What Is a Go To Market Strategy
How to properly launch your product or service.
Whenever you've got your product or service ready to go, you want to immediately start selling.
But before you do that, you need to understand your market and have a plan.
In this article, we'll go over the process to successfully debut your product or service and sell right away!
But before you do that, you need to understand your market and have a plan.
In this article, we'll go over the process to successfully debut your product or service and sell right away!
What Is a GTM Strategy (Go To Market)
The steps you take to successfully launch a new product or service are known as a Go To Market (GTM) Strategy.
Essentially a roadmap of how you will achieve success and sell well, this plan should include the problem in the market or industry you focus on that your product or service solves. After all, this is your main selling point.
Based on research, it serves as a guide that provides you with all the information that you need to succeed. It should include analysis, messaging, goal setting, and more.
Essentially a roadmap of how you will achieve success and sell well, this plan should include the problem in the market or industry you focus on that your product or service solves. After all, this is your main selling point.
Based on research, it serves as a guide that provides you with all the information that you need to succeed. It should include analysis, messaging, goal setting, and more.
Why Do You Need a GTM Strategy?
Listen, is it possible to stumble your way into success?
Yes, for a bit.
But at the end of the day, everything has a formula.
A popular TikToker provides a certain type of content after finding the style that resonates with their viewers the most.
It's the same with a company product or service.
You can change it later on, but then you need a new approach and a new GTM strategy – especially if what you want is longevity.
An example to think about is Netflix, its switch from rental to streaming, and how through them streaming became the norm.
That is why you need a strategy.
Having a product or service is just step one – you have to understand how it fits in the market before you start selling it if you want to do well.
If we continue thinking about Netflix, they realized that rental was not going to continue. So they shifted gears and invested in something new. Something that solved the problem of physically having to go through the process of purchasing additional channels or technology to watch a movie or show continuously. And then they did it again, by creating their own content instead of just sharing others.
In 2023, the market for streaming services may be oversaturated. But in the early 2010s when they were just starting to offer this legally, it was an absolute game changer.
They were able to succeed because they understood their market and had a great strategy. Illegal streaming was already happening, they simply found a way to make it legal and a lot easier for folks to access content to binge-watch.
A strategy many others went on to copy and adapt for their own subscription-based services.
So as you consider your own product or service and are looking to avoid failure, you should consider a GTM strategy. They don't immediately guarantee success, but they provide you with a framework and realistic expectations of how you are likely to grow.
And they serve as a roadmap for how to approach your target audience and really sell to them.
Yes, for a bit.
But at the end of the day, everything has a formula.
A popular TikToker provides a certain type of content after finding the style that resonates with their viewers the most.
It's the same with a company product or service.
You can change it later on, but then you need a new approach and a new GTM strategy – especially if what you want is longevity.
An example to think about is Netflix, its switch from rental to streaming, and how through them streaming became the norm.
That is why you need a strategy.
Having a product or service is just step one – you have to understand how it fits in the market before you start selling it if you want to do well.
If we continue thinking about Netflix, they realized that rental was not going to continue. So they shifted gears and invested in something new. Something that solved the problem of physically having to go through the process of purchasing additional channels or technology to watch a movie or show continuously. And then they did it again, by creating their own content instead of just sharing others.
In 2023, the market for streaming services may be oversaturated. But in the early 2010s when they were just starting to offer this legally, it was an absolute game changer.
They were able to succeed because they understood their market and had a great strategy. Illegal streaming was already happening, they simply found a way to make it legal and a lot easier for folks to access content to binge-watch.
A strategy many others went on to copy and adapt for their own subscription-based services.
So as you consider your own product or service and are looking to avoid failure, you should consider a GTM strategy. They don't immediately guarantee success, but they provide you with a framework and realistic expectations of how you are likely to grow.
And they serve as a roadmap for how to approach your target audience and really sell to them.
Elements of a Go To Market Strategy
In order to plan your GTM strategy, you need to understand what will affect it. What questions you should be asking. These are the elements that will make up your strategy and that the steps you take reflect and answer:
Product-Market Fit
The first thing you need to do is understand how your product or service fits in your industry or market.
What problem are you solving?
Netflix solved several problems, from additional purchases to access to multiple content in one place to watch it continuously.
Your product or service may be an application that helps schedule meetings quickly, such as Calendly, or a tool for multiple purposes for remote teams, such as Notion.
Whatever it is, you have to clearly know and understand the problem or blank space you are responding to.
You may fit in multiple markets, you may be incredibly niche. It can all work, and it can all be sold, you just have to know where you fit.
Target Audience
If we continue from the above, you want to know then who the audience you are selling to is.
