PLAN, DO, REVIEW – Go To Market Plan & Strategy
Why is it that a company’s products or services fail to achieve the market uptake expected of them? Is it down to a lack of investment in marketing? Maybe the sales teams aren’t clear on who they should be targeting? Or is it as fundamental as there’s simply no clear plan of how you’re going to take your product out into the market? A Go to Market plan and strategy and plan will help.
Determining a clear Go to Market plan (GTM plan) and strategy helps companies overcome challenges associated with:
- Business expansion
- New product introductions
- Identifying new market opportunities
- Extending geographic coverage
- Broadening customer relationships
- Establishing new channels to market
- Forming alliances with strategic partners
- Succeeding against competitors
- Improving sales and marketing performance
- Finding and gaining new customers
Devising and implementing a GTM strategy and plan calls for cross-function collaboration, orchestration and teamwork. It draws upon input from core business disciplines including market research, analysis, sales, marketing, brand management, pricing, product management, service and support. In turn, GTMs must also support a company’s operating model and organisation structure.
Developing GTMs Requires Business Discipline & Process Rigour
The business discipline required to develop and implement a Go To Market plan often serves to identify further areas for business improvement or new growth opportunities. For example:
- Is our product development strategy in line with market needs & potential?
- How well equipped is the sales organisation to align the chosen strategy to the existing customer base?
- Does the marketing organisation possess the requisite skills and resources to implement the GTM strategy?
- By which metrics will we define the success of the strategy?
- Do we have the necessary systems, tools and processes through which to monitor and measure metrics?
- Do we need additional support and input in the areas of positioning, messaging and communications?
The process of developing a GTM plan serves to identify new opportunities for long-term growth as well as define additional areas of potential cost savings and efficiencies.
Furthermore, as enterprises and consumers alike increase their use of cloud computing and web-based services, organisations need to assess and understand their impact as a means to not only reduce operating costs but also to build and maintain stronger customer relationships.
Technical advances, most notably in the areas of communication, partnering and product or service delivery, require companies to rethink their GTM strategies and plans. Such advances call for fresh and innovative thinking often only available from outside the organisation.
Guided Template
Declare has developed a Guided Template to hand hold you through the process of developing a GTM plan. It’s an ideal aid for Product Marketers, Sales Leads, CMOs or Portfolio Leaders. Please contact us if you’d like to use this template for your business.
