I came across an excellent post from 🍏 Nikole Rose last week regarding Go-To-Market strategy, what Go-to-Market is, and what Go-To-Market is not. I thought about it so much that I had to share it and add a few of my thoughts and experiences having led Go-to-Market initiatives for Fortune 100 companies in the B2B Technology industry.

My perspectives for developing and launching a successful Go-To-Market plan are:

Offering: What’s the product, solution, service you’re launching, re-launching or re-positioning in the market?

Internal Team: What are the internal resources participating in the Go-To-Market strategy? Typically, in my experience, the team consisted of Product Marketing, Solution Marketing, Corporate Marketing, Product Management, Engineering, Sales, Demand Generation, Customer Service, Legal, Executive Stakeholders. Often, we would involve valued clients and industry analysts to solicit feedback and direction.

Account / Buyer Profile: Who’s the audience and why should they care? What’s the problem or need of the audience you are targeting? And, what’s the value your offering provides?

Competition: What’s the competitive landscape? Who are the primary competitors? Why is your product, solution, service different? And, do you have quantifiable metrics to describe the impact and benefits to clients from a business and operational standpoint.

Target Account List: What is the Ideal Customer Profile for the offering? Are these existing clients for upsell / cross-sell opportunities to expand your footprint? Or, is the target greenfield accounts which can become competitive displacements?

References and Case Studies: Do references and case studies exist that describe where your product, solution, service has been deployed previously that illustrate how companies have achieved business and operational results.

Demand Generation: What’s the plan to drive demand through a coordinated effort involving marketing, sales, customer service, etc.? Does the demand generation plan involve targeted e-mails, social media posts, web pages, webinars, events, shareable content, etc.?

Quotas and Results: What are the expected results by account, for sales, by segment, by region as examples? How will results be measured? And, what’s the timing?

Sales Enablement: How are you going to inform, educate and help your sellers approach prospective clients? Does a sales playbook exist that describes the ideal customer, customer problem, opportunity identification, messaging and value propositions, qualification checklist, competitive positioning, references, resources to share during the sales cycle?

These are just a few categories of Go-To-Market plans that I have led during my time as a Principal Solutions Marketing Manager. There certainly are more areas that could be included.

What are your perspectives on Go-To-Market Strategy, planning and execution?

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