Yes, you're fixing a problem.
But whose problem is it? How much are they willing to pay for you to fix their problem? What are the frustrations your product or service helps them with?
Take SalesPipe, for example.
We connect businesses with outsourced SDRs to help them build pipeline for their inbound sales needs. Anything from inbound to outbound, and a variety of methods, our talented staff provides.
We know who to talk to in companies, typically Sales VPs.
We know how much they are willing to pay for outsourcing based on how much companies typically pay in-house SDRs.
And we know that we are helping them avoid the hassle of recruiting for a position that has quick turnover and is more expensive if done in-house – we know our benefits.
These are the questions you need to consider when thinking about your target audience.
Distribution Models
You also need to consider how your product or service is distributed.
This means asking: where do I sell my product? Website, app, third-party, social media?
Certain products or services sell well via social media.
For example, in Latin America, it is popular to sell clothes via Instagram or WhatsApp as it is more affordable than setting up an entire website. And now both apps have a business and shop plan, created in response to this.
In a similar vein, certain marketing specialists, such as content writing or paid media, will sell their services via LinkedIn to start, before creating their own website.
You need to go where your audience is and make it as easy as possible for them to find you.
Instagram is an image-based social media, and thus clothes sell well there. LinkedIn is for business networking, so business-focused services sell well there.
A company, on the other hand, needs to have a website and landing page at the very least to get things going.
Competition Analysis
You also need to know who's doing what you're doing.
It is highly unlikely that you're the first at what you offer. Not impossible, just unlikely.
To make sure, you want to research and find out.
Is someone else offering to connect businesses with SDRs?
If so, how are they doing it, and how is what we do different?
Find the way to differentiate yourself from your competition through this analysis, and find what they're missing, but you're including in your offering.
Demand and Demand Generation
Understand if there is a demand for your product or service, and create more.
You've created a product or service and found the problem it responds to. You know who else is doing it, how you want to sell it, and who your ideal target market is.
But what is the state of the market?
Is it oversaturated? Is the issue you solve not considered important enough?
How can you create demand for what you are offering?
At the end of the day, you have created a product or service, so chances are that it does correspond to a particular difficulty. Amplify it to demonstrate how your offer changes the game for your potential buyers.
The first thing you need to do is understand how your product or service fits in your industry or market.
What problem are you solving?
Netflix solved several problems, from additional purchases to access to multiple content in one place to watch it continuously.
Your product or service may be an application that helps schedule meetings quickly, such as Calendly, or a tool for multiple purposes for remote teams, such as Notion.
Whatever it is, you have to clearly know and understand the problem or blank space you are responding to.
You may fit in multiple markets, you may be incredibly niche. It can all work, and it can all be sold, you just have to know where you fit.
Target Audience
If we continue from the above, you want to know then who the audience you are selling to is.
Yes, you're fixing a problem.
But whose problem is it? How much are they willing to pay for you to fix their problem? What are the frustrations your product or service helps them with?
Take SalesPipe, for example.
We connect businesses with outsourced SDRs to help them build pipeline for their inbound sales needs. Anything from inbound to outbound, and a variety of methods, our talented staff provides.
We know who to talk to in companies, typically Sales VPs.
We know how much they are willing to pay for outsourcing based on how much companies typically pay in-house SDRs.
And we know that we are helping them avoid the hassle of recruiting for a position that has quick turnover and is more expensive if done in-house – we know our benefits.
These are the questions you need to consider when thinking about your target audience.
Distribution Models
You also need to consider how your product or service is distributed.
This means asking: where do I sell my product? Website, app, third-party, social media?
Certain products or services sell well via social media.
For example, in Latin America, it is popular to sell clothes via Instagram or WhatsApp as it is more affordable than setting up an entire website. And now both apps have a business and shop plan, created in response to this.
In a similar vein, certain marketing specialists, such as content writing or paid media, will sell their services via LinkedIn to start, before creating their own website.
You need to go where your audience is and make it as easy as possible for them to find you.
Instagram is an image-based social media, and thus clothes sell well there. LinkedIn is for business networking, so business-focused services sell well there.
A company, on the other hand, needs to have a website and landing page at the very least to get things going.
Competition Analysis
You also need to know who's doing what you're doing.
It is highly unlikely that you're the first at what you offer. Not impossible, just unlikely.
To make sure, you want to research and find out.
Is someone else offering to connect businesses with SDRs?
If so, how are they doing it, and how is what we do different?
Find the way to differentiate yourself from your competition through this analysis, and find what they're missing, but you're including in your offering.
Demand and Demand Generation
Understand if there is a demand for your product or service, and create more.
