How to Create a Go-To-Market Strategy for Your Business
Go to Market Framework
A go-to-market framework is a strategy that sets out the actions you need to take to grow your business – and enables you to measure whether your activities are effective. It describes the route you'll take to achieve your aim. Our G2M framework identifies the best go-to-market strategy for a particular situation. It uses a six-step assessment process to ensure that your actions will be as effective as possible.
We have seen it repeatedly – companies that have started with a clear vision of how they will grow their business and their route to market looks like – are much more effective in achieving their aims.
As a result, we want start ups ans small businesses to benefit from the same opportunity. So we've created this Go To Market Framework, which will work as a guide, giving you the chance to plan your way from idea to scaling up your business.
Customer Journey Map
Your customers experience your products and services in a complex way. A customer journey map shows them interacting with the products, each other, and with you throughout the process to help improve understanding of that interaction. Creating a customer journey map is a valuable exercise for any business, no matter their development stage. By understanding the customer's experience, you can ensure that your products and services meet their needs. Understanding your customer's journey can help you improve their experience with your product or service. By understanding how they interact with your business, you can make improvements that lead to happier customers.
Market Requirements
The Market Requirements Document describes market needs and the opportunity to develop a new product. The sections are:
The executive summary. This section should include a brief overview of the market opportunity and the potential for your product. It should also have your target customer, what need you fill, and how your product will meet that need.
The second section of the Market Requirements Document is the market opportunity. This section should include information on the size and growth of the market and any trends that you are aware of. This is where you will provide your target market segmentation.
The third section of the Market Requirements Document is the market requirements. This section should include a detailed description of the needs of your target market. It should also include information on how your product will meet those needs. This section should be supported by market research.
Customer Personas
Customer persona is a profile of a customer that includes details about their job role, age, education, income, years in role, top priorities, motivation, needs, objectives, media consumption habits, likes & dislikes, habits & skills, research methods trusted resources buying authority budget and purchasing process.
Personas are used to understand the target audience for a product or service and create marketing campaigns tailored to them. Creating a persona helps marketers to think about the people they are trying to reach with their message and tailor their content accordingly. It also helps to ensure that all marketing efforts are focused on the same target audience. Without a persona, marketing campaigns can be less effective because they may not be reaching the right people or speaking to them in a way that resonates. Additionally, personas can help businesses to understand their customers better and develop products and services that meet their needs. By understanding what motivates someone to buy a product or service, businesses can design offerings that more closely align with what potential customers are looking for.
Market Segmentation
As your organisation looks to grow, it is essential to consider which markets represent the best opportunity. Our Target Market Segmentation and Positioning tool can help you identify these markets and understand what makes them appealing. This tool is based on extensive research and analysis and can provide your organisation with valuable insights. Simply enter some basic information about your organisation and target market(s) to get started. Once you have done this, our tool will generate a report that includes key findings and recommendations. This report will help you make informed decisions about where to focus your efforts to achieve growth.
Profitability Analysis
Offering the right mix of products is critical to a company's success. The goal is to find the combination of products that will maximise profits. To do this, companies need to understand the concept of contribution margin. The contribution margin is the revenue left over after all variable costs are covered. It can be expressed as a percentage of sales or in absolute terms. Marketing expenses as a percentage of sales is another important metric to consider when deciding which products to offer for sale. Unit cost, price, and marketing costs are essential factors to consider when determining which products to sell. Companies need to make sure they sell items at a price that will cover all their costs and leave them with a profit. They also need to consider how much it will cost to market each product. Offering too many products can lead to marketing expenses that eat into profits. Companies need to strike the right balance between providing enough products to generate sufficient revenue and not offering so many products that they lose money on each sale. By understanding contribution margin and marketing expenses as a percentage of sales, companies can better decide which items to offer for sale.
Win/Loss Analysis
A Win-Loss Analysis will help you quickly track what wins and losses to your projects. Track the wins and losses to each of your prospects, customers, business products or programs, close dates, and revenue amounts for specific data that affect the sales team's access to resources effectively and consistently.
