Let’s be honest: “Go-to-market strategy” is one of those phrases people throw around in meetings to sound like they’ve got a plan when really, they’re hoping someone else does.
In reality, most GTM strategies fall apart because they’re built too late, slapped together in a panic two weeks before launch, or worse — copied from someone else’s playbook without stopping to ask does this even make sense for us?
If you’re a new product marketing manager, or someone who’s just been handed the keys to a SaaS product and told to “get it out there,” this post is for you.
What follows isn’t theory. It’s the structure, process, and mental models I wish someone had handed me when I first got into go-to-market planning. This isn’t a launch checklist. It’s the system that helps you bring your product to market on purpose — with the right message, for the right people, through the right channels.
Whether you’re going sales-led, product-led, or making it up as you go — this will help you do it with your eyes open.
Let’s break it down.
What Even Is a Go-To-Market Strategy?
Let’s clear this up: a GTM strategy isn’t just a fancy way of saying “marketing plan” or “launch campaign.” It’s not just press releases, email blasts, and crossing your fingers.
At its core, your go-to-market strategy is the how behind getting your product in front of the right people, making them care, and turning that attention into revenue.
It’s the bridge between what your product does and how the market buys.
And here’s the part most people miss: a GTM strategy isn’t just about launch day. It’s not a one-and-done PowerPoint. It’s an evolving game plan that spans from early market validation to long-term growth.
A solid GTM answers questions like:
- Who exactly are we selling to, and why would they give a damn?
- What problem do we solve better (or differently) than anyone else?
- How do we talk about it in a way that lands?
- Where are we reaching these people — and how?
- What’s the plan for converting interest into actual customers?
Without a GTM strategy, your launch becomes a guessing game. Your sales team flails. Your messaging goes off the rails. And worst of all — your product might be great, but nobody finds out.
So before you start building campaigns or booking launch webinars, take a step back. GTM is the strategy that makes everything else make sense.
Next up: how to actually build one that works.
Core Components of a Solid GTM Plan
This is where most GTM strategies go off the rails — people either overcomplicate it with frameworks no one will use, or they skip straight to launch campaigns without building the foundation.
Let’s keep it simple and focus on the parts that actually move the needle.
1. Know Your Market (or Die Trying)
Before you start pitching, tweeting, or designing landing pages — stop. You need to actually understand the market you’re operating in.
That means:
- Who the key players are (competitors, substitutes, “do nothing”)
- What your target buyers are struggling with
- How they’re solving that problem today (and what sucks about it)
This isn’t just “research” for the sake of research. It’s how you avoid building messaging in a vacuum. It’s how you find the real wedge — the angle that makes someone say, “Finally, someone gets it.”
And no, reading a few G2 reviews and calling it a day doesn’t count. Talk to customers. Talk to people who didn’t buy. Study how your competitors position themselves — then find the gap they’re leaving open.
2. Your ICP ≠ Everyone With a Credit Card
The fastest way to burn marketing budget? Try to sell to everyone.
You need an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) — a clear definition of the companies (and the humans inside them) who are most likely to buy, stick around, and tell their friends.
Think in terms of:
- Company size and industry
- Pain points they actually feel (not just ones you think they should care about)
- Buying triggers (a new head of ops, a funding round, hitting scale)
Get specific. “SMBs who care about automation” is not an ICP — it’s a LinkedIn ad that gets ignored.
Your ICP helps you filter out bad-fit leads before they waste everyone’s time. It makes your messaging tighter, your targeting sharper, and your sales cycle shorter.
Bonus: your sales team will love you for it.
3. Positioning That Doesn’t Bore People to Death
Positioning isn’t just about picking a category or writing a tagline. It’s about defining the space you own in your buyer’s head.
You need to clearly answer:
- What is this?
- Who is it for?
- Why is it better than whatever they’re using now?
Use this simple framework if you’re stuck:
For [target customer], [product] is a [category] that [solves this problem], unlike [alternative] which [has this limitation].
But here’s the thing: positioning only works if you live it. It should show up everywhere — your homepage, your sales deck, your onboarding emails.
It’s not just a sentence for a pitch deck. It’s the thread that runs through everything.
4. Messaging That Actually Lands
Messaging is where positioning becomes real. It’s how you explain the product so it clicks.
Good messaging doesn’t list features. It connects to outcomes. It speaks to the pain your ICP actually feels on a Tuesday morning when they’re drowning in spreadsheets and wondering if there’s a better way.
Make it clear. Make it sharp. And make it speak to them, not you.
Test it. Use real words. If your homepage sounds like a press release, you’ve already lost.
5. Pricing That Matches the Value (Not Just the Competition)
Pricing is part of GTM — full stop.
