Is your business ‘go-to-market’ ready?

If you are about to launch a new product or service, learn here how you can be ‘go-to-market’ ready in 7 tried and tested steps.

Your launch success relies on meticulous planning and a robust go-to-market strategy. A ‘go-to-market’, or GTM, strategy is more than a single sales or marketing plan. Gartner defines a go-to-market strategy as ‘a plan that details how an organisation can engage with customers to convince them to buy their product or service and to gain a competitive advantage’.

So, think of your go-to-market strategy as a blueprint detailing how you plan to introduce your new product or service to the right audience, at the right time for successful market adoption and optimal commercial outcomes.

Go-to-market planning requires a cross functional team effort; a blend of insight, expertise and input from marketing, sales, customer success, product management, finance and more. Each team member needs to fully understand their role, dedicate the time needed, and be fully aligned to the strategy. Once this is in place, you’re ready to start building out your go-to-market strategy.

Here’s our tried and tested 7-point plan to ensure you are go-to-market ready:

 1.  Do your research! Never skip this step. You need to understand market context, all prevailing winds, the competitive landscape, and have a clear idea on who’s your ideal customer profile (ICP). This includes knowing who your target audience is, identifying their business pain, and purchasing behaviour.

2.  Define and articulate your proposition. Depending on your market or market maturity, it can be hard to achieve a unique value proposition. However, being able to define and clearly articulate your proposition is a key cornerstone to your go-to-market strategy, essential for both your commercial teams as much as your target market. Your proposition needs to succinctly communicate what sets your product apart from the competition and why it matters to your target audience.

3.  Segment your audience. Prioritise key audiences as this will help you focus your efforts and resources and deliver success faster.

4.  Ensure sales readiness. You need to have your sales channels and sales enablement tools in place. There are many sales channel options, from direct sales and channel partnerships, through to online selling via e-commerce platforms.  Evaluate each one based on key criteria, including their reach and cost before picking the right approach for your product or service. You will need sales and enablement toolkits, which will depend on your channel. Direct and indirect teams will need training, demos, and collateral. E-commerce options will be enhanced with online tools like product comparisons, ROI calculators and so on.

5.  Develop an engaging messaging strategy. It is critical to create consistent and impactful messaging.  Focus on storytelling.  It will help you effectively communicate the unique value propositions of your product or service to your audience. Ensure the messaging is consistent across all your marketing channels.

6.  Be clear on your pricing strategy. Many factors can impact your pricing strategy. Consider factors such as market maturity, competitor pricing models, production and development costs. Remember, pricing will often need to be  adjusted following launch based on demand and market feedback. Clarifying pricing models is equally important – subscription vs one-time purchase for example.

7.  Build your marketing launch plan. Now you’re ready to pull all the above together to create impactful marketing messaging and content to reach your audiences. The shape of your plan will depend on a range of factors, including marketing channels, campaign design and timeline, content and visuals, budget, and target KPIs.

Finally, your execution plan needs to be aligned with the wider business plan and commercial goals to ensure a well-coordinated effort across all external and internal programmes.      

Your go-to-market plan should not be a one hit wonder. Ongoing success relies on monitoring all feedback and your key performance indicators. Be prepared to be flexible and unafraid to iterate on your plan using these valuable insights. Good luck – and remember, help is out there. If you’d value working with experienced marketing leaders to build out your go-to-market plan, or you need help on any of the steps outlined above, get in touch.