How to Create a Go-To-Market Strategy in 10 Steps

Product launches are complicated and expensive, and like any other major project, they can quickly spiral out of control. With so many moving parts and dependencies on many teams, from defining the target audience to crafting the perfect messaging and managing distribution channels, it’s no surprise that even great products can fail to launch, let alone gain traction. Teams risk losing lots of potential revenue without a clear plan.

Fortunately, there is a solution that makes launching a product or service more manageable. Whether you’re a SaaS startup preparing for your first product launch or an established company with an existing product navigating new markets, a go-to-market (GTM) strategy is indispensable. They are so helpful that Gartner reports that 83% of organizations now have a dedicated GTM team or role, reinforcing their critical role to business success.

In this article, you’ll learn what an effective GTM strategy is, when you need one, and how to create a plan that aligns your teams and sets your business up for a successful launch.

What is a Go-To-Market Strategy?

A go-to-market strategy is a roadmap that outlines how a company will launch a product or service to new markets or existing ones. It explains how to get your product to the right audience at the right time and in the right way. At its most simple level, a GTM strategy answers these questions:

• Who are your target customers?
• What problem are you solving for them?
• How will you reach them and deliver to them?
• Why should they choose you over the competition?

Without a GTM strategy, even the best ideas struggle to make waves. With one, you’ll reduce risks, define clear goals, and set better expectations for future sales pipelines.

When Do You Need a Go-To-Market Strategy?

GTM strategies aren’t just for startups with brand-new products. They’re just as important for seasoned businesses wanting to increase market penetration, adapt to market shifts, or strengthen their competitive stance. A solid GTM plan provides the structure and focus to realize simple to ambitious launch goals.

Furthermore, GTM strategies are valuable for product updates. When new integrations or features become available, they ensure your customers understand the added value. This helps with loyalty and retention.

GTMs also play a role during mergers and acquisitions. Product lines may be retired, or two products from the merging vendors might integrate nicely. A GTM will relaunch these products to attract new customers or add value for existing customers.

GTM Strategy vs. Marketing Strategy

While GTM and marketing strategies help bring products to market, they differ in scope. A GTM strategy aligns development, pricing, sales, distribution, and support for market success. In contrast, a marketing strategy may be a subset of the broader GTM focusing on driving awareness and demand.

For example, when launching a project management tool, the GTM strategy might define the target audience as SMB financial firms, set tiered pricing options, and establish partnerships with finance industry business consultants. As a complementary subset, the marketing strategy would create awareness through social media marketing campaigns, thought-leadership articles, webinars with banking early adopters, case studies, and targeted ads on LinkedIn. By working together, these strategies ensure the product is ready to sell and reaches the right people.

Benefits of a Well-Defined Go-To-Market Plan

A well-defined GTM plan unites teams, sets goals, and builds accountability, helping businesses get results faster with less risk. According to Gartner, 85% of businesses report that their GTM strategy has effectively increased revenue and achieved objectives.

Other benefits of GTM strategies include:

Improve Alignment Across Sales, Marketing, and Product Teams

Sales, marketing, and product teams often have overlapping goals, but without a clear plan, they can pull in different directions. A GTM plan sets the ground rules and ensures that every team member knows their role in the big picture.

Example: Cross-functional team meetings scheduled every week for 6-12 months before a product launch are a strategic part of improving partnerships. This kind of GTM alignment brings together stakeholders from each team to share progress and challenges and hold each other accountable.

Faster Time-To-Market

A structured GTM strategy accelerates launches while identifying potential risks early to mitigate problematic delays. It lays out the best ways to reach your audience, the right messaging, and the most effective marketing channels to deliver it all.

Example: GTM strategies often include milestone tracking and risk assessment. Regular status reviews with decision-makers allow teams to flag and resolve issues early.

Better Target Audience Understanding

A GTM strategy ensures businesses take the time to define their audience, research their competitors, and determine where their products fit. This will help you personalize your marketing efforts and craft unique value propositions that help the product stand out. More importantly, you can plan for future products, create a better experience, and improve customer relationships.

Example: Analyzing industry trends, customer demographics, and shopping behaviors can help you identify emerging needs that may not be immediately obvious. This foresight enables you to develop targeted product features or tailor marketing campaigns that address both current and future demands, ensuring your brand remains relevant and ahead of competitors.

