Go-to-Market Insights In The C-Suite
Go-to-market related questions are common topics discussed in C-Suite strategy sessions and within board meetings.
Data points are collected and are often compared and benchmarked to peer companies and used in growth planning. The questions asked will lead to discussions to drive the business forward.
At what stage do companies hire VPs and C-level executives to lead sales, customer success, and marketing departments?
How does the team structure differ by stage? By target buyer? By prospects vs. clients?
How do we know we are maximizing price points, market reach, and revenue?
“When it comes to developing your GTM strategy to maximize market reach and revenue, one crucial component is knowing your worth to optimize your pricing strategy.”
A critical component to securing as many new customers as possible is optimizing what pricing strategy fits your GTM model.
Know your worth
The best companies do not view the price of their product or solution through their own eyes, but they see it through their customer's lens. By recognizing the impact your product has on your customer's business, you should have no issue in seeking compensation equal to the value created. Getting your fair share for the value you create is right for your customer, your company, and your shareholders.
Optimize Your Pricing Strategy
However, to do this, you have to be experts in the product you are selling and take the time to understand your customer's business needs. When I was President of VeriShip, the leader in parcel shipping intelligence, I realized the power of knowing your worth. In that case, it meant:
Performing research, hiring data scientists and industry experts, and then equipping our sales and client success teams with the product and industry knowledge needed to be trusted advisors.
Asking our customers for price points and contract terms commensurate with the value we were providing.
Gleaning feedback from customers, and regularly testing and iterating on new approaches.
This change to the go-to-market plan resulted in a 430% sales bookings increase and ultimately propelled the company to be one of the fastest-growing companies in the United States. Those results were directly tied to knowing our worth and understanding the challenges our customers were facing.
On the other end of the spectrum, knowing your worth means understanding who you are and what level of benefit you realistically can provide your customers. If you have a substantial competitive advantage, you can likely justify the heftier price point. If you are in a crowded market, you probably cannot. Take Zoom – the latest product to become a verb - as a company that understands their worth. While many would agree Zoom has a competitive advantage based on ease of use (I'll leave the security of Zoom and Zoom bombing stories for another day), they still lead with a freemium model and with price points close to their competitors.
Take a quick look at how close the pricing models are between Zoom, WebEx, and Google Meet.
Zoom Video
Cisco Webex
Google Meets (Formerly Hangouts)
Zoom did their research and knows their worth, and all three companies understand their best go-to-market approach is to leverage their freemium model to secure a broad customer base. After growing that customer base and proving value is when they go for revenue.
Your leadership matters, so taking the time to do your research to know your worth will help you succeed in this new normal.
About The Author
Ross Reed is a company growth expert and entrepreneur who has developed and led high-performing companies, from bootstrapped start-ups to global technology corporations, including INC 5000 fastest-growing companies.