Molly Chapman

We must measure the success of our GTM strategies! Without it you make it incredibly difficult to replicate success, or deliver insightful lessons learnt. However, your KPIs aren’t always in your hands. You might find yourself hunting around, or demanding data from other teams – therefore it’s important you engage those stakeholders from the outset of your GTM strategy. These measures will give you an indicator of a good or a bad launch. Of course, a lot of elements go into GTM, so it’s easiest to break these down into sub-categories. Remember, the ‘who’ you’re launching to will impact what you should be tracking. As an example, in a Xsell launch you might want to also track Customer Contract Value (CCV) over time. Marketing · Social/web: Impressions, traffic, views, leads generated, (SQLs) · Email: Open rates, click rates, conversions · Conversion rate · ROI Product · ROI · Time to market · Product adoption · Product usage · Product abandonment rate · Bugs/support queries raised Customers · Churn · CSAT · NPS Sales · Customer lifetime value · Average revenue per customer · Annual reoccurring revenue · Attachment rate

The truth is, every launch is going to come with risks, and these vary from business to business. Of course, the longer you have been with a business, the easier it is to know the common pitfalls when it comes to launching and delivering a GTM plan. If you’re new to a business, or the PM function it's worth following a couple of steps to mitigate risk: * What are our lessons learnt from our last launch * What could we have done better during our last GTM * Who do we need to engage now to ensure this GTM goes smoothly * What internal factors could impact our GTM (an acquisition, lack of resource etc.) And most importantly ensure these are covered in your kick-off and all stakeholders are aware of these risks from the start. Your GTM plans are going to require heavy coordination, and you’ll be engaging with stakeholder across the business. It sounds obvious, but risks can be reduced through regularly check-ins with your various different stakeholders. Clear and concise communication on deadlines is essential.

It goes without saying if your messaging is good then people are going to remember it. So, remember to be: · Memorable · Simple · Concise · Unique · And always cut the waffle Once you’ve nailed your messaging you need to get it in front of your people. Land the importance of messaging: For non-marketers messaging can feel a little fluffy. It’s important to set the scene on why messaging is so important – back this with data and real-life examples. Take them on the journey: A lot of work goes into messaging, sometimes people underestimate it as just a couple of words on a screen. To really get buy-in from your exec team you need to take them on the journey and give them the why behind your decisions. Make it visible: Get it everywhere internally, on internal channels, host workshops, on your collateral, embed it on internal and external documents. Repeat your messaging: At this point you need to be your messaging champion. And while you might feel like you’re repeating yourself, it takes a lot to get messaging to land.

Your pricing, packaging and discounting model is going to be reliant on your offering and position in the market. It also depends on the characteristics of your target audience. Depending on your target market, pricing may or may not be highly impactful when it comes to signing on the dotted line. That’s why it’s worth sketching out your ideal customer, speaking to current customers and talking to lost prospects. Then you’ll get a good gauge on where pricing sits when your audience is looking to buy. · Functionality-led: As an example, a larger business with a big budget could be looking for features and benefits, they could be time sensitive and be less bothered by price. · Pricing-led: Similarly, smaller businesses or those with lower budgets and impressive growth plans might be heavily swayed by pricing. · Brand-led: Some prospects could already be captured by a brand. If they’ve had a great experience or heard great things, then that could come as a factor over price. Comparing to the market Of course, combining competitor, internal and external data is going to give you a really good footing. A couple of things to look for when snooping on competitor pricing. When: Often overlooked, but when are you competition giving away pricing? Is it up front and visible on their website, or through the sales cycle so they can sell value first. What: On what basis are they charging? Per person, per month, one off. How does this suit your business model? How do you make it easy for prospects to compare two different pricing models? Discounts: Are your competition highly inflating their pricing in order to then discount it? Think about what discounts do to the value perception of your product. Knocking off whole chunks of implementation will have your customers questioning what the value was in the first place. Packaging: You’ll often see packaging up deals in highly scalable Saas businesses. A word of warning here, if you base yourself on being customisable, or your target market has out of the box demands packages like this can undervalue your product. Ultimately, you need to work within your own remits. What are your costs to serve, what margin are you happy with and work it back from there apply your sales and growth targets.