Use these key business metrics when you develop a Go-to-Market strategy: Expert Insights from Shawn M. DeVries

I’m thrilled to share this week’s newsletter featuring insights from Shawn M. DeVries, Founder of Budbreak Growth.?

Shawn and I connected over our shared passion for empathy in sales, and his expertise in sustainable growth and profitability is a game-changer.

Here’s Shawn’s advice on the key business metrics you should focus on when developing your Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy:

While every industry is a bit different, there are three common steps that every owner, founder, CEO and business leader should review every year to be laser focused on the key activities that drive annual growth.

This is my general approach to starting a conversation on GTM strategy through the lens of sales and marketing collaborating together to achieve this annual growth, and make adjustments as necessary to stay on track.

Note: if you are just getting your company off the ground and don't have a long list of case studies or testimonials, totally fine.

For startups, this activity becomes more of a business hypothesis exercise based on your best guess of your "product-market fit" (PMF).

If you are a 100% services company, it may be worth viewing your services through the lens of the ideal buyer journey.

Can you bundle your services up in such a way that it appears to be an easy-to-select product to a buyer?

This very high-level and simplified three-step annual exercise will help a B2B company put their full energy behind where they have the best chance to win AND have the best chance to achieve sustainable profitability.

First: Document where you have a right to win business based on your recent 3-5 past wins.

Success can be classified as winning in a particular industry, within a business function across multiple industries (like HR or finance), or influencing individual purchase decisions if selling to the consumer market.

This is your realistic target market and where you should spend your most time and resources.

Once you've written down where you have a right to win, ensure that all of your external messaging, branding, and content represents this space. Everything else should serve this core messaging.

Your competitive market is where you compete (customer firmographic data if B2B), the problems you solve (your value), and for whom you solve them (your buying persona).

When a CEO/founder activates resources around the "right to win" go-to-market messaging, they are putting themselves and their growth team in a position to tell the most compelling stories that help them win the right kind of business.

Second:? Set an aspirational sales quota, defined as the annual contract value of your signed customers.?

The reason for setting a sales quota is to have an aggressive but achievable sales target over a set period of time, usually one calendar year.

This number also allows you to track progress against those goals at a frequency that makes the most sense, like quarterly and monthly sales targets.

If you are in the technology product or services space, multiply this sales quota by 80%. Why this amount? Because 80% is historically realistic, achievable, and represents a percentage of quota attainment that the top 10 companies in technology are able to hit.

Not all industries are created equally, of course, and we would all love to exceed our sales quota, but when planning for growth it starts with our ability to consistently hit our sales targets.

From sales comes revenue, and from revenue comes a foundation for calculating operating profit or EBITDA.

Third: Do the important work to measure how well your business is tracking against the Rule of 40 year-over-year, a concept made popular in 2015 by venture capitalists Brad Feld and Fred Wilson.

While this rule was published with SaaS companies in mind and against the backdrop of annual recurring revenue, it's an excellent means for any company to balance profit and growth.?

The Rule of 40, originally known as the Rule of 40%, dictates that sustainable growth can be achieved if your company has a combined value of 40% when you add your annual recurring revenue (ARR) growth to your operating profit (OP or EBITDA, for your accounting folks).

For example, if your annual profit is 17% and your annual revenue growth is 20%, you are slightly under the ideal target at 37%.

Why 40%? This growth amount provides your company with the excess capital to reinvest in the business and some breathing room to make bigger bets over time on: new growth markets, a channel sales strategy, or any combination of innovations.

These metrics are essential for aligning your sales and marketing efforts and achieving long-term success.

What strategies have you found effective in your Go-to-Market planning? Share your thoughts and experiences!

To learn more about Shawn connect with him: (https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/shawndevries/)

And also visit Budbreak Growth (https://budbrk.com).