Go To Market for Tech – Strategic & Tactical ideas

Following my recent posts on strategy versus tactics, I thought I’d drill down on the startup space given that I have been involved in 6 different startups, closely watched a few others and have seen firsthand how NOT to do it (and on occasion how to do it). In this example, I am going to use a generic B2B tech startup.

Here are some things I have noticed that spell trouble. See if you as the founder(s) are approaching your go-to-market this way. If so, I suggest you will waste a ton of time/money:

·        Believing you have created the goose that lays the golden egg – when I see the word “game changer” or “new paradigm” in a teaser deck, I cringe

·        Telling yourself that all you must do is build it and people will beat a path to our door

·        Founders can get out and sell and we can get a few sales people on commission only and leverage their networks to get meetings and close deals.

·        We can just post on Linked In and/or other social media to attract interest and get qualified leads – also known as the ‘spray and pray’ approach.

·        We will track our sales leads and activities on a spreadsheet – it will be fine for now.

·        If we do get a lot of traction, we will figure out fulfillment and customer service support later.

Is anything above resonating with your experience or current thinking? Give your head a shake!

So, what should you do when thinking about your ‘go-to-market’ strategies and tactics:

1.       Do your market research – know the problem you solve and define the market you think would benefit the most. Remember, if it does not speed up something that businesses waste time on, cuts costs for something they must do and can provide an ROI within 6-12 months – you are going to have a tough time.  Talk to people who know your target industry.

2.       Allocate a budget for sales and marketing – when you pitch to early investors include money for revenue generation, not just product development. I have seen so many startups who do not put aside the money to build their sales foundation and funnel. I have yet to meet a technologist who understands how to bring a solution to market. You need someone who has "been there done that" and has the battle scars to prove it.

3.       Get a small 3-4 person  ‘Advisory Board’ and include someone who has a startup pedigree in sales & marketing. Listen to them! You may have to pay a small monthly stipend and/or provide equity incentives.

4.       Create your revenue strategy/tactics to address the customers’ issues – articulate the problem you can solve – are you 100% sure the target market has pain in this area?

5.       Define your target market and ideal customer and articulate why they are the lowest hanging fruit. Do not try to ‘boil an ocean’ by going after any prospect with a budget.

6.       Build a tactical plan for each of your strategies – and be specific (see example below).

The following is only an example and is not meant to be comprehensive – I hope it merely gets founders thinking.

A.       Revenue Strategy (example only):

"Get early adopters on board who will pay for our solution. We will target the banking and money management firms with between X and Y dollars (or Euros if you are in the EU) in assets under management in (name the geography) because they have a challenge with XYZ issue that we know how to solve."

But wait – first ask yourself: do you know unequivocally that they have this problem, or will a lot of education be needed? Do not be a solution looking for a problem – they do not end well. If your solution was built with the idea that you would create a whole new vertical, that is an entirely different challenge.

Tactics on the Revenue Strategy Example – some examples:

(NOTE: Make your tactics time driven and assign someone who will be accountable for each one):

Tactic #1: Get Marketing expertise to develop a plan of attack: retain the services of a marketing expert on a limited time project basis. Unless a member of the founder team has done marketing plans in the past,  get outside help. Give them a budget – ie., what can be done with  $XX,000 in the next year, and what results are possible?

Tactic #2: Get Sales expertise: retain the services of an experienced head of sales to build a ‘sales handbook’: again, if none of the founding group has the sales experience needed, there are fractional sales experts who have helped launched new technologies/products. Bring them in on part time to start, if need be. Their priority should be to work with founders to create a Sales Handbook, which must include your pricing. The basics of ‘how we will get sales meetings and get deals closed’. It will never be cast in stone and will evolve over time – but get one in place, from the beginning.

Tactic #3: Select a CRM tool on Day One. There are many customer relationship management solutions that are low cost when you are small, and they can scale with you over time – I have used four in my career so far. They price their solutions for all size companies. Some will offer a free trial. Put 1-2 people in charge of it and invest time to learn it. Otherwise, when growth takes hold, adding a CRM will be like trying to change the engine of a jet while it is in flight.

Tactic #4: Build a prospect list of at least 100 people by X date. Get contact info on companies and people that fit the ideal customer profile, into the CRM tool. Obtain names and contact info for the top 2 or 3 people who have budgets in areas that your solution addresses (this is NOT easy but there are services that can help – try AI too!).

Tactic #5: Create and implement the sales/marketing material **– IT MUST ADDRESS THE “WHAT”AND THE “SO WHAT”. People do not initially care about the  how your solution works - you just need to get your target market’s attention – a value proposition that is enough for them to want to learn more. Create 2-3 email templates for salespeople - keerp them short and to the point, without much hype. Build some FAQs. Get marketing content/sales collateral built – a short two pager and a short deck (less than 8 slides) is enough. What platform(s) will you use (or try) to spread the message?

Tactic #5: Track Activities/metrics  - you need to determine the average sales cycle. That is which sales & marketing activities are driving customer interest and getting meetings? What sales collateral is working….track as much as you can on day one of your go-to-market launch.

Tactic #6 Responding to an immediate demand: implementing a great marketing/sales plan without having basic procedures, plans, and customer agreements to onboard customers fast and deliver your product seamlessly, is a process by which you attract people to piss off. READ THAT AGAIN!

Tactic #7 Responding to lack of demand – assuming that the right metrics are being tracked, how long will you give the sales/marketing plans and activities to get traction, before you need to pivot or make changes? By the way, “Deals Closed” is NOT the only that matters in the near term. (Sales and marketing experts can assist with what you should be tracking.)

These are examples only and by no means comprehensive  – just some ideas for founders to consider, even if you have already ‘launched’ your new business…it is never too late to create, review and adjust strategies and tactics. If you do not have anything written down, shared and universally understood – get started if you want everyone pointed in the right direction (hence the picture I used!).

** In my next article/post I will discuss the two-pager and the short 8 side deck. Happy to get feedbadk on what else you'd like me to write about, so feel free to reach out on Linked In's inmailwith your requests.