Competitive analysis
To compete successfully in the business world of today, it is vital to be aware of your potential competitors. Analysis of these competitors can provide information on areas where they have the edge over you and their relative strengths and weaknesses. In many cases, a tool which can analyse multiple aspects at once will make the process more efficient; however, completing this type of analysis manually allows for complete awareness of each element so that disparate details do not go overlooked.
Product Development Charter
You need to gain the internal support of your peers in order to launch a new product successfully. You must establish the decision-making process, define key roles, and identify all stakeholders for success. For this project, I recommend developing a product development charter that incorporates clear goals from executives and sets minimum standards for what is expected. It should also allow you to better direct project staff on scheduling their time, so there are no unforeseen delays due to conflict with pre-existing projects being completed.
Positioning Statement
A positioning statement informs your company's marketing messages by communicating what makes your business unique. This is used to describe your business- whether it be in your marketing materials, in pitching to investors, or in response to another company's claims that it offers the same service.
To craft an effective positioning statement, you need to understand three things:
- What makes your business unique.
- How your target market is different from competitors.
- What value you can create for customers.
Your business's uniqueness can come from a variety of factors, such as the products or services you offer, your company culture, or even your history. It's important to think about what sets you apart from other businesses in your industry and use that to inform your marketing messages.
Your target market is composed of the group of consumers who are most likely to purchase your product or service. When defining your target market, it's important to consider demographics like age, gender, location, and income level. You should also think about psychographics like lifestyle choices and interests. Once you understand who your target market is, you can start to tailor your marketing strategy to appeal to them.
Value creation is all about finding ways to add value for customers beyond just the product or service itself. This could involve providing superior customer service, offering helpful resources or advice, or creating a brand that customers can trust. By thinking about ways to create value for customers, you'll be able to differentiate yourself from competitors better and attract more business.
Prioritise features
Unfortunately, there are always more new feature ideas and requests than can be put into the next product release. Each new feature must be evaluated for its impact on the overall product, how difficult it will be to implement, and whether it aligns with the company's vision for the development.
This means that prioritisation is vital when deciding which new features to add to the product. The team must evaluate each idea and determine which will have the most significant impact on users and fit best with the product roadmap. Often, even very good ideas must be put on hold in order to keep the product focus narrow and avoid overwhelming users with too many changes at once.
It can be challenging to say no to a great idea. Still, it's important to remember that every new feature adds complexity and maintenance cost - not just in terms of development effort but also in documentation, training, and support. Therefore, each new feature should be carefully considered before being added to the product.
Product Road Map
Innovation is at the heart of any successful organisation, whether it's developing new products or finding new ways to improve existing ones. But to innovate, you need a road map that will take you from where you are today to where you want to be in the future.
It provides a framework for analysing market segment needs, trends, products, and technology so you can develop a market-driven product road map.
Once you have a good understanding of your target market, you can start to identify trends that may impact your product development. This could include things like new technologies that could be used in your product or changes in the marketplace that could affect demand for your product. Keeping up with trends will help you ensure that your product roadmap is always up-to-date and relevant to your target market.
Finally, you need to incorporate both existing and new products into your roadmap. Existing products can be used as benchmarks for developing new products or improving existing ones. New products should be developed to address unmet needs in the market or fill gaps in the current product lineup. By identifying opportunities and threats in the marketplace, you can ensure that your product roadmap has a clear direction.
It would be best to determine which stage of the product lifecycle each of your products falls under.
Product Life Cycle
If you are launching your first product, you are likely in the Introduction phase. This is when companies spend more on advertising and promotion to generate awareness and interest among consumers. Your goals during this phase should be to create a market for your product and establish yourself as a credible player. You'll need to focus on generating demand and building up brand equity to do this.
As your product enters the Growth stage, firms may focus more on expanding their distribution channels and increasing sales force coverage to grow market share. The goal during this phase is to gain market acceptance and achieve economies of scale. You'll need to focus on increasing production efficiency and growing your customer base to do this.
In the Maturity stage, price becomes a key differentiating factor as competitors jostle for position and market share stabilises. The goal during this phase is to maximise profits while maintaining market share. You'll need to focus on managing costs and pricing strategically to do this.
