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What would you say are the core elements of a strong, repeatable GTM framework?

5 Answers
Dave Steer
Dave Steer
GitLab Vice President of Product MarketingJuly 13

There are, of course, several elements so I’m just going to touch on the foundational pieces that product marketers must have in place. But before I do, I have one pro-tip: develop your GTM framework as a narrative. I've found that the activity of writing it out in narrative form helps to create clarity of thought and to socialize it with stakeholders so that everyone can contribute. This narrative should include:

  • Market adoption stage – Your goal is to understand where you are in the classic technology adoption lifecycle. Pinpoint whether your technology speaks to Innovator, Early Adopter, Early Majority, Late Majority, or Laggard.
  • Positioning strategy – Your goal is differentiated value. Over the years, I’ve seen so many different fill-in-the-blanks positioning frameworks, but I’ve come to love April Dunford’s positioning canvas approach in her seminal book Obviously Awesome. She defines positioning strategy as how a company’s offering is uniquely qualified to be a leader at providing some kind of value that a well-defined set of customers cares a lot about. There’s a lot there – read the book!
  • Messaging – Your goal is to strengthen your positioning with messages that resonate with the target audience. The biggest growth opportunities that I’ve seen in many organizations are message discipline and how to speak with one voice.
  • Ideal Customer Profile – Your goal is to define what the ideal customer (at the organization level) looks like. This should include firmographic, geographic, and technographic information.
  • Buyer and User Personas – Your goal is to define the people (B2B is still marketing to humans). Look at job titles, roles and responsibilities, sequences of participation (in the buying process), and roles in the decision-making unit. Note: Job titles in rapidly changing categories can be elusive – if that’s the case, look more at their roles and responsibilities. At GitLab, we do so in our Handbook here
  • A Trusted Customer Journey – Your goal is to define the key steps in the purchase decision process and to surface the messages and actions that will move people through the journey. A key part of this is to build and reinforce trust along the way by understanding their job to be done (what social and functional progress is the customer trying to make and hiring you to do) and empathizing with any anxieties in the purchase that may arise.
  • Prioritized Use Cases – Your goal is to spell out how the primary buyer & user can use the product for the most significant value and success

Again, this is just a start, but if you can gain consensus on this across the entire go-to-market organization, you’ll be in a strong position to execute and repeat the process.

1051 Views
Amanda Groves
Amanda Groves
Crossbeam Senior Director Product MarketingJanuary 23

The core elements of strong, repeatable GTM framework are:

  • Objective: Backed by data (quant) and customer feedback (qual) insights along with market and competitive research and business outcomes
  • Measureable: Tied to business outcomes (revenue, win rate, deal acceleration, NRR)
  • Timely: Meaningful to total addressable market (solving an acute need)
  • Scalable: Templatized by means of documentation, internal processes, training and enablement

318 Views
Michele Nieberding 🚀
Michele Nieberding 🚀
MetaRouter Director of Product MarketingJanuary 11

To simplify it at a high level, I would say its having a clear understand of the 3 C's: Customers, Company, and Competition.

To dissect that a bit:

1. Identify your target market and key buyer personas -this includes understanding the demand

2. Understand their problems and how your product specifically solves them

3. Develop your messaging

4. Understand your customer's journey (what does the buying process look like)

5. Develop pricing strategy

6. Create marketing plan (with clearly defined success metrics)

7. Generate content

8. Enable teams (not just sales!)

To make this even stronger and repeatable, I use an Asana template with clearly defined steps and assigned POCs. I have clear buckets related to each step that I use for every GTM plan so that other teams know what to expect and can also track progress and links to deliverables!

514 Views
Hien Phan
Hien Phan
Pinecone Head of Product Marketing, Partner, and Customer MarketingMarch 15

(1) It's a strategy, not a goal. You're diagnosing the problem and focused on how you should go to market.

(2) There is an operationalization aspect for your marketing team. Marketers need the audience, message, and channels/communities these people live in. 

(3) There is an operationalization aspect for your field teams. 

(4) Stakeholder alignment, buy-ins, and they have a role to play. 

1157 Views
Jesse Lopez
Jesse Lopez
Dandy Director of Product MarketingMarch 23

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.

819 Views
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