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