When coming up with a Go-to-Market strategy, it’s crucial to lay out all the steps and gather all relevant stakeholders to effectively and successfully conduct any product launch or campaign.
From laying out the foundation of your strategy to ensuring all parts of the launch process are clear, it might seem there’s a lot to tackle before getting a project underway. So, how exactly do you work around this?
As with most teams - whether sales, customer success or marketing - a dedicated team manager might help solve problems by providing much needed know-how and expertise.
Your Go-to-Market team is no different, and a Go-to-Market manager might be what’s missing if you find streamlining and actioning your product launch a bit tricky.
Hear us out on why you need a GTM manager.
What is a Go-to-Market manager?
Say you’ve got a brilliant new idea, service or product you want to launch as soon as possible. You have a vision of what you’d like to do but the path there seems a bit obscure.
Enter the Go-to-Market manager.
From knowing how to collaborate effectively with different teams to leading cross-functional go-to-market strategies, Go-to-Market managers can facilitate the overall product launch process from start to finish. As well, these managers serve as points of communication for other members or stakeholders, encouraging active collaboration across the board.
If you’re wondering what a GTM manager does, well, we’ll get into the details of what exactly this role entails and why this expert knowledge is essential for achieving team-wide goals.
What does a Go-to-Market manager do?
A GTM manager will be familiarized with the backbone of an efficient go-to-market strategy, from product messaging to the appropriate sales campaigns. GTM managers can guide your team through every step of your new service or product launch by carrying out the following key responsibilities:
- Conduct market and customer research
- Product positioning
- Identify the right target audience
- Establish a pricing or sales strategy
- The overall branding
- Sales enablement
- Determine the right distribution channels
- Launch planning
- Oversee all relevant marketing campaigns
- Track progress through metrics and data
- Gather customer insights
- Collaborate with a cross-functional GTM team
We’re breaking down the specifics of each responsibility so you can get a better idea of why a GTM manager is important for the success of any GTM strategy.
Conduct market and customer research
As a first step to any GTM strategy, it’s imperative to know your customer base and what your product or service does to meet your customers’ specific needs. Without understanding who your product or service is for, your GTM strategy could be off to a wobbly start! A GTM manager should conduct the appropriate market research to understand where your new product stands and who it serves.
We can break this part of the process into two essential steps: product positioning and researching target audience.
Product positioning
Determining what your product or service will do in a competitive landscape is as important as understanding your customers’ needs. That is, it’s useful to determine how the product or service should be positioned in the market to differentiate it from competitors and resonate with target customers.
Identify the right target audience
Whether through establishing buyer personas or customer segmentation, pin pointing the “who” of your strategy will set your team up for success. An important part of this step is to know your customers’ pain points to better address how exactly your product will help.
Establish a pricing or sales strategy
This requires collaboration with pricing teams to establish competitive pricing strategies that align with market demand as well as company goals.
The overall branding
Another key step is to develop compelling messaging that speaks to your customer base. In other words, develop branding strategies that communicate the product's value proposition and benefits effectively to the target audience.
Sales enablement
Success in and for this step depends on equipping the sales team with the necessary tools, training, and resources to effectively sell the product. This includes - for example - sales collateral, presentations, and training programs to build trust with your sales team on what your product or service is all about.
Determine the right distribution channels
When it comes to managing channel relationships, the best approach is to determine the most suitable distribution channels. Whether through direct sales or online platforms, the goal is to reach customers.
Launch planning
Establishing timelines, milestones and promotional activities is crucial to the development and, ultimately, execution of any effective launch plan.
Oversee all relevant marketing campaigns
When it comes to promoting a new product launch, the GTM manager will oversee the creation and execution of marketing campaigns to create awareness and demand for the product, using various channels (digital marketing, advertising, and events).
Track progress through metrics and data
Progress and success depend on your strategy - how clear it is, if KPIs have been communicated and if the right teams are on board. For this, your GTM manager needs to define key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of the Go-to-Market strategy, and regularly analyze data to make informed adjustments as needed.
Gather customer insights
Essentially, a product needs its customer base, and a Go-to-Market manager’s responsibility is to listen closely to what customers need and adapt any existing strategy to that. This step involves gathering feedback from customers, sales teams, and other stakeholders to refine the go-to-market approach and improve the product or service.
Collaborate with a cross-functional GTM team
Whether pre or post-launch, collaborating closely with various teams within the organization - including product development, sales, marketing, and customer support - ensures your project will succeed.
Ultimately, your Go-to-Market team relies on a manager who can successfully adapt to the ever-changing needs of a customer base.
If you want advice from GTM experts themselves or fresh content related to all things GTM, sign up to our GTM Slack community! Or, why not have a look at our Cross-Functional Go-to-Market Playbook?
