What is a Go-to-Market Strategy?

A go-to-market strategy is a tactical plan detailing how a company plans to execute a successful product release and promotion, and ultimately its sale to customers. Common elements of a product’s go-to-market strategy include:

• Pricing strategy
• Sales tactics and channels
• A planned customer journey map
• Marketing tactics and campaigns
• Budget for product launch and marketing
• Plans for training the sales and customer support teams

Why Should a Product Team Use the Go-to-Market Strategy Framework?

Go-to-market planning can give a product team a tactical blueprint to help ensure they’re addressing all of the external-facing steps they’ll need to take to introduce their new product to the public.

With the right strategy template, a cross-functional product team can make sure it makes the most of its product launch and does not leave any key components of its sales, marketing, or support efforts unaddressed.

What Details Should Be Included in a Go-to-Market Strategy?

An organization might ask itself questions such as:

• What email campaigns will we develop to inform prospects about our new product?

• Which pieces of marketing collateral should we create for this product launch?
  • How and when will we train our sales force on selling the new product?
    • Should we create limited-time promotions to boost early purchases?
      • What PR campaigns will we roll out to increase industry awareness prior to launch?

When they have developed this checklist of questions, the organization can then use this as their go-to-market strategy template for future product launches.

Who is in Charge of a Company’s Go-to-Market Strategy?

Because the tactics used to support a product’s launch are primarily marketing functions — lead generation, brand awareness, promotions, customer outreach, public relations — the go-to-market strategy typically falls under the marketing department.

But that is not to say that the product team should take a passive role when it comes to go-to-market planning. Product management is ultimately responsible for the product’s success or failure in the market, after all, and therefore the product team should work directly with marketing to craft and execute a strategically sound go-to-market strategy for their products.

In fact, if the marketing team does not prioritize go-to-market planning to the degree the product management group believes they should, then the product team itself should take the lead. And if the product team needs a tool to capture and share the high-level details of its go-to-market strategy, the team can even use an app built for product roadmaps.