Welcome to the second edition of the Competitive Edge!

We’re building a community of business owners, founders, and product managers passionate about helping each other position their product to grow revenue in a way competitors can’t match.

I’ve been advising Fortune 500s on their growth strategy for 6 years and am excited to translate those traditionally complex concepts into simple, actionable tips with you.

In the meantime, if you’re having problems growing your business, DM me on Twitter and I’m happy to help.

In the last issue: you learned how to come up with ideas for new revenue opportunities and choose which ones to launch (check it out here).

Now in today's issue: we'll tackle one of the initial steps in making your product a reality: your "Go-to-Market" Strategy (GTM).

If you read to the end, you’ll learn:

• Common myths about what a GTM strategy is

• Make choices about which markets to target, and how to get your product to those markets in a way that your competitors can't match

• Common mistakes people make when building their GTM

Let’s dive in:

How to build your GTM strategy

Your GTM strategy will give you a competitive advantage

Once you've chosen which new product or service you're going to launch, it's not going anywhere if you don't sell it. Your GTM strategy is the choices you make to ensure your product wins in the market and competitors don't steal your revenue.

Unfortunately, Most mistake a GTM strategy for a sales plan.

A sales plan is the goals, deadlines, responsibilities, budget, and tactics that make your GTM strategy a reality.

If you confuse the two, you'll have a great plan to execute but be missing your competitive advantage! Competitors will eat your lunch.

Both are crucial.

A GTM strategy includes choosing your playing field and the competitive advantage you'll have on that playing field

When choosing where you'll play, you'll want to determine:

Distribution channels:

• Which channels do our customers want to be reached in?

• How are these distribution channels integrated?

• Which channels are most cost-effective?

Customer types:

• Which customers can we serve better than anyone (ex. income level, age range, personality traits)?

• Are we serving one solution across a wide range of the customer lifecycle? Or a targeted solution across a wider range of customer types?

Geographies:

• What geographies are we competing in (ex. country, region)?

Crucial to a GTM strategy (and criminally overlooked) - you need a competitive advantage for each choice.

A competitive advantage is something your competitors can't or won't match.

3 types of advantage:

• Supply (ex. access to information others don’t have)

• Demand (ex. customer rewards)

• Cost (ex. cheaper product)

Note: a cost advantage is typically used when you have massive scale to bring costs down below what your competitors can. Most businesses should look to bring a differentiation advantage (supply/demand).

How to come up with the GTM choices

Now to come up with these choices. Choice-making is more art than science, so there are many different approaches, here's one I use (let's use which geography to play in for example):

Geographic choice:

Let's assume you're deciding where in the US to expand to.

First, break the US into multiple regions. I recommend using an existing region breakout so you can have the data behind it (ex. regions from the US Census Bureau).

Begin with an initial hypothesis on which regions have the highest concentration of your target customer. If you don't have a hypothesis, you won't know where to look, you'll drown in data, and never execute.

Now to check your hypothesis, research 3 factors:

• Desirability

• Viability

• Feasibility

Here's how:

Desirability: How badly do people in that region want your solution? Make sure your target customer is concentrated in that region.

Check your theory with research:

• Internet research: Analyze data sets to find which regions have the highest concentration (ex. the US Census bureau)

• Customer interviews: Interview a sample of these customers to determine their pain points and if your solution is the right fit

• Minimum Viable Product (MVP): Build a quick, barely functional, version of your product to test with these customers

Don't do all of these for each region. Leave the highest effort (time/cost) research for the market you're most likely to enter.

Viability: Is it profitable for you to be there? (i.e., does the business model make sense?)

• Market size / growth rate: Is it a big market? Will the market continue to grow?

• % of the market you think you can capture: Are competitors competing too heavily?

• Costs: Will it be too costly to get your product to that location?

Feasibility: How much do you need to invest to get there? How long will it take to build/buy the new capabilities?

You'll need to invest in new capabilities to make your offering a reality. Check that the increased investment still makes your entry financially attractive and logistically that you have the time to get there.

• People: Will you need to hire new people to build / manage the region?

• Process: Will you need to build new processes to sell your offering in that region?

• Tech: Is there technology you need to build/buy specific to getting your offering to that region?

Keep in mind - you have limited time / money. Prioritize your research with your hypothesis. Don't do an intensive, high-fidelity study for regions or you'll never execute. Find the right balance of analysis / execution.

Put your results side by side, and choose the option that's most desirable, viable, and feasible.

For another example, here's a thread on how to choose your customers:

And that's a wrap!

Summary

• GTM strategy will give you a competitive advantage

• Choose where you'll play and your competitive advantage together

• Make the choices that are the optimal combination of desirable, viable, and feasible

• Enjoy your competitive edge

If anyone has questions about problems you’re facing with your business strategies feel free to DM me on Twitter @BrianFOConnor

I’ll answer your questions in the next issue.

Talk soon!