How to Create a Go-to-Market Strategy & Plan: Step-by-Step with Templates

To create a GTM strategy, identify a target audience based on market research, determine a value proposition, and define marketing and sales tactics. Your approach to these steps depends on whether you employ a product-led or sales-led growth strategy.

1. Choose a Product-Led or Sales-Led GTM Strategy

The first step in a successful GTM strategy is to decide on the guiding principle for your sales and marketing plans. A product-led strategy is often the best choice for B2C and software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies with a simple user experience. A sales-led strategy works well for B2B companies with dynamic solutions, as it ensures that customers understand how to get the most out of the product.
 

Rex Huxford, Director of Demand Generation at MD Clarity, advises considering the particular strengths of your company and offerings. “Sales-led strategies focus on relationship-building to push customers to convert, while product-led strategies work by leveraging the product itself to pull customers to convert. Typically, sales-led works best when products are more complex, while intuitive or freemium product models better suit product-led strategies,” he says.

To make your decision, consider the different features of product-led and sales-led GTM strategies:
 

You can also create a hybrid strategy that borrows from both product-led and sales-led strategies to meet the needs of your specific product or market space.
 

In fact, the best strategy for your launch may be somewhere in-between, as Mandy Idol, Co-Founder and Chief Marketing Officer at Indigo Collective Group, suggests. “Both approaches have their merits, and the optimal GTM strategy depends on factors such as target market, competitive landscape, product complexity, and organizational strengths,” she says. “Finding the right balance between sales-led and product-led elements is key to achieving sustainable growth and market success.”

2. Analyze Market Research

It’s important to begin with data-backed insights that shed light on the competitive landscape, your customer demographics, and how your audience will relate to the new product or service. You might engage a third-party research group to gather data, or conduct surveys and focus groups to understand opportunities, pain points, and how to make your product stand out. 
 

Laura Robison, the Founder and Marketing Consultant at GainKite, contends that research is the first step to understanding both your customer and your competitors. “You need to understand exactly what your customers need and build to that,” she advises. By analyzing the competitive landscape, you’ll also define “where your product fits into the marketplace and how it’s differentiated. You’ll need to do some competitor analysis to arrive at a market position that stands out from the noise,” she adds. 

Consider using a competitive analysis template to organize your research and make sense of its takeaways.

3. Identify a Target Market and Create a Customer Profile

A clear target audience informs every element of your GTM strategy. Using the insights from your market research, create an ideal customer profile (ICP) to understand who has the buying power and how to reach them. Segment your market to reach specific customers, and develop detailed personas to concretize your insights.

“The ideal customer profile is arguably the most important part of your GTM strategy because if you get that profile wrong, every strategy and tactic built around it won’t align with real customer needs, pain points, and preferences,” Huxford says. “If you don’t know who the ideal customers are, you can’t possibly sell to them effectively.”

For general or product-led GTM strategies, a comprehensive customer profile template can help you evaluate your target audience and determine appropriate marketing tactics to reach individual buyers or users. For sales-led GTM strategies, there might be a more complex buying center made up of multiple decision-makers. It’s important to understand the role each individual plays, as well as their individual pain points, in order to strategize effectively. Use a B2B ideal customer profile template to develop your target business and profile the individuals within it.

4. Define a Value Proposition

In order to differentiate your product or service in the market, you need to develop a compelling value proposition. First, clearly articulate what makes your offering unique and why it is superior to competing solutions. Focus on the specific benefits that resonate most with your target audience, and ensure that your value proposition addresses real customer pain points and needs.

Consider not only the functional attributes of your product or service, but also the emotional rewards and broader impact it offers. Whether it will save time, reduce costs, improve efficiency, or enhance quality of life, your value proposition should be concise, specific, and powerful. Feature it prominently in marketing materials and sales pitches, and use it to form your core, customer-facing message about what sets your company apart.

Use a value proposition checklist to ensure you communicate the right benefits to your customers.

5. Map the Buyer’s Journey

Map the buyer’s journey to understand which marketing and sales touchpoints to leverage. There are two main models used to illustrate the typical buyer’s journey: the funnel and the flywheel. The funnel is a more traditional approach that aligns best with a sales-led GTM strategy. The flywheel is a newer model that represents a product-led buyer’s journey.

