Feeling overwhelmed by market changes and their impact on your GTM?

Okay, so here’s the deal. The past five years have been anything but business as usual. From tech explosions to massive shifts in how we, as consumers, think and act, to global events that threw everyone for a loop—there’s been a lot going on. And if there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that the way businesses reach their customers—through their Go-to-Market (GTM) strategies—has to keep pace with these changes. Otherwise, they’ll find themselves left in the dust.

One could even come to the idea to question the requirement to have a strategy? Let’s be clear – a strategy is a bet on your pathway (hypothesis) to successful sales and cash. Therefore, having no direction and being reactive or opportunistic will in my experience not give you the sustainable growth, that you would like to achieve. As we German would say, you are shooting sparrows with cannons (“mit Kanonen auf Spatzen schiessen”), which will give you some hits, but use your resources up in no time and don’t give you the chance to design and roll out a repeatable playbook.

But enough of the doom and gloom. There are 3 key changes that happened namely rapid shifts in market dynamics, technology advancements and changes in consumer expectations. Let’s dig into it.

1. Global Events: The Unexpected Curveballs

If the last five years were a game of Jenga, COVID-19 was the hand that pulled out the wrong block. The pandemic upended everything, forcing businesses to adapt—fast. It was actually the event, when I first experienced on how we had to throw out our plans in the making for some time and start from scratch. So, this was my personal start of thinking about the concept of agile GTM methodologies.

COVID-19: The Pandemic That Shook the World?

I was new in role responsible for the strategy for our MarTech stack within Business Applications at Microsoft. I was officially based on out of the Redmond (greater Seattle) office, but due private reasons my family was still in Germany finishing the school year. When the offices closed, I quickly made a decision to fly back to my family without knowing that Mr. Trump would close the boarder on me, and I got stuck outside of the US.

Practically overnight, not only my family had to figure out how to operate a 5-person household with 2 working parents overnight in confined spaces plus Mom working crazy night hours, but businesses had to figure out how to operate remotely.

This meant that we needed to adjust our GTM strategies and plans to this new reality – namely what does remote work means for our buyers – the CMO, CRO or COO. ?Microsoft strength with Teams as the collaboration tool was to go hard on the topic in how to sell remotely. Driving customer experience was no longer a top priority in the big pool of potential business value we could drive. Honestly, I saw my hard-fought growth in the category of CX technology within Microsoft going down the drain.

However, looking back, COVID-19 not only nudged digital transformation forward—it shoved it. Businesses that were hesitant about going digital suddenly had no choice. From Teams/Zoom meetings to virtual storefronts, digital became the default. In addition, the pandemic exposed just how fragile global supply chains can be. With disruptions at every turn, businesses had to rethink how they source, manufacture, and deliver products.

Now all these topics had a high impact on customer experience. I cancelled a high end washing machine and dryer, after 6 months delays and the regular monthly email update that the shipment for my order would be delayed for a month. This meant I was back in the game with my product stack, I just had to adjust my GTM accordingly. The question was what which direction to use in the problem description and solution our technology could solve best and can drive value. You can imagine we had to run quickly, and it required several adjustments to our pitch decks not to even discuss how to train our sellers.

Geopolitical Tensions and Trade Wars: The Great Juggling Act

If you thought geopolitics was something only governments had to worry about, think again. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from recent global events, it’s that the world of business doesn’t operate in a vacuum. The Ukraine/Russia war is a stark reminder that geopolitical turmoil can ripple through industries in ways we never imagined. And for SaaS (Software as a Service) businesses, these ripples have turned into waves that are reshaping how they go to market.

The first punch landed when SaaS companies had to pull back or completely exit the Russian and neighboring markets. Thanks to sanctions, political instability, and, let’s be honest, some tough ethical decisions, businesses found themselves waving goodbye to what were once key markets. E.g. Microsoft closed their whole Russia business and offered employees in Russia and Ukraine help to find new roles within Microsoft.

Not only businesses that sold tangible products, but also ?SaaS businesses, the loss has been real—both in terms of revenue and growth potential. Now, it’s all about the hustle to secure new markets. Whether that’s doubling down on existing regions or venturing into new territories, the reorientation is real, and it’s happening fast. Questions about how to adjust your sales quotas by giving relief, regional pricing strategies and how drive growth with sales when people’s mind is actually with friends and families.

The product development side of the house needed to take into consideration. Announcing high markable new functionality to raise awareness and grab market share is an important piece within GTM strategies and plans. Unfortunately Ukraine has long been a go-to spot for tech talent, especially in software development. But the war has thrown this ecosystem into chaos. Developers have been displaced, projects have been delayed, and businesses that relied on Ukrainian talent have had to scramble for alternatives and needed to adjust their whole GTM plans.

2. Technological Tsunamis

Remember when Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) felt like buzzwords? Now, they’re practically the lifeblood of modern business. The launch of ChatGPT and shortly afterwards of Copilot brought the topic of AI back into the forefront of everyone.

Now one can argue that Generative AI is a big hype now like Mixed or Virtual Reality or IoT have been a few years back. However, one can’t turn blind on these technology innovation as they pushing the competitive landscape, buyers’ behavior and spending money. Beside the fact that one should use them to make their own GTM strategies and execution more efficient and effective.

AI and ML: The Brains Behind the Magic

These tech wonders have done more than just automate mundane tasks—they’ve supercharged how companies operate, how they connect with customers, and even how they predict what’s next.

AI-driven automation isn’t just about cutting down on repetitive tasks (although it’s great for that too). It’s about doing it smartly. Think AI-powered chatbots that know exactly when to nudge a customer toward a purchase or virtual assistants that answer questions before you’ve even fully typed them out. These have an impact in your customer journey and how you plan to engage in your sales funnel.