Competitive Advantage

Companies can outpace competitors with a clear GTM strategy because it helps them focus on their unique value proposition. It prompts you to ask, “What makes us different?”. When you know the answer and use it to shape your messaging, pricing, and product features, you create a story that grabs attention. Competitors might offer something similar, but they can’t tell your story in your way.

Knowing market trends and competitive movements and launching at the most opportune time with coordinated marketing campaigns are also key to staying one step ahead.

Example: If your target market seeks more personalized experiences, you can launch a self-service, user-friendly product with customizable features that competitors don’t offer. Back it up with a targeted content marketing campaign highlighting how customers can tailor the product to their needs.

Resource Optimization

GTM strategies optimize how resources—time, budget, and workers—are deployed. They include a precise timeline that keeps every team on an exact schedule and held responsible because each activity likely has dependencies. This ensures that teams understand how their performance impacts the entire launch, creating a strong sense of accountability. According to McKinsey & Company, organizations that adopt agile, data-driven GTM approaches can reduce service costs by 5% to 15%.

Example: Suppose your company is preparing to launch a new e-commerce platform. With a solid GTM strategy, marketing knows when the landing page needs to go live, the sales team knows when to start their outreach, and the product team can finalize features on time. Everyone’s work is connected, and any delay in one area could push back the whole launch. With this clear structure, you can efficiently allocate your resources.

Components of a Successful GTM Strategy

The components of a successful GTM have roots in the classic 4 Ps of marketing: product, price, place, and promotion. However, the strategy goes further to focus on execution and market entry. You can break it down into a few areas that set you up for success.

Here are the four areas to focus on:

• Product-market fit: Every GTM strategy must have a product or service that solves a real problem for a specific market. Start by asking if the product solves a problem. If the answer isn’t a resounding “yes,” it’s time to tweak the offering (or the audience) before moving forward.
• Target audience: Who are you building this product for? Defining your audience is partly about demographics but more about understanding their needs, pain points, and what makes them tick.
• Competition and demand: What’s the broader competitive landscape like, and is there market demand? Assess who your competitors are and whether there’s enough demand for your product in the same market. This step helps you determine where to position yourself and how to stand out.
• Distribution: How will your product reach your audience? Whether through e-commerce, direct sales, partnerships, or retail, your distribution plan ensures your product is accessible where your target buyer shops.

10 Steps to Building a GTM Strategy

The GTM strategy must start early so you can hit the ground running when the product is ready. Planning should begin when your leadership or development team decides a new product or service is coming. Waiting until the product is complete leaves too much to chance.

By working on your strategy before the product or service is too far into development, you will account for any risks that may sideline the project and make sure the product is ready to support when it’s launched. Even the best product in the world won’t succeed if no one knows how to market, sell, or support it.

Below are 10 steps to consider as part of your GTM strategy:

1. Conduct Market Research

Take a detailed look at the market. Conduct surveys, focus groups, interviews, and competitor analysis to ground your strategy and show you the real opportunities.

• Competitive landscape: Who are your competitors, and how are they positioning themselves? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What gaps in their offerings can you fill?
• Customer Insights: Understand your potential customers’ challenges, pain points, and desires. Are there unmet needs? What solutions are they currently using, and where do those fall short?
• Market demand: Is there an existing need for your product? Are customers actively seeking solutions, or will you need to educate the market?
• Industry trends: What trends are shaping your market? Is there emerging technology or changing consumer behavior you can capitalize on?

Once you have this data, you can pinpoint opportunities for differentiation and identify the most profitable segments to target. As Gartner highlights, defining the right product positioning and understanding the competitive environment are essential for choosing the most effective route to market.

2. Define Your Target Market

Get specific. Who is this product for? You can start by defining your ideal customer profile (ICP). This describes your perfect customer—those who will get the most value from your product and will likely stick around. Here are some key elements to consider when building your ICP:

• Demographics: If you’re targeting businesses, consider their company size, revenue, industry, and geographic location. If you’re targeting individuals, consider their age, job title, income level, and education.
• Firmographics (for B2B): For businesses, you’ll want to investigate their company’s sector, number of employees, annual revenue, and business model (B2B, B2C, SaaS, etc.). This helps ensure that your product or service is indeed the right fit for their operational needs.
• Pain points and needs: What specific challenges does your product or service solve for them? The more closely you align your ICP with a solution to their pain points, the better.
• Behavioral traits: How does this ideal customer make purchasing decisions? What kind of buyer journey do they go through? Are they typically looking for fast, cost-effective solutions or prefer high-touch, premium products? Understanding these patterns can help you tailor your sales and marketing efforts to their preferences.
• Growth potential: Is this a company or individual who could grow with your product over time? For example, a small startup that could eventually scale or a busy professional who might benefit from higher-tier offerings down the road.

