company expands.
Even though several tools and platforms are available to analyse business results and performance, most organisations neglect to assess and re-evaluate which indicators are most important to their operations.
The SaaS industry, for example, has relied on specific measures to understand business success. But often, these companies end up paying attention to the wrong metrics or things that are no longer truly meaningful.
But how will you know them?
Focus on your business goals. Your end goal will always be revenue, but to get the revenue, you need to have enough activities in place from your marketing team through to your sales team.
Here are sample questions that you can ask to assess your metrics:
- How many marketing activities you’re running?
- How many leads are getting through your marketing campaign?
- Out of those leads, how many are turning into opportunities or trials?
- Out of those opportunities or trials, how many customers did you win?
You can set up your metrics now using these questions to create an effective GTM strategy.
5. Stress-test your GTM strategy with simple maths
Most companies rely on complex data to achieve their business objectives. But in fact, they can easily track down their revenue breakdown through a simple calculation.
Some companies have the wrong pricing strategy or the wrong market segment to start with, so they do not get the revenue they expect from their GTM strategy.
You can see from the graphic that you can work out your target revenue with a few simple steps.
Start with how many leads you’re targeting. Now, not all of those will be interested, so make sure to have a realistic conversion rate. And then, with the right conversion rate, you can easily calculate the number of opportunities or trials you can have. Since you already have an Actual Cash Value, it’s easier for you to compute the revenue target by just multiplying your opportunities with your target win rate and ACV.
And there you go; you have your target revenue calculated.
You can use this template for your future GTM strategy. We use a more detailed version of this when looking at annual and territory plans with GTM teams. The key is to understand your conversion rates at any stage of the sales process and work backwards.
Want to know more about GTM strategy? Read our article on how to thrive with a clear GTM strategy.
6. Drive Urgency in the Sales
What do you think is the problem when you have enough marketing activities and leads generated but not achieving your win rate and, ultimately, revenue goals? It’s an execution problem.
Your potential customers are already there, but you are not converting with the right activity through the sales process – what was the blocker?
Perhaps they are not ready, or it’s not their company’s priority; maybe your messaging is not connecting with them to see value in your solution, or your sales team are not having the right conversations at the right time.
You can be an expert in your field and engage with your leads well, but if you’re not able to drive urgency in your sales cycle, all of your other activities will be wasted and won’t be able to push it through.
This is a secret not everyone knows, but you can use the fear of missing out (FOMO) to win your prospects and leads.
Your leads will often take their time assessing the benefits and downsides before deciding when there is no deadline for acquiring your goods or services.
However, if you use the fear of missing out (FOMO) strategy to your sales cycle, you can win your clients by promoting the idea that your products or services are urgently required to solve their issues.
There are a few factors that can help you use urgency to assist drive sales more effectively:
- Make sure you communicate the details clearly
- Remove all potential sources of distraction
- Be truthful
Read our blog to learn how to effectively turn your GTM strategy into great performance.
7. Position Your Product as a Must Have
When deciding whether or not to purchase your product, many things run through someone’s mind.
When you plan your GTM strategy, make sure to ask yourself this question: “Do you feel that your product or service is essential to potential customers rather than something they’ll merely appreciate?”
One of the most challenging tasks for most marketing and sales teams is positioning the product or service.
When your prospects enter the funnel or the flywheel, they think you can help them save them time and money with better results when using your product or service. But often, you’re not able to convert them because they need more time to decide or have not seen the true value of your solution.
According to Harvard Business Review, senior executives are confident in their ability to create innovative products and services but not in their ability to market them.
That’s why you need to make sure that your product or service is labelled as a must-have.
But how?
Here are some tips:
- Your products or services should be about them
- Understand their challenges and pain points
- Before you reach out, do your research
- Establish rapport
- Contribute first, then sell afterwards
- Ask questions and pay attention
8. Monitor the Order of your Operations
Once you’ve gone live, your work isn’t done yet.
Monitoring the order of your operations is still needed. This can help you check what’s working and what’s not in your strategy and execution.
Make sure to revisit your ICP continually, your brand messaging, and your marketing and sales activities.
And to effectively measure your company’s success, you must build indicators that allow you to measure the inputs and outcomes and make the required modifications when necessary.
Keeping a watch on management, employee feedback, customer reviews, particularly from lead users, can also provide valuable information to your product, marketing, and sales teams to improve your GTM strategy.
Ready to apply these secrets to design your next-level GTM strategy?
The quest to promote a product or service is an exciting one. Give it the greatest opportunity by conducting research, planning ahead of time, and developing a sound go-to-market strategy.
But how about taking your GTM strategy to the next level where you can increase your business results?
Have a FREE 30-minute session with me to talk more about taking your business to the next level!
