How to create a Summary GTM Strategy to align the company from the Top Down

The GTM strategy for any company is the guiding star for everyone in the company to rally around and follow. If the employees don’t know what the GTM strategy is and the goals for the year, how do they know how and what to focus on within their teams?

When I look at the most successful software companies, I observe their ability to publish their annual GTM strategy and goals at the their Annual Company All Employee Kick-Off meeting each year. They continue to evangelize these strategic goals in each All Hands Meeting usually on a monthly or quarterly basis. This communication generates consensus and clarity of what the company is focused on for year and the priorities.

I like simple GTM strategies that lay out the following elements in a one - two page document or slides. It would include the following:

A. Who are you Selling to?

B. What are you Selling?

C. How are you Selling?

D. What are you delivering?

Each GTM Strategic plan will also need to consider the following elements

1. Target Market

2. Land and Expand Strategy

3. Territory

Summary GTM Strategic Plan Example

As you lay out the GTM Strategy by Target Market, it is recommended to think about the different plays that you plan to execute for that Target Market. These plays can be ones that you have already proven with Marketing tactics, sales execution and implementation success where the customer has realized value and ROI. They can also include new plays that you want to experiment with based on either a few customer successes or feedback from the market where there could be additional opportunities.

These plays can be defined as an All-In-One strategy whereby you deliver the plan all at once in one single phase and the customer can realize the value and ROI right out the gate and be fully utilizing your solution wall to wall within their organization. They can also be defined as a Land and Expand strategy whereby you deliver the first value in the Land phase and the additional values in the Expansion phases.

For the Land and Expand strategy, it is recommended to separate the Land plays from the Expansion plays. The reason is two fold, one is that the Who, What and How definitions for the Land play can be very different from the Expansion play. The second is the definition of the revenue plan expected from the Land plays is different from the Expansion plays.

Defining each element (Who to Sell, What to Sell and How to Sell) will help you refine the GTM strategy into strategic plays with each detail for all the organizations to understand what to focus on from quarter to quarter.

Who are you Selling to?

In this section of the GTM Strategy you would define who you are selling to. This would be defined as the specific Market Segment, Industry, Department or Business Unit, Economic Buyer, and Champion or Influencer.

What are you Selling?

In this section of the GTM Strategy you would define the solution you are selling. This would be what you would call the overall solution that you are selling into the target market and ICPs. This section would include the name of the Solution, Products or Modules included, License count amount or range, and ACV.

For Example, if the target market is Retail - Finance Dept and the software helps optimizes the close process and global corporate performance management; the solution may be called Retail Financial Corporate Performance Management Optimization solution

This section would also define what specific products and services are included in the solution offering.

It is recommended to include the number of units or range included, especially if the program is a packaged offering.

How are you Selling the Solution?

In this section of the GTM Strategy you would define the specific channels that would be used to sell the solution for this play.

The channel options are usually Direct or Partner. Within the Partner category, it is best to define the type of Partner; VAR, Reseller, OEM, Technology or Services partner.

It is helpful to add in the average sales cycle time estimated to be able to evaluate if all the plays in your GTM strategy are too long to build a pipeline that will ensure you can deliver on a quarterly quota. It is recommended to develop some plays with shorter sales cycles for some quick wins to build a base you can expand on as well as some plays that will take longer.

The approach the Sales team will use to build their pipeline will need to be defined for each play as part of the definition on “How to Sell”. For example, they may use a target list, a Account Based Management, Marketing Campaign or tactic, Product Marketing Campaign or tactic or a Partner Marketing tactic.

What are you delivering?

In this section of the GTM Strategy you would define the Value Outcomes, Metrics to track and planned customer ROI.

For each GTM play, it is just as important to define a clear definition of what value outcomes you are planning to deliver for that play. These value outcomes should be in the form of business impacts; i.e. improved productivity, reduced costs, improved revenue streams, process optimization or improved performance visibility. For example, a value outcome may be defined as Reducing X hours/process, reducing costs by X%, improving productivity by X %, reducing data errors to zero, etc.