Finally, during the Decline stage, products are often phased out or heavily discounted to clear inventory before they are discontinued altogether. The goal during this phase is simply to minimise losses by extracting whatever value remains in the product. You'll need to focus on reducing costs and liquidating inventory efficiently to do this.
Pricing Strategy
Before you can begin establishing a price for your product or service, you need to understand the market conditions in which it will be offered.
What are the prevailing prices for similar products or services?
How much do your customers currently spend on similar products or services?
How much are they willing to spend on your product or service?
These considerations will help you form a picture of the right price point.
In addition to understanding market conditions, you also need to consider your cost structure. What does it cost you to produce and deliver your product or service? You'll need to make sure that your price is high enough to cover these costs and still leave room for profit.
Finally, you'll need to decide what pricing strategy you want to use. There are many options available, and each has its pros and cons. For example, value-based pricing considers the perceived worth of your product or service to the customer. This can be a great way to maximise profits, but it can also alienate customers if they feel like they're being overcharged. Cost-plus pricing adds a set margin onto the production and delivery costs; this is easy to calculate but doesn't always result in the most competitive price point.
There's no perfect answer for setting price points for products or services. However, by taking the time to understand market conditions, costs, and different pricing strategies, you can arrive at a figure that meets your business needs and your customers' expectations.
If you would like to read more about pricing here it a blog post on it
Business Case
The Product Development Business Case Template is designed to help prepare a request for significant funding outside your expected annual operating budget to invest in product development. The Business Case should address the following key areas:
1) Background and Context - why is this product development initiative necessary? What problem are you trying to solve?
2) Objectives and Requirements - what outcomes do you hope to achieve with this product development initiative, and what specific requirements must be met for the initiative to be successful?
3) Alternatives Analysis - what other options were considered in addition to product development, and why was product development selected as the best option?
4) Implementation Plan - how will the product be developed, and the critical milestones associated with the project?
5) Risk Assessment - what risks are associated with this project, and how will they be mitigated?
6) Funding Requirements - how much money is needed to finance this product development initiative, and where will that funding come from?
7) Exit Strategy - once the product is developed, how will it be commercialised or generate value for the company?
Product Development Prioritisation
Product development can be a tough nut to crack. There are many different ways to go about it, and often it is hard to know where to start. This is where Product Development Prioritisation comes in handy. It allows you to rank initiatives based on factors such as strategic fit and economic impact, which makes for informed decision-making down the line.
This system works by letting you input data to generate a bubble matrix chart. The results of this chart can be easily communicated with your team, which is essential when trying to get buy-in from key stakeholders. If you want to learn more about how Product Development Prioritization fits into the bigger picture of developing a new product or service, be sure to check out our free Methodology guide.
Break-even Analysis
A breakeven analysis is a vital tool in financial planning and business decision-making. It is beneficial in evaluating new product ideas and pricing strategies and understanding the relationships between fixed and variable costs, price, and volume. The basic idea behind a breakeven analysis is to calculate the number of units that must be sold to cover all of the costs associated with making and selling those units. This includes fixed costs (such as rent or insurance) and variable costs (such as materials or labour). Once the breakeven point is determined, it can be used to generate a profitability chart that shows how net profit or loss changes at different sales volumes.
There are a few different ways to approach a breakeven analysis. The most common method is to calculate the Unit Contribution Margin (UCM), simply the selling price per unit minus the variable cost per unit. This calculation can be done for each unit sold, or it can be done on an aggregate basis for all units sold in a given period. For example, if a widget has a selling price of £10 and a variable cost of £5, then its UCM would be £5.
Once the UCM has been calculated, it can be used to generate a graph that shows how the total Variable Cost per Unit changes concerning sales volume. This information can then be used to calculate the breakeven point in terms of units sold. At this point, total revenue will exactly equal total variable costs plus fixed costs. Finally, once the breakeven point has been determined, it can be used to generate a Profitability Chart that shows how net profit or loss changes at different sales volumes. This information can help decision-makers understand where their business is currently operating on the "breakeven spectrum" and identify potential areas for improvement.
Profit and Loss statement
If you want to find out if your business was profitable during a certain period, use an income statement. This document, also known as a Profit & Loss Statement, will show you whether your company made or lost money during the specified time frame.
