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, such as when the lumber is delivered or what kind of flooring should be installed.

But in sales, many teams start framing their houses without laying the foundation first. A go-to-market plan gives your organization a blueprint for bringing new products to buyers with order and efficiency.

A go-to-market strategy is a step-by-step plan for introducing a new product to buyers. It focuses on how to reach prospects 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 GTM strategy through revenue lifecycle management. Instead of an overwhelming number of separate spreadsheets, a go-to-market plan provides a unified system that manages all the processes and data sources.

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Go-to-market strategies for business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) differ because the two buyer types have distinct needs that require unique sales cycles and approaches. The B2C sales process is more transactional and usually has a single decision-maker while B2B sales are more relationship-driven with many stakeholders.

B2B go-to-market strategies tend to be lengthier and more complex due to the defined purchasing and approval process. Social media is key in both markets, but B2C sales tend to focus on social media platforms with B2B centered on work-community platforms. B2B marketing also often includes email campaigns, white papers, and webinars.

The biggest difference between a business plan and a go-to-market strategy is the scope. A business plan defines the company’s purpose and goals. A go-to-market strategy focuses on a specific solution or product, either a new offering or the relaunch of an existing product. However, a GTM strategy can be included in a business plan. Timing is also a key difference. Organizations typically create a business plan when they're starting their business or asking for funding. A go-to-market strategy is created for new product launches.

Every time your company releases a new product or service, it's important to create a new go-to-market strategy to improve collaboration across departments and gain buy-in from all stakeholders.

You may also want to create a GTM strategy for relaunches and initiatives, such as when an existing product or service changes or there's a new target audience. The best time to begin creating the GTM strategy is when the company officially gives the go-ahead ‌for development. For example, a data storage company that previously focused on serving banks and credit unions might create a GTM strategy when it expands the target audience to include healthcare organizations.

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As the ones responsible for public-facing interactions and campaigns, sales team leaders should assemble a go-to-market team. Your team should include representatives from product development, sales, finance, marketing, and customer service to ensure alignment across the business.

The most successful GTM strategies also involve fulfillment roles, such as delivery and logistics leads. If the project includes a partnership program, the sales team should invite someone from the partner team to gain their perspective and help with the GTM strategy. This also ensures partners are clear on GTM plans.

Other stakeholders usually need to sign off on the GTM strategy before it’s complete. Executive leadership, for example, may want to check that the approach aligns with overall company goals. Legal and compliance teams should also review the GTM plan to see if any laws or regulations need to be considered.

A go-to-market strategy combined with sales software provides a wide range of benefits for organizations. Common benefits of using a go-to-market strategy include:

• Stronger internal alignment: Because all stakeholders have input on the strategy and are involved in the decision-making, a go-to-market strategy improves collaboration. This is especially true of auxiliary departments, such as finance and legal, that are often not included in the process.
• Fewer gaps in revenue: By consistently using a go-to-market strategy, especially one integrated with your customer relationship management (CRM) software, you’ll be better equipped to avoid revenue gaps when customers don’t make the purchases you were counting on. Together, GTM goals and CRM data can give you the insights to see it coming and adjust course.
• More effectively using budget: By having a defined plan created through data analytics, your organization can know exactly where to spend marketing dollars to get the most impact. Otherwise, it’s easy to invest in the wrong campaigns and have lackluster results.

When creating a go-to-market strategy, it's important to include all the key pieces of information needed to design the roadmap to launch. Here are sections to include in your strategy:

Describe in detail the product or service you're bringing to market. Write down important functionality, features, and benefits.

By clearly defining your target audience — the specific customer persona you’re selling to — your team can more effectively handle outreach and lead generation. Include details such as demographics, buying behavior, preferred communication channels, common pain points, and how your product or service solves them. Segment your audience as needed to help marketing and sales focus as narrowly as possible.

While your company likely has a value proposition, your go-to-market strategy should also include one that addresses the what, who, and why of the product. By including a value proposition in the go-to-market strategy, you create a blueprint for sales and marketing teams to build campaigns. Without a value proposition, team members often make assumptions, which lead to disjointed messaging and wasted effort.

