AMA: Cisco Product Marketing Leader, Elizabeth Grossenbacher on Go-To-Market Strategy

The go-to-market (GTM) strategy defines how you will bring your product to your target audience. Once defined, you use the GTM strategy to align on the marketing and sales activities. Sales and marketing use the GTM strategy to impact revenue. A GTM strategy can be used for a single product or an entire portfolio. Most GTM strategies I’ve built have been at the portfolio level.  In my experience, Product Marketing, Product Management, and Sales work together to define the GTM strategy. Here are ...Read More

One of my favorite quotes in marketing is: “sell the hole, not the drill.” A marketing professor at Harvard, Theodore Levitt, lectured about this and would argue that people don’t want to buy a drill; they want a hole. The drill is just the tool used to create the hole. This is where I’ve seen some PMMs get it wrong; they focus on the benefits of their product before the outcome the customer is looking to achieve. Here’s what we know from human psychology: in both B2B and B2C settings, buyers pu ...Read More

It all starts with data! I typically segment my buyer profiles into company size (which is ultimately driven by how much money they spend with us), but there are many ways to determine profile categories. Below are the steps I take to identify and create the ideal customer profiles:  Internal Data: Gather data from sales to better understand your customer segments. For each segment (for ex, company size), you need to know the average deal size, length of the deal cycle, and how big the segment i ...Read More

I think of a GTM strategy as the document to get everyone aligned. As a fun analogy, imagine you’re all on one of those ancient Viking ships. Each person has an oar, and you all need to be rowing in the same direction and at the same pace. The GTM strategy is the charted path on a map that the captain uses to give appropriate instructions for direction and pace. Coming back to present-day, the GTM strategy should have the following components. (1) North-star goal: What are you trying to achieve? ...Read More

If you’re not seeing the expected results, do this immediately: dig into why you’re not seeing results. Investigate the data to better understand why your GTM strategy isn’t working. Whatever metric is “down”, you need to know why. Look at the data again, and talk to customers to supplement with qualitative data. Is the problem really with the strategy or is there a misalignment of expectations vs reality? This is a key question to explore with the GTM team (PM+PMM+Sales).  Personal example: I o ...Read More

My experience at Gartner taught me that analysts are deeply passionate about the areas they cover. It is in a company’s best interest to see analysts (such as the ones at Gartner as well as other firms) as partners in the creation of a GTM strategy. These analysts are out talking to our customers and learning about the industry every single day. They have more exposure to the changes and nuances, and thus can help shape the research phase of the GTM strategy. Since working at Gartner, my approac ...Read More

I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have had internal sponsors both as my direct manager as well as stakeholders. These sponsors would go to bat for me to help me progress in my career. But there are things I did to make it easy for them to do it, and it makes all the difference in getting recognized for your impact. As awkward as it is, you have to advocate for your work and career progression. Here are some exercises that have worked for me to get my work seen by stakeholders and superiors:  Ope ...Read More