Cornerstones of a succesfull Go-To-Market strategy

A successful market entry or market development strategy is important to achieve long-term growth.

It is important to define clear goals and develop a plan to achieve those goals.

The implementation of the strategy should be carefully planned and continuously monitored to ensure that the goals are achieved. At the same time, your strategy should be flexible enough to respond to changing market conditions.

Strategic framework of your Go-To-Market strategy

When developing a go-to-market strategy, the following factors should be considered. By establishing the strategic framework, you create an overall plan to achieve your goals.

Building target group knowledge

Identify your target group based on their needs and requirements. The goal of this analysis is to determine the key characteristics and needs of your potential customers. Consider this information when setting your marketing goals. Knowing which customer groups are most interested in what you have to offer will help you develop more attractive content and products/services, that particularly appeal to those customers. It will also help you better identify potential weaknesses or gaps in your product or service that may need to be addressed. -> Product-Market fit.

Once you have all of this information, you can use it to create profiles for each of the identified target groups. Each profile contains information about the needs of the respective market segment (including price points), as well as sales data and other relevant information. By making good use of this data, you can develop products or services, that are specifically tailored to the needs of each target market segment.

Preparing a market and competitor analysis

If you offer a product or service, it is important to know who your competitors are and how they are positioned. It is important to know to what extent the competition is determined or influenced by you in order to give your products and services the best chance. Remember, that when you develop a GTM strategy for a new market, that there may be very strong local competitors. There are several methods to monitor the development of the competition among others a SWOT analysis.

SWOT analysis:

The SWOT analysis is a useful tool for identifying the strengths and weaknesses of your company, as well as the opportunities and threats of your industry. This information can help you develop and improve your business strategy. You can make a SWOT analysis on your competitors, too. The method is particularly helpful if you cannot compare objective product features, but instead offer services that are difficult to compare (e.g. consulting services).

Developing your positioning:

Positioning is the strategy a company uses to place its products and services on the market. It includes defining the company’s unique selling proposition (USP). To do this, it analyzes the competition, takes into account the needs and pain points.

Differentiation from the competition:

The positioning must clearly stand out from the competition. This means that your company must clearly define and communicate the unique selling points of your offers.

Relevance for the customer:

The positioning must be relevant to the needs and pain points of the target group. This is the only way it can attract the customer’s attention and convince them of your offer.

Strategic framework for Marketing & Sales

The GTM strategy provides the strategic framework for marketing and sales. The activities build on the upstream segmentations, analyses and positioning and shape the market development. They define stories and messages, channels and touchpoints and coordinate the activities of the marketing and sales team in terms of content and timing.

Defining success indicators

If you don’t know your goals, you can’t develop a successful strategy. Therefore, before you start developing a strategy, you need to define your goals. These goals should be SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-limited. These goals should be continuously measured using key figures and the degree to which they have been achieved should be checked.

The marketing and sales goals should be clearly defined. It is important to set realistic goals that are compatible with resources and budget.

There is no single answer to the question of which key figures you should pursue when planning your GTM strategy. Rather, it depends on which goals you want to achieve with your strategy. Possible metrics to keep an eye on include market share, sales growth, conversion or customer satisfaction.

Budget

Have you planned the necessary budget for GTM implementation? Resources, activities etc.

Roles & Responsibilities

Various stakeholders in the company are responsible for developing and executing a GTM strategy. These can vary from company to company.

Be clear about whom has which role:

Who definees the business goals of the company. CEO, Board etc.

Who bears overall responsibility for the implementation of the GTM. Manages all relevant resources and stakeholders?

What are the roles of Product Management – Marketing – Sales etc. in GTM context?

Wish you success with your Go-To-Market strategy!