Once there is a resource plan in place, creating a strategy to activate the new business development plan is crucial. Building out a Go-To-Market (GTM) Strategy will guide the team to success and reduce common pitfalls like misuse of budget and missed revenue or profit projections. So what is a GTM? It’s a comprehensive action plan that outlines the approach and steps to attract and win new clients, enter new markets, increase market share, and achieve projected sales targets and revenue. Five questions that should get answered in a GTM include:
- What are we hoping to achieve?
- How will we track progress?
- What does success look like?
- Who are we selling to and why?
- What tools do we need to enable the team?
Thinking through these “why” and “how” questions will force the team to delve into the details. A GTM will clearly define positioning, analyze the competitive landscape, and establish an initial offering that will gain credibility with the marketers you intend to sell to.
Right to Win
Starting with the end in mind, bringing new clients onboard that the business is well suited to solve problems for is the main goal when designing a new business development strategy.
Imagine you’re at a business conference. You get into an elevator along with two senior marketing decision-makers from a company that you would love to do business with. You overhear their conversation about one challenge that they are experiencing and you happen to be uniquely positioned to solve it. What is their challenge? And try to keep this answer to less than 50 words. This will force you to zoom in on your Right to Win.
Your Right to Win should be firmly rooted in your ability to articulate value to the types of prospects you want to pursue. Questions around the problems you’re capable of solving or how you structure your fees all play a role into the type of clients the business is positioned to win. Once this is outlined, the most important question to end on is whether these answers will hold up to a prospect that doesn’t know you.
Gathering enough information to tell a compelling story and arm this newly established business development team will be the first step before creating a list of dream accounts you’d love to work with.
Positioning
The reality is, your position cannot speak to all people. It needs to be narrow enough to demonstrate your expertise, while also being broad enough to gain market share. Examples of narrow, yet broad positioning revolve around:
- Service/Capabilities
- Category Expertise
- Demographic Solutions
- Intellectual Property
Competitive Landscape
Everyone has competition. It’s important to keep track of where your clients are going when they leave or why you lose a deal. It’s painful, but it will allow you to better understand your position and why you win the type of work you do.
In a GTM, you’ll want to look at your competitors’ positioning and what you’re offering that they can’t. When comparing, think about who they are trying to sell to and why, and what kind of technology is used to enable their business development efforts. An effective competitive analysis should have two primary outcomes:
- What are the market barriers?
- What are the market opportunities?
Initial Offer
The initial offer is a compelling insight that can convey to a prospect that you understand their business and can provide solutions to the challenges they are evaluating. The initial offer is most compelling when you raise awareness to a business need or opportunity. Examples of this include proprietary, vertical specific research, a creative lab intended to provide a brainstorm around a specific need, or presentations that frame their problem and offer guidance.
With a GTM strategy to guide your team, you will be able to put them into action.
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