AMA: Cisco Product Marketing Leader, Elizabeth Grossenbacher on Go-To-Market Strategy

One of my favorite quotes in marketing is: “sell the hole, not the drill.” A marketing professor at Harvard, Theodore Levitt, lectured about this and would argue that people don’t want to buy a drill; they want a hole. The drill is just the tool used to create the hole. This is where I’ve seen some PMMs get it wrong; they focus on the benefits of their product before the outcome the customer is looking to achieve. Here’s what we know from human psychology: in both B2B and B2C settings, buyers purchase to achieve an outcome. That outcome could stem from a range of needs, including emotional and functional. As PMMs, we can use this insight to better articulate how our products help buyers achieve those outcomes. At Cisco, we focus on customer outcomes in all of our narratives, which is a key component of the GTM strategy. At the end of the day, our customers are looking to solve a problem or to achieve an outcome. For example, they want to simplify their IT operations or reduce operating expenses. Through our narratives, we want our customers to walk away with the impression that Cisco understands these outcomes, and thus have engineered products that help them achieve those outcomes. In the GTM strategy consulting work I’ve done for some of the biggest tech brands in the world, I always started with identifying and researching the outcomes/pains the target audience is trying to achieve. Winning GTM strategies are those that best align customer outcomes to how the product or portfolio helps the target audience achieve those outcomes.

I think of a GTM strategy as the document to get everyone aligned. As a fun analogy, imagine you’re all on one of those ancient Viking ships. Each person has an oar, and you all need to be rowing in the same direction and at the same pace. The GTM strategy is the charted path on a map that the captain uses to give appropriate instructions for direction and pace. Coming back to present-day, the GTM strategy should have the following components. (1) North-star goal: What are you trying to achieve? What have business leaders determined as the goal for the product or portfolio? By when do you need to achieve this goal (12 months? 5 years? etc.)? In our Viking ship scenario, the north-star goal is your final destination on the map. (2) Research: Research should address three major areas: Customer Insights, Market Insights, and Sales Date. Think back to our Viking ship scenario; you need all three to create the map itself. Customer Insights, Market Insights, and Sales Data are all inputs to help you better understand the landscape in which you are bringing your product or portfolio to market, and thus, inform your GTM strategy. Below are some key questions you need to answer for each of these research areas. * Customer Insights: What pains are customers facing? What do they care about? What are they trying to achieve with your product/portfolio? * Market Insights: How are competitors currently trying to address the customer’s pains? What works or does not work with their methods? What does the analyst community advise for your customers as they seek to address their pains, and how does your product/portfolio fit into that advice? What are analysts saying about market size and how customers are spending their dollars relative to your offerings? * Sales data: Where are you successful today? What regions are most successful? Which products are selling into which industries? You should evaluate metrics such as pipeline and number of opportunities across regions and industries. What segments are most successful (small business vs enterprise, for example)? The final outputs of your research should be synthesized into a single analysis that illustrates implications for the GTM strategy. Key questions to consider here should be: Where are you seeing low hanging fruit? Where do you have the strongest ability to execute? Which industries/regions do you have the biggest deals or largest number of deals? Are there certain markets where your product could have a first-mover advantage? Pro-tip: Quantify as much as the research as you can and try to plot it on a graph, where the X-axis is your ability to execute (strength in pipeline) and the Y-axis is the market size (could be market size by region, industry, or segment). (3) Narrative: This is the messaging and positioning for the product or portfolio. It’s the story that’s told through your sales and marketing channels. Back in our Viking ship analogy, this is the chant the Vikings would sing as they made their way through the journey - everyone singing the same tune at the same time, rowing their oars in the same direction, at the same pace.

