Ken Oestreich

GTM is *part* of Product-Market Fit. It helps match supply (product) to demand (customers). You can't have an effective GTM program if you don't first know precisely who your Ideal Customer (ICP) is. But once you have an idea, a good GTM team will provide you with feedback on what customers are responding to, and asking for... helping guide more precise market-fit.

Some "industry standard" leading metrics to use -- besides the Sean Ellis test -- are the following: 1. Retention: Cohort retention curves flatten (stickiness) 2. Net Retention Rate: > 1 (retention + upsell) 3. DAU/MAU: > 50% (it's part of a daily habit) 4. Engagement: Revenue, active-use, or activity expansion on a *per user* basis over time 5. Actives/registrations: > 25% (validates TAM)

First, the GOAL of an ICP is to help you precisely message, find, and qualify the right prospects. So ICPs need to be more than simple firmographics + titles. Double-click into discovering tech stacks, team sizes, past companies, tenure in role, etc. AND, the ICP should include the fact that those customers expand and renew! (that they also have low CAC and high Lifetime Value). Then, to OPERATIONALIZE the ICP, you use the above detail to: * Help know where/how to reach/access them * Know how to precisely message each of them * Qualify/disqualify them * Prioritize sales targeting * Use "ICP Fit" to assess customer/prospect base for forecasting. BTW, check out www.alignicp.com (as an example tool) that derives ICPs using the above criteria.