Last month we ran a webinar for the Blackfinch portfolio of founders to share insights on go-to-market strategies taking key learnings from working on over 25 GTM projects in the last 2 years. Here’s an overview of what we covered…

Common Pitfalls in Go-to-Market Strategies

Poor Audience Understanding

  • Lack of Deep Customer Pain Points: If you follow us around on social you’ve heard this one from us hundreds of times! Many strategies don’t dig deep enough into what truly keeps customers up at night
  • Inadequate Market Segmentation: Failing to identify and focus on the most valuable customer segments
  • Outdated Assumptions: Using old data or “set and forget” ideal customer profiles
  • Ignoring the wider Buying Committee: Focusing solely on champions while neglecting other stakeholders

Misconceptions About Buying Journeys

Modern B2B buying journeys are complex and non-linear. Key changes include:

  • The rise of “dark social” – private channels where buying discussions happen
  • 86% of enterprise buyers shortlist vendors based on brand awareness
  • 56% (71% for enterprise) seek peer conversations before buying
  • 24% of B2B web pages are shared through private channels

Misaligned KPIs and Metrics

  • Siloed approaches between sales, marketing, and customer success
  • Over-emphasis on metrics that dont always tie back to revenue opportunities
  • Disconnected sales and marketing efforts

The Solution: 

Flipping the Funnel

Instead of focusing primarily on top-of-funnel activities, consider this approach:

  • Convert Demand (3-5% of TAM)
    • Reduce friction
    • Route to experts
    • Build trust signals
    • Optimise pricing or offer trials and demos
  • Capture Demand (15-17% of TAM)
    • Ensure visibility when buyers are searching
    • Optimise for users that are in market
    • Leverage platforms like LinkedIn and Reddit
    • Create a robust retargeting strategy
  • Create Demand (80% of TAM)
    • Focus on thought leadership and adding value to your defined ICPs
    • Build brand awareness
    • Get involved in industry and vertical-specific conversations

Reinvent Your Go-to-Market Strategy

The 10-step framework for reviewing your go-to-market:

 

1. Account Segmentation and Deal Velocity Analysis

Define key segments by analysing:

  • Industry performance
  • Company size
  • Revenue patterns
  • Win/loss data

Use deal velocity as a benchmark to look at past performance which helps identify your most valuable segments and where you have the highest or most efficient win rates.

 

2. Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) Definition

Conduct thorough qualitative research:

  • Interview existing customers
  • Speak with prospects (consider offering incentives such as a charity donation)
  • Look for emotional cues and detailed pain points and dont just encourage the good stuff!
  • Push beyond surface-level answers with “how” and “why” questions

Depending on your size and sectors, you can go on to create detailed personas for each role in the buying committee. Ensure you innclude for each of the following for your personas:

  • Pain points and challenges
  • Knowledge level
  • Expectations
  • Important factors
  • Preferred channels
  • Influences and motivations

 

3. Service Design and Product-led Growth

Evaluate your offering through the lens of customer benefits:

  • Map your benefits to each buying committee role
  • Ensure your proposition is truly differentiated
  • Validate that value promises are achievable with relevant case studies and testimonials

Create a clear service blueprint:

  • Document the customer journey
  • Identify touchpoints and pain points
  • Design solutions for friction points

 

4. Account Messaging and Targeting

Develop messaging that:

  • Addresses the deep pain points identified in ICP research. I recently read a piece on LinkedIn that mentioned painkillers are easier to sell than vitamins!
  • Resonates with different personas
  • Is simple and jargon-free
  • Shows clear value proposition

Create a message hierarchy with:

  • Primary message (core value proposition)
  • Secondary messages (supporting benefits)
  • Reinforcement messages (proof points and validation)

5. Competitor Analysis

Go beyond basic SWOT analysis:

  • Analyse competitor messaging and positioning
  • Identify market gaps and opportunities
  • Evaluate pricing strategies
  • Assess channel presence and effectiveness
  • Review through the lens of your ICP insights to find unique advantages.

6. Pricing Strategy

Develop a pricing structure that:

  • Aligns with market expectations
  • Reflects your value proposition
  • Considers competitor positioning
  • Enables growth and upselling

Create clear pricing tiers with:

  • Logical feature progression
  • Compelling upsell triggers
  • Clear value differentiation

7. Channel Selection

Choose channels based on:

  • Where your ICP spends time
  • Their preferred type or way of consuming content
  • Their buying journey stage
  • Resource availability

Consider a mix of channels but always focus on relevance first and foremost:

  • Owned channels (website, email, social)
  • Earned channels (PR, word-of-mouth)
  • Paid channels (re-marketing, social, google ads (but be careful with spend), sponsorships)
  • Shared channels (partnerships, communities)

8. Technology Setup

Ensure your tech stack supports your strategy but also if you are investing the software is being utilised:

  • CRM set up configured to allow you to track required metrics
  • Remarketing tracking setup (+ ensuring you have tag manager on your site for ease of adding more tags in the future)
  • Marketing automation for nurture flows with a considered approach to customer content journeys 
  • Analytics for measuring success
  • Integration between systems 

Focus on:

  • Data cleanliness and governance
  • Workflow automation that helps efficiency but doenst over automate everything!
  • Reporting capabilities across teams and departments

9. Asset Audit and Creation

Audit existing content and identify key gaps using the insights from your ICP interviews:

  • Map content to buying journey stages
  • Ensure coverage for all personas and key people within the buying committee
  • Identify high-performing assets to repurpose
  • Plan new content creation
  • Create a content development roadmap:
  • Prioritise based on impact and resource availability
  • Balance between different content types for pace and variation (we wrote about this on Moz back in 2016)
  • Plan for regular updates and optimisation

10. KPI Definition and Team Alignment

Establish clear metrics that consider top-down metrics such as sales and marketing spend vs. net new pipeline and ensure alignment between:

  • Sales targets
  • Marketing objectives
  • Customer success goals

Create shared dashboards and regular check-ins to maintain alignment.

Key Tips for Implementation

Content Planning Watch-Outs:

  1. Don’t overfill the marketing calendar – ensure it’s deliverable
  2. Categorise activity in your plan to ensure balance across lead gen, demand gen, demand capture, demand conversion and retention
  3. Align every piece of content with ICPs and personas
  4. Think channel-first when creating content
  5. Repurpose content effectively
  6. Leverage internal experts for thought leadership – these are your companies superpower!
  7. Consider partnerships to “rent” audiences and increase your reach

Measuring Success

Focus on meaningful metrics:

  • Sales and marketing spend vs. net new pipeline
  • Deal velocity and cycle time
  • High-intent pipeline value
  • First-party data volume
  • Target account engagement
Remember, B2B marketing has evolved significantly. Success today requires a deep understanding of your audience, a strategic approach to content, and a focus on building relationships through multiple channels. By following these guidelines and constantly iterating based on results, you can create a go-to-market strategy that drives real business growth.