What the Heck is a Go-To-Market (GTM) Strategy and What Do I Need to Know?

Go to LinkedIn.com and time how long it takes you to see go-to-market or GTM in your main timeline feed. It was four seconds for me. 

In true marketer form, I’ll take on ChatGPT in explaining what the heck a GTM strategy is, why everyone’s talking about it, and a few key takeaways as you refine your go-to-market strategy.

What is a Go-To-Market (GTM) Strategy?

ChatGPT’s take: A GTM (go-to-market) strategy is a plan for how a company will introduce a product or service to the market and make it successful. It typically includes elements such as target customer segments, positioning, pricing, and channels for distribution and promotion. The goal of a GTM strategy is to maximize revenue and profitability by effectively reaching and satisfying target customers.

AI’s quite formal these days. For most sales and marketing leaders, we’re thinking more about what plan of strategies and tactics we need to engage to hit our pipeline and revenue targets when we talk about go-to-market strategy.

A GTM strategy is:

• Not one size fits all
• Always evolving (monthly, sometimes weekly, even daily)
• Plural, not singular (we may have multiple that we house under an umbrella GTM strategy)
• Inclusive of account-based strategy (ABM, ABX, etc.) and demand generation

Why is everyone talking about GTM strategy?

ChatGPT’s take: It’s likely that go-to-market (GTM) strategy is being discussed more frequently due to the changing business landscape, specifically with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the shift to remote work and increased use of digital channels for commerce, many companies are rethinking their GTM strategies to effectively reach customers in this new environment. Additionally, as the competition in many industries has increased, businesses are looking for ways to differentiate themselves and stand out in the market, which a well-crafted GTM strategy can help with.

Pats AI on the head. Great start here. Another huge factor is that every single company in the world is talking about doing more with less today. We can’t miss with our budget. Our time must be used wisely. We have to focus on the accounts most likely to buy.

Every revenue leader is confiding in those they trust and sharing tips, tricks, and best practices to survive and thrive as things continue to grow more challenging. The strategies that got us here probably aren’t going to get us to our next growth milestones and we’re – as the cool kids say – shook.

What are a few key takeaways?

ChatGPT is grounded for horrible attempts at giving you a few key takeaways so I’ll fly solo on this one.

1. Construct your GTM with a spectrum of styles

Expect to have 1:1 account-based programs delivering extremely personalized outreach and content, 1:Few programs scaling it down a bit, and 1:Many programs to complement more targeted demand generation. The number of accounts in each tier is going to vary based on resources, but there’s no one-size-fits-all approach and what works today is going to be different in 300 days.

2. Embrace and prepare for the uncertainty

Do your top-down budget and your bottom-up budget and your budget based on historical benchmarks and your budget based on industry benchmarks. Try to be as educated as possible when making decisions and defend them with data. Frequently highlight top and low performers and work to refine the mix of tactics and channels based on how they’re working for you throughout the year.

3. Build your village because it takes one

Talk to your peers. Build your network. Work with people and technology providers that you trust. Ask for introductions from connected folks in your network. Build a sort of hive mind. Things are changing quickly and trying to do it alone is going to increase the already alarmingly high rates of fatigue in our industry.

4. Deeply align sales, marketing and customer success

A tale as old as time, but the most aligned and orchestrated organizations are seeing the most success. We at Demandbase can certainly help with all of these, but don’t skip the steps it takes to create, foster, and strengthen productive cross-functional relationships. This also requires a shared definition of success – cough, cough, pipeline and revenue.

5. Help us help you

From our CEO (hey Gabe!) to your CSM, we’re here to help. Connect with us on LinkedIn (here I am), message us, join our communities, engage with the Demandbase Champions, tell us what we can help you with. We’re having hundreds of these conversations daily and you always have an open invitation to talk shop or have a sort of therapy session working through this together. We’re here for you. <3