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Navigating today’s challenging B2B commerce landscape isn’t easy.
Market preferences are constantly shifting, customer expectations are evolving, and technology is transforming at an almost unbelievable rate. The only way to ensure you’re setting yourself up for success in this space is to implement an effective Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy.
More than just a plan for your marketing and sales team, your GTM strategy is the key to aligning stakeholders in your team around shared goals, understanding your audience, and paving the way for consistent growth.
Unfortunately, in their struggle to keep up with the rapid evolution of the modern landscape, many companies are continuing to implement strategies that are outdated, flawed, or outright broken – often without realising it.
So, how do you know if your GTM strategy is broken, and what can you do about it?
The first step in preparing for the new era of GTM strategies is defining what’s currently “wrong” with your existing plan. The chances are, that even if your GTM strategy is problematic, it’s not entirely broken. Most companies with a disastrous GTM plan won’t survive for very long.
However, if even one part of your plan has an issue, then it could be having a detrimental impact on your business, stifling your ability to grow. Here are some red flags you should be watching for, that could indicate an issue with your GTM strategy.
A great GTM strategy relies on your ability to bridge the gaps between every customer-facing segment in your team. That means connecting your sales, marketing, and customer success/service groups with the same data, and ensuring they’re working towards consistent goals.
If your employees have different ideas of what your goals are as a business, or who your customers are, they won’t achieve results. Pay attention to potential examples of misalignment such as:
Experimentation is important in the GTM landscape. The world is constantly evolving, with new technologies to explore, and new customer preferences to consider. However, while it’s important to remain agile, that doesn’t mean you should be constantly running new campaigns, and failing to get results. If you’re constantly failing to hit the mark with your sales and marketing campaigns, it might be time to go back to the drawing board.
Reassess what you know about your target audience. What do they actually want and need from you? Examine your competitors again and ask yourself what makes your solution different. Look back over your previous data and consider creating playbooks based on the insights you’ve gathered.
In a world that’s growing increasingly more competitive, reactive companies will quickly fall behind. If you’re always trying your best to “respond” to evolving market dynamics, rather than proactively seeking out new opportunities and exploring trends, then your competitors are likely to beat you to the punch. The problem here is likely with your approach to collecting and using data.
If you don’t understand why your competitors are constantly winning more market share than you, or you feel like you’re always “late to the party” when entering a deal cycle, it might be time to ask yourself if you’re conducting enough research.
While there’s nothing wrong with “negotiating” with leads from time to time, if you’re constantly relying on discounts and special offers to close a deal, then there’s likely something wrong.
The issue could be with the way you present or position your product or solution in the market. You may not be drawing enough attention to the value you can offer, or you might seem like a “one-hit wonder” to your customers. Alternatively, it could be that your entire pricing structure doesn’t work, or that you’re targeting the wrong potential customers to begin with.
In reality, no business can accurately predict the future all the time. That’s definitely true now that we’re moving through a period of constant change and transformation. Over the last few years, companies have encountered various unexpected challenges, from economic and sociopolitical issues, to supply chain problems. However, that doesn’t mean you should be working blind.
If you can’t forecast sales or opportunities looking more than a month into the future, this is another sign that you aren’t collecting the right data, or gathering enough information about your market. It’s time to bring your teams together and determine where your opportunities lie.
Often, in a GTM strategy, the main focus for business leaders is on attracting as many leads as possible and converting them into paying buyers. However, it’s not enough to simply “close deals” in today’s competitive world. You need to form connections with your customers, so they stick with your brand and deliver consistent revenue.
If your customers are constantly churning, this could be a sign of a few things. First, it may be that you’re not delivering on your promises. You might not have much of an onboarding program to help customers discover the value of your service, or you might be using too much hyperbole in your sales pitches. Alternatively, the issue could be that you’re not innovating enough. If customers feel like they get everything they can out of your solution in the first month, they won’t re-buy, or renew.
Finally, no matter what type of business you run, which audience you target or what you sell, your focus should always be on finding opportunities for growth. If you’re struggling to connect with larger companies, or you feel unable to reach new markets based on your current strategy, this could be a sign that you need to think bigger, invest in new training, or deploy new strategies.
Sometimes, the problem you have with expansion could be that you simply aren’t investing enough time and effort into the existing relationships you have. If deals seem to take forever to close, and then stagnate, ask yourself whether you’re truly delivering enough value to your customers.
If any (or a few) of these issues are affecting your company’s growth, this is a clear sign that you need to rethink and rework your go-to-market strategy. However, before you dive in and start making changes, it’s important to abandon the idea that you’re going to find a “quick fix”.
Simply implementing new technology or hiring additional employees won’t immediately eliminate every issue you have with growth. Overcoming the challenges of a broken GTM strategy requires a blend of research, customer understanding, and strategic action.
You’ll need to be open to experimenting, exploring your options, and investing the right time and resources into the discovery of a solution that really works for your organisation.
The good news? Once you’ve found your fix, you can start moving forward, scaling your business, and outperforming the competition.
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