In a number of my posts this year I’ve talked about the key elements of a GTM program for a product or an alliance in terms of “Building a Bridge” between your products and your customers. The “Bridge” analogy is an apt description because for a product or an alliance to drive revenue, companies need to complete all of the key pieces of the bridge (who wants to go halfway across the bridge and then fall in the abyss below). The Four Key Elements of the GTM Bridge are shown below in Figure 1.
- Solution
- GTM Program
- Field Readiness
- Sales Channel Execution
The question we are looking at in today’s post is where in this process do technology vendors generally have problems? In my experience there are two parts of the GTM Bridge that consistently cause problems and lost revenue in technology vendor GTM programs. These challenges are highlighted by the Red in Figure 1 below.
- Solutions are not clearly defined and messaging does not connect with customer challenges (often “product push”)
- GTM programs are not adopted by field marketing, sales and channels teams (and programs are perceived to be “thrown over the wall”)
Figure 1: The GTM Bridge and Common Gaps in Execution
Let’s talk about each of these gaps in more detail.
- Gap 1: Solutions are Poorly Defined.
This may be the single most discussed topic in my blog posts. As we all have observed, the tech industry loves its products and their “speeds and feeds”. Quite often the value proposition for technology products is expressed in terms of product attributes, rather than the benefits that they bring customers.
Below are several posts that discuss the nuances of this issue in more detail – and outline proven approaches to address these challenges.
- What 3 Questions Indicate Whether You Need to Sell “Solutions”? (and when does selling “Product” work better?…)
- The Three Types of “Solutions”: Which One Do You Use to Market and Sell?
- The Solution Blueprint: A Visual Tool for Creating Alliance Messaging that Speaks to Customer Needs
- Gap 2: GTM Programs not adopted by Field and Channel
Lack of adoption of GTM programs by field and channel stems from a difference in perspective of sales and marketing teams and a lack of a well-understood and measurable way to sell solutions and alliances through sales channels.
The lack of adoption stems from programs being “thrown over the wall” to the sales team to execute. What I mean by this is that programs are often developed in a vacuum by well-meaning staff in headquarters, but when sales and channel see the programs, the solution positioning and the program don’t connect with how the teams are selling – execution suffers and there is low/no revenue impact. Even worse, functional silos within organizations may operate so independently that there is no accountability for the overall launch and results of the program. This situation is discussed in more detail in my post “the Ownership and Task Boxes.”
The approach to overcome this issue is to engage with the downstream field marketing, sales and channel teams during the development of the GTM program. You want to engage in a dialogue with teams that would be accountable for execution with questions like, “Would a program like XYZ help you reach your key goals for this year?, Any suggested changes to XYZ program to make it more impactful for you?, and the big question, “When we launch this program, will you execute this program in your region / with your partners?”
Over the next few weeks I will talk about each of the key elements of “Building a Bridge” and how to prevent these 2 common gaps in GTM programs. I welcome any comments below — And make sure you “Follow” our blog (look for the “Follow” link on the upper left) and have your say. I’m also available as a public speaker, to support local and global events in Silicon Valley, or the rest of the flattening world…
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