Bringing a new product or service to market is far too important to leave to guesswork or instinct. That’s why it’s crucial to know how to develop and execute a go-to-market (GTM) strategy. In this brief article, we’re going to cover what a GTM strategy is—as well as why it matters, what it consists of, and whose responsibility it is. By the end of the article, you should gain a better understanding of not only how to develop an effective GTM strategy, but also how an innovative platform like Aptivio can help you optimize
What Is Meant by Go to Market (GTM) Strategy?
Unlike a lot of business jargon, the basic premise or meaning of go-to-market (or GTM) isn’t too difficult to understand. As Gartner defines it, a GTM strategy is “a plan that details how an organization can engage with customers to convince them to buy their product or service.”
In other words, having an excellent product or service to take to market is just one piece of the equation. A go-to-market plan or GTM strategy consists of things like determining a market fit, understanding and relating to customer pain points, generating excitement, and inspiring your audience to buy in.
How Is a Go-to-Market Strategy Different from a Marketing Strategy or Plan?
While these are all similar ideas, there are distinct differences worth noting:
A company’s marketing strategy is its overall, long-term plan for attracting, engaging, and converting customers.
A step-by-step marketing plan, then, outlines the concrete steps and timeline for the launch and execution of that strategy.
Finally, a go-to-market strategy is a focused plan for developing and generating excitement around a specific product or service offering. An organization’s broader marketing strategy may consist of one or more distinct go-to-market strategies—sometimes nested in a larger plan
As you can imagine, there is bound to be some overlap as these terms aren’t incredibly precise. But the main takeaway is that a GTM strategy is a tactical and time-based component of an organization's larger marketing strategy. In some cases, what you’re bringing to market may even be a key part of your current (or future) marketing strategies.
So, Why Does GTM Matter?
A well-developed and intentional GTM strategy matters a great deal—especially if you’re looking to optimize the time, energy, and resources of your team. Ultimately, a GTM framework should help with things like:
Understanding your audience—including their priorities, expectations, and pain points.
Tailoring your product/service offerings, including factors like distribution and pricing models, to the target market.
Crafting marketing messages and strategies to drive interest, excitement, and adoption.
Optimizing the sales process to efficiently identify prospects and create alignment with the buyer’s journey.
What Is a Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy Made Up Of?
When developing your GTM strategy, you’ll want to be thorough. So, what are the key elements of go-to-market strategy? Generally speaking, there are 5 essential components your go-to-market framework should include:
Defining the right market for your product/service offerings.
Understanding your target market and customer profiles.
Determining an appropriate distribution model for the product/service launch.
Crafting compelling messaging to engage your audience.
Zeroing in on the right pricing and payment models for your offerings.
As you gain experience with GTM strategy development and its key components, you can effectively build your own reusable, 5-phase go-to-market strategy template to give a framework for future strategies.
Who Is Responsible for the Go-to-Market Strategy?
Specific go-to-market roles and responsibilities will vary depending on the organization. At a minimum, you’ll want to include stakeholders from sales, marketing, customer success and product teams. Whoever is involved, a collaborative mindset is a must, as is regular, effective communication throughout the process of designing and implementing your GTM strategy.Whether you have a team of 3 or 300, you’ll also need the right technology—if for no other reason than to really understand your audience and how to best engage them. That’s where a platform like Aptivio can make a giant difference in your organization’s ability to develop—and execute—a well-rounded strategy.
If Knowledge Is Power…
…then Aptivio is one powerful platform! If there’s one consistent priority across all stages of the GTM process, it’s the alignment between an organization, its product/service offerings, and its most valuable asset—customers. And that’s where Aptivio really shines.
Aptivio: Demystifying Go-to-Market
Aptivio’s AI-powered platform supports each phase of the GTM process. With Aptivio’s help, you can:
Set the Right Priority: Target and qualify accounts, based on Real Buyer Intent, our unique approach to understanding and categorizing buyer signals and what they mean.
Align Your Outreach: Using Aptivio, organizations can better understand the customer journey, and align their sales/marketing outreach efforts accordingly.
Automate the Process: Increase engagement with unparalleled efficiency, and scale as needed.
Close More Deals: The days of cold calling are far behind us. With Aptivio, you can leverage a Network Selling approach to save valuable time, close more deals, and streamline your sales process(es).
Learn More about Aptivio
Click here to learn more about Aptivio’s platform, and all that it’s capable of. Or, connect with us for a free Go-to-Market Snapshot, which can help you discover things like:
There are often two key actions that occur at this phase of the GTM process: creating a go-to-market template that documents the strategy and its objectives, and designing a compelling presentation for stakeholders.
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