Your model (freemium, usage-based, tiered) and your actual price points say a lot about who you’re for, and how you expect them to adopt.
The key is to price based on value, not guesswork.
Ask:
- What’s the outcome worth to them?
- What are they already paying to solve this (poorly)?
- Does this pricing make it easier or harder to adopt?
For B2B SaaS, usage-based is trending — and for good reason. It scales with customer value and lowers the barrier to entry. But whatever model you choose, make sure it aligns with the way your ICP wants to buy.
And yes, you’ll probably need to tweak it later. That’s normal.
6. Align Your Teams or Expect Chaos
You know what kills launches? Sales thinking one thing while marketing pushes another.
Your GTM strategy only works if everyone’s rowing in the same direction — product, sales, success, marketing. Same ICP. Same messaging. Same goals.
You don’t need everyone to agree on every word, but you do need alignment on:
- Who we’re targeting
- What value we’re promising
- How we’re measuring success
Set up the meetings. Share the docs. Get buy-in early, not the night before launch.
7. Channels: Pick a Few and Go Deep
You don’t need to be everywhere — you need to be where your ICP hangs out and makes decisions.
That might be:
- Content + SEO
- Outbound email
- Webinars and events
- Partner/reseller programs
- Product Hunt or marketplace listings
The trick is to pick channels you can actually execute well on. Spreading yourself too thin is a recipe for mediocre results across the board.
Start focused. Expand once you’ve got signal.
8. Sales Enablement: Don’t Leave Reps Guessing
If you’ve got a sales team, enable them. Period.
That means:
- Product training (what it does and why it matters)
- Messaging guides (what to say and how to say it)
- Battlecards (how we win against Competitor X)
- Sales decks, one-pagers, ROI calculators
If your reps are winging it or making up their own decks, that’s on you.
Make it easy for them to sell the story you’ve crafted — and you’ll close more deals, faster.
9. Launch Like You Mean It
Launching isn’t just about noise. It’s about coordination.
- Internally: Make sure product, support, sales, and marketing are locked in.
- Externally: Announce with purpose — across email, socials, your site, and wherever your ICP is paying attention.
- Post-launch: Track results, gather feedback, and iterate fast.
A launch is a moment. What comes after is what builds momentum.
GTM Models: Pick Your Weapon
There’s no one-size-fits-all go-to-market motion — and anyone telling you there is probably hasn’t taken a SaaS product to market themselves.
How you go to market depends on your product, your buyer, your price point, and how people want to buy.
Let’s break down the big three models most B2B SaaS companies lean on (or blend).
1. Sales-Led Growth (SLG)
The classic “talk to sales” approach
In a sales-led model, deals happen because a rep picked up the phone (or sent the right email), booked a demo, and walked someone through the value.
This works great when:
- You’re selling to enterprise
- The product needs explaining
- The deal size justifies a human touch
You’re leaning on people to do the convincing, the tailoring, the closing.
Pros:
- High-touch = more control over the sale
- Better for complex products or org-wide rollouts
- Works well if you’re targeting big logos
Cons:
- It’s expensive — CAC can balloon fast
- Slower sales cycles
- Not every buyer wants to “talk to sales” anymore
Use this if: you’ve got a product with nuance, a clear value prop, and a big-enough deal size to justify sales headcount.
2. Product-Led Growth (PLG)
“Just let them try the damn thing.”
In PLG, the product does the selling. You give people a way to try it — free trial, freemium, whatever — and if it’s good, they stick around and (ideally) pay.
This works when:
- Your product delivers value fast
- Users can self-onboard without needing a walkthrough
- Your value prop is clear without a pitch deck
Slack, Notion, Zoom, Figma — they all nailed PLG. Let users in the door, blow their socks off, and let them upgrade when they’re hooked.
Pros:
- Super efficient acquisition (especially at scale)
- Users sell internally for you (bottom-up adoption)
- You get real product feedback early
Cons:
- You need a damn good product experience
- Harder to monetize at the top end without layering in sales
- You need data + ops in place to make it work
Use this if: your product is easy to try, delivers fast value, and your market hates being sold to.
Bonus: PLG doesn’t mean no sales — lots of teams layer in product-led sales later to go after big accounts once usage signals heat up.
3. Channel-Led Growth
“Let someone else sell it for you.”
In this model, you’re not the one doing all the selling — partners, resellers, agencies, or platforms are.
This is great when:
- Your partners already have trusted relationships
- Your product complements their services
- You want to grow without scaling a massive sales team
Think HubSpot’s agency program or Slack integrations that drive adoption via ecosystems.