The metrics would be defined as what and how the customer will track their progress and results to the value outcome goals. For example, if the value outcome is reducing data errors to zero, we would define the metrics to track or use what is being tracked currently around data errors for a specific process. It could mean that there are multiple metrics as well. They could track number of data entry errors, number of errors due to incorrect field selection, number of empty fields required, etc.

The ROI would be defined as what the business impact would be in cost reductions or revenue increases that cover the cost of the solution. Most Saas companies define and promote their ROIs as 2, 3 or 4 times their solution costs. As you define the ROI, be sure to have proven customer testimonies to realizing a 2X or 5X ROI. Most customers and prospects don’t trust ROI calculators from the vendor, as many are overstated. They trust a customer who has your solution in production and can verify a 2 or 3X return in cost savings or additional revenue generation.

GTM Strategy Planning

As these definitions come together into a specific play that defines the Who, What and How you are selling into the market, it is important to segment these plays into a Target Market, Land or Land and Expand Strategies and/or Territory.

By Target Market

This would mean that a GTM Strategic Plan would be developed for each Target Market that is defined. If the plan is to go after the market for a specific industry but within certain types or size companies, then there would be a Target Market defined. For example, the solution play defined is a best fit for the Healthcare Industry for Manufacturers of Pharmaceuticals, then a GTM Strategic Plan would be developed for this specific target market. Then the definitions of the Who, What and How can become very specific for that play to be successful.

By Land and Expand Strategy

Any of the GTM plays may work best as a Land and Expand strategy with a roadmap plan that will show the customer how to operationalize your solution throughout their company or organization. If a Land and Expand strategy is the best approach for a specific Target Market, then I recommend separating the plays between Land and Expansion. The reason is that the Land play will have a very different definition of the Who, What and How with specific outcomes defined to create the first value. The Expansion play will be defined with a different Who, What and How to create the additional values that become the realized ROI for the customer.

By Territory

SaaS companies will generally begin building their customer base within the Territory that they are headquartered in. For example, if the SaaS company is US based, the US territory will be where they build their initial customer base.

As the SaaS company grows, they may view additional territories as avenues to grow their revenue stream. Many times, the next territory they focus on will come from an opportunity to either expand globally with a current logo or a new opportunity with another ICP company in a neighboring territory or overseas.

If your GTM strategy is considering expanding into new territories as part of the plan for the year, then I recommend also separating the strategic plays by territory.

For example, I would create a specific play by target market for a land strategy and a separate play for the expand strategy for the US Market. If the plays do not require any changes to the Who, What and How definitions to expand across all of North America, then you could create a GTM Strategy for North America.

However, if a Saas company was considering going overseas and building a market in EMEA or even just the UK as a starting point, then I recommend building a separate GTM plan for the EMEA or UK territory. The reason is that even if the Who and What elements of the plays would be the same, usually the How will be different when first expanding into a new country territory. It can be too expensive to build an entire EMEA team out the gate, so a Partner strategy might need to be defined specifically for this market for the first year. Perhaps in the following years, a new set of plays could be developed to support a Direct team in the local territory.

Why should you create these sections in the GTM Strategy?

Once you have this very well defined GTM Strategy with each play defined by Target Market, Land and Expand and/or Territory, you will be estimating the number of these deals you think you can bring in for the quarter and year. The GTM strategic plan will show the details on how you plan to achieve quota.

This will allow you to track the performance of each of these plays as well as costs associated with each play. When you evaluate your weekly, monthly and quarterly performance, it will provide the visibility into which GTM plays are working, not working or need more time to bake before making a decision. These conversations provide the leadership team with critical information on where and when to shift in their GTM strategy. The GTM Strategic Plan ensures the executive team is making good decisions on the investments they are making to drive revenue growth in a financially healthy manner and ensuring continued revenue growth on the customer base.

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