GTM Summary
From GPWiki
Friday 10 of September, 2010
This article is divided into the following sections . . .
Go to Introduction . . .
Go to Level 1 Go-to-Market . . .
Go to Level 2 Go-to-Market . . .
Go to Level 3 Go-to-Market . . .
Go to Level 4 Go-to-Market . . .
Go to Which is the right one for you? . . .
Which Go-to-Market Strategy?
In the end, you have to choose. As I said before, there isn't a right answer other than picking one and getting everything lined up behind that choice. As much as you'd hope it would be, the right answer isn't a "bit of this and a bit of that." That's a recipe for high costs, low performance, and disappointment. With all that said, here are some ideas that may help you find your way.
Brand Promise
One clue is to look at your brand and brand promise. This is another way of saying look at what you currently do and stand for.
- If your brand promises the ability to transact, when, where, and how customers want, you need a Level 1 go-to-market strategy.
- If your brand promises help in solving problems and delivering new opportunities based on improving processes, you need a Level 2 go-to-market strategy.
- If your brand promises to change how your customers think about the future, you need a Level 3 go-to-market strategy.
- If your firm has a vision for creating new markets and business partnerships, you may need a Level 4 go-to-market strategy.
Known and Unknown
Another possibility is to think about the scope and reach of your own vision and then match it up with the kind of people your organization can or should sell to.
This can be expressed on an x and y axis (see above illustration) in terms of needs and alternatives/solutions as follows:
- Customers who know their needs and know what they want buy products, services, and bundles via Level 1 transactions. These are usually end users or purchasing agents. Unless you have the capability and margins to support educating the buyer to a different point of view, choose a Level 1 go-to-market strategy. If there’s nothing special or compelling about your offer, distribution model, or pricing, either change one of those three or consider exiting the business.
- Level 2 buyers are responsible for results. They know what they need to do. What they don't know are all the alternatives, opportunities, and problems that could impact their ability to meet and exceed their goals. To that extent, they are buyers of unknown solutions—unknown to them, that is. These are usually people that own a process or function.
- Customers that buy Level 3 strategies have known objectives or destinations—they know the big picture. They’ve been charged by owners or leadership to deliver results. What they don’t necessarily know is the best strategy and the resulting plans, initiatives, and the supporting infrastructure for getting there. In a business setting, this is usually someone that owns a line of business or significant staff functions.
- Buyers of Level 4 visions live in the land of unknown needs and opportunities, and unknown strategies. They’re comfortable there. It’s what they get paid to think about. This usually describes senior executives.
In all cases, it’s the purpose of your go-to-market strategy to find and influence people who are interested in your value proposition. The key is to match your strategy to the right level and type of buyer and to match your buyers to the strategy your most competitively able to execute.
Risk and Significance
A third clue as to what go-to-market you should adopt lies in the relative degree of risk and significance associated with making a decision to buy what you’re selling. As risk and significance go up, three things happen
- The decision goes higher in the organization.
- The person or people making the decision have to be secure: politically, personally, economically, and potentially spiritually.
- The amount of energy, effort, and personal involvement on the buy side and sell side goes up.
Here’s how it translates into the four levels of go-to-market strategy.
- Low risk to the customer in making a purchase decision. Low significance to the purchase. Pick a Level 1 strategy if your customers understand what you sell and you can compete by efficiently selling and delivering a competitive combination of price, performance, availability, and surety delivered via a customer experience that sets you apart from your competitors.
- Medium risk to the customer in making a purchase decision. Medium significance to the purchase. Pick a Level 2 strategy if you have the ability to package, sell, and deliver solutions to customer problems (demonstrable improvement of a customer process or outcome into your offer) through an expertise-based customer experience.
- High risk to the customer in making a purchase decision. High significance to the purchase. Pick a Level 3 strategy if you have the ability to sell and deliver long-term strategic value: a demonstrable improvement of one or more key customer metrics.
- High risk to the customer in making a purchase decision. High significance to the purchase. Pick a Level 4 strategy if you have a predator core competency, a breakthrough strategy, and the ability and willingness to invest alongside a partner with a complementary competency to make it a success.
