Welcome to GoToMarket HOT TOPICS.

We have many years of enterprise marketing experience dealing with both direct and in-direct sales channels. And trust me, with all this experience comes lessons learned. We know as much about the things that have been tried and failed as we do about the things that work in today's ever changing market dynamics.

We offer you some of our insights (lessons learned and best practices) into key marketing and sales practices as a company embarks on it's go-to-market lifecycle. We will add new insights over time and welcome your feedback, comments and questions.

- Time-to-Market Dilemma

- Pricing
- Competitive Analysis
- Sales Communications

Time-to-Staff Dilemma

Many entrepreneurial companies are founded by technical visionaries who have a clear view of the future and how their technological innovations will change the way businesses are run. These visions and innovations are valid, but often are ahead of their time and lack a clear and concise definition of who the Customer is and why they would buy.

Marketing unfortunately is an after thought and tends to be brought in at the last minute to launch the product or service. This last minute marketing thinking in many cases is disastrous for early stage companies who must make a mark early in an extremely competitive marketplace. The old adage “we will build it and they will come” is dead. Successful companies today have market and sales as a core competency, if not key differentiator.

For established companies with obsolete products and internal debates about protecting existing cash cows, it is often the case that new products are killed before they have a chance to enter the market. Segregating these products from the mainstream is the only way to ensure that they have a chance of surviving the internal politics, much less the competitive sharks in the market.

Staffing the marketing and sales infrastructure at the last minute creates a new set of problems. First, it takes more time than one would expect to recruit an experienced marketing or sales executive, and you won’t find that kind of talent advertising in the local newspaper. You will need to hire an executive recruiter that will charge you a hefty fee to find the right person and it will take a minimum of 3 months. Three months that you probably did not plan for and simply don’t have the luxury to wait for.

Second, once you find the right executive, he/she will begin to sort out what you have, who the customer is and what their resource requirements are to see that the company is successful in the market. Depending on their direct relevant experience in the target market or technology segment, you need to plan on 4-to-6 months for the new executive to get his/her feet firmly planted in your technology ground and the executive staff approval of the marketing and sales plan and associated budgets.

Next, its time to fill out the marketing infrastructure or hire outside agencies to carry out the tactical plan. Plan on 1-to-2 months per direct hire and about the same amount of time to find the appropriate outside agency. All of this, in many cases, takes far too much time in a market that is changing at a pace that requires new product introductions every 9-to-18 months.

In a market where technology is king and consumers buy the latest great innovation, the “we will build it and they will come” mentality really works. But those days unfortunately are long gone. The name of the game in the high tech industry is now called marketing and channel access. Without a clear definition of the consumer, how to influence their buying decision, knowing where they tend to purchase and at what price -- you don’t have a chance at succeeding even if you have the absolute best technology.