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

March 5 @ 9:00AM PST

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

Top Questions

What are some of the best product go-to-market strategies used by best brands?

Elizabeth Grossenbacher

Cisco Product Marketing Leader • March 5

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 so......Read More

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How do you think of GTM? What does it include, and what does it not include?

As someone who is looking to specialize myself, hoping to align on what GTM means and your responsibilities in a larger org.

Elizabeth Grossenbacher

Cisco Product Marketing Leader • March 5

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 ca......Read More

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How do you identify ideal customer profiles and operationalize them as a part of your GTM strategy?

Elizabeth Grossenbacher

Cisco Product Marketing Leader • March 5

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: 1. Inter......Read More

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Go-to-market strategy can be so broad and different by company/market. How do you define it and get alignment across the team?

Elizabeth Grossenbacher

Cisco Product Marketing Leader • March 5

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......Read More

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What advice do you have for product marketers to ensure exposure to analyst relations at their company?

Elizabeth Grossenbacher

Cisco Product Marketing Leader • March 5

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......Read More

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How do you navigate a large company to ensure others know your work, no matter what level you are at?

Elizabeth Grossenbacher

Cisco Product Marketing Leader • March 5

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 recogniz......Read More

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How do you approach pivoting GTM strategy if you're not seeing expected results i.e. pipeline growth, customer momentum,ACV and ARR goals etc.

Elizabeth Grossenbacher

Cisco Product Marketing Leader • March 5

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 ......Read More

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