What Is a Go-to-Market Strategy (And Why Do You Need One)?

You wouldn't just dive in and start building a house without a blueprint. You need to know exactly what goes where, then set the groundwork to ensure everything is covered, like when the lumber is delivered or what style carpet should be installed.

But in sales, many teams dive in and essentially start "framing their house" without laying the foundation first. A go-to-market plan gives your organization the tools to bring new products to buyers with order and efficiency.

What you’ll learn:

• What is a go-to-market strategy?
• Why is a go-to-market strategy important?
• How to build a go-to-market strategy framework
• Go-to-market strategy example

A go-to-market strategy is a step-by-step plan for introducing a new product to buyers. It focuses on how to reach buyers and drive revenue, involving research on the market, customers, channels, pricing, and competition to identify the problems your product can solve.

Typically, the revenue operations leader creates and maintains the company's go-to-market strategy. Instead of an overwhelming number of separate spreadsheets, a go-to-market plan provides a system that manages all the processes and data sources.

(Back to top)

Organizations that use a go-to-market strategy often see many positive results. Without one, it's common to waste hours — sometimes days — sorting through data, which also means more room for mistakes. Many teams find that they save time spent on miscommunications once a GTM strategy is in place.

Reducing revenue breakage is also a key benefit of a GTM strategy. By using the same go-to-market strategy throughout the year, especially one integrated with your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, you avoid the revenue breakage that happens between the stops and starts of plans. Companies often start and stop their go-to-market plans many times throughout the year, which creates periods with no revenue.

Today's sophisticated go-to-market strategies include a new level of visualization. Your team can now see data and reports in real time. By syncing your strategy with your CRM, you can move to predictive go-to-market modeling, which makes it possible to basically see the future. You can use analytics to run multiple models that show what will likely happen with different business decisions. For example, you can see what happens if you use a different pricing structure or hire a different number of sales representatives. You can also see the impact of changing territory models.

(Back to top)

A successful go-to-market strategy requires understanding your market, prioritizing buyers' pains, and identifying your competitive advantage. Building a framework around these three elements can help deliver your product in a way that makes it "ready to buy."

Many companies create a go-to-market plan when they launch the company or a new product. But one plan for both doesn't really work. Having detailed strategies at both levels is an important part of catering to your customers' expectations and needs.

After the initial plan is created, many companies find that updating it during the annual budget cycle is the best practice. Because the go-to-market strategy and budget are intertwined, you can update the plan based on the newest budget priorities.

Go-to-market plans used to be static. They were built in a spreadsheet and stayed in their original state. But the most successful go-to-market plans are living. They are not set in stone, but updated as the business goals and market conditions evolve. Companies should aim to review and update their GTM strategies at least every quarter to make sure any changes are addressed promptly.

Let's run through how to create the strategy in six steps.

Selling is about delivering value to your target buyer, and that often takes the form of a solution to a unique problem. To make sure you're targeting the right problem, build out a buyer persona that draws connections between their pain points and your solution. By creating personas that give you a solid understanding of what motivates the customer (and what keeps them up at night), you can more effectively build your plan.

Start with your existing customers. Dig into the customer data you have in your CRM, conduct interviews with buyers whose problems you've solved, and lead market research efforts to see where else these needs surface in your industry. During the interviews, ask open-ended questions and really listen to their response. Look for patterns in the interviews to help you create a persona that represents your target customer.

Keep in mind that creating personas is not a one-time exercise. Because your customer's needs change, you should review all personas and make any changes you need to on a quarterly basis. If your team is working on outdated personas then they may be making poor decisions about messaging and their go-to market plan.

Going to market with a new product isn't just about making sure you solve prospects' problems. It's also about separating yourself from the crowd of products already on the market. To make sure you're delivering unique value, conduct research on competitors with similar products to see how they're positioned.

Use these questions to guide you:

• What do you offer (features, price, functionality) that your competitors don't?
• If a competitor's product is popular, why is it resonating with customers?
• What strategies are other companies doing that your company could adopt?
• Is there a need or market currently not met by your product or competitors?

First, identify competitors by starting with similar products in the market. Next, collect basic information about the products, such as features, price, and functionality, along with their product strengths and weaknesses. You can then dive deeper into competitors by looking at their strategies, including marketing, sales, and customer service. You should also look at industry trends to understand where your company and competitors fit in the marketplace.

There are several methods you can use to gather information for competitive analysis. The most effective is using an AI-powered CRM to help offload the research. By using tools for research, you can broaden your research much more easily than what you could do by hand. You can also use AI tools to learn as much as possible about the prospect and the account. Pair this with automated online research based on industry, competitor, and product keywords.

Once you have gathered the information, you should put it to work. Look for patterns and trends to help guide your company in creating your own messaging.

You learned about your target customer's problems when creating the buyer personas. You know what competitors are doing to solve those problems from competitive research. And you know what your product offers. Now, it's time to connect all three and deliver a high-value solution that's unique in your market. Build out a simple matrix, so you can see all three and how they connect.