To calculate your net income and get an accurate picture of your company's financial situation, you will need to input various information into the Income Statement. Once all required information has been entered, your net income will be automatically calculated.
Google Cloud. Microsoft Office, Numbers, and Google cloud have limited but free versions. The Income Statement Template is a valuable tool that can save you time and help you better understand your company's financial situation. Using this document regularly can help you make informed decisions about how to run your business and ensure that it remains profitable.
Assessing Risk
Risks are an inevitable part of any project. No matter how well you plan or how experienced your team is, there will always be some element of risk that can threaten the project's success. It is essential to identify these risks early on and plan to mitigate them.
There are many different ways to categorise risks. Some common categories include technical, schedule, financial, and political risks. Within each of these categories, there can be further subdivisions.
For example, technical risks might include hardware failure or software vulnerabilities. Schedule risks might include delays in delivery or unrealistic deadlines. Financial risks might include budget overruns or changes in funding sources. Political risks might include changes in government regulation or international tensions.
It is essential to brainstorm different scenarios that could lead to each type of risk materialising. This will help you develop a better understanding of the problem and develop more comprehensive mitigation strategies. For example, if you are worried about a delay in delivery, what could cause this? Perhaps there is a problem with the supplier or something beyond your control, like bad weather conditions. Brainstorming different scenarios will help you anticipate problems and develop contingency plans accordingly.
One tool that can help identify risks is a fishbone diagram. This is a graphical way of brainstorming different factors that could lead to a particular problem. To use this tool, start by writing the problem you are trying to solve at the head of the diagram. Then, draw lines coming off of this, representing a different potential cause. For example, if you were trying to identify the causes of schedule delays, you might have lines for supplier problems, bad weather conditions, and unrealistic deadlines.
Fishbone diagrams can be helpful in both identifying risks and developing mitigation strategies. By brainstorming different scenarios, you can better understand the problem and come up with more comprehensive solutions. This tool can be handy when working on complex projects with multiple stakeholders.
The Risk management Plan
Projects always come with some inherent risks. These risks can be associated with anything from the technology being used to problems that may occur during execution. To mitigate these risks and increase the chances of success, a risk management plan needs to be put in place.
The Risk Management Plan will help you define how risks associated with an upcoming project will be identified, analysed, and managed throughout the project's lifecycle. This Microsoft Word template evaluates your risk management plan based on: Process, Identification, Scoring, Mitigation, Monitoring, Risk Register and Approval.
As you review the real-world example we presented and input your information, you will notice that this template links to other tools in the Demand Metric library. The tools related to this plan will help you fully complete your Risk Management Plan to move forward with confidence, knowing that you have considered all potential risks associated with your project.
Product GAP Analysis
The Product GAP Analysis Tool can be used to improve your company's product strategy in several ways. By inputting information about your company's current state and goal state, the tool can help you identify potential areas of improvement. In addition, the tool provides a timeline and action items for each gap, so you can plan and execute your improvements effectively.
One way to use the Product GAP Analysis Tool is to evaluate your product departments to identify GAPs based on the following criteria: Target Item, Current State, Goal State, Timeline and Action Items. By doing this, you can get a clear picture of where there are potential improvements to be made within your company. You can develop a plan of action to make those improvements happen effectively.
Product Competitiveness
It is essential to understand how your product measures up to the competition. This will give you a clear idea of what areas need improvement and where your product excels. Our Product Feature, Competitive Analysis tool, makes it easy to compare products by their specific characteristics and features. Determine the leader in each category, then rank the product features from 1 to 3 stars. This will give you a better idea of where your product stands compared to others on the market.
By carrying out competitive analysis, you can clearly understand which products are leading in each category. This will allow you to focus your efforts on areas where you can improve or make changes. In addition, it can help you see where your product has an advantage over the competition. Understanding these things can help you create a more successful business strategy overall.
Product Application
Product positioning is all about positioning your product in the market to appeal to your target customers. Your promotional messages should be highly targeted and specific to each customer segment you're trying to reach.
The Product Applications will help you define the primary and secondary applications for your product to craft targeted promotional messages that resonate with each customer segment. This is a crucial step in promoting your product effectively and efficiently.