You've created a product or service and found the problem it responds to. You know who else is doing it, how you want to sell it, and who your ideal target market is.
But what is the state of the market?
Is it oversaturated? Is the issue you solve not considered important enough?
How can you create demand for what you are offering?
At the end of the day, you have created a product or service, so chances are that it does correspond to a particular difficulty. Amplify it to demonstrate how your offer changes the game for your potential buyers.
How to Build a GTM Strategy
There are many ways to build a GTM strategy, but here are our recommended ten steps to take to build one:
1. Identify Problem
As we saw above – find the problem your product or service solves.
This helps you establish your market or industry.
For instance, telehealth works primarily in healthcare, so that would be the niche market and the problem you solve is connecting remote areas with health service providers.
A service such as Calendly, on the other hand, works in any industry that needs to have meetings. So, all industries. The problem they solve is significantly more far-reaching.
2. Define Target Audience and Ideal Customer Profile
Based on the above, know who your target audience is.
Telehealth serves health providers, and within that, you most likely want patient-focused roles or digital health-focused roles.
Scheduling services such as Calendly benefit salespeople or operations specialists, so those would be your targets.
You then build your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) based on this target audience. It is a refined, more specific idea of your ideal buyer, based on factors such as company size, role, budget, geographic location, and similar.
3. Research Industry and Competition to Understand Demand
As we saw above, you need to understand your market and your competitors to understand what the demand for your product is.
A scheduling application is a difficult product to offer, as the market may be oversaturated currently – unless you have a very specific selling point, such as better pricing.
Telehealth may also be difficult, due to the boom that came about during the pandemic for it which is now slowly receding.
On the other hand, sales outsourcing is a hot topic right now, and something that is an attractive expenditure for companies looking to grow and save money doing it.
4. Create Targeted Messaging and Test
Based on your understanding of the current market situation and competition, you create messaging for your ICPs that is targeted and specific to the pain point your product or service solves.
You test out a few different examples, before figuring out what works best.
You want to test messaging, audience, and sales channel – most likely different things work best in different scenarios, so you want to have something ready for all.
It is not enough to say cold calling doesn't work without actually trying it out a few times. And even then you might find it might work for some verticals, and not others, and for some roles, and not others.
5. Map Buyer's Journey
You know your target audience, the pain points you solve, and how you fit into the industry and have some messaging ready to go.
The next is to spend some time creating the buyer's journey.
This is the path your buyers take to buy your product or service.
Take your time to do some research on how existing customers: how they found you, how they decided to purchase your product or service, and what steps they took to do so.
Or, talk to clients of your competition to find out how they found them.
Based on that, create a journey for them to buy your product or service instead.
6. Build Brand Awareness and Demand Generation with Inbound Methods
Spend some time creating brand awareness.
Build a LinkedIn page for your company, but also establish yourself as a business or company owner with a leading voice in your industry or market.
Start sharing or creating content relevant to your field.
Create a landing page and a blog on your website to further drive interest and demonstrate knowledge.
Use SEO best practices to show up on Google results pages and have others link back to you via link building.
In this way, you'll start to receive inbound leads, and have material ready for your outbound efforts.
7. Make Use of Outbound to Further Build Brand Awareness and Generate Demand
With the above material available, begin outbound efforts to take brand awareness further.
Based on your ICP, start approaching different folks that fit it with the specific types of messaging you tested.
While it's great to have people come to you via inbound methods, outbound helps you explore new verticals and receive instant feedback on your process, product, methodology, and messaging.
8. Utilize an Omnichannel Approach to Target More Leads
We've covered before why having several sales channels is important.
An omnichannel approach, if used correctly as part of a larger sales cadence, is the best way to ensure your prospects are aware of you and your brand awareness builds.
Not all leads in every industry are as busy on LinkedIn, some respond better to emails, and others better to calls.
So long as you remain flexible and utilize all channels, adapting as needed, you target the most leads and are more likely to sell well.
9. Set Concrete Numerical Goals
Without having a concrete numerical goal to aim for, you are going in blind.
You need to know what your company needs to achieve to succeed or, at the very least, stay afloat.
What actually makes you, your plan, and your offer viable to your market?
Set ambitious but achievable KPIs for yourself and your team to work towards.
10. Standardize Processes for Higher Conversion and Retention Rates
Finally, you've created a strategy.
You've tried out different things and tested different approaches.
Once you have concrete results, begin to standardize processes that have repeatedly proven successful to increase your conversion and retention rates so that you continue to grow as a company.
As we saw above – find the problem your product or service solves.
This helps you establish your market or industry.
For instance, telehealth works primarily in healthcare, so that would be the niche market and the problem you solve is connecting remote areas with health service providers.
