Go-to-market Strategy: Understanding the Why and the Who

In my previous article, I explained what the principles of the New Market GTM Framework were, and what makes them different from other GTM frameworks online.

If you haven't read it (you should!), here's a summary:

Most people jump straight into marketing and totally forget about the market. Before you create your value proposition or any tactical channel execution, it is important to take a few weeks to build out a strong go-to-market strategy.

This starts with a clear understanding of the market you’re entering. It’s not just about identifying customers—it’s about finding the right customers and solving their most pressing problems.

Defining the Problem: What is the Urgent and Persistent Pain Point?

Customers don’t buy products; they buy solutions. If your product or service doesn’t address a specific, persistent problem, you’re going to have a tough time selling it.

Some examples of companies that have gotten it right:

• Revolut solved the problem of expensive and inconvenient financial transactions, especially for international transfers and currency exchanges, by offering low-cost, real-time exchanges at interbank rates. 

• Slack identified the chaos of scattered workplace communication and offered a centralised platform to fix it.

  
  

  Fun fact: did you know that Slack started out as an internal communications tool for a video game called Glitch? The video game flopped, but the tool presented a solution to a real problem in the market. The company quickly pivoted their product offering, found Product-Market Fit fast (8,000 sign ups in the first day!) and rose to $1BN valuation in just 8 months. Listen to the Masters of Scale podcast with Stuart Butterfield, Slack's CEO and Co-Founder - which is still one of my favourite episodes of one of my favourite podcasts.

I've worked in many companies where product decisions were made without consulting a single customer or prospect. Products are developed based on what internal teams (usually someone in senior management or a Product Manager) thought the market needed. I'm sure I'm not alone.

What happens next?

a) Marketing gets called in just before the product gets launched to try to position the solution and create demand for the product, potentially creating a haphazard, generic campaign.

b) Sales learns of the launch last minute through some Slack message, or an email with a pitch deck without training or consultation. That could even be a better outcome than no enablement tools at all, or finding out from a customer (or a partner, or the website!).

c) Product adoption is slow-to-non-existent, and companies spend tons of resources finding out why.

The solution is fairly simple: Start by interviewing potential and existing customers, conducting surveys, or analysing market data. Your findings will inform everything—from product features to messaging. It may be time-consuming but it will save a lot of time and money in the long run.

Speaking of Product-Market Fit, one of the best frameworks I've learnt to accelerate this was through Andres Barreto, the Managing Director of Techstars Miami, which I was lucky enough to be a part of this summer. The first step in finding PMF? Discover the pain from conversations with potential customers. There are only five possible outcomes from these:

1. The pain you imagined does not exist.

2. The pain exists but the prospect does not know they have a pain.

3. The pain exists and the prospect has identified the pain, but they are not going to do anything about it right now (or ever).

4. The pain exists, the prospect has identified the pain exists, and they have quantified the cost of the pain, but they are not going to do anything about it right now (or ever).

5. The pain exists, the prospect has identified the pain exists, they have quantified the cost of the pain, and they are determined on doing something about it, with or without you. Doing nothing is not an option for them.

Your market are the people in cohort 5. Everyone else is a distraction.

Sizing the Opportunity: TAM, SAM, SOM

Sounds like a Thai dish, but in reality they represent three important acronyms you should use to assess market opportunity:

• TAM (Total Addressable Market): The largest possible market for your product. For example, the global market for project management software across all industries is valued at $20 billion annually. 

• SAM (Serviceable Available Market): The portion you can realistically serve. Based on our previous example, narrowing it down to the market for project management software specifically targeting remote tech teams in mid-market and enterprise is $5 billion annually.

  
  

• SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market): Your achievable market share within SAM. Narrowing the example even further, the achievable market for your project management SaaS product in the first 3 years, based on your current reach, competitive position, and resources, is $50 million annually. This includes remote tech teams in English-speaking countries, as they are your initial focus.

Why is it important to separate these? Narrowing your market down helps you understand the full scope of their market opportunity (TAM), focus on the segment you can practically target (SAM), and identify the portion you can realistically capture (SOM) based on current resources and competition.

Some resources where you can gather this information are: market intelligence platforms like IBISWorld and Euromonitor, Google Trends and Analytics to understand search behaviour and estimate demand, and social media platforms like Linkedin and Facebook that offer demographic and engagement metrics. If applicable, geospatial tools like GIS maping software can visualise demand and distribution. Working in payment companies, we usually bought research data from consultancies or schemes such as Visa, as well as our own anonymised, aggregated transaction data to inform possible trends and market opportunities.

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Who is the Customer? Creating an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is a detailed, data-driven representation of your most valuable customers. It defines the type of customer who benefits most from your product or service and, in turn, delivers the highest value to your business. Crafting a precise ICP is essential for aligning your marketing, sales, and product development strategies with your target audience's needs.

For B2B companies, an ICP often includes specifics like:

• Company size: Small businesses, mid-market companies, or enterprises.

• Industry: Sectors that are most likely to require your solution.

• Geographic location: Regions where your product is most in demand.

• Decision-makers and influencers: The roles (e.g., CTO, CFO, Director of Marketing) that drive purchasing decisions within target organisations. These buying teams start becoming more complex when it comes to enterprise and multi-region deals. I will cover this off in a separate article.

• Technological or operational characteristics: Specific tech stacks or processes that indicate compatibility with your solution.

  
  

For B2C businesses, an ICP focuses on individual customers and may include:

• Demographics: Age, gender, income, education level.

• Behaviours: Shopping habits, preferred platforms, and purchasing frequency.

• Lifestyle traits: Values, interests, and challenges that align with your product's benefits.

Key Questions to Build Your ICP

1. Who feels this pain most acutely? Like I mentioned earlier, pinpoint which segment of your audience is most affected by the problem your product solves. For instance, in B2B SaaS, this could be startups struggling with scaling customer support, while in B2C, it could be busy parents looking for convenient meal solutions.

   
   

2. What motivates them to buy? Understanding the underlying drivers—such as cost savings, time efficiency, or compliance—enables you to tailor your messaging and value proposition.

   
   

3. How do they currently address the problem? Research existing solutions your target audience uses, including competitors or manual processes. This insight helps position your product as the superior option.

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Personas or Jobs-to-be-done?

The Jobs-to-Be-Done (JTBD) framework outperforms personas by focusing on why customers hire products or services to solve specific problems, rather than emphasising superficial traits like age or hobbies. 

While personas often risk stereotyping and lack actionable insights, JTBD uncovers the functional, emotional, and social dimensions of customer needs, driving innovation and universality. 

By understanding the progress customers seek, businesses can design solutions that resonate more deeply, transcend demographics, and uncover new growth opportunities. JTBD moves beyond assumptions to deliver what truly matters to customers.

Thanks for sticking with me and reading my ramblings! In the next article, I will cover why it's important to understand the competitive landscape. Stay tuned!