Thought I’d speak to why I’m calling myself a “go-to-market” consultant as opposed to a “marketing consultant.” One of the major learnings I had in my previous job is that building new revenue, whether from new clients or expanding existing accounts, cannot be done in a siloed organization with each business unit looking at its own data, optimizing within their own bubble, with outcomes that are scrutinized consistently at the departmental level (or potentially not scrutinized at all).
Without standardized (and complete) data across the organization, and one single source of truth for all GTM data, it’s nearly impossible to break free of the department level micro optimizations. I see the entire budget that’s dedicated to producing new revenue as a single investment, and as such the strategic decisions and return on this investment should be looked at in the context of the greater business. Not to mention changing buyer behaviors necessitate the need for a more holistic GTM strategy that’s adaptable, customer-centric, and informed by realtime data. Easier said than done when you’re having trouble simply making sure that deals have associated contacts/companies, opportunities have sources, and there’s a culture of accountability to clean and complete data.
Changing Customer Behaviors
Having sat in the VP of Marketing seat, I can speak firsthand to the need for a shift from marketing, product and sales operating in silos vs. the unlock that thinking more holistically about GTM provides. From choosing the tech stack to setting top down KPI’s, It’s hard to overstate the importance of understanding the changing behaviors B2B buyers (and likely B2C), who now prefer a more digital, self-directed exploration of solutions rather than being directly sold to. Today’s buyers are increasingly digital native or at least digital savvy, preferring to do the bulk of their research, compare options, seek out recommendations prior to reaching out to your company directly (making the investment in your website and associated collateral that much more important).
A recent Forrester study found that “A generational shift is underway in B2B buying,” and that Millennials and Gen Zers had “become the majority of B2B guys at 64%. One year later, our annual survey showed that the share had climbed to 71%.” The shift is undeniable, how you respond to it is going to have a significant impact on business outcomes. A Forrester report (from 2020!) stated “today’s customer journey is rarely linear and often spans multiple years, devices, and touchpoints,” emphasizing the the need from a funnel based approach to a more holistic continuous lifecycle management. I can only imagine that this is more relevant than ever 4 years later.
Rewind the clock 10-15 years, and buyers had almost none of the self-directed tools at their disposal; Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, company websites, and social media were either non-existent or not the digital engagement tools that they are today. If you wanted to learn about a new product, you might be able to find an online catalog or have a few peers you could reach out to, compared to today’s landscape with hundreds of possible sources of information. Even 10 years ago you had to go to trade shows to discover and learn about new products, whereas now you can pop on a (often prerecorded) webinar and get the same information, without leaving your living room.
Bottom line, with buyers being more informed, connected and empowered than ever before, businesses cannot rely on the old playbook of broad-stroke marketing campaigns or many of the sales tactics that were effective even as recently as 4-5 years ago. Personalization (beyond just a first name on an email) are more of a necessity than ever, and integrated departments are able to facilitate a deeper level of customer insight and personalized campaigns.
Demolishing Silos
To respond to the changing buyer behavior, focusing or optimizing business units in isolation is ineffective and misguided. Siloed organizations tend to have disjointed data, where marketing, sales and product are all looking at different numbers, scrutinized with different measurements, with outcomes that are attributed to whatever data tells the most favorable story for the specific department.
Take events for example, often one of the largest line items on a company budget. If a company has multiple departments, all with their own budgets, and with no company-wide visibility into all of the event expenditures, and the subsequent outcome of these events, it’s virtually impossible to understand what’s a good investment vs. what’s a waste of resources. Instead, if you were to pull back and look at the entire GTM budget as one bucket (sure, everyone can have their own discretionary budget, it just needs to be looked at as part of the whole), you’d be able to easily understand how much of the total budget is being spent on events, and (theoretically) being able to measure the outcomes of these investments.
As it is now, many businesses are under the assumption that if they don’t do such and such tradeshow that their customers will think they’ve gone out of business, or flock to a competitor, when the reality is that you could have a weekly webinar that would get you in front of prospective customers weekly as opposed to seeing you once a year at the conference you’ve been going to for the past 5 years.
According to a McKinsey & Company report, “65% of customers engage with a brand through multiple channels, often switching between them during their journey, indicating a non-linear path.”