A service such as Calendly, on the other hand, works in any industry that needs to have meetings. So, all industries. The problem they solve is significantly more far-reaching.
2. Define Target Audience and Ideal Customer Profile
Based on the above, know who your target audience is.
Telehealth serves health providers, and within that, you most likely want patient-focused roles or digital health-focused roles.
Scheduling services such as Calendly benefit salespeople or operations specialists, so those would be your targets.
You then build your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) based on this target audience. It is a refined, more specific idea of your ideal buyer, based on factors such as company size, role, budget, geographic location, and similar.
3. Research Industry and Competition to Understand Demand
As we saw above, you need to understand your market and your competitors to understand what the demand for your product is.
A scheduling application is a difficult product to offer, as the market may be oversaturated currently – unless you have a very specific selling point, such as better pricing.
Telehealth may also be difficult, due to the boom that came about during the pandemic for it which is now slowly receding.
On the other hand, sales outsourcing is a hot topic right now, and something that is an attractive expenditure for companies looking to grow and save money doing it.
4. Create Targeted Messaging and Test
Based on your understanding of the current market situation and competition, you create messaging for your ICPs that is targeted and specific to the pain point your product or service solves.
You test out a few different examples, before figuring out what works best.
You want to test messaging, audience, and sales channel – most likely different things work best in different scenarios, so you want to have something ready for all.
It is not enough to say cold calling doesn't work without actually trying it out a few times. And even then you might find it might work for some verticals, and not others, and for some roles, and not others.
5. Map Buyer's Journey
You know your target audience, the pain points you solve, and how you fit into the industry and have some messaging ready to go.
The next is to spend some time creating the buyer's journey.
This is the path your buyers take to buy your product or service.
Take your time to do some research on how existing customers: how they found you, how they decided to purchase your product or service, and what steps they took to do so.
Or, talk to clients of your competition to find out how they found them.
Based on that, create a journey for them to buy your product or service instead.
6. Build Brand Awareness and Demand Generation with Inbound Methods
Spend some time creating brand awareness.
Build a LinkedIn page for your company, but also establish yourself as a business or company owner with a leading voice in your industry or market.
Start sharing or creating content relevant to your field.
Create a landing page and a blog on your website to further drive interest and demonstrate knowledge.
Use SEO best practices to show up on Google results pages and have others link back to you via link building.
In this way, you'll start to receive inbound leads, and have material ready for your outbound efforts.
7. Make Use of Outbound to Further Build Brand Awareness and Generate Demand
With the above material available, begin outbound efforts to take brand awareness further.
Based on your ICP, start approaching different folks that fit it with the specific types of messaging you tested.
While it's great to have people come to you via inbound methods, outbound helps you explore new verticals and receive instant feedback on your process, product, methodology, and messaging.
8. Utilize an Omnichannel Approach to Target More Leads
We've covered before why having several sales channels is important.
An omnichannel approach, if used correctly as part of a larger sales cadence, is the best way to ensure your prospects are aware of you and your brand awareness builds.
Not all leads in every industry are as busy on LinkedIn, some respond better to emails, and others better to calls.
So long as you remain flexible and utilize all channels, adapting as needed, you target the most leads and are more likely to sell well.
9. Set Concrete Numerical Goals
Without having a concrete numerical goal to aim for, you are going in blind.
You need to know what your company needs to achieve to succeed or, at the very least, stay afloat.
What actually makes you, your plan, and your offer viable to your market?
Set ambitious but achievable KPIs for yourself and your team to work towards.
10. Standardize Processes for Higher Conversion and Retention Rates
Finally, you've created a strategy.
You've tried out different things and tested different approaches.
Once you have concrete results, begin to standardize processes that have repeatedly proven successful to increase your conversion and retention rates so that you continue to grow as a company.
Conclusion
Creating a new product or service is nothing to scoff at.
It is a great achievement.
However, if you truly want to succeed and sell correctly, you cannot simply throw the product or service at a metaphorical wall and see what sticks.
You need to go in with a plan, and that plan is a GTM strategy.
If you're looking for experienced, outsourced SDRs to help you accomplish your sales KPI goals for your GTM strategy, be sure to get in touch with us here at SalesPipe.
It is a great achievement.
However, if you truly want to succeed and sell correctly, you cannot simply throw the product or service at a metaphorical wall and see what sticks.
You need to go in with a plan, and that plan is a GTM strategy.
If you're looking for experienced, outsourced SDRs to help you accomplish your sales KPI goals for your GTM strategy, be sure to get in touch with us here at SalesPipe.
Post by Flor Fustinoni.
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