Positioning your product correctly in the market is essential for success. Don't miss this critical step in promoting your product! The Product Applications Worksheet will help ensure that you're set correctly by helping you understand and prioritise your product's applications. This will enable you to create promotional messages that are highly relevant and impactful for each customer segment.
Product Feature Release Timetable
Creating a product release schedule is essential to ensure that your team knows when each product feature will be delivered. This schedule will help you program delivery dates for product feature releases. To create this schedule, you must first identify the version of the product and customer requirements. You should also include product features, priority levels, release dates, etc. This tool can also be used to keep track of modifications or additions to the schedule.
Project Status Reporting
Creating a project status report is an important part of effective project communication. By sharing regular updates on the progress of your project, you can keep everyone involved informed and identify potential issues early on.
There are a few key things to keep in mind when creating a project status report:
- Make sure to include information on the current status of the project and any major milestones that have been achieved.
- Identify any risks or issues that could impact the project's success and provide details on how they are being addressed.
- Include a summary of upcoming work and deliverables so that everyone understands what to expect in the coming weeks.
By following these tips, you can create an effective project status report that will help keep your team on track and ensure successful communication throughout your project.
Buyer Journey
The buyer's journey is the process buyers go through when they become aware of a problem, consider possible solutions, and decide whether or not to take action. The three stages of the buyer's journey are awareness, consideration, and decision.
At each stage, buyers perform different actions and have different needs. Mapping out the buyer's journey helps marketers understand what buyers need at each stage and how best to communicate.
Awareness/Need
The buyer becomes aware of a problem or need. Discovery: The buyer begins to research possible solutions. Consideration: The buyer narrows down their options and compares different solutions. Decision: The buyer chooses a solution and takes action. Review: The buyer reviews their decision results and either continue using the same key or switches to another one.
At this stage, buyers are just beginning to become aware of a problem or need. They may not yet be fully aware of the extent of the problem or what solutions are available. But they are starting to realise that a problem needs to be addressed.
As awareness grows, buyers will start to do more research. They'll begin to look for information on the internet, talk to friends and family, and read reviews. At this stage, marketers need to provide helpful and informative content that will help educate buyers about the problem and potential solutions.
Consideration
The buyer narrows down their options and compares different solutions.
Once buyers know a problem, they'll start considering possible solutions. They'll compare different options and try to find the best fit for their needs. During this stage, buyers will be looking for detailed information about products or services, including features, prices, and reviews from other customers. Marketers need to provide clear and concise information about their products at this stage so that buyers can easily compare them with different options. Once again, reviews from real customers can be beneficial in influencing consideration stage decisions.
Decision
The buyer chooses a solution and takes action.
Now it's time for the buyer to make a decision. They'll choose the product or service that best meets their needs based on all their research. Once they've made their decision, they'll take action by making a purchase or signing up for a service. After taking action, buyers will enter into the final stage : review.
Review
The final stage of the buyer's journey is review.
At this point, buyers will take a step back and assess the results of their decision. They'll consider whether or not they're happy with the purchase and if it has met their needs. If they are satisfied, they'll continue using the product or service. If they're not happy, they may switch to a different solution.
Marketers need to stay in touch with buyers even after making a purchase. By sending follow-up emails or conducting surveys, marketers can get valuable feedback that can help improve the product or service. Additionally, staying in touch with customers can help create brand loyalty and turn one-time buyers into lifelong fans.
Develop your USP
What makes you unique? Why should someone do business with you over anyone else? This is what marketing and salespeople call a unique selling proposition (USP).
For example, suppose you're a web developer. There are probably many other web developers out there competing for the same work as you. So what makes you different?
Do you specialise in developing sites using a particular content management system or eCommerce platform? Do you have experience working with certain businesses, such as start-ups or small businesses? Do you pride yourself on being able to deliver fast turnaround times or provide exceptionally high levels of customer service?
Answering these kinds of questions can help you to develop your USP. It will make it easier for potential clients to see why they should hire you over anyone else. And that can lead to more work and better-paying projects coming your way.
Messaging Map
Message maps are a powerful tool for documenting and assessing the key messages that are most important for your target audience. By brainstorming and evaluating messages based on their credibility, effectiveness, and resonance, you can more easily determine which messages are most worth sharing.
