Crack the code: Building the foundation for a winning Go-To-Market strategy

Alright, you’ve done your research. You’ve crunched the numbers, grilled your customers for insights, and stalked your competitors’ every move. Now, you have an impressive spreadsheet filled with data and insights.

So, what’s next? It’s time to take all that knowledge and turn it into a Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy that doesn’t flop. These first two steps go hand in hand (think chicken-or-egg) so don’t try to tackle them separately:

1. What are you taking to market?
2. Who’s actually going to buy it? (a.k.a. your Ideal Customer Profile, or ICP

Start with a Hypothesis

To answer these questions, begin with a hypothesis about both your product and your ICP. Don’t aim for perfection or universal agreement yet—focus on a solid starting point. Consider the problem your product solves and who is losing the most sleep over it.

Get specific about the following:

• Buyer titles: (e.g., Clinicians, Practice Managers, IT Directors)
• Industry segment: (e.g., Medical practice, hospital, health system, payer)
• Organization size: Define “size” in a way that’s relevant to your targeting and the data sources you have available. This could be by revenue, patient population, number of clinicians, or other meaningful metrics.

Example hypothesis: We believe our healthcare data and analytics platform helps clinicians more clearly see gaps in patient care. We think our ideal customer is a clinician in a small medical practice.

Test your hypothesis

Once your hypothesis is set, validate it through quick interviews (no more than 15-30 minutes) with a handful of current or potential customers from your assumed ICP. Ask about their pain points and provide a basic overview of your product to gauge their reaction.

Don’t get bogged down in this step. Do three interviews and take stock. If things feel off, pivot fast (see below). If they’re going well, do three more to confirm.

Keep tweaking until it clicks

If your interviews confirm you’re on the right track, full steam ahead! But if you get lukewarm responses or confused stares, don’t panic. It’s time to adjust. Here’s how:

1. The “Product Pivot” (When your baby really is ugly)

Scenario: Your assumed ICP reacts to your product with all the enthusiasm of an impending tax audit.

What to do:

• Deep dive into their feedback: What didn’t resonate? Were their pain points different from the ones your product addresses? Was a key feature missing? Was the UI confusing?
• Iterate and re-test: Make small, targeted changes based on the most critical feedback. Avoid scrapping everything. Adjust incrementally and test each change.

Example: You thought clinicians needed a robust analytics dashboard, but they just want real-time alerts in their EHR when a patient has a care gap. Pivot to focusing on delivering timely alerts instead.

2. The “ICP Shift” (When you’re barking up the wrong tree)

Scenario: Your product resonates, but you’re talking to the wrong audience. They show interest but lack the budget, authority, or need to buy.

What to do:

• Revisit your data: Look at common characteristics among those who showed genuine interest.
• Expand or narrow your scope: Your ICP may be too broad or too narrow. Zoom in or zoom out accordingly.

Example: You assumed clinicians were the buyers, but interviews suggest the real decision-makers are practice managers. Or perhaps small practices aren’t the best fit, but mid-sized practices, where centralized staff monitor care gaps, are. Shift your focus accordingly.

3. The “Double Adjustment” (When everything needs a tweak)

Scenario: You aren’t even in the ballpark. Your product needs a major facelift, AND your ICP is all wrong. Cue the existential crisis.

What to do:

• Go back to the drawing board: Revisit your core value proposition and your overall business goals.
• Be open to fundamental changes: This could mean refining your product, shifting to a different ICP, or even reevaluating your business model.

Example: You expected medical practices to prioritize closing care gaps, but they don’t. However, payers do. Adjust your messaging to highlight how your technology supports payers in closing care gaps for their members, and start testing again.

Key Takeaways

This process might take a few days or a few months. Either way, don’t rush to market with an untested idea just to meet a deadline. You will regret it. Keep these rules in mind:

• Don’t drink your own Kool-Aid. Be honest about your product’s value and listen to real feedback.
• Clarity is king. Ditch the jargon. Speak your audience’s language.
• Interviews aren’t sales pitches. Focus on learning, not selling. If you don’t get this right, your sales will suffer later.

By taking the time to define your product and ICP properly, you’re setting yourself up for a GTM strategy that actually works. And that’s something worth celebrating.