It all starts with data! I typically segment my buyer profiles into company size (which is ultimately driven by how much money they spend with us), but there are many ways to determine profile categories. Below are the steps I take to identify and create the ideal customer profiles: 1. Internal Data: Gather data from sales to better understand your customer segments. For each segment (for ex, company size), you need to know the average deal size, length of the deal cycle, and how big the segment is. This information tells you the economic/financial details of the buyer profile. How much they typically spend in a given period and how long it takes them to make a decision. 2. Buyer team details: Find out who from the customer company is on the buyer team. Typically, you’ll have a decision maker, recommender/influencer, and user. The buyer team will likely change by profile. Even in some industries, you may have a role that only exists in that industry (for example, in heavily regulated industries). 3. Customer interviews: Conduct customer interviews or run a focus group with each of your hypothesized customer profiles (try to limit to 3 profiles total). The goal of the interviews/focus group is to uncover customer pains, budgets, and priorities which may differ by buyer profile. Ultimately, these customer profiles will inform the research phase of your GTM strategy. You could include these profiles as “chapters” where the narrative of your portfolio adjusts slightly to better resonate with each profile. These profiles can also be very useful to your stakeholders/consumers of the GTM strategy across sales and marketing. These will be especially useful for creation and execution of the marketing strategy (which is different from a GTM strategy). 

The go-to-market (GTM) strategy defines how you will bring your product to your target audience. Once defined, you use the GTM strategy to align on the marketing and sales activities. Sales and marketing use the GTM strategy to impact revenue. A GTM strategy can be used for a single product or an entire portfolio. Most GTM strategies I’ve built have been at the portfolio level. In my experience, Product Marketing, Product Management, and Sales work together to define the GTM strategy. Here are a few activities that work really well to align on GTM strategy: * GTM Internal Roadshow: This is a series of meetings where the PMM presents the GTM strategy to key stakeholders across product, engineering, sales, and marketing. This meeting series should happen immediately after the GTM strategy is finalized. The goal is to socialize the strategy with anyone who relies on it for their role. All of these stakeholders should have a heads up that you’re establishing the GTM strategy ahead of time. The GTM strategy should not be a surprise when they see it. * Quarterly Business Reviews: If your organization or business unit holds a Quarterly Business Review (QBR), this is a great opportunity to share metrics against your GTM strategy. The goal is to share what’s working and what’s not, and illustrate how you are pivoting based on quarterly results. However, keep in mind that you may not see revenue-related results that quickly. It can take many quarters to see results. The metrics you share may not be financial outputs at all, and that’s ok. The goal is to track the strength of your GTM strategy so that you can pivot as needed. * Annual GTM review: On an annual basis, you should evaluate your GTM strategy to determine if it’s still working. You and the GTM team (typically PMM, PM, and Sales leaders) should come together to discuss each component of the GTM strategy. Are you seeing the results you expected? Why or why not? Is there any new information that would change your strategy? Results of this meeting should be shared with your stakeholders. Pro-tip: The GTM strategy should be on a shared document that is accessible to all of your stakeholders. Consider finding a place on an intranet for it to live, with a short, 30-sec video recording of yourself walking through the GTM strategy at a high level to accompany the video. This video can live at the top of a Google Doc / Shared Word Doc or on the web page of an internal intranet or SharePoint page. 

My experience at Gartner taught me that analysts are deeply passionate about the areas they cover. It is in a company’s best interest to see analysts (such as the ones at Gartner as well as other firms) as partners in the creation of a GTM strategy. These analysts are out talking to our customers and learning about the industry every single day. They have more exposure to the changes and nuances, and thus can help shape the research phase of the GTM strategy. Since working at Gartner, my approach to GTM has shifted only in that I put an exuberant amount of time into research as an input to the GTM strategy. This includes researching with customers, analyst firms, as well as leveraging internal subject matter experts. You don’t have to (and you should not) only use research from analysts to inform your GTM strategy. In fact, while at Gartner, when we advised enterprises on GTM strategy, we very often conducted Voice of Customer interviews, analyst interviews, and external surveys to help the client (the large enterprise) better understand their landscape. As a Gartner Market Strategy Consultant, we sourced the analysis from many inputs, not just Gartner research. My advice for PMMs who want to up-level their exposure to analysts relations (AR) is to start a regular conversation with your internal AR team. At Cisco, I meet with our AR team on a bi-weekly basis to ensure alignment on (1) how we are best leveraging analysts for our GTM strategy and (2) the narratives we want to tell them which may ultimately impact positions in vendor rankings. Even if there is not an existing open questionnaire for a vendor ranking, you should be partnering with the AR team to create a long-tailed approach leading up to the start of the next vendor ranking. Remember, the analyst firm should be thought of as a partner. Let them tell you what they are seeing in the market, then (later on) show them how you included their feedback into your GTM and Product strategies. 

