Jesse Lopez

Start any GTM strategy by anchoring on the four critical components of any go-to-market initiative. What: What software or offering are you selling? What problems does it help solve? What makes your product unique vs. alternatives? 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? Where: Where do customers learn about products in your category? What channe ...Read More

Your pricing and packaging are components of your competitive positioning - the way you group features or the value metric you use to charge a SaaS fee helps frame your offering to your target audiences. For example, suppose your packages serve different audiences with differentiated needs. In that case, your competitive positioning requires packaging that clearly states the positioning, benefits, and features each audience desires from your product category. Pricing is equally essential to posi ...Read More

Three types of research should inform any competitive and market intelligence program: Internal resources and intelligence, such as sales calls and win-loss analysis, are great for identifying high-level competitive and market insights. I typically use these resources to identify areas for further research (e.g., we usually lose deals to competitor X due to a specific capability gap) and differentiators to showcase in our marketing and selling motions. Publicly available resources, such as compe ...Read More

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 ...Read More

Both - pricing is a team effort. PMM and PM should be in lock-step when building, executing, and optimizing a pricing strategy. Some considerations on critical phases of pricing strategy development:  Competitive differentiation: Both teams should proactively build a comprehensive understanding of the competitive landscape (e.g., how competitors price, what pricing/packaging models they offer, what makes their offering different or valuable, etc.) and form a joint POV on what makes the most sens ...Read More

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 th ...Read More

When the product team stalls, I see it as my opportunity to step in and bring the customer’s voice front and center. I make it a habit to regularly interview our most valued customers and prospects to dig into their pain points, needs, and what they wish we’d solve for them. These conversations are incredibly insightful, but I also know that qualitative insights need to be backed by data. Beyond surveys, I analyze other sources like CX feedback, comments in the support center, input from account ...Read More

Customer interviews are the most beneficial resource to land "how" you are different vs. competitors and "why" it matters to your customers. Instead of focusing on three research methods, I will recommend three types of interviews you should consider when researching a competitor: Switcher interviews: Interview customers who recently switched from a competitive solution to yours to understand what attracted them to your company and the key reasons for choosing your solution over the competition. ...Read More

With limited context into your exact situation, I can share some initiatives/tactics I have employed in the past to execute price increases or restrictions to features: Understand your customer base, assess the impact of pricing or feature changes for different customer audiences, and build communications based on those insights. There may be some customers that recommended changes may disproportionately impact, so preparing tailored communications by key audiences can help soften the pricing ne ...Read More

Rolling out pricing and packaging for a new product launch requires a well-planned execution plan that informs multiple audiences as to "what you are selling," "how you deliver value," and "why you are better than alternatives" in your product launch. The plan should include critical phases for enabling internal audiences, educating customers and partners, and collecting feedback from internal and external sources to optimize the rollout process. Key audiences to consider in your planning: Inter ...Read More