Post on 21-Oct-2014
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Go-To-Market for GeeksSecond Edition!
October 2, 2012
What is Go-To-Market?
• Strategies and tactics• Users and revenues
Why is it important?
• The only way to raise a Series A is to demonstrate traction
• “Praying” is not an attractive go-to-market strategy– VCs know that 1-word answers are praying!
• Appstore• Freemium• Viral
Where do I begin?
• Identify your target market
• If you can’t do this, get a new business.
What is a target market?
• A sufficiently large…
• …Group of similar users or buyers…
• …Who have the same set of…– Needs– Buying behaviors– Influencers– Channels
• “To mine for gold, find a vein.”
The only goal worth pursuing
• Users and revenues*– * These can be future revenues
• That’s how you measure success– TechCrunch/Mashable/etc. stories are
useless unless they also drive users and revenues within your target market
– They can attract VC attention, but without traction, you won’t close a Series A
Strategies and TacticsKnow your goal and how to get there!
•Sales•Marketing•Pricing
Don’t Be Afraid To Sell
You Can’t Avoid Sales
• Distribution Catch-22– The channel only sells what’s already selling
• The World of Warcraft Fallacy– Salesmen can’t tell you what to sell
• (and they can’t sell what they can’t understand)
• Talking To Customers Is A Good Thing– Sale/No Sale doesn’t provide enough info– Customer contact is too valuable to abdicate
Founders Must Learn To Sell
• Talk to real potential customers
• Understand their need *before* you try to solve it– “What problem are you trying to solve?”– “What are you doing about it right now?”– “What would you like to happen?”
• Demonstrate the product and listen to their feedback (instead of arguing)
• Ask for the order!
The Four Types of Sales
• Field Sales (“The Bag Man”)– 6-figure deals, 6-month sales cycles
– In-person wining & dining
– On-site pilots & sales engineers
• Outbound Telesales (“The Boiler Room”)– 4- or 5-figure deals, 0-3 month sales cycles
– Web demos & pilot programs
• Inbound Telesales (“The Order Taker”)– The human touch to help freemium hand-raisers
• Direct Marketing
Growth Hacking
• Direct marketing is a numbers game
• Your goal is to prove the math works– End-to-end transaction funnel– Scalable front end– The one metric to watch:
• LTV / CPA
• You don’t need to hire a specialist—this is the one part of GTM that is up your alley
Marketing:TechCrunch is Not a Strategy
Money Is Not The Answer
• If you tell a VC, “We need the money for marketing,” you won’t get the money.– Exception: 1999
• You have to generate traction before you ask for money– Exception: Andreesen, Zuckerberg, Williams
Marketing On A Budget
• The old way:– $15K/month for a PR firm– Brief analysts, brief press, wire release– It’s all about relationships & unwritten rules
• The new way:– Do your own PR– Friend/Retweet influencers, speak at
conferences, content marketing– It’s all about relationships & unwritten rules
Turn Weakness Into Strength
• You’re unknown– Give folks the chance to “discover” you and take
credit (e.g. “Show HN”)
• You’re playing David & Goliath– Use “retail politics” to reinforce the friendly, accessible
nature of your company• Blogs, Twitter, Facebook are your friends
• You don’t know what you’re doing– Ask for advice and get people to buy in– Write compelling content about your space
Price: Necessary, Not Sufficient• Pricing can hurt the business, but rarely
helps (at least for startups)– Price based on value, not cost– Price based on how the market likes to buy
• License vs. Subscription• Unit pricing vs. Flat rate• Up front vs. In product
– It’s always easier to reduce prices– For self-service products, always test
• eBay, Craigslist, AdWords, Facebook, LinkedIn...
Shortcut: Know The Playbook
Plays that worked
• Cheezburger Network (Media)– Inherent virality + PR blitz
• Dropbox (B2C)– Simple, must-have product + Freemium +
Viral marketing
• Marketo (B2B)– Clear target market (VP Marketing) + Field
sales + Aggressive advertising
Last Thoughts
• Don’t strategize, iterate!
• There is no magic formula and every business is different.
• Product alone isn’t enough
• You can do more of this than you think…
• …But don’t get too cocky—the market is smarter than all of us.
How To Reach Chris
• Chris Yeh– chris.yeh@pbworks.com– http://chrisyeh.blogspot.com– http://www.asktheharvardmba.com– http://twitter.com/chrisyeh