Pros:
- Scale without hiring a huge sales team
- Tap into established trust and networks
- Can help unlock new markets (geo or vertical)
Cons:
- You lose some control
- You have to train and incentivize partners
- Revenue share cuts into margin
Use this if: your product makes other people’s businesses better — and they have a reason to sell it with or alongside their own stuff.
So… Which One Should You Use?
Honestly? Probably a mix.
Start where it makes sense for your product, your market, and your resources.
Here’s a rough cheat sheet:
- Targeting SMBs with a self-serve-friendly product? PLG is your jam.
- Going after Fortune 500s with multi-seat deployments? Sales-led makes sense.
- Tapping into niche industries or regions where partners already have reach? Channel-led might be the unlock.
Most successful SaaS companies evolve over time:
- Start PLG → Layer in sales once bigger teams show up
- Start sales-led → Add PLG to reduce CAC and increase inbound
- Add channel when your partners realize your product makes them look good
The best GTM strategies are flexible. You don’t need to pick just one — but you do need to commit to the one(s) you’re using now.
Common GTM Mistakes (That’ll Derail You Fast)
Let’s be real: most go-to-market strategies don’t fail because of bad intentions — they fail because of blind spots, assumptions, and last-minute panic moves.
Here are the mistakes I’ve seen (and made) that can tank a perfectly good product launch before it even gets going.
1. Your ICP Is “Anyone With a Job”
If you’re trying to sell to everyone, you’re really selling to no one. This shows up when messaging is vague, campaigns are broad, and you end up with leads who ghost your sales team the moment they realize the product’s not built for them.
Fix it: Get brutally specific. Define your ICP and filter everything — messaging, targeting, even feature prioritization — through that lens.
2. You Skipped Positioning and Went Straight to Campaigns
Launching ads before you’ve figured out what the product is, who it’s for, and why it’s better is like designing a billboard before deciding what business you’re in.
Fix it: Nail your positioning first. Make sure your team can answer “What problem do we solve, and for who?” in one sentence. No buzzwords, no rambling.
3. You’re Talking About Features Instead of Outcomes
No one cares that your platform has “advanced automation” or “next-gen architecture.” They care that it saves them 10 hours a week, catches revenue leaks, or makes their life easier.
Fix it: Translate features into outcomes. Lead with impact. Your homepage and pitch deck should scream value, not tech specs.
4. Your Pricing Doesn’t Match the Way People Buy
If your product is self-serve but you make people “talk to sales” to get a quote — you’re introducing friction for no reason. Same goes for usage-based products locked behind seat-based pricing.
Fix it: Align pricing with the buyer’s expectations and how they use the product. If it’s easy to try, make it easy to buy. If it’s complex, price for high-touch support.
5. Sales and Marketing Aren’t Actually Aligned
Marketing says the ICP is startups. Sales is chasing mid-market. Nobody’s looking at the same metrics. And when the launch flops, both sides point fingers.
Fix it: Force the alignment early. Shared goals, shared ICPs, shared language. One team, one strategy, one plan.
6. You Launch and Then… Nothing
You throw everything into launch day. Announce it on LinkedIn. Maybe a webinar. And then… radio silence.
Fix it: Launch is just the start. Have a post-launch plan. Ongoing campaigns, onboarding flows, sales follow-up, feedback loops. Momentum is built over months, not just one big “We’re live!” post.
7. You’re Making It Up as You Go (And Calling It Agile)
There’s a difference between being iterative and being unprepared. If your GTM plan lives in a Slack thread, you’re gonna feel it when the chaos hits.
Fix it: Write it down. Even a simple Notion doc with your goals, ICP, positioning, launch plan, and responsibilities will save you a ton of pain.
Wrapping It Up: Your GTM Playbook, Simplified
Here’s the bottom line:
A good go-to-market strategy isn’t about doing everything. It’s about doing the right things — deliberately, in the right order, with the right people aligned behind it.
If you’ve made it this far, you’ve now got the blueprint:
✅ Know your market
✅ Define a real ICP
✅ Nail your positioning and messaging
✅ Price like you mean it
✅ Align your teams early
✅ Pick your channels, go deep
✅ Enable your sales team (don’t wing it)
✅ Launch with purpose
✅ Iterate like hell
You don’t need a 40-page deck or a VC-approved acronym to go to market. You just need clarity, focus, and the willingness to learn fast.
Every great GTM strategy starts the same way: someone decided not to just “wing it” and hope.
So if you’re building your GTM strategy now — start messy, stay focused, and fix forward. The biggest mistake you can make is waiting for perfect.
Need a second set of eyes on your GTM plan?
DM me or drop me a note — I’ve helped enough teams launch to know what works (and what blows up midair).
Happy to trade notes.