To respond to the changes in the buyer’s journey effectively, sales and marketing functions can no longer operate in silos. Having a unified GTM strategy ensures consistent messaging and a seamless customer journey, all the way from warm lead to purchase and then leveraging customer experience to help expand accounts. When departments are siloed, it leads to a fragmented customer experiences, inconsistent messaging, and inefficient use of time and moolah.
Having Good (and connected) Data
While transitioning to a GTM strategy that reflects the changes in the buying journey requires a more integrated approach between sales, marketing, product and customer success, it also requires a commitment to having clean and complete data. At the core of a GTM driven strategy is the streamlining and optimization of how a company reaches and serves its customers, focusing on a unified customer experience across all touchpoints. A virtually impossible task without good cross departmental data.
One of the results of siloed departments is siloed decision making, with each department making major tech updates that are optimized for their specific needs. For example, HR and finance may choose an ERP with excellent features for HR and finance, but it may not integrate with the CRM or it may require significant implementation resources. Imagine having an ERP that doesn’t talk to your CRM, causing a complete black hole with respect to closed won deals (once they’re in the ERP those contacts that are decision makers don’t make it to the ERP and are now mostly related to accounts payable or other non-buying decision roles), giving you absolutely no idea as to the LTV of a particular account. I’ve seen first hand the implications of departmentalized goals and metrics, incomplete and untrustworthy data, a lack of shared goals and KPI’s (or no KPI’s) and the detrimental effect of any one department’s ability to have a significant impact on revenue generation.
The need for data integrity can’t be overstated, but it’s also worth stepping back to consider what data should even be measured, why to measure it, and from a technical standpoint how it’s going to be measured. While we’re still early to the impact that AI will have on data analytics, revenue forecasting and workflow optimization, having good data practices will set a proper foundation for the next generation of tools, automation and workflows. In the meantime having good data enables enhanced decision making, improved customer insights, and increased operational efficiency.
GTM Strategy as the Unlock for Exponential Growth
I didn’t choose GTM consulting because it’s the hot new term or because the marketing consultant space is highly competitive (I’m sure GTM is as well). I chose to focus on GTM because I’ve lived it for the better part of a decade, and seen the limitations that fragmented data and systems place on growth. When you only have visibility into your own slice of the budget, it’s nearly impossible to understand what campaigns are working, and more generally to execute a cohesive and effective GTM strategy.
Focusing on GTM, instead of marketing or sales, is a strategic decision born out of experience and a recognition that as customer buying behavior changes so should our processes and ability to make informed decisions that can only be achieved through shared data and insights. A GTM approach is inherently designed to be agile and responsive to market changes, and when executed correctly businesses can quickly adapt their strategies in response to new opportunities, competitive threats and customer feedback. What’s more, when looking at your business through a GTM focused lens, you should be able to achieve more with existing resources by eliminating redundancies, improving cross-functional collaboration, and ensuring that everyone is working towards common business objectives.
A Forrester study commissioned by Salesforce found that “95% of high-performing marketing leaders have prioritized go-to-market integration as a top strategy” with the same study showing that “high go-to-market integrations correlates with 27% faster revenue growth.” Needless to say, GTM is on the minds of revenue executives, and instead of optimizing the color of a CTA button to achieve a .7% increase in CTR, focusing on the macro of GTM has the ability to make major gains in new revenue.
We’ve now come full circle back to my tagline of “exponential growth is not achieved through incremental processes and tactics.” Sure, you may be able to optimize certain aspects of your business at the departmental level, but to achieve exponential growth requires looking at your entire GTM strategy, and optimizing at the operating model level instead of the campaign level. By aligning resources with the most significant opportunities and personalizing messaging/content, companies can efficiently scale their growth, fast forward innovation, and maintain a competitive advantage.
So, that’s the why. In my next piece I’ll spend more time talking about the how. From a technical level, many CRM’s (especially those that are not on an enterprise plan) aren’t set up to execute a GTM strategy. There are definitely workarounds, and ways to use contact/campaign properties (or other) as a cross functional means of achieving a holistic GTM strategy, but it’s likely going to take some level of technical knowledge to implement. For those businesses that are just dipping their toes into a CRM, use a niche CRM for their industry, or don’t use a CRM at all, developing an effective GTM strategy is a bit more difficult but still doable.
That’s where I come in – give me a holler if you’d like to discuss in more detail.
