The blueprint of a startup

The last thing you want to do when you unveil a new product is spending time and money getting a product to the market where it is needless or where it is unnecessary. It is important to craft a well thought strategy to prevent this. This is where the go-to-market strategy (GTM strategy) comes in, which is basically the blueprint for delivering a product or service to the end customer.

Startups and uncertainty go hand in hand, unfortunately new business sometimes fail. Although these failures can happen for a wide range of causes, a good GTM strategy could have prevented many of them. Hence, the importance of the GTM strategy cannot be underestimated. Having a GTM strategy helps you keep realism in place, helps you manage the less glamorous parts that are still important to your growth and provides you with the framework needed to deal with unavoidable and unpredictable shocks.

There is not one way of creating a successful GTM strategy. Therefore, you should continuously adjust the process to make the best sense for your product or service. The following two tips can serve to deepen your understanding of the process;

Research and planning

One of the most important benefits of a go-to-market strategy is certainly the ability to determine whether our plan is feasible and one should clearly define the problem your product/service solves or the benefit it offers. To estimate this, one should clearly define the problem your product/service solves or the benefit it offers. Next, it is important to identify the target market and buyer. Lastly, research should be done on the demand for your product, for example by reaching out to your target group and discuss their current problems.

Back your decisions with data

McKinseys GTM optimization solution mentions the key to increase sales productivity and drive growth is bringing science and data to sales organization. The exercise of the GTM reduces in value if you actually base all your decisions on your own conjecture. Therefore, it is useful if you can base decisions on concrete evidence.

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