Go-to-market strategy template: a copyable outline and the research e...

A go-to-market strategy template is a short document with one section for each decision you have to make: what you sell, who you sell to first, what problem you solve, how they buy, what they use now, what you say, where they will hear it, what you charge and how you will know it is working. The outline below has nine sections. Copy it into a doc and fill in each one, noting where each answer came from.

A template filled with guesses looks finished but is not. Under each section you will find the research input it needs, so you can tell a tested answer from an assumption. For the reasoning behind each decision, read how to build a go-to-market strategy first.

How to use this template

Keep the finished document to about two pages. The SBA's planning guide describes lean startup plans as typically one page, covering a handful of elements such as customer segments, channels, the value proposition and revenue streams. A go-to-market plan should be similarly short, because you will rewrite it as you learn.

Tag every answer with where it came from:

[buyers]: you heard it in several conversations with people in the segment.
[data]: it came from public data or your own numbers.
[guess]: neither, yet.

The [guess] tags become your research list.

The example lines use a hypothetical product: software that texts a waitlist of patients to fill last-minute cancellations at independent dental practices. They show the level of detail to aim for. They are illustrations, not research results.

The template

Copy everything from here to the end of the section.

1. Product in one sentence

What it does, for whom, and the result they get.

Research input: none to start; this is your claim. Read it to a few buyers and ask them to explain it back. If they cannot, rewrite it.
Example: "Fills last-minute cancellations at independent dental practices by texting patients on a waitlist."

2. First segment

Who you sell to first. It should be narrow enough that you can list real companies in it.

Research input: interviews across two or three candidate segments, and a bottom-up count of how many buyers exist. Market size research shows how to do the count with public data.
Example: "Independent practices with two to five dentists in our state. [guess]"

3. Problem, in the buyer's words

The problem as buyers describe it, quoted from conversations where possible.

Research input: notes from interviews that asked about the last time the problem happened.
Example: "A patient cancels at noon for a 2 p.m. slot and the chair sits empty. [buyers]"

4. Who buys and how

Who notices the problem, who evaluates options, who approves the spend, who signs, and what slows the purchase down.

Research input: walk-throughs from people who recently bought a similar tool. How to interview B2B buyers, users and champions covers how to separate the roles.
Example: "The office manager finds and tries tools; the owner dentist approves anything billed monthly. [buyers]"

5. Current alternative and competitors

What buyers do today, including doing nothing, and which products they have compared.

Research input: buyer interviews plus competitors' public material. See competitor analysis.
Example: "The front desk calls down a paper list; some practices use the reminder feature in their practice software. [buyers]"

6. Message

The main promise and two supporting points, in the buyer's words from section 3.

Research input: the phrases buyers repeat, and which versions of your message get replies when you use them in outreach.
Example: "Fill the chair when someone cancels, without the front desk making calls. [guess]"

7. Channels

One or two ways the segment will hear about you, and why you chose them.

Research input: where buyers say they find new suppliers, plus the results of small tests.
Example: "Direct outreach to office managers; a talk at a regional dental society meeting. [guess]"

8. Price and how the sale closes

The price, the billing unit, and how a sale closes: the buyer signs up alone, after one demo call, or through a longer process with several approvers.

Research input: what the current alternative costs, and commitments such as paid pilots. How to research willingness to pay covers the questions.
Example: "Per location per month; one demo call with the office manager, then the owner signs. [guess]"

9. First 90 days: plan and measures

What you will do, and which counts will tell you whether the plan is working.

Research input: your own counts once you start, such as conversations held, demos, pilots started and pilots converted.
Example targets: "40 conversations, 10 demos, 3 paid pilots." These are targets you set, not predictions.

Decide what to research first

When the template is filled in, look at the [guess] tags. Rank them by how much the plan would change if the guess were wrong. In the dental example, the closing path in section 8 matters most: if owners will not approve a monthly fee after one demo call, the sales process, the channel and the first-year numbers all change.

Research the top two guesses before anything else. For a buyer-side question, start with five or six conversations with people in the segment. For a question about how the industry works, such as how practice software vendors sell to dentists, talk to people who sell into the segment. Market research interviews with customers, suppliers and operators explains how to combine those views.

Mistakes that make a template useless

A segment like "small businesses" or "healthcare." If you cannot list ten companies in it, it is too broad to plan around.
Every channel at once. A plan that lists search, social, events, partners and outbound says you have not chosen.
A price with no source. Mark it as a guess until someone has committed to it.
Treating the document as finished. Update it after each round of conversations and date each version.

Your next step

Copy the template and fill it in within an hour, tagging every answer. Then pick the two guesses that matter most and book conversations to test them.

If the people you need are outside your network, Instant Expert can find people who match a description you write, such as "office managers at independent dental practices." You review who it finds, it sends your invitations, and you pay only for calls that get booked. The directory pages for operations professionals in dental services and procurement professionals in dental services are one place to start.