By Scott Wallask
We’ve previously written about the four quadrants that make up the go-to-market framework for businesses.
Those quadrants include building loyalty; expanding offers; expanding markets; and company transformation.
Regardless of which quadrant a company pursues, a solid, subsequent go-to-market strategy will help the metrics and plays come to life — and that approach takes even greater importance as companies navigate an economy altered by COVID-19.
ZoomInfo views a go-to-market strategy as a cycle: Plan > Allocate resources > Execute and measure > Refine and automate.
Each of these steps in the cycle features actions tied to the initial go-to-market framework:
- Plan: Set goals and key indicators.
- Allocate resources: Hire needed staff and purchase, equipment, software, and other tools.
- Execute and measure: Launch campaigns and products, and then monitor progress.
- Refine and automate: Review the performance of key metrics and automate workflows when possible.
This cycle can repeat if needed as part of a long-term go-to-market activity.
A Quick Example of the Go-To-Market Strategy
Let’s look at the building loyalty quadrant using this go-to-market strategy.
In the Plan stage, a company might set a goal to reduce customer churn by 5% year over year, with a key indicator being accounts that stop using your product.
Under Allocate, the company configures customer relationship management (CRM) software to track user logins.
For the Execute phase, customer success reps manually review accounts in the CRM or receive alerts when logins drop below a certain level. From there, they can contact those customers to prevent customer attrition.
In the final Refine step, the company reviews whether customer success interventions worked to stave off churn and meet the initial goals.
With the pandemic presenting further risks of customer churn for many companies, this strategy may improve chances of success. In these uncertain times, a concrete plan for a plan is one step toward some predictability.
Scott Wallask is a longtime content writer; seeking stories flowing from data with a dash of skepticism; Northeastern grad
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