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Marketing INsights

Is It Time To Refine Your Message and Value Proposition?

7/23/2019

 
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Company/product positioning is critical for a successful company. It is the essence of your brand value and fundamental to how your company & products are perceived by your prospects and customers.

Holding a messaging workshop, whether a start-up or well-established company, can galvanize you positioning and improve you messaging for all customer facing functions.

A messaging workshop can take a couple of hours to a couple of days depending on how many people are involved and how much disagreement there is amongst the team. And from experience, there will be disagreements. Some will be subtle and some may be strategic.

The goal is simple; develop a concise messaging platform for the company, product line or product. 

A successful workshop results in company alignment at the executive level and establishes the messaging framework for all customer-facing communications going forward.

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Developing a go-to-market strategy

7/5/2019

 
Here is a good article on developing a go-to-market strategy by the team at startup.com. This article describes the steps a start-up should take to develop a defensible strategy.

The challenge is to invest the time to thoroughly think through each area and document your assumptions. Go as deep as you can on your first draft.

Consider your initial work a living document and keep it up-to-date.  Your assumptions will no doubt change as you learn more about the market and your competitiors.

Good luck.

Over 300 Free Marketing templates

7/3/2019

 
This is the most comprehensive collection of up-to-date marketing resources and templates I have seen. These were curated by usefyi.com and made available through producthunt.com. Very useful with excellent reviews.

Top 5 reasons for hiring a part-time CMO

8/18/2016

 
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Many mid-stage technology companies are started and lead by the chief technologist. Their title is CEO, but their skill set is technical development and vision.

With customer acquisition and references the highest priority, the first non-technical hires focus on business development/sales. 

In the early days, the technical CEO attempts to cover marketing and often delays hiring a marketing professional due to cost and equity considerations. 

In doing so, they often struggle with:
  • Identifying the target buyer and articulating their unique value proposition
  • Addressing packaging, licensing and pricing strategies
  • Selecting product category definitions and articulating competitive differentiation
  • Enabling sales personnel with a compelling business proposition
  • Determining a proper marketing mix and executing programs to deliver qualified leads

​The longer the company struggles with these core go-to-market issues, the more likely customer acquisition goals won't be met, competitors will gain market share and the risk of company failure increases. 

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What does a Product manager have in common with a ceo?

5/25/2016

 
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It is a pretty bold statement to suggest that CEOs and Product Managers have a lot in common. So, let me explain.

A CEO and Product Manager have these characteristics in common:
  • Strategic (they want to win the war, not simply the battle)
  • Think and see big picture (forest, not just the trees)
  • Paranoid about the competition and differentiation
  • Focus on profitability and long-term customer value
  • Excel at collaboration and communication 

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Marketing's Contribution to Revenue is both more and less obvious

3/10/2016

 
I had the pleasure of listening to a podcast, hosted by Salesforce Cloudcast, by BrightFunnel on attributing and forecasting marketing's contribution to revenue. 

Really liked their Infographic on B2B marketing in 2016, so sharing it. 

Infographic provided by brightfunnel.

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Optimizing the Marketing Mix and Spend

12/7/2015

 
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Options For Spending your Marketing Dollars Have Never Been Greater or More Complicated

​Depending on your role and experience, you will have very specific opinions on how to market your products and services. Unfortunately there are a lot of options to choose from and getting the right balance of programs and level-of-spend can be a challenge.

Most will agree that customer acquisition, retention and revenue is the end goal, but every executive (CEO, CRO, CFO) has a different notion of what marketing should do to support these goals.

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Tired of Missing Revenue Targets? Fix Your Go-To-Market Alignment Issues!

9/16/2015

 
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The Walter White character on the hit show Breaking Bad had perfect go-to-market alignment - right product, price, sales channel, market, customer - which led to massive revenues that far exceeded his original forecast.

First Signs of Go-To-Market Alignment Issues

Established B2B technology companies invest in sales force automation (SFA) tools that provide insight into the pipeline and associated analytics. With meaningful use by sales and careful analysis, SFA tools tell you why deals are delayed, lost and won. 

These tactical tools provide important insights into operations and, with thoughtful analysis, shed light on gaps that exist in the go-to-market revenue chain. 

A sure sign that go-to-market alignment issues exist is when too many forecasted opportunities don't close and when you hear excuses like: 
  • Sales is overselling product capabilities, or worse, products that don't yet exist
  • Product Management is too busy to provide competitive positioning/knock-offs
  • Product positioning is missing the target buyer and influencers
  • Marketing isn't providing qualified leads
  • Products don't meet customer needs or are not price competitive
These finger-pointing statements are indicators of poor alignment and communication between the product, marketing and sales organizations. 

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Sales enablement 101?

7/16/2015

 
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Are you are a start-up, early or mid-stage B2B company and struggling to make your numbers?

If so, it is often the result of poor, or non-existent, sales enablement process and associated assets (aka sales kit). I am not talking about mature companies with sales training programs, sales playbooks and established marketing infrastructure. 

I have worked for quite a few early-stage companies with revenues under $30 million and small sales teams. Companies this size typically don't have a well-defined sales process, sales training is defined as “as the job” and sales tools are provided on an as-needed-basis. 

Unfortunately they don't have a good handle on their sales efficiency. They don't know how many deals they missed, lost and why? But this is a topic for another day.

For now, lets focus on enabling the sales team to improve their odds of finding and closing deals.
“Sales enablement is a strategic, ongoing process that equips all client-facing employees with the ability to consistently and systematically have a valuable conversation with the right set of customer stakeholders at each stage of the customer's problem-solving life cycle to optimize the return of investment of the selling system.” 
– Forrester Research

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What skills and experiences are essential to consider when searching for your first Chief Marketing officer (CMO)? 

6/15/2015

 
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Looking to hire your first CMO? Its about time!

An experienced CMO adds an important strategic (market and competitive) dimension to the leadership team.   The scope of the CMO role is very broad and requires a unique set of skills to manage/prioritize a complex mix of marketing programs in today's highly competitive marketplace.  

The competencies and experiences of the ideal CMO differ based on company stage/size (start-up or well established supplier), industry sector (Banking or Telecom), market focus (B2B or consumer), product category (software or hardware), and sales approach (direct or channel). Relevant experience in one of these areas is no doubt the #1 defining criteria for a marketing leader.

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