Trying to launch a new product or business without first developing a strong go to market strategy is like building a piece of furniture with no instructions. You’re probably not going to end up with the results you expected. Your GTM strategy is more than just a formality – it’s a roadmap for success.
The right strategy should outline everything you and your team need to do to connect with the right target audience, launch a successful product, and earn revenue.
The trouble is – a lot of teams still don’t invest enough time and effort into the go to market process. They might devise a basic plan, but they don’t actually test to see whether their strategy has the best chances of delivering results before diving into action.
That’s where go-to-market testing comes in.
The Value of an Effective Go-To-Market Strategy
A GTM business strategy (for startups), or a go to market product strategy (for new releases), is essential to success. However, studies show that around 95% of the new products launched every year fail. Why? Because companies still over look the importance of building and developing the right GTM strategy. Ultimately, a GTM product or business strategy is the ultimate tool for gaining clarity.
It helps you and your team answer all the big questions, from who your target audience is going to be, to what their pain points are, and even where you’re going to sell your products. Without it, you’re really just flying blind, hoping for the right results.
With a thoughtfully designed go-to-market process, on the other hand, you ensure every team is aligned, and informed, and ready to pursue the right outcomes.
A go to market strategy for a new product or business doesn’t just give your teams direction either. It helps to ensure you’re using your resources (time, money and talent), correctly, minimizing waste. It can accelerate your product launch strategy, help you connect with customers faster, and give you a great opportunity to stand out from the competition.
The Key Components of a Go to Market Strategy
Building a strong go to market strategy requires a focus on answering several key questions about how you’re going to launch, promote, and make money through your new product, service, or company. While every GTM strategy is unique, they should always include the following components:
- A specific target market: First, you need to identify who you’re trying to reach, connect with, or sell your products to. Understanding your target audience is step one. Analyze their demographics, behaviors, pain points, and buying triggers. This is where go to market analysis shines, helping you zero in on the right niche segment.
- A unique selling proposition: Next, you need something that sets your product or business apart from the competition. A go-to-market product strategy, in particular, needs a crystal-clear unique selling proposition that highlights your solution’s biggest benefits. It should answer the question: “Why should customers choose your company first?”
- Pricing and positioning strategies: How are you going to position your product or solution in the wider market? Is it going to be the budget-friendly choice for sustainability-focused customers, or the luxury option for big spenders?
- The sales strategy: Your sales strategy outlines how you’re going to take your product or solution to customers. Are you focusing on partnership-based selling, direct sales, or a channel approach? Do you need to use a variety of methods?
- Marketing efforts: How are you going to inform your customers about the benefits of your products? Where are you going to grab their attention? Will you be using channels like social media, email marketing and SEO?
- Specific metrics: How will you measure the success of your product or solution? Are you going to be looking at customer acquisition costs, retention rates, conversion rates, customer lifetime value, or overall brand growth?
What Is GTM Testing in the Go to Market Process?
While many companies have a basic strategy for developing a go-to-market strategy – they miss one crucial step: Go to market analysis, or GTM testing. “Analysis” in the GTM process isn’t just about looking at your target market, competitors, and data to make the right decision.
It’s about actually evaluating each stage of your GTM strategy, to ensure you’re actually taking the approach that’s most likely to drive success. Typically, go-to-market testing involves:
- Collecting data: Gathering insights, from your own analysis of previous product launches, feedback from customers, market experts, and reports. This data will ensure you can validate that the go-to-market strategy you’re using actually makes sense.
- Validating assumptions: Based on the data you collect; you’ll be able to test your hypotheses. For instance, if you think that a channel-based approach to selling will give you the best return on investment – does the data back that up?
- Initial experimentation: In some cases, a GTM test can involve experimenting with your go-to-market strategy on a small scale. For instance, you might run a “pre-launch” of a product with a specific group of customers, to see if your assumptions are correct.
- Iterating and optimizing: Once you’ve collected the data, examined your assumptions, and run a handful of tests, you can start making intelligent updates to your strategy. You might decide to explore new pricing strategies, marketing channels, or sales methods, for instance.
The Benefits of Go-to-Market Analysis
Conducting a go-to-market test can be just as beneficial as actually developing a GTM strategy in the first place. While “testing” your strategy doesn’t guarantee that it’s going to be successful, it can help you to identify weak spots and issues in advance, meaning your less like to waste time and money on a method that doesn’t drive the right results for your business.
Testing each GTM product or business strategy, before launch, ensures you can:
Uncover Potential Gaps and Issues
How do you know your plan is truly perfect unless you put it to the test? Testing your go to market product strategy or business strategy gives you a chance to reconsider things you might have missed. Based on the data you collect, and your analysis, you might uncover that you’re overlooking key sales and marketing strategies that could make your launch a hundred times more successful.
Boost Alignment Between Teams
Misaligned teams waste time and money. A robust go to market process ensures your marketing, sales, and RevOps teams are working toward the same goals. You can make sure you’ve considered all of the needs of the different people in your GTM team, and you’re ready to drive success. Some tests even question if you know whether all of your employees are on the same page.
Save Money and Improve ROI
On a broad level, go-to-market testing gives you a chance to ensure you’re not wasting time, money, and effort on strategies that probably won’t pan out. You’ll end up with more of the data-driven insights you need to launch your strategy with confidence. Plus, you’ll be less likely to discover that you’ve missed something in your plan too late – when you can’t easily implement a quick fix.
Test Your Strategy Today for a Winning Launch
Building a strong go to market strategy is crucial for success – but testing that strategy, to ensure it has the potential to live up to your expectations, is just as important. Fortunately, analyzing your plan doesn’t have to be as complicated as it seems.
The Hard Skill Exchange, a skill learning platform dedicated to helping professionals enhance their sales, marketing, and business management skills, has developed a simple go to market test. Designed with insights from world-leading CXOs, this comprehensive assessment will give you the insights you need to decide if your GTM strategy is really ready for launch.
Take the GTM test today, and make sure you’re ready to launch your new product or business with confidence.