Not only does this process help to create consistent messaging for your company or product, but it also allows you better to understand the overall strengths and weaknesses of each message. This understanding is essential to crafting an effective marketing strategy that resonates with your target audience.
By mapping out your key messages, you can ensure that your marketing efforts are focused on sharing the most impactful information with your target audience. This will ultimately lead to more successful marketing outcomes and a stronger connection with your target market.
What plans do you want to implement
At this stage you need to think about what types of plan and tactics you want to implement. A few suggestions are
Sales Enablement
Developing a sales enablement plan is critical to success in today's market. By definition, sales enablement combines processes, content, and technology that helps sales reps sell more effectively. To create an effective sales enablement plan, you first need to understand your buyer's journey. Once you know what content and resources are needed at each stage of the buyer's journey, you can develop a plan for delivering them to your sales team.
Content Marketing
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
Lead Generation Plan
A lead generation plan is a strategy for generating new leads for your business. There are many ways to generate leads, but the most effective lead generation strategies share some common features.
PR Campaigns
Public relations campaigns are designed to raise awareness of your brand, product, or service and create positive media coverage. PR campaigns can be an essential part of your overall marketing strategy.
Social Media Plan
A social media plan is a roadmap that outlines your goals and objectives for using social media and the strategies you'll use to achieve them. Your social media plan should also include details on who will be responsible for executing each task and when it will be completed.
Product Launch Plan
1. Your launch plan should include an executive summary. This is a brief overview of your company, its products or services, market opportunity, and go-to-market strategy. It should be no more than two pages long.
2. Your go-to-market plan should describe how you will reach your target market and achieve market share objectives. It should include plans and timelines for product development, marketing campaigns, channel development, and sales initiatives.
3. Your product release milestones should outline the key features and benefits of each product release and the target launch date. They should also include plans for beta testing, customer feedback loops, and post-launch support.
4. Plans & deliverables by the department will vary depending on the size and structure of your organisation. But in general, they should include clear goals and responsibilities for each team involved in the launch process (e.g., engineering, marketing, sales, customer success).
5. Your launch budget & revenue forecast will depend on many factors such as the price of your product/service, estimated demand from customers/partners/investors, expected margins/ROI from various go-to-market activities...etc.). So it's essential to do some serious forecasting before finalising your budget numbers.
6 . Pricing is always a tricky topic when launching a new product or service into the marketplace
7. International can be a significant opportunity for many businesses, but it also comes with challenges. Many potential pitfalls need to be considered before taking your business global from language barriers to cultural differences.
8. Support plan should include the processes and tools you will use to manage customer expectations during and after the launch. This could include everything from creating a support website to set up an escalated support process for VIP customers.
9. Risk management is always essential, but it's especially critical when launching a new product or service. Many potential risks need to be considered, such as technical difficulties, manufacturing defects, customer satisfaction issues etc. By identifying and assessing these risks upfront, you can develop contingency plans to help mitigate them.
10. Launch status communications will keep everyone in the loop on the progress of the launch (e.g., internal teams, customers, partners, investors). This could include regular updates via email/blog post/webinar/town hall meeting etc.).
Launch Team Charter
A product launch team charter is a document that establishes the scope, decision rights, and sponsorship for a product launch. The charter should be created by the project manager or product owner and approved by the stakeholders. The charter should clearly state the objectives of the launch and identify who is responsible for what tasks.
The product launch team charter is an essential tool for ensuring that all team members are aware of their roles and responsibilities. It also helps to ensure that everyone is on the same page regarding the objectives of the launch. The charter should be reviewed and updated as needed throughout the project.
The product launch team charter is essential for any successful product launch. By taking the time to create a well-thought-out document, you can set your team up for success from the very beginning.
Launch your business
Launch day is just the beginning, though. Once you've got customers using your product or service, it's essential to keep them happy. Collect feedback and make changes as needed to ensure that your customers are always satisfied. Good customer service will help keep people coming back for more.
Finally, don't forget to keep an eye on your competition. See what they're doing right and wrong and adjust your strategies accordingly. The goal is always to be the best in your industry, so never stop trying to improve.
