The Boring GTM Detail That Really Matters
GTM I- The Detail: What are the individual areas we should think about?
Earlier we set up Why we’re all in Sales — setting out the mind set for thinking about customers and Go-to-Market/GTM — that holistic approach that considers a customer’s experience as first priority.
Now that you’ve got the mind set, here’s the top 6 GTM areas for Seed invested companies to consider:
- MARKET
Understand the whole of the potential and know the detail. Focus on what gets you to Product Market Fit. Don’t try to do everything at once.
- Market breakdown
- Holistically, globally, from top down and then bottom up
- Go, No Go/Not Yet and Stop areas
2. CUSTOMERS
Focus on those already educated, aware of their pain points and ready to consume solutions.
- Customer Types & Personas
- Use Case(s)
- Proactive, reactive and inactive customer types
- Top accounts focus -especially for the next 12–18months
3. PRICING
Focus on what works for next 12–18months based on value exchange with first few customers. Pricing will evolve over time and will change as you get to know the customers more.
- Simply what pricing mechanism will you use?
4. PARTNERS
Focus on understanding the bigger picture of the customer ecosystem and therefore how partners play within it. Partners often play a bigger role at Series A and beyond. For Seed companies — limit to what makes sense in a 12–18month timeframe and work with a select one or two to establish trust and collective customer insight.
- Partner Strategy — why use? What is the value exchange?
- Top Partner Focus — which ones bring the greatest value exchange for 12–18months?
5. SALES PROCESS
Keep it simple — likely still at Founder Led sales combined with perhaps 1/2 Commercial Leads. Limit to 5 stages, co-develop with customers and maximise resources to achieve product market fit.
- Sales Engine/pipeline/funnel
- Demand generation techniques
6. SUCCESS METRICS
Focus on what you need to achieve to prove Product Market Fit, showing progress on conversion rates over a 12–18month time frame within the funnel and the evolution in customer types.
- Funnel step conversion rates, adoption and engagement
- Total customer numbers — health of the portfolio
ABOUT GTM BLOG Series
Over a series of blogs, we’re focusing on the Seed to Series A step of GTM and share what it means to think through the customer experience:
GTM I- The Detail: What are the individual areas we should think about?
Coming next:
GTM II — Playful Customer Dynamics: Connecting with customers
GTM III — What doing it correctly actually looks and feels like?
GTM IV — What tools should we use and where can I access advice?
GTM V — Pitching to VCs — What to tell us about your customers.
We do more than just blogs — after all the writing of theory is easy. We work with our portfolio companies at a deeper level on an accelerated approach to crafting a properly and considered GTM that delivers results. Working with a wider ecosystem of expert partners and existing expertise within the Portfolio Companies, we’re embedding customer culture into the heart of success for start-ups.
We welcome input from you — expertise, areas to hear about more. Comment below or tweet at the link.
#GTM #SalesDoneRight #CustomerExperience #startupsuccess
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