How to develop a go-to-market strategy
…that aligns everyone to focus on what winning looks like and delighting customers
May 2024, Post 1/10, 4 min read
If you're navigating the maze from start up to scale up, central to your GTM strategy ought to be keeping and growing your existing customers. In this first edition of our ten-part series, I’ll share what I've learned to cut through the noise:
understand what's currently happening with your customers
start to paint the picture for your own unique GTM strategy
think through the concrete actions to take and get (re) started
Pulling together the numbers
Suggest not to read any more of this article unless you know these 2 things:
1. why your current customers have stayed with you (if you don't know, call them to find out!)
2. why companies cancelled your service
If you're all set with the above, then here's some essential data to gather:
Revenue analysis:
Sales by product
Revenue by customer (repeat same structure)
Insights to glean:
Existing customers: highest spenders, reasons for staying and increasing spend
New business: win rates, sales cycles
Unit economics
Look at Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) and Lifetime Value (LTV) to get a simple overview of how to grow profitably. There is a lot of advice on this from SAAS writers.
Understanding your markets and customers
Carve up the target market by company stage rather than just industry sector, as this could better indicate propensity to buy (or use alongside the sector view). B2B markets often shape like this:
How does your target market look and what volumes are there in each bucket?
Crafting your approach
Analyse the data to identify where future revenues could come from. Develop an ideal customer profile (ICP) to target customers who will buy, stay and refer.
Criteria to confirm across the team:
Industry
Budgets
Readiness to buy
Geography
Employee numbers
Business goals
A simple action plan with one ultimate owner for each
Marketing. Building trust
Develop a single motion to build trust and gently encourage companies to engage and consider buying. Remember, buyers want to select, not be sold to.
Revenue. Most effective way to keep, grow & win customers
Balance focus between existing and new business?
Create a specific target list?
Customer Success. Deliver and demonstrate impact to delight
Ensure you can deliver against the sales person’s commitments and show business impact.
Stay tuned for more tactics and detailed steps to enhance your GTM Strategy! And if you missed the GTM Framework, click here.
References:
1) https://www.insightpartners.com/ideas/saas-sales-periodic-table/