A modern go-to-market strategy

A modern go-to-market strategy

Traditional thinking on go-to-market strategies involves determining to whom you can sell a particular product and how to reach that market. At last week’s Entrepreneurship 101 lecture, Murray McCaig, managing partner of the MaRS Cleantech Fund, offered a fresh perspective on this topic. He provided insights on considering your go-to-market strategy as an iterative process involving four components.

1. What are you selling?

Your answer to this question should be customer-centric. Focus on the benefits that your product provides to consumers rather than the features of the product themselves, as this will add a personal touch that will resonate better with potential customers.

2. Who are you selling to?

Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of thinking of the market as a giant pie and trying to capture a single slice. Murray stressed that entrepreneurs should break down the market into segments. First, target the segment that fits best with your value proposition and then use the beachhead strategy to tap into others.

3. How will you reach your target market?

For many entrepreneurs, this is the main question that comes to mind when thinking of a go-to-market strategy, when in fact it should only be one part of your overall strategy: your channel strategy. There are many methods you can use to reach your target market and, in his talk, Murray provided tips to help you maximize the efficiency of many common channels.

4. Where will you promote your product?

This portion of the strategy is one that is often overlooked. It’s critical to do your research in order to select the medium for your marketing message that will resonate best with your target market.

The complexity of creating a go-to-market strategy can be daunting, so Murray suggested starting with the component that is the least flexible and then adding the rest of the pieces together around that base.

Find out more tips for creating a successful go-to-market strategy by watching Murray’s full presentation here.

Produced by MaRS.

Next lecture: Sales (B2B) on February 5, 2014.

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