I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have had internal sponsors both as my direct manager as well as stakeholders. These sponsors would go to bat for me to help me progress in my career. But there are things I did to make it easy for them to do it, and it makes all the difference in getting recognized for your impact. As awkward as it is, you have to advocate for your work and career progression. Here are some exercises that have worked for me to get my work seen by stakeholders and superiors: * Operationalize your passion: If there is something you are really passionate about, create a program around it and find a way to tie it back to business goals. When I was at Twilio, I cared deeply about customer insights (my passion). As part of my role, I created programs that helped our team get a deep understanding of our customers. We needed this to inform our product roadmap, marketing strategy, and product messaging. On a quarterly basis, I would host a Customer Insights Read-Out, and share everything we learned from customer interviews, surveys, sales data, etc., and presented it out to my stakeholders across sales and product. This helped both my manager and superiors across the business see the value of my work. Pro-tip: make sure your stakeholders will get value out of whatever you’re presenting to them. The goal is to impact the business; the positive influence it has on your career is secondary but valuable. * Leverage the internal “road show”: When you complete a project that works really well, put together a brief 10-min presentation explaining the problem you solved, how you did it, impact on the business, and next steps or recommendations. Pro-tip: Quantify the outcomes! Take the same presentation and pick a few relevant teams that would benefit from hearing your message. * Share regular “proud moments”: Select key people across the organization and keep them updated on projects you're working on. When you get a win, even a small one, share it! You have to do this on a regular basis. I suggest bi-weekly. Mentors and managers are great for this one! There are other ways you can accomplish this, for example, via weekly/by-weekly email progress updates or asking to be on the agenda of stakeholder meetings to update status on your work if it’s relevant. * Write your “next job” description: Write out your dream “next job” (not necessarily your ultimate career goal, but the next step in your path) and share it with your manager and any internal mentors. Be direct and ask for their help in identifying opportunities that will help you get there. 

If you’re not seeing the expected results, do this immediately: dig into why you’re not seeing results. Investigate the data to better understand why your GTM strategy isn’t working. Whatever metric is “down”, you need to know why. Look at the data again, and talk to customers to supplement with qualitative data. Is the problem really with the strategy or is there a misalignment of expectations vs reality? This is a key question to explore with the GTM team (PM+PMM+Sales). Personal example: I once worked at a small company that was the incumbent in an industry. For years, we were the market leaders. But then things changed. More competitors popped up. We started losing deals. Revenue was slipping. We needed to pivot our GTM strategy. Historically, we relied upon direct selling and selling through consultants. After doing a thorough analysis (leveraging market research, customer research, and sales data), we found that selling through a distribution channel (partners!) would yield greater results. In our case, the market changed (more competition) and previous methods for delivering the product to the world were not working. Once we realized this, here’s how we made the pivot: 1. Data! Research! Both quantitative and qualitative. We spoke with customers and analysts to better understand customer needs and buying behaviors. 2. Leadership buy-in! Once we had the analysis, we shared it with our company leaders and stakeholders. We let the analysis lead to an open discussion, centered around our recommendation. A major point to make here is that, while we had an analysis and final recommendation, we made it a discussion so that everyone played a role in finalizing the GTM strategy pivot. This is more likely to lead to buy-in and support. 3. Socialize! Once everyone was aligned in the new GTM strategy, we followed the same path as before; we socialized the strategy and made it accessible to everyone else who needed to see it. Pro-tip: Embrace transparency! When something isn’t working and you’re not seeing the results you expected, let your stakeholders know. Your sales and marketing partners will appreciate knowing that you’re keeping a finger on the pulse and that you’re taking action to improve. When the GTM strategy is strong, their work will also be strong. If they know you’re on-it to make the GTM strategy even stronger, it will increase their trust in you.