Next, determine the most effective channels for your target audiences, both online and offline. For example, do most of your target customers attend a specific trade show, or is a trade magazine their go-to source of information? Once you nail down their preferred channels, you can then determine specific campaigns that resonate with each customer segment.

Your product only generates revenue if your sales team is ready to sell it, which requires training and resources. Describe the resources that need to be created to provide the sales team with the tools to position and sell the product most effectively. By also using the sales enablement features in Sales Cloud, you can create alignment across the organization, make sure each employee who talks to customers uses the same language, and help your sales team use their time efficiently.

Your team needs to know if your product launch was successful through sales performance management. Teams should use sales analytics software to track KPIs, such as customer acquisition cost, customer lifetime value, and conversion rate. These metrics can measure growth as well as highlight areas to improve.

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.

After the initial plan is created, many companies find that updating it during the annual budget cycle is ‌best practice. Because the go-to-market strategy and budget are intertwined, you can update the plan based on the newest budget priorities. Companies should aim to review and update their GTM strategies at least every quarter to make sure any changes are addressed promptly.

Here's how to create a go-to-market strategy step-by-step.

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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 in your CRM, interview 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 responses. Look for patterns in the interviews to help you create a persona that represents your target customer.

Keep in mind that creating personas isn't a one-time exercise. Because your customers' needs change, you should review all personas and make any changes needed on a quarterly basis. If your team is working on outdated personas, 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, research 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 using that your company could adopt?
• Is there a need or market currently not met by your product or competitor's products?

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.

You can choose from several methods to gather information for competitive analysis. The most effective is using an AI-powered CRM to help offload the research. By using AI tools, you can broaden your research beyond what you could accomplish 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, put it to work. Look for patterns and trends to help guide your company in creating your own messaging.

You learned about your target customers' problems when creating the buyer personas. From research, you know what competitors are doing to solve those problems. 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. Here are a couple of examples:

Using your matrix from the previous step, draft messaging for each prospect problem. Show 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. Just ask our runners: 60% of our 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).

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 partner sales, also called channel sales, if you want to get your product to market quickly without adding headcount. Partner sales excel when the GTM messaging is narrowly targeted in a way that allows partners to easily express your value. The big benefit is broader market reach via preferred vendors like online marketplaces, resellers, and third-party distributors. Teamwork can make the dream work!

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 results lag behind expectations, consider adjusting elements of your go-to-market strategy. 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.

Many organizations end their go-to-market process after going to market. However, what you do after the product is on the market is just as important. Your team can help customers get value from the product through training and support. By providing a single point of contact, the customer feels confident they can get questions and problems resolved quickly, which improves the overall experience. The go-to-market team should also create a process to collect and implement customer feedback to continually improve the process.

While a single purchase generates revenue, the real secret to growth is loyal, long-term customers, and this requires renewal management. Organizations that use automation for renewals can improve retention and save time. Additionally, the go-to-market team needs to continually look for new upselling and cross-selling opportunities. Because customers want to feel that you understand their needs, personalized offers are most effective.

Mary, a software-as-a-service 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. After a few weeks, she lands on the target buyer: midsize retailers that take a lot of customer orders online and by phone. Her research reveals an opportunity: The only other software providers on the market are too expensive for midsize companies, and their solutions take too long to get up and running.

With this as a guide, Mary decides on key messaging: instead of spending your weekend entering customer orders (only to ship them too late), automate data entry to reclaim your weekends and keep customers happy. To make it easier for customers to see demos, she hires 10 sales reps to conduct outreach and connect with prospective customers. Once the team launches the program with meetings and demos, she learns that while customers are impressed, they need more app integrations. Mary makes the needed adjustments. Within a few months, she sees a 40% increase in sales, with many customers saying they'll write positive product reviews and refer their friends.

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Developing a go-to-market strategy takes work, 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.

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