Here's what this might look like:

Product: Long-lasting, high-performance running shoes with extra arch support priced 20% below similar products
Example buyer: Casual runner, mid-40s, median income

To keep the focus on the buyer during this value mapping, review your matrix and ask: "How would my target buyer see or understand this?" That's a good gut check before you frame your messaging.

Using your matrix from the previous step, draft messaging for each prospect problem that shows why your product is uniquely qualified to serve as a solution with proof points to back it up.

Let's use the example of our shoe buyer. You know from your research that they are between the ages of 40 and 50, like to run as a hobby, and want to stay active despite minor injuries. But they're also price conscious. Here's what key messaging might look like for this target buyer:

• Problem: Their feet hurt when they run, likely due to prior injuries, muscle strain, or bad shoes.
• Product value: A pair of running shoes designed with input from an orthopedic surgeon, with research that finds 60% of wearers felt less foot pain after a month.
• What competitors offer: Some shoe brands advertise "extra support," but don't have medical experts contributing to design or research showing this support works.
• Key message: Running doesn't have to end when you hit middle age. Buy orthopedist-designed running shoes that keep you on the trail, whatever your age. Don't believe us? Just ask our runners: 60% of customers in their 40s say they felt less foot pain after a month of running in our shoes.

Complete this messaging for every problem you've identified, making sure to demonstrate a clear and measurable return on investment (ROI). You can also emphasize the potential downsides to sticking with the status quo or going with the competition.

Now you need to reach your prospective customers. But how do you take your key messaging and combine it with the right buying channel? Start by identifying the channels your buyers typically use to make a purchase, then select the right strategy to match. Here are the most common strategies:

• Direct sales: This involves a rep talking directly to a customer, building a personal relationship over time before closing a deal. This is perfect for longer sales cycles that require ongoing negotiation, and it's most typical for complex products at high price points. These deals are often high-touch, requiring a nurture-heavy strategy with lots of explanation and sharing of valuable resources to build trust.
• Self-service sales: This strategy is much more hands off, letting customers make a purchase on their own without speaking to a sales rep. Consider this option when you want to make it fast and easy for your customers to buy, or when you don't have a large team to handle individual sales. It works best for simple products that don't require a lot of explanation and are offered at a low price point.
• Partner sales: Consider this strategy, also known as channel sales, if you want to get your product to market quickly without adding headcount. It's ideal for smaller, resource-strapped companies launching a simple product that's relatively low-cost. However, it's best sold directly through reps because it requires some assistance with delivery, onboarding, or setup. The big benefit here is broader market reach via preferred vendors like online marketplaces, resellers, and third-party distributors.

With the core elements of your go-to-market strategy in place, it's time to get your product to the right buyers. As you ramp up marketing and sales on your channel(s) of choice, start tracking total units sold, prospect engagement and objections, and sales cycle length. You can do this easily with an AI-powered sales analytics tool that delivers insights in real-time.

If you lag behind expectations, consider adjusting elements of your go-to-market strategy to compensate. Go through the steps above again periodically (at least once a quarter) to make sure your research and persona are up-to-date. By surfacing any new needs or problems of your target buyers, you can adjust messaging to keep customers interested.

(Back to top)

Mary, a software as a service (SaaS) company founder, is working on launching her new product to the market. Mary has created an innovative solution that automates data entry for companies with high volumes of customer information to manage. Her soft launch was a success, and she's ready to sell.

To make sure she's bringing in the right prospects, Mary develops a buyer persona based on conversations with her current customers and conducting market research. After a few weeks, she lands on the target buyer: mid-sized retailers that take a lot of customer orders online and by phone. The problem: The only other software providers on the market are too expensive for mid-sized companies, and their solutions take too long to get up and running.

With this as a guide, Mary decides on key messaging:

• Spending your weekend entering customer orders (only to ship them too late)?
• Automate your data entry to reclaim your weekends and keep customers happy.

Mary also knows from customer conversations that she needs a sales team to engage with prospects — it's a long-term investment for her customers, so they need to see demos before they commit. So she hires 10 sales reps to start conducting outreach and connecting with prospective customers.

Within a few weeks, the team has scheduled demos and is having in-person meetings. She even lands some initial clients, who find the software easy to set up out of the box and affordable for their budgets. Most of them are impressed with how it works, but there's a problem: People say they need more app integrations to make data management easier.

That's excellent feedback, so Mary takes it to her team. After some investigation, they land on the top-10 most requested apps to start. As customers start using Mary's software with the app integrations, they see time savings for their teams. Because they don't have to spend time entering customer data manually, they can also save on headcount and ensure customer orders are shipped promptly. Within a few months, Mary sees a 40% increase in sales, with many customers saying they'll write positive product reviews and refer their friends.

(Back to top)

A go-to-market strategy may seem like more fuss than it's worth, but it helps you accomplish the most important task in sales: solving customer problems. Just keep in mind that it's not a one-and-done effort. Continually monitor your sales and customer engagement to see how you can adapt your strategy to meet evolving buyer needs.

(Back to top)