Next, build detailed buyer personas to segment your target audience into specific groups. Similar to ICPs, they help you see your customers as real people with unique needs, challenges, and motivations. They give insight into how buyers make decisions and what messaging resonates with each customer segment.

3. Craft Messaging

What do you want people to know about your product, and how do you want potential customers to feel when they think about it? Develop a unique value proposition highlighting why your offering is different (and better!). Work with stakeholders to create messaging that speaks directly to customer needs, pain points, and goals, keeping value in mind. Remember to include supporting evidence of your success claims.

Here are a few messaging examples tailored for different buyer personas for a project management tool:

Persona	Pain Points	Product Value	Messaging
Tech-savvy Cameron	– Needs a highly customizable tool that integrates with other systems – Wants automation to save time	– Highly customizable features – Integrations with popular tools like Slack and Google Workspace – Automates repetitive tasks	“Save time with powerful automation and integrations that fit right into your existing workflow. Our project management tool adapts to your needs.”
Corporate Claire	– Manages large teams and complex projects – Needs to ensure data security and privacy for sensitive projects	– Enterprise-level security – Advanced reporting – Scalable for large teams	“With enterprise-grade security and powerful reporting, our tool ensures your team stays efficient and your data stays safe.”

4. Define Your Pricing Strategy

This is where you determine how much your product should cost. Your pricing must reflect its value, be affordable to your target audience, and keep you competitive. Don’t just guess—look at the data, scenario-test customer willingness to buy at various price points if possible, and adjust as needed. However, note that your pricing will affect your sales strategy.

Here are a few things to consider when creating your pricing strategy:

• Understand your costs: Know the baseline cost of delivering your product, including production, overhead, marketing, and sales.
• Competitive pricing: Compare your competitor’s prices for similar products. Are you offering something superior? If so, you may be able to charge more, but if you’re entering a saturated market, you may want to consider pricing competitively to attract more customers.
• Customer perception: Consider how your target audience perceives value. A higher price point might signal quality to some, while others may equate lower prices with affordability. It’s crucial to match the price with the value you’re providing.
• Pricing models: There are several pricing models to consider—subscription, one-time purchase, tiered pricing, freemium, etc. The right model depends on your product, market, and customer behavior. For example, a SaaS product might benefit from a subscription model, while a one-time purchase might be ideal for a physical product.

It’s also important to consider promotions, discounts, or trial periods. These tactics can help attract early adopters or test the market, but you should use them strategically to avoid devaluing your product.

5. Develop a Promotion Strategy

How will you spread the word and raise brand awareness? Your strategy should align with where your audience spends their time and what initiatives grab their attention. Key components include:

• Content creation: Develop tailored content that speaks directly to your audience’s needs. This includes blog posts, videos, social media posts, email campaigns, and more. The tone and style should align with your brand identity.
• Marketing and advertising: Leverage platforms where your audience spends their time. This might mean using SEO to increase search visibility, paid ads to target specific demographics, or even traditional media like TV or radio if that suits your audience.
• Events and webinars: Hosting events, product demos, or webinars can provide a personal touch, helping prospects understand your product’s value firsthand.
• Partnerships: Partner with influencers or complementary brands to extend your reach and tap into new audiences.

The goal is to balance your inbound and outbound tactics, consistently feeding leads into your sales funnel while also maximizing your marketing budget and time.

6. Choose the Proper Distribution Channels

Consider how your audience prefers to buy. A lot of this information will come from your market research. The right channel will streamline your sales process and ensure you reach the right people at the right time. You should also consider the costs and how the channels align with your brand’s positioning. The types of distribution channels include:

• Direct-to-Consumer (DTC): Selling directly through your website or physical storefront. This gives you full control over the customer experience and pricing.
• Online marketplaces: Platforms like Amazon, Etsy, or app stores can help you quickly access a broad customer base.
• Retail partners: Selling through established retailers allows you to leverage their customer base but may involve tighter margins and less control over how you market your product.
• B2B channels: If you’re targeting businesses, explore partnerships with distributors or resellers that can bundle your product with their offerings.

