AMA: Brex Product Marketing Lead, Jesse Lopez on Go-To-Market Strategy

Start any GTM strategy by anchoring on the four critical components of any go-to-market initiative. 1. What: What software or offering are you selling? What problems does it help solve? What makes your product unique vs. alternatives? 2. Who: Who is your ideal customer profile, and why? What are their pain points, and how does your product help them solve them? Why should these customers choose your product over alternatives? 3. Where: Where do customers learn about products in your category? What channels are most effective at each stage of the buying journey based on historical data or competitive offerings? 4. How: How do customers typically buy products in your product category? What factors and/or criteria help drive their buying journey? How can you help educate customers on your product along the journey? Net-net: There is no magic formula to starting a GTM strategy, but rather a set of questions you should continually use to guide your GTM decisions. Rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach, I encourage you to craft a GTM strategy with your x-functional partners (Sales, Product, Marketing) that anchors on the what, who, where, and how aspects of your GTM iniatitive.

Four core criteria that PMMs can use to prioritize releases: * Positioning: Does this new product or feature help me to redefine my category or position in the market meaningfully? * Competitiveness: Does this new product or feature help me close a significant gap vs. a core competitor? * Differentiation: Does this new product or feature help me to differentiate meaningfully vs. competitor(s)? * Market potential: Does this new product or feature help enter a new, sizable, attractive market (e.g., a new industry vertical)? A traditional model for tiering launches typically takes the form of a 3-tiered system - PMM and x-functional resources are usually aligned to the launch tier: Tier 1: most strategic launches that have a meaningful impact on core criteria; typically attract new audiences to product. * Introduce a new product that helps expand your category (Positioning) * A new product that enables you to close a significant gap with your competitor (Competitiveness) * An industry-defining product (Differentiation) * Enter a new market (Market Potential) Tier 2: Launches to drive perception or usage of the product, typically with existing users or core audiences. Tier 3: Improvements to the existing product; with limited potential to impact core criteria meaningfully.

Three core elements of a strong, repeatable GTM framework are: A formal model to tier launches based on importance and market potential. Rather than depleting resources to make every feature or product release a big deal in a crowded marketplace, it is essential to prioritize your launches based on the importance of establishing or differentiating your positioning in the market and the market potential of any given announcement. By tiering your launches, you can ensure your teams have focus and invest the most resources in the most critical launches. A modular system of creative templates and frameworks to make the launch process scalable. Only some launches should require custom work. PMMs should work with creative teams to develop templates and frameworks for standard assets (e.g., one-pagers, landing pages, paid ads) to maximize resources across priorities and teams. A clear RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed) framework that establishes roles and responsibilities across Product, Marketing, and Sales teams. The cross-functional nature of GTM initiatives makes this a particularly challenging job for PMMs. Having a clear RACI across your org that establishes who is responsible for leading or supporting any GTM-related activity is critical to flawless execution. A RACI will ensure x-functional partners are accountable for the success of any GTM-related initiative and work as a team to deliver a cohesive and well-orchestrated GTM plan.

Cross-functional collaboration, alignment, and execution are the most challenging aspects of operationalizing a GTM plan. Challenge: X-functional collaboration Solution: PMMs must ensure that a cross-functional team with clear roles and responsibilities supports every major GTM plan vs. chasing for support for every plan. A RACI framework will ensure your GTM plan is cohesive and connected across teams (e.g., your campaign will seamlessly drive traffic to your landing page, and leads captured through your page will flow to sales teams). Challenge: X-functional alignment Solution: PMMs should leverage DACI frameworks (driver, approver, contributor, informed) to help drive decision-making across cross-functional teams. An established DACI for large GTM plans will ensure the "why" behind big decisions is well documented, and x-functional partners can use the logic behind the decision to inform their respective efforts. Challenge: X-functional execution Solution: PMMs should leverage GTM checklists or project management software to keep track of the progress of GTM plan execution. I typically have a stand-in meeting booked with my x-functional partners on a regular cadence to keep track of the progress of any GTM plan. Meetings are an effective tool to keep teams focused on deliverables and troubleshoot emerging issues as a team.

Many methods exist to identify ideal customer profiles (ICP) for your product. The simple approach is to look inwards to understand product-market fit among your existing users. 1) Power Users: Identify your power users and understand why they love you. Typically, these cohorts help inform ideal targets for your ICP and how you go-to-market to acquire more customers that fit your ICP profiles. Analyze what quantitative and qualitative commonalities these cohorts share to inform your ICP profiles (e.g., industry, geographic footprint, annual revenue, use cases, pain points, key features used, etc.). Key things to learn from your power users include: * What pain points were they looking to solve with your product? * Where did they hear about your product? * What factors and/or criteria drove their decision to choose your product? * How effective has your product been at solving their pain points? * What aspects of your product do they enjoy the most? * What outcomes or impact have they achieved with your product? * Note: The "power user" criteria can vary by company - for example, you can define them by most loyal to your product, most profitable for your company, most active in your product, etc. Work with your Sales and Product teams to define the key metric(s) you want to optimize for your GTM efforts. 2) Emerging Promoters: Identify sizeable and attractive audiences for expansion. In addition to power users, you want to identify other highly satisfied audiences that may not represent a sizeable share of your existing user base. Typically, these are incremental industry verticals or use cases your product is well equipped to serve based on functionality. * Tip: Leverage product usage data and surveys to identify these opportunities. NPS and CSAT surveys are great tools to identify promoters of your product. Pack these surveys with firmographic, demographic, product usage, and attitudinal questions to fully understand these audiences. 3) Churners: Research your churners to understand why customers leave you. Typically, this will help you flag key audiences that may prove difficult to acquire and may be challenging to be candidates for your ICP (e.g., industry vertical, company size, use case). Understanding their key challenges with your product will inform when they can become candidates to be included in your ICP (e.g., once a specific feature or capability becomes available). Summary Understanding these three audiences (power users, emerging promoters, and churners) will help shape your ICP profiles and inform how you go to market. Net-net, you want to attract, acquire, and retain customer profiles that have proven fit for your product vs. depleting your resources on audiences that churn due to a weak product-market fit.