What is “Go-To-Market” and where does this sit in an organization?
As companies grow and scale, communication, processes, product prioritization and more become increasingly difficult to manage.
Oftentimes, important operational information falls through the cracks, and a majority of the company is wondering at least ONE of the following questions:
- When are we launching product x?
- Why are we launching it?
- What marketing assets did we create for this launch?
- What’s our overall marketing and sales strategy?
- When are we launching early access vs. a commercial launch?
- Who is responsible for the revenue?
And the list continues….
So why is there so much confusion around the Go-To-Market (GTM) process?
Companies generally assume early Product teams or Sales teams own Go-To-Market responsibilities, and it usually falls flat in the long term because the Go-To-Market process is not something that should happen by accident, or by volunteer. A Go-To-Market owner must be empowered to be effective.
Go-To-Market should be thoughtfully implemented into an organization.
By preparing your company and teams with the right frameworks, and making sure you’re building the right assets for the right customer and market — you’re almost always guaranteed long term success. Or, at the very least, you’ll know exactly what your weaknesses are before a launch, and can decide to re-prioritize product feature sets or add more capital to a specific part of the business or hold off completely.
In other words, you won’t be surprised by a launch that falls short. And you won’t be surprised by a successful launch if you’ve checked all the boxes.
So who owns the Go-To-Market process? Who in the company should be responsible for the success or failure of a product launch? Who is responsible if the projected revenue or growth numbers fall short?
And what the heck IS Go-To-Market anyways?
Almost always, Product Marketers (different than Product Managers!) own the Go-To-Market process, since so much of the role depends on cross-functional stakeholder management, and ensuring that the right marketing assets are being built for the right customer at the right time.
However, they are usually not responsible for the success of a product launch. That responsibility is something that is uncovered during the GTM planning process, as a Product Marketer would create a RACI chart so that all stakeholders know exactly what they are or are not responsible for.
Some companies even choose to hire a GTM Manager to own the entire GTM process. Google was one of the first companies to introduce this role to the software technology space within their adtech arm. They first named this role “Commercialization” . This role emerged because of the number of features they were launching at the time — which were sometimes hundreds a month.
Which function does Product Marketing report into?
When companies hire a GTM owner, or Product Marketer, that role tends to report to either the head of Marketing, Head of Product, the CEO, or Head of Strategy (if there is one). I’ve seen this process work best when Product Marketing reports to Marketing AND is fully backed by Executive teams to run the GTM process.
Oftentimes, GTM becomes a mirror for the health of a company. When creating a process and a new GTM framework, a lot that is hidden surfaces.
Bottom line: This role is tough and not for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of emotional maturity and emotional bandwidth to be able to manage so many cross-functional relationships. Burnout is pretty high, as one needs to have both technical understanding as well as a creative lens to be able to understand the customer and market a product correctly. Oftentimes, everyone within an organization wants some part of what you can offer.
Which leads me to my next point. I have never seen this role operate well without major support from at least one person on an Executive team. Without an Executive sponsor, a Product Marketer can easily get crushed under the weight of a never ending number of asks from various stakeholders, who often don’t know about competing projects. Rather than accept work reactively and operate in a response mode, a Product Marketer should actively set the stage for a thoughtful plan with a process that teams can integrate directly into their everyday work.
As you can see in the chart above, while Strategy, Product Development, Services, and Customer Success are absolutely necessary — GTM is just as critical to the long-term success of a company.
Whether you’re hiring a new Product Marketer or a GTM Manager — this role is a must-have for any company interested in long-term success.
If you liked this article and want more, please give me a clap! If you’d like to learn more about Product Marketing, stay in touch!
If you are serious about learning about the go-to-market process, I offer a go-to-market workshop.
I also wrote the book “Product Marketing Debunked. The Essential Go-To-Market Guide” which you can purchase on Amazon.
My latest book, The Launch: A Product Marketer’s Guide — 50 key questions and lessons for a successful launch is now available on Amazon.