The top of the sales funnel — Awareness — represents qualified leads who are aware of the product or service through marketing or sales efforts. At the middle of the funnel, in the Interest and Desire stages, the buyer has expressed interest and been in contact with a member of the sales team. Sales representatives aim to drive a conversion and move the buyer into the bottom of the funnel (Action).

While the funnel focuses on converting leads to customers, the flywheel model depicts a cyclical buyer’s journey that continues after a single sale. In the first phase, you attract potential customers to your product — with inbound marketing strategies, for example — and transition them from strangers to prospects. In the next phase, prospects engage with the product’s features and launch the sales process to convert them into customers. By delighting customers with your product’s features, you’ll turn them into promoters, who help you attract new prospects.
 

Elaine Chen, Founder of marketing consultancy Excogita, recommends the flywheel approach as a way to build long-term customers. “You shouldn't think of GTM as getting customers to make a one-time purchase, but rather starting an ongoing relationship with customers who will hopefully remain loyal over the years,” she says.

6. Develop Sales Strategies

The basic goal of any GTM strategy is to sell your product — and to do that, you need to consider all the facets of your sales process. Begin with a competitive pricing strategy, which could involve tiered pricing for different features. Determine a distribution strategy that covers where customers will find your product and make a purchase. Finally, decide on a sales process that aligns with your resources.

The four main GTM sales models are defined below:
 

• Self-Service Sales: With a self-service sales model, customers find and purchase a product on their own, either directly from the company or through a third-party retailer. 
• Inside Sales: An inside sales model relies on a team of in-house sales representatives to nurture prospects and convert them into customers. Sales representatives typically use technology such as customer relationship management (CRM) software, email automation tools, and sales enablement platforms to nurture leads over a longer sales cycle.
• Field Sales: A field sales model employs a team of sales representatives who are assigned distinct geographic territories and interact directly with customers to drive conversions.
• Channel Sales: In a channel sales model, your company will partner with third parties to sell your product or service. The sales team focuses on stocking the product with distributors, resellers, agents, or other businesses, rather than selling directly to end customers.
   

In sales-led GTM strategies, inside sales and field sales are the most effective models. Representatives can align their sales process with the buyer’s journey to move prospects through the sales pipeline.
 

Product-led sales strategies should also align with the customer journey through the flywheel. The sales process must include the right tools to retain customers at each stage of the cycle — without direct contact from a sales representative.

7. Determine Marketing Channels

Decide what marketing channels will help you best reach your target audience. The right channels will depend on both your customer and your brand’s overarching marketing strategy. Use a  marketing strategy template to develop a coherent marketing strategy for your brand and highlight specific channels for your GTM strategy.

Marketing is particularly important in a product-led GTM strategy, since it might be the way customers interact with your brand the most. Educational or content marketing helps users understand and get the most out of your product, while social media offers a place to engage with the brand personality and view success stories. Email marketing with automated nurturing sequences helps guide trial users to conversion.

With a sales-led GTM strategy, your marketing team might focus on supporting the sales efforts with account-based marketing (ABM) that resonates with specific prospects’ needs and pain points. Broader campaigns might use webinars, conferences, and live demos to introduce a new product or feature to the target audience.

Learn more about managing a marketing campaign — and the tools that can help you — in our comprehensive guide.

8. Align Stakeholders

A strong GTM strategy involves multiple teams across the company, from product development to customer support. Present your strategy to everyone who will be involved, so you can align stakeholders across marketing, sales, product, and customer support teams. Ask for feedback and fine-tune your strategy before putting it into action. 

“When creating a GTM strategy, it's crucial to prioritize alignment between sales, marketing, and product teams to ensure seamless execution and consistent messaging,” Idol says.

“Your sales and customer support teams should feel both prepared and excited for your launch,” Robison adds. “Don’t put them in a position where they’re learning things from customers and have to respond flat-footed. Build anticipation internally and educate your teams so that they can influence success.”

Consider using a GTM strategy presentation template to streamline your strategy to present it clearly and focus on the high-level elements. 

9. Run Tests to Optimize Strategies

Before you execute your GTM strategy on a large scale, run tests using online surveys, focus groups, or A/B testing with segmented targeting to ensure your message will reach your audience. Consider testing versions of your value proposition, marketing channels, or product features. Collect data on which channels and messages are most effective in converting your target audience, so you can adapt if necessary before writing your GTM plan.

“Make sure to include testing and optimization as part of your strategy,” Chen says. “Things will never go exactly as expected even with the best GTM plan, and you need to retain flexibility so you can continue to grow and improve.”