Go To Market Strategy For StartupsRichard TreadwayFebruary 9th, 2017

Designing The Sales Strategy• Importance of business development

• Identifying and creating the right partnerships

• Make the product easy to buy

What segments are accessible ?What selling competencies does my sales team have ?What is the ideal go to market channel ?How does the target customer buy ?

Go To Market Methods

Mar

ketin

g C

ompl

exity

High

Low

Low High

Internet

Resellers

VARs

Direct Sales

Systems Integrators

Solution Complexity

ASP

Crossing the Chasm 9 Point Go To Market Plan

1

Target customer:

2

Compelling reason to buy

3

Whole product:

4

Partners and allies:

5

Sales strategy

6

Pricing

7

Competition:

8

Positioning/messaging:

9

Next target:

What Is Marketing?Marketing is how you tell your story to attract customers, partners, investors, employees and anyone else your company interacts with.  It’s the script that helps users decide if they’ll welcome you into their lives as a staple, nice-to-have or necessary annoyance.  It’s the way that everyone interacts with your brand.  It’s impression, first, last and everything in between. 

Jeff Cutler – Executive Vice President and General Manager, Vitals.com

WERE TO GOWHAT TO SAY

TO WIN

In the Breach

Product Development Sales

Marketing

Marketing – Know Why & For WhatThe Basics

• Positioning• Messaging• Brand - Look & Feel• 50, 100 & 200 word statements• Presentation & Brochure• Social Media Presence• Website

The Outcomes• Revenue• Visibility• Leads

And Then When and how to scale

How Much To Invest In Marketing?

Major Marketing Elements and Channels ELEMENTS• Positioning and Messaging• Pricing and sales Strategy• Brand• Demand gen - Buyers Journey• Asset creation -Success Stories• Public relations• Analyst relations• Competitive analysis • Market research• Events

CHANNELS• Earned media• Payed media• Social media• TV, Radio, Internet• Events• Web• Communities• Associations

The Buyers Journey

Identify needsAssist in researchPrioritize criteriaNurture Leads

• Content should be focused on your buyer’s pain points — not your product or brand

• Build trust as a source of information

CompareJustify

• Focus on the big picture (think “increase revenue” and “return on investment”

• Provide pricing, ROI

SelectPurchaseEvangelize

• Deployment, implementation guides• Customer success stories• Advanced features for more value• Brand evangelists – Word of mouth marketing

Reference: http://www.pardot.com/buyer-journey/

70% of the buyer’s journey is complete before a buyer even reaches out to sales

Feel Good vs. Effective

Brand & Placement

Invest in Your Customers Success

Being One Thing in the Buyer’s Mind

The Importance of Point of View

Social Media Marketing – Viral Effects

• Brand awareness• Better customer relationship• Your passion and stories make

great content• On-line reviews matter• Word spreads fast• Increase sales• Ignoring it may hurt

The Importance of Acting Immediately

TrustEARNED AND OWNED MEDIA REMAIN THE MOST TRUSTED AD FORMATS

The Long Tail

Unique Selling Proposition• Not a vertical segment but REFERENCABLE • Align customer pain with decision maker and money• Size matters and bigger isn’t always better• Create VIRAL effects

What is the essence of why your customers bought ?When & where does the product deliver high value ?Who has that problem ?How can you reach them ?

Product PositioningFor { target customers }

Who are dissatisfied with { Current market alternative }

Our product is a { new product category }

That provides { key problem solved }

Unlike { the product alternatives }

We have assembled { key whole product features for your specific problem }

Value positioning statement

SCOFor the Director of in store processing of large distributed franchisesWho are dissatisfied with the high cost of managing distributed IT infrastructureOur product is an INTEL based in store processorThat provides a robust, flexible, easy to administer platform to automate in store processesUnlike the RISC UNIX alternative that is price prohibitive or the Microsoft INTEL alternative that is unreliableWe have assembled in store solutions that substantially reduce the cost of your distributed IT infrastructure

SCO Unix is reliable, cost effect in store solution

AvantGoFor highly mobile Pharmaceutical Salesmen Who are dissatisfied with the availability of their CRM software in the fieldOur product is a handheld, always on interface to the CRM systemThat provides instant access to customer, product and market data and supports immediate CRM data captureUnlike the current CRM system that is hard to use and unavailableOur system is optimized specifically for highly mobile salesman

AvantGo Mobile Pharma makes your CRM useful

MessagingTag LinePositioning value statement

Attribute / Claim Attribute / Claim Attribute / Claim

• Proof point• Proof point• Proof point

• Proof point• Proof point• Proof point

• Proof point• Proof point• Proof point

OnCommand

Big Data ABCs

• Performance (Volume and Speed)• Data, logic and transaction state in

memory• Performance optimized programming

model

• Business Flexibility• Standard based (BPEL, UDDI, XML)• Comprehensive set of integration points• Model driven

• Lower Cost• Standard commodity hardware• Open systems lower development costs

with High Availability

Industry Positioning• Position you in the Industry

landscape• Basis for analyst engagement• Validate product strategy• Competitive positioning

Gartner MagicQuadrant Rapid consolidation

• IBM – SoftLayer• Century Link - Savvis – Tier 3

Cloud IaaS - 2013

Gartner Magic Quadrant

Cloud IaaS - 2014

Forester Wave

Hybrid Cloud Management Solutions

EXERCISES

Product PositioningFor { target customers }

Who are dissatisfied with { Current market alternative }

Our product is a { new product category }

That provides { key problem solved }

Unlike { the product alternatives }

We have assembled { key whole product features for your specific problem }

Value positioning statement

MessagingTag Line Positioning value statement

Attribute / Claim Attribute / Claim Attribute / Claim

Proof points Proof points Proof points

Richard TreadwayRichard.treadway@gmail.com408 892-0498

Twitter: @richardtreadwayBlog: http://richard-treadway.blogspot.com/