We recently launched our latest State of Go-To-Market Report, which details the current GTM landscape according to our community of GTM professionals.
From these insights we’re highlighting the biggest challenges GTM pros are facing and how your team can overcome them in the next year.
Download the full reportWe cover:
- The biggest challenges
- The most important GTM elements
- How to overcome these challenges
The biggest challenges in the Go-to-Market process
As part of our research, we distilled the challenges our survey takers reported down to three core themes.
The following were the three most common themes for the challenges GTM professionals face:
- Achieving alignment
- Getting buy-in
- Reaching the intended target audience
Let’s discuss each in turn and elaborate on these challenges using our respondents’ own words.
Achieving alignment
25.5% of our survey takers reported that achieving alignment with stakeholders was the biggest challenge they faced.
“Aligning departments”, “aligning administrative processes”, and “aligning teams and roles with clear expectations and swim lanes” were just three of the alignment-focused challenges we heard about from our respondents.
Luckily, some of our respondents also provided their advice for effective communication with stakeholders:
“Over-communicate with stakeholders.”
“Set a process for how you work and communicate to your PM the minimum information you need from them.”
Tanwistha Gope
Getting buy-in
9.8% of respondents mentioned their challenges with getting buy-in from other teams was the biggest challenge. Without the support of other teams around the business, you’ll struggle to bring a product to market successfully.
While that might sound obvious, there are a few ways this can manifest in organizations. It might take the form, as one survey respondent put it, of “sales (not) making the time to learn new features.”
Or, in the words of another respondent, “lack of effective communication across departments can damage your launch strategy. This becomes a real problem when you don’t have buy-in from members of those teams.”
Some advice on achieving this buy-in was also provided by fellow respondents:
“Align and get buy-in on the value proposition, messaging, and target market for each launch.”
“Sell GTM strategy to all stakeholders – everyone needs to be bought in.”
Reaching the intended audience
Finally, 6.9% of the answers we received mentioned difficulties with reaching the intended target audience.
One respondent’s detailed answer to this question gave some great insight into this particular challenge:
“The biggest challenge in the Go-to-Market process is effectively reaching and engaging the target audience. This requires identifying the right channels and tactics, developing compelling messaging and positioning, and executing a well-coordinated and data-driven approach.
“The challenge is amplified by a crowded market, diverse customer needs, and changing market conditions, making it difficult to stand out and adapt over time.”
To combat this challenge, our community suggests focusing on creating a deep understanding of your customer. Here’s some of that advice:
“Check you are solving a problem that people want to pay for.”
“Start with a deep understanding of your target audience and their needs. By putting the customer at the center of your approach, you can increase the likelihood of success.”
A VP Marketing’s perspective:
Sunny Singh, Vice President of Marketing at ViuHealth, shared some challenges he faces in his go-to-market process:
“With data everywhere, it's easy to get caught up in overanalyzing every metric, trend, and market shift.
“While data is critical, overreliance on it can slow down decision-making and lead to missed opportunities. The key is to find a balance between being data-informed and trusting your gut.
“Another challenge is differentiation. Standing out in competitive markets is tough, so we’re always refining our messaging and value proposition.
“We actively provide feedback to our product team and collaborate closely with our Care Team and customer success to ensure that what we offer truly resonates with our target audience.”
Amelia Wilson
The most important elements of GTM
According to our survey respondents, these are the most important factors for an effective Go-to-Market process:
- Alignment and buy-in – 33.3%
- Clearly defined strategies – 21.6%
- Cross-functional collaboration and communication – 19.6%
- Understanding of the customer – 13.7%
- Planning and project management – 9.8%
We asked Jon Pipek, Founder of Blue Manta Consulting, about the prevalence of alignment as a critical factor for GTM success, here’s what he had to say:
“Literally nothing matters if the team isn't aligned.
“If you're the product marketer, you could come up with a fantastic positioning workshop exercise, but if the CEO doesn't care, you're sunk.
“Even if you get the CEO's buy-in, if the sales team and marketing team aren't aligned with that messaging, you're sunk.
“If that positioning doesn't turn into a sales pitch that the sales team will actually use, you're sunk.
“It's all an interconnected web, where if one piece fails, the rest doesn't matter. It all hinges on your other teams for success.
“Because it's not just about creation, radiation, it's not just about execution, it's not just about measurement of the results, it's the entire combination. So, yeah, this result completely makes sense to me.”
Overcoming go-to-market challenges
Now that we understand the most common challenges and the most important elements associated with the GTM process, we can start to solve these challenges.
Alignment and buy-in
As we’ve explored, alignment and buy-in are the most important GTM elements, while also being the top two biggest challenges go-to-market pros face.
To improve your GTM team’s cross-functional alignment it’s important to clearly communicate at every step of the process.
Some ways to ensure better communication include:
- Regular cross-functional meetings
- Shared CRM data
- Aligning on your ICP or buyer persona.
- Cross-functional team shares.
- An async updates channel.
- Established KPIs that span across departments.
Here’s some advice from Nicole Wight, Sr. Director of Product Marketing and Revenue Enablement at AudioEye, on achieving alignment using the DACI model:
“Before I do any big documentation, I use a Go-to-Market template that I've built in line with what works for our company.
“It's basically a table that follows the DACI model (Driver, Approver, Contributor, Informed), and lists those people, their role, and they have to sign off and review it with a date.
“Doing that early and making sure your manager and your SKIP level, at the very least, are bought in on who the DACI is really helps.
“Typically, you're the driver for the Go-to-Market, but then you have your list of approvers. You make sure you get these approvers bought in early for feedback.
“You have your contributors, who may be other product marketers, or maybe a communications team that's going to help adjust messaging for external customers.
“Then you're going to have your informed people; the people you need to make aware of the things you do, because it's going to impact their team.”
Understanding your customers
While discussing alignment, we mentioned being clear on your product’s ICP or buyer persona. This is also essential for understanding your customers and reaching your intended audience.
To start out, your marketing team will segment your target audience into similar groups of consumers based on demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral characteristics.
Then your organization can select the target segment your product or service will be targeted towards. You can then take all this information about them and create your buyer persona.
This may include:
- Age, job title, industry.
- Pain points and challenges.
- Business goals.
Your customer persona should be as detailed as possible, as they’ll help your team to imagine your ideal customer and talk directly to them.
“Getting laser-focused on our true ICP from the start is paramount across product, marketing, and sales. Otherwise, we're just throwing darts in the dark.” – Sandeep John, Head of Marketing at Prismforce.
Differentiation and messaging
Once you’re in the head of your customers, crafting your product messaging and communicating the value your brand offers is much easier.
But you’ll likely also need to align with your product management team to ensure you understand what features your customers have been asking for, and how they’ll be used.
Likely, you won’t get your positioning and messaging right the first time around though. That’s why it’s crucial to keep iterating and refining your strategy based on customer feedback.
As one of our respondents said:
“Fail fast and really understand your customers.”
To create the perfect product messaging there are two key steps: demonstrating your product’s value and understanding your customers. Once you master both, crafting the ideal messaging to resonate with your audience should be a breeze.
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