Reduce Uncertainty of your GTM

Your GTM is based on your understanding of your future buyers...how sure are you?

Some time ago, I was working with a client who had initially achieved great growth to their first $2M. Prior to my involvement, they had clear alignment with their buyers (product/market fit) and were busy building a more robust GTM and product.? Over the ensuing six months however, their results began to recede and flatten.?

I was there to help them look for the challenges causing the loss of momentum.?I noticed a rather common symptom:

While prospects continued to “have the problem,” it appeared to be muddled with other priorities. The prospects all seemed to “get the value pitch” but the motivation to “do something new about it” was missing. This was an all to common problem;? I had struggled with this before, as a CRO with multiple startups.

At the exact same time, a good friend in the industry suggested I help them “re-confirm what the buyers need now.” That was a pivotal moment.?

Did my client understand “today’s buyer”? Did priorities shift on them? Could this be contributing to deals stalling and going nowhere?

Within weeks, we discovered that the “buyer’s priorities” they knew to be true six months earlier had changed - the #1 buyer issue (their #1 selling point) had dropped to the #4 most important buyer issue. For more than two quarters, ALL of the GTM outreach (prospecting, content, sales calls, events, customer messaging) was highlighting the buyer’s “4th most critical need.”?

No one buys technology to fix their 4th most critical need.?

All that GTM effort ($) failed to recognize what had become a priority.? They had lost their market alignment and did not realize it soon enough.

The market you are chasing, the buyers within it, the solutions that will get funded, are all rapidly changing. The economic landscape and AI are two massive examples of recent market influencers shifting priorities for almost everyone.

Current, specific and objective knowledge about your future market and future buyers will help effectively differentiate your solution and align to buyer needs.

One essential set of questions you must ask should include the following:

1. Do we have a current (<90 days), unbiased and prioritized list of the problems facing our buyers??

2. Where does “the problem we solve” rank in their current list of priorities and minds now????

3. How has the list and ranking of problems changed recently? Why?

4. How can I use the new reality to tune my GTM over the next three months?

5. How can I use the new reality to adjust my product roadmap?

There are a dozen or more of these types of questions that need to be asked and answered - answered not by fans. If you are off-track for too long, you are burning GTM resources.

For the company, it was a very critical realization…but months late in their case, that cost irreplaceable time and money.??

Don’t run your expensive GTM engine too long before confirming it matches what future buyers want now.? Find current market insights.

P.S.? Beware of the echo chamber that forms within every company, composed of us listening to our own stories…how great we are.? Even customers (especially the ones that love us) tell us what we want to hear. Seek the most objective opinions you can find.?