Sales Velocity Partners
www.salesvelocitypartners.com
Creating A Successful Go To Market Strategy (GTMS) The translation of value propositions into bottom-line profitability is accomplished through a Goto-Market strategy. The Importance of a firm GTMS is that it serves as the company's delivery mechanism for their unique value proposition. It is based on the choices the business has made to focus on and invest in markets and solutions that they believe will respond positively to the increased attention. It involves WHO the firm will go after and WHAT it will offer them. It is a single component of the overall Marketing Strategy and is concerned with HOW the firm will make it happen.
A successful GTMS avoids the major limitation of the conventional sales process. That response does not enable the company to address fundamental problems, gaps and disconnects in its strategy. Worse, it makes sales people put more time and effort into a system that isn't working, burn through valuable prospects, and exacerbate the negative performance cycle.
The conventional sales process is a ‘legacy system’ that offers the sales department a way to communicate internally, but it does not connect the sales function to the rest of the organization in any meaningful way. It does not offer a common language through which sales and other functions can communicate and respond. A successful GTMS should encompass the following: The Company's market. The Company's competitive strategies. The Company's product strategies. *These three elements feed into the sales strategy. Its formulation and execution is the critical work that lies at the heart of any business. The GTMS cuts across departmental functions. It directly involves the product development, marketing, sales, service, and support functions; as well as indirectly involving almost every other function in the business.
Prerequisites for the successful execution of a GTMS. A high level of understanding and agreement on the business strategies in place in order to acquire, expand, and retain profitable customer relationships. A successful transfer of business strategies to departmental and individual responsibilities that encompasses both quantitative and qualitative objectives. Everyone in the company must know what they themselves individually, and as part of the group, must accomplish to successfully achieve the defined objectives. A monitoring and measurement capability that enables not only leadership, but also each individual member, to assess the performance of the departments and individuals as they progress towards their objectives. A capacity to anticipate and correct the most frequently occurring issues and obstacles blocking the successful execution of the strategy; thereby enabling everyone to learn from their mistakes and respond and adapt to changing conditions.
Sales Velocity Partners
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Sales Velocity Partners
www.salesvelocitypartners.com
Steps to defining your GTMS: Market Research - Begin your new product or product enhancement initiative by collecting information from your market (current users or non-users) and prospective customers. This is often accomplished through surveys, focus-groups, ethnographic studies, and so on. The result will be a comprehensive list of customer needs and wants that can shape your go-to-market activities. Identify Business Requirements - Synthesize what you’ve learned from the market into a business requirements document. This document should define the specific product or service attributes that are in demand and the functionality that is required to be successful in the marketplace. Align Corresponding Capabilities - Taking what you now know that your prospective customers want and what it will take to be accepted in the market place, you should align your corporate capabilities with the identified requirements. Is this something you can produce? If so, can you produce it independently or do you need to outsource certain functions? Define Relevant Value - What is the ‘specific value’ that is derived from the product or service? Knowing the true value of the product offering is important to ensuring clear customer communications. Differentiate from Competitor - How is your offering differentiated from competitive offerings? If your product or service isn’t unique, what other attributes can you compete on (Is it service, price, etc.)? Demonstrate Appropriate Proof - How can prospective customers believe your messaging without proof points? Survey results, demonstrations, testimonials and so on are effective tools that provide verification of your claims. Once you have documented your initial product or service strategy, you need to define the proper steps introducing the new product or service, cultivating relationships, and closing sales. In this section are listed various marketing communication tools that support the sales process of creating attention and interest, cultivating relationships, and closing sales.
Sales Velocity Partners
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