7. Set Goals and Define Processes

A successful GTM strategy requires setting clear SMART goals and processes spanning the planning and post-launch phases. During the planning stage, goals might include preparing marketing materials, training sales teams, or securing early adopters. Processes here focus on internal workflows, such as ensuring team alignment and tracking readiness milestones.

Post-launch, the focus shifts to the sales cycle, defining a sales methodology, marketing efforts, and customer support. For example, sales teams might track key performance indicators (KPIs) like reaching revenue targets within 30, 60, or 90 days. Meanwhile, marketing teams track engagement, customer acquisition cost (CAC), and conversion rate metrics. Customer support teams will need defined SLAs (Service Level Agreements) and onboarding processes to ensure a good customer experience with onboarding and product use.

8. Plan for Risks

One of the main reasons for a GTM strategy is to identify risks early and minimize or eliminate their impact. Diversification into new markets with new products comes with the highest reward but also the highest risk. A good GTM plan identifies risks early and has solutions ready to go. What if your ad campaign misses the mark? Or your development team is behind schedule? Building contingency plans for these scenarios will save you headaches down the line.

9. Prepare Internal Teams

Your teams need to be in sync for a successful launch. Conduct go-to-market training for sales, marketing, and support teams so they’re confident in the product and their roles. Focus on key areas: sales should know the value propositions, marketing should master the messaging, and support should prepare for common questions.

Don’t forget customer success. Ensure onboarding processes are ready so customers see the value right away—whether through step-by-step guides, live demos, or personal support.

Finally, keep communication open with regular updates and shared resources. When your teams are prepared and aligned, they can deliver a smooth, standout customer experience.

10. Testing

Make sure you have a system for collecting feedback and fixing bugs before launch. Be sure to test the following:

• Market response: Soft launches or pilot programs can reveal how your target audience reacts to the product.
• Sales enablement: Test how well your sales team pitches the product. Are they hitting the key messages?
• Marketing effectiveness: Run small ad campaigns to test which messages and visuals resonate most with your audience.
• Product functionality: Identify and resolve bugs or usability issues before the official launch.

The Role of Sales Enablement in Your GTM Strategy

If your sales team doesn’t know how to sell your product, your GTM strategy is already on shaky ground. Sales enablement is fundamental to a successful GTM strategy. Your teams must have the knowledge, tools, and resources to confidently engage buyers and close deals.

Here’s how it supports GTM success:

• Equip your sales teams with tools and training: Sales enablement provides teams with product training, sales playbooks, and real-world examples to help them confidently navigate conversations. Salespeople will understand the product, its benefits, who to target, and how to address customer pain points.
• Align on messaging: By collaborating with marketing, sales enablement will share the value proposition, messaging, and positioning so the sales team can easily tie your solution to the buyer’s most significant needs and differentiate it from the competition. They will understand what content to use and when. This ensures consistent messaging throughout the customer journey and highlights your product’s unique value.
• Boost sales team performance during launches: Enablement prepares teams with structured sales onboarding and coaching well before a product or service launches. Sales reps receive tailored GTM training to address their questions and become armed with competitive comparisons and key talking points, ensuring they perform at their best when it matters most.
• Facilitate cross-team collaboration: A product launch brings almost every team together in a company. Sales enablement, in particular, bridges the gap between sales and marketing strategies. It ensures sales can access content like competitive differentiation intel or buyer feedback. Even more, sales can share customer feedback and sentiment with marketing to refine campaigns and messaging.

A well-defined GTM strategy is essential for successful product launches. It aligns teams, deepens market understanding, and creates a clear roadmap for integrating the launch deliverables. By starting early, being prepared, and staying adaptable, your GTM strategy can boost customer satisfaction and drive unprecedented results.

However, even the best strategy requires the right tools to execute. Highspot, a leading sales enablement platform, helps organizations bring GTM strategies to life. From equipping sales teams with the tools and training they need to ensure consistent messaging and seamless collaboration across teams, Highspot supports every step of the process.

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