Go-to-Market Plan
A Go-To-Market plan, in essence defines who your customer is, and, how you are going to sell your solution. This looks simple, but the challenges arise when you get into the details.
Your Customer
You should have documented an Ideal Customer Profile. If you need help in creating one, this post here will be useful.
In entering a new market you may wish to undertake some research and customer discovery to confirm that your ideal customer has the same business drivers and buying dynamics as your existing customers. You need to do this to ensure that your value proposition will be attractive. If you need help in documenting your value proposition take a look at this post here.
As well as the type of customer you are wishing to attract, you need to consider how many you want to serve. Issues to factor in to this are the time and resource cost of acquiring and onboarding each customer, as well as the desired levels of scalability and profitability.
How you are going to sell to your customer
You should have documented your Value Proposition. If you need help in creating one, this post here xx will be useful. A complete value proposition will detail your value chain - in other words the who and how for each piece of value that is delivered. A useful exercise is to research how your existing ideal customers source each piece of value. This will tell you why behind their choice for each element of the value chain. You should also ensure that you have understood your competitive position as it is likely to be different in the new market compared to your existing customer base. Again, researching your existing customer base may uncover elements of the chain that are weak and need strengthening.
A key component of the Go-To-Market plan is how your product/service will be delivered. Unless you are selling online only, you will need to allocate time and resource to build those components of your value chain in the new market. For example, if the chosen Go-To-Market model is to use partners, then there needs to be a fully resourced plan to build a partner channel in the new market. See the post on Go-to-Market models for more details.
Your pricing model should also be documented. Again, bear in mind that you may need to adjust it for the conditions in the new market and any changes to your Go-To-Market model. For example, if you are using partners to deliver elements of the value chain in the new market, how are they rewarded?
Set Goals and Review
Goals should be clear and specific, realistic and measurable. They should also come with a timeline that makes business sense. Carry out periodic reviews to ensure that you’re accomplishing what you planned. Getting external validation of progress from customers, partners and, potentially a trusted advisor is important to enable you to adjust the plan rapidly to the reality of the market and avoid costly mis-steps.