Growth
Building your go-to-market operation: the founder’s guide
- Growth
- Article
- 4 minutes read
When companies can move from idea to MVP in minutes, not months, distribution is increasingly seen as the route to finding and optimising product-market fit and winning real traction with users. But building and scaling your go-to-market (GTM) approach requires rigour and agility in equal measure. Here, we dive into the mechanics of great GTM functions with industry experts.
- Lots of your time and effort is likely to be devoted to understanding which businesses make up your highest-potential customer group, and which individuals within those companies should be your deal ‘champions’. Refining your focus on those users and companies can help you close customers quicker.
- While your customer-facing teams (sales, marketing and customer success) will design and execute your strategy, the whole company has a stake in your go-to-market motion. We assess models for GTM success, from selling to global enterprises through to building a product-led growth engine.
- Our GTM insights give you perspectives from sales, marketing and customer success leaders in some of Europe’s fastest-growing and most innovative startups and scaleups. Read on to access the full collection.
Startup founders are naturally inclined to experiment and iterate as much as possible. But not all experiments pay off. In particular, it can be disastrous spending too much time, and capital, chasing the wrong commercial targets. Your early go-to-market decisions, then, can have huge consequences for your longer-term strategy. Understanding who your ideal customer is and building a marketing and sales machine that can serve them effectively, could be the difference between success and failure.
The rise of ‘go-to-market’ as a catch-all term for your commercial activities reflects how important it is to coordinate your approach right through the sales funnel. Your marketing team is broadly accountable for managing the top of the funnel and getting potential customers interested in the products you’re building. Your sales team is responsible for closing deals. And your customer success team keeps customers happy and, often, takes responsibility for upsells and expansions.
But what you market, how you sell, and the techniques you employ to keep those customers happy, are all dependent on what you’re building. Your commercial and product/engineering functions cannot afford to work in silos. Our contributors here – founders, investors, subject matter experts – repeatedly underscore the importance of involving the whole company in your go-to-market efforts.
Read on and explore.
Defining, and delighting, your target customers
Your GTM strategy will always be shaped by your target customer. Is your startup targeting a small number of large global organisations? Or building a model that serves many smaller businesses? This decision is an inflection point and will define what you spend money on, who you hire, and much more.
A guide to finding your ICP
In the early days of a startup’s lifecycle, you’ll naturally run lots of tests, failing often. But each test should bring you closer to identifying your ideal customer profile (ICP). Emily Wood speaks to marketing leader Rob Denton of AI notetaker Granola, who provides a playbook for understanding which customer group has the highest propensity to convert and maximising your focus on those users.
Whether, and when, to double down on product-led growth
Some early-stage companies decide to turn the product itself into an engine for improved conversion and retention, baking upsell opportunities into the user experience. We get the inside track on how to determine whether product-led growth (PLG) could be right for your startup with PLG expert Alicia Carney.
How to sell into the enterprise
Many founders start their companies with an ambitious goal: delivering software products that work for the world’s largest companies. And “successful enterprise models are very rewarding,” as Flip SVP Fabien Winkels says. But there are risks, too: dependence on a small number of customers; long and complex sales processes, and more. Our article gives you the startup perspective as well as what enterprise procurement leaders think about buying from early-stage companies.
Secrets to stellar startup sales
Many founders, particularly those from technical backgrounds, can find sales challenging and even intimidating. Even so, it’s important not to rush into making new hires before you’ve got evidence of some demand and a playbook that’s starting to work. “Don’t hire someone to figure stuff out from scratch,” advises Omnea CEO Ben Freeman.
Here you’ll find founders and senior leaders reflecting on the inflection points and judgment calls that characterise the early stages of building a high-quality sales organisation.
Graduating beyond founder-led sales
When is the right time to bring on board your first sales leader? And what profile is going to be right for a fast-growing early-stage startup? We speak to Covecta founder Ben Thomas and Seth DeHart, Point9 investor and sales adviser, about managing the transition from selling yourself to managing a growing sales function.
Building a top-tier GTM function
Founders spend significant time scoping and hiring for their early go-to-market operators, and for good reason. They define the pace at which the function works, and will play a crucial role in attracting other great joiners further down the line. We chatted to founders and senior early-stage operators, to give you a guide to hiring the right talent at the right time.
The way startups acquire customers and grow market share is changing fast. In making those all-important strategic decisions, there is little more helpful than real-world insight from other founders and operators. Want to read more? You can access all our Founder Success content here.
Any opinions expressed are merely opinions and not facts. All information in this document is for general informational purposes and not to be construed as professional advice or to create a professional relationship and the information is not intended as a substitute for professional advice. Nothing in this document takes into account your company’s individual circumstances. HSBC Innovation Banking does not make any representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness or completeness of this document and the material may not reflect the most current legal or regulatory developments. HSBC Innovation Banking disclaims all liability in respect to actions taken or not taken based on any or all of the contents in this document to the fullest extent permitted by law. Nothing relating to this material should be construed as a solicitation or offer, or recommendation, to acquire or dispose of any investment or to engage in any other transaction.