AI automation is in my point of view one of the first really great use cases to make processes more efficient. We actually saw that “old boring use cases” like document automation got hip again in combination with Generative AI. Reason is that companies understand these document automation processes very well and get additional functionality now and can learn about the security and governance aspects of GenAI.

The topic that I find personally super exciting is Machine Learning that turns data from something overwhelming into something actionable. It’s like having a crystal ball that helps businesses see trends before they hit mainstream and adjust their strategies accordingly. Whether it’s predicting what products will fly off the shelves or which customer segment to target next, ML is the secret sauce. For me the topic of micro-segmenting or the segment of 1, that I have written before about, can change your game.

These technology trends have a direct impact on Personalization: Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all. AI and ML have made it possible to offer a personalized experience for every customer, at scale. Whether it’s Netflix suggesting your next binge or Amazon reminding you about the dog food you’re about to run out of, personalization is now expected.

Yes, one needs to be careful – one needs to understand when the customer would like to be reached out and communicated to. It is very easy to overdue to fast and loose the client with it. These are questions one needs to take into consideration when designing the sales orchestration, handover from marketing to sales and when to engage,

Cloud Computing: Floating on Virtual Clouds

Ah, the cloud. It’s no longer a techie buzzword but the backbone of modern business operations. If you’re not in the cloud, you’re in the dark ages—especially after the past few years.

One of the most magical things about the cloud is how it lets businesses scale up or down without the need for massive investments in physical infrastructure. It’s like having a stretchy rubber band that never snaps. On this premise, it was so much easier to build a new technology company and the number of SaaS companies has grown massively.

Revenue, Sales or Marketing Operations, need to understand the swirling landscape of these vendors and when to add another tool to help get more efficient or effective in your GTM execution and how to integrate it in the overall stack to make the marketing, sales and customer success orchestration and execution as seamless as possible. On the MarTech Stack side of the house, we are counting now towards 15k different providers and AI has increased the pace of growth even more.

There was additional technology acceleration like cashless payments or ecommerce that made a high impact on a GTM strategy. There are too many to go into more detail, but I hope you get the picture by now as these might have an impact on your plans for growth and you need to adapt.

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3. Consumer Behavior Shake-Up

If you’re not offering a personalized experience, are you even trying? Today’s consumers expect more than just a generic interaction—they want to feel like you get them, like really get them. And the businesses that nail this are the ones that win.

These consumer expectations spilled over into the B2B area. These buyers, which are consumers in their private time, also increased expectations on how they got sold to while the number of people in the buying centers increased.

So how do deal with this increased complexity and drive clarity for yourself within the GTM, but also in your messaging?

The Personalization Parade

Not by blasting out a generic marketing campaign and hope something sticks. Today, it’s about using data to craft messages that resonate with specific customer segments. Think targeted ads that speak directly to your interests at the point in time, when you are open for it, or emails that feel like they were written just for you.

Personalization isn’t just about marketing—it’s about the sales process and the products themselves. From custom sneakers to skincare regimens tailored to your DNA, companies are figuring out that one-size-fits-all is dead. How do you support these requirements from a strategy perspective to your sales teams?

Or should you even need a sales team? Here we come to the question what the right GTM model is, to be used for your business. Should it be Product-led-Growth (PLG), Sales-Led-Growth (SLG) or the hybrid combination known as Product-Led-Sales (PLS). Should we add some Partner-led-Growth or Channel Sales into the mix. The above-mentioned massive changes in the business environments and trends led to new emerging GTM models and are raising interesting discussion within this community.

I am especially interested to see how Customer-Led-Growth (CLG) will get adopted over the next couple of months. CLG is a strategic approach that emphasizes leveraging customer insights to drive business growth. Unlike traditional growth strategies that may focus primarily on sales or product features, CLG prioritizes understanding and meeting the needs of existing customers to enhance their experience and foster loyalty.

This is in line with personalization topic and pushes being customer centric along the whole customer journey to its maximum.?

There is also a trend where the big SaaS companies are adapting by going down the vertical lane. You might have heard about Industry Clouds. SAP comes into my mind here as they started already more than 20 years ago to have special software for Retail as an example. Microsoft or Salesforce are hot on this topic as are niche vendors, focusing on a vertical niche quite successfully.

Effective GTM strategies must consider the entire customer journey, from acquisition to retention, ensuring a seamless experience that fosters loyalty and upselling opportunities. It is crucial for maintaining relevance in competitive markets to adapt marketing and sales efforts based on real-time feedback and evolving customer needs.

Bringing it to a point: GTM is getting more and more complex while the need for agile adoption is also increasing.

Rewriting the GTM Playbook

With all these changes, it’s clear that the old Go-to-Market (GTM) strategies need a serious update. When it comes to rethinking your GTM strategy, adopting a founder’s mentality can be a game-changer. Founders are inherently scrappy, resilient, and laser-focused on growth, often finding creative solutions to challenges that others might overlook. This mindset is crucial in today’s rapidly shifting market landscape.

So, what does that look like in practice?

1.??????? It’s about staying close to your customers, really understanding their needs, and being willing to make bold, sometimes risky moves to meet those needs head-on.

2.??????? It’s about keeping your vision clear but flexible enough to adapt when the market throws you a curveball.

3.??????? And most importantly, it’s about embracing the hustle—working smarter, not just harder, to keep your business on the cutting edge.

In short, adopting a founder’s mentality in your GTM strategy means being relentless, resourceful, and ready to tackle whatever comes your way all while letting data and smart experimentation drive you forward.

Stay tuned to my next articles, where I will go deeper step by step and unveil the magic that can happen, if implemented in the right way!