Go to Market Strategy Explained: Simple Version

A Go-To-Market Strategy is essentially a plan of how a company is going to attack a specific market segment or release a new product. This is a tactical plan detailing how a company or startup plans to execute a successful product release and promotion.

Many businesses and startups fail because they do not sit down upfront and plan a proper Go-to-Market strategy to attack a selected market.

Founders and entrepreneurs normally are fascinated by execution and jump right to it without actually having an idea of where to start and how to define the message.

The result: going out of business in a few months!

But, Houman, what the hell is a Go-to-Market Strategy?

A Go-To-Market Strategy is essentially a plan of how a company is going to release a product after it has been developed and how it will be sold and promoted within the marketplace.

The strategy is one that uses the internal and external resources of a business, advertises the overarching value of the product, and attempts to gain a competitive advantage in the market over its competitors.

Go-to-Market Strategy is essentially a response to these questions:

What, How, When, Where, Who.

Whenever you are thinking of releasing a new product or unlocking a new market segment, you MUST draft a Go-to-Market Strategy.

This is basically what separates great companies from the rest of the market.

When it comes to your Go-to-Market Strategy, it will require the right blend of approaches.

It’s like making a hit record: There are tons of instruments, professionals in the recording studio, and producers on the sidelines, but which combination will make the desired and distinct sound that will attract your audience?

Start with Who

The first component of a strong Go-to-Market Strategy is the ideal buyer persona.

Try to understand who is the ideal persona to use your product or service.

Talk to them!

Tweet to them!

Read about them.

Hang out with them.

Marry them.

Break up with them!!

Divorce them.

Essentially, you MUST understand them in their full capacity.

In every emotional state.

Basically, if you want to be successful in business, you must know your customer profile better than anybody else on the planet.

Document all this info in an excel sheet for future use!

When

The second most important question is is this a good time to communicate your message to your ideal customers?

Are they ready to buy?

Is the pain large enough for them to pay a premium fee to get it solved?

When the pain is hard enough during the business lifecycle that they take an action?

Where

Where you can find your ideal customer that is looking for a solution?

Literally, this is more focused on the geolocation of your customers.

Also, on top of that, you can identify business size, industry, and business model (SaaS, e-commerce …).

Also, where they are with their funding state.

How

How you are going to reach out to your customers?

Which channels you are using to get to them??

How do you leverage digital channels to talk to them?

What are the gaps and shortcomings when it comes to your selected channels?

What

And at last, we can move to product features.

You see, most of the founders start with the product first and then go to other components of their plan.

This is wrong!

You must lead with customers and then fill up the gaps in your product features etc.

Feel free to reach out to me if you need help drafting Go-to-Market Strategy.