Go-to-Market Strategies: Eight Steps to Success

New offerings have always driven growth in the technology business, but bringing them successfully to market today has become both more important and more difficult. Competition is more intense, existing offers become commodities more quickly, and buyers are more skeptical of the return on technology investment. As a result, marketers are under tremendous pressure to increase their hit rate when they launch new services and solutions.

The first response to the added pressure is often to review the process. Many large tech firms are now working hard to improve the go-to-market process with a goal of creating a more consistent, systematic, and efficient approach. Rather than rely on ad hoc initiatives from anywhere in the organization, a good process can create discipline for the entire development, launch, and management cycle.

But process in itself is not enough. It too often breaks down, fails to provide the necessary support, or lets through too many misguided new offers.

To improve the chances of go-to-market success, marketers should center a rigorous process around eight practical challenges:

1. Clarify the opportunity. Identifying and validating the opportunity typically constitute the first phase in any go-to-market process, but marketers often skip through too quickly. Is the opportunity truly significant—and achievable? Dig deeper into potential market segments, initial top prospects for the new offer, and competitive positioning.

2. Define a point of view. Demonstrating expertise and a clear position on business and technology issues is essential to gaining initial attention from market influencers. The most sophisticated buyers are looking for innovative answers to business problems; theyll seek you out if you take a compelling stand on an issue of real importance.

3. Sharpen value propositions. The more defined the target, the easier it is to craft a compelling value proposition. Take time to customize value propositions for every audience. What’s in the new offer for the sales force? What about the delivery organization? Channel partners? Finance? Have you developed specific enough propositions for key market segments and individual accounts?

4. Engage the entire organization. Is everyone pulling in the same direction on the new offer? Cross-functional and multiregional teams to lead the process can help, as can carefully recruited champions across the organization. You need to condition the organization to support the go-to-market process with a combination of carrots and sticks to sustain support.

5. Develop highly focused and creative campaigns. Getting and keeping attention for new offers requires balancing between broadcast initiatives that build awareness and buzz and narrowcast efforts that zero in on the key concerns of specific markets and prospects. Buyer reliance on peers, word of mouth, and third-party experts makes indirect communication as important as direct. The din of competition puts a premium on innovative approaches to getting the word out.

6. Build on initial success. Buyers often demand "Show me the value," and the best way to prove value is through relevant success stories that that speak directly to that customer’s issues. Initial successes become the building blocks for an ongoing campaign. Documenting value delivered, therefore, becomes one of the most important jobs for marketing, along with maintaining a reference system to support easy access to those success stories.

7. Provide the right sales support. The traditional tension between sales and marketing is often exacerbated by new offer launches. When offers fizzle, marketing is often blamed for inadequate support. Minimize that excuse by excelling at the most important types of sales support: business issue information; targeted value propositions, business value justification tools, proposal templates, and references and testimonials.

8. Constantly measure. Make the measurement commitment to ensure you know what is working and what needs improvement. Define the most important metrics before you launch, and create accountability around data collection and analysis. Consider short- and longer-term objectives, such as brand development and improved sales productivity, as well as revenue and profit. Communicate results internally and adjust programs accordingly.

The increased focus on improving the go-to-market process is a welcome one. Too many firms still rely on a build-it-and-they-will-come approach to new services and solutions. Absent a practical reality check, though, any new process runs the risk of ignoring some of the most difficult obstacles to success.

What are your biggest go-to-market challenges? Have you developed a better route to market?

Comments are closed.

ITSMA specializes in helping companies market and sell services and solutions more effectively. We work with the world's leading technology, communications, and professional services providers to generate increased demand, strengthen customer relationships, and improve brand differentiation. ITSMA annual program clients include business leaders such as AT&T, Cisco, Deloitte, EMC, Fujitsu, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, SAP, and Tata Consultancy Services, among others. Our comprehensive research, consulting, and training on topics including ITSMA Account-Based Marketing℠, Brand Positioning, and Solutions Development provide the insight and experience companies need to improve business results. ITSMA is based near Boston, and has offices in London and Tokyo. Learn more at www.itsma.com.