It’s Time to Stop Searching for GTM Quick Wins
….and Make a Quick Start on The Brilliant Basics Instead
What’s wrong with quick wins in your Go To Market (GTM)? Nothing at all , they are a thing of beauty! However a mindset that focuses on GTM quick wins to the exclusion of establishing solid business foundations is another thing entirely. That mindset is driven by the intense pressure of needing to deliver results every 90 days in fast changing markets. We have found it common in the B2B tech companies we have worked with and for.
Is this just life in B2B, or is there a Better Way?
Time and time again, we’ve seen the same pain points in B2B tech companies. This lead us to ask ourselves: is this just life in B2B tech, or is there a better way? We believe there is, and the way we deliver our services reflects that. We pursue our work with a sense of urgency. However, that does not mean B2B Navigator is any kind of a quick fix.
The GTM Quick Wins Flinch
We flinch when we hear the phrase ‘The CEO/CMO/CRO is looking for quick wins’. This isn’t because we believe that progress can’t be made in a short period of time – it can, and we work on that basis. We flinch because the continual search for B2B quick wins is at odds with getting a solid set of B2B foundations in place – and it is very common mindset.
GTM Foundations
We’ve found the most common underlying cause of many of the issues found in B2B tech Go To Markets is their ad hoc evolution, often at accelerated pace, which results in relatively poor GTM foundations.
A Better Way
Any B2B GTM needs solid foundations to support effective execution. These foundations are classically broken down into diagnosis (which is where Marketing research and orientation are conducted) and strategy, which has many elements. The graphic Marketingland provides a useful illustration of how these fit together.
The bulk of our work is in the area of strategy, though we do not describe ourselves as strategists. Our point of view is that every B2B GTM needs a repeatable, consistent, connected and collaborative approach. This approach needs to apply each of the following elements of strategy:
- Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
- Target Audience Profiling
- Use Case development
- Value Proposition development
- Competitive analysis
Taking products and services to market also requires clear direction and for that we take an element of Market Orientation, delivered as a Winning Aspiration.
Lastly, we have found there is one aspect of execution necessary to make the strategic elements work effectively. This is storytelling, which is needed to develop a point of view to take your offering to market with.
All of these elements need to be brought together in a simple, repeatable fashion to determine where you play, how you win and develop a compelling point of view to arm Sales and Marketing with. That is what B2B Navigator is designed to do.
The GTM Brilliant Basics
A very successful CEO I once worked for talked passionately and convincingly about the importance of what he called The Brilliant Basics. The idea stuck with us, and for a long time that was the working title for what is now B2B Navigator.
What are the brilliant basics for taking your offering to Market? The Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning, Ideal Customer Profiling, Value Proposition Development and other elements we’ve just described…
Putting The Quest for GTM Quick Wins into Perspective
To be clear, we understand that short term priorities never go away. What we can do is balance the work we do to support them against longer term priorities. An investment in time to put the brilliant basics in place will support sustainable, longer term growth.
We don’t offer a quick fix, and we don’t think of the outcomes we pursue as GTM quick wins. Instead what we offer is a better way of addressing the most important tasks required to take technology to market, based on a proven set of tools which are integrated by the proven approach of ‘Playing to Win’.