When a company brings an offering to the marketplace, whether it’s a new or existing offering, marketing tends to be brought in at the end of the go-to-market process. This is a mistake. Marketing teams can, and should, add value at all stages of the offering launch. ITSMA’s five steps to develop a go-to-market strategy show marketers how they can do this. The infographic used to illustrate this tool was published in our July 2012 issue of the ITSMA Marketing Strategist.

1. Assess the opportunity.
Launch, execute, measure, and adjust.
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Build campaigns and enable sales.
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Develop clear messaging.
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Segment and target.
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Assess the opportunity.
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Marketers should:
 Look at the offering from a customer’s perspective. What does the offering
mean to customers? What value will it bring to their business?
 Look beyond current customers to prospects. Is there demand for this offering?
 Look internally. Is this offer going to meet goals for new revenue, new customers,
or new market share?
This may seem obvious, but data is key.
It’s too easy to make assumptions and delude yourself
about how an offering might perform.
Key stakeholders need to be involved in answering these questions.
Even more important, the project team needs to do thorough research
to ensure it has evidence-based answers. Doing this assessment upfront is
critical to ensuring success throughout the rest of the steps.
Segment and target.
Identifying the suspects keeps the
Develop clear messaging.
• Identify the roles to be addressed, the approvers, and the influencers.
• Develop a value proposition.
• Use the value proposition to develop a hierarchy of messages that
will resonate with customers and prospects.
• Test the value proposition and message platform.
The business needs to reach customers
with clear and relevant messages.
Build campaigns and enable sales.
Campaign planning
Business leaders need to provide some honest answers:
intrinsically linked.
sales enablement
Launch, execute, measure, and adjust.
After launch, marketers have to:
• Track progress against milestones, campaign metrics, and sales
feedback
• Use the data to adjust the campaign as necessary
• Measure contract signings against targets
• Measure customer satisfaction
• Collaborate with business leaders to refine the offering in response
to all available data and feedback
Launching the offering is not the end of marketing’s
involvement; it continues with measurement and
refinement.
Learn more.
on thefocus
customer.
Marketers, working with sales,
need to assess the customer’s need
for the offering, the customer’s budget,
and the strategic value to the business
and then prioritize those
customers who are most ready
for the offering.
Use a matrix to plot customers
based on their attractiveness
(How attractive is this customer for the business
we want to do and the return it will bring?)
and their engagement
(How well are we positioned with this customer
to engage effectively with our offering?).
two different things that are
• Concrete start and end points
• Objectives
• Follow-up
• Success criteria
Use an internal group, a customer advisory
but make sure your messages resonate!
group, or your agency,
• How many leads are required?
• What types of leads are they looking for?
• How many opportunities can they resource?
• How many wins could they deliver?
At the same time, marketers need to brief salespeople
on the campaigns and their role.
Marketers can then plan the campaign and develop
content that will meet those goals, including:
Give them detailed information on the target market.
Tell them how you’re going to enable them:
• What tools are you giving them?
• When and how will lead handovers happen?
• What is expected of salespeople?
• What follow-up activity is planned?
Following this 5-step approach in collaboration with the
business enables marketers to deliver more effective programs
and campaigns that bring value to all stakeholders.
ITSMA Marketing Tools provide guidelines, checklists, tips, and other applications to help improve marketing programs
and organizations. They are available to ITSMA members as a benefit of membership.
Suggestions for new tools are welcome; please send them to info@itsma.com.
Other Marketing Tools are available online (password required) at www.itsma.com/category/research/tool/.
TB046 | © 2012 ITSMA—Reproduction Prohibited
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