What does the perfect go-to-market strategy look like?
Well, there’s probably no such thing as a perfect go-to-market.
But, by focusing on a few key elements, you can get pretty close.
As a product marketer, Adam Stein, Principal at APS Marketing, has often come across both large and smaller companies struggling with their go-to-market.
So, he’s identified three key elements that you can focus on to create a great strategy. On the latest episode of the B2B Revenue Acceleration podcast Adam shared those keys.
Here’s what he had to say.
What Problems Are You Solving?
A lot of sales and marketing teams are focusing on technology instead of the buyer’s need…They shouldn’t be doing that.
Adam Stein
A lot of sales and marketing teams are focusing on technology, instead of the buyer’s needs.
They’re focusing on the bps, the bytes, how the technology works, and why it’s different than someone else’s technology.
But they shouldn’t be doing that.
When you’re thinking through your messaging, content, GTM, and with positioning your company against your competition, you’ve got to start with this question:
What problems are you solving?
And you need to answer that question, not just for the client company as a whole, but for each person or persona that you might be trying to market or sell to within that organization.
You might have a technical persona, an executive persona, or a business persona, and they all might have a different perspective of the problem you’re trying to solve. Yet you’ve got to be able to appeal to each of these buyers.
So, know what problem you’re trying to solve for the buyer.
Then, market accordingly around that.
Strive for Simplicity
Sales and marketing teams need to embrace simplicity.
Your go-to-market plan needs to be scalable.
That means sales and marketing aren’t the only ones that will be involved in the strategy.
Channel teams and the partners who sell a product will also need to be able to lean on the content in your go-to-market strategy.
You need to create content that will retain the essence of what marketing or sales put in it from the start, even throughout different selling situations.
The key to achieving that is simplicity.
Want to read more on Market Strategy? Read 5 Ways to Elevate Your B2B Marketing plan.
Alignment Between Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing teams need to embrace simplicity.
Adam Stein
Your marketing and sales team should be well aligned from the beginning. This is another key to success.
In fact, in Adam’s experience, his marketing team have been really successful when they’ve really embraced the sales team and have gotten them involved from day one.
Marketing may come up with a plan but you’ve got to get buy in from sales. That’s because they’re the executors of that plan. Sales is an extension of the marketing team and vice versa.
They’re two sides of the same coin. And you need the entire coin to be successful.
So, set your sights on alignment right from the start.
There’s no such thing as a perfect go-to-market strategy.
But by focusing on simplicity, alignment, and addressing your buyer’s problems, you’ll probably create a pretty good one.
This post is based on an interview with Adam Stein from APS Marketing.
To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to The B2B Revenue Acceleration Podcast.
To read a similar article check out Turning Marketing Into a Revenue Engine
If you don’t use iTunes, you can listen to every episode here.
