Go-to-Market (GTM) Strategy insights for business leaders who would like to grow their business.
Back to basics
In this series I’ll explore the foundations of GTM Strategy.
Whether you’re looking to refresh your know-how, or expand your skills, this series is for you.
Product-Market Fit (PMF)
Product-Market Fit is something all revenue organisations should regularly revisit.
The clue is in the name. Your product should “fit”, by which I mean solve a significant problem, or fulfil a particular need for, a particular market.
You can’t, therefore, “set it and forget it”. As your markets change, shrink or grow, your products should evolve to fit them. PMF should be a recurring item on your GTM Strategy checklist.
No PMF?
Misjudge or ignore PMF at your peril.
Signs you may already be doing so:
- Growth is starting to stagnate;
- Churn rates are spiking; and/or
- GTM teams are struggling to connect your product with the market’s evolving needs.
Fixing PMF
Ways to correct and strengthen your PMF include:
- Continuous Customer Feedback: Check what your customers want, use and need. Often. The more personal you can be, and the more you can discover, the better.
- Agile Pivots: Regularly tweak your product(s) and your go-to-market approach, using your customers’ needs (as established via 1, above) as your focal point.
- Refining Value Proposition: Update your messaging to fit. Tell your customers that you have listened. Explain that you understand their new needs and wants and describe how your updated product(s) now better meets them.
Understanding your market
You hopefully know your product inside out. But how well do you know your markets?
One size does not fit all. The more granular you can be, the better fit you’re likely to achieve. With this in mind, do your best to:
- Understand each market (its needs, its foibles etc.).
- Carry out the PMF process with each market.
Geography matters
A good example of this “specificity of PMF” is geography. PMF will vary depending on the geographic market you target.
Achieving PMF for a Fintech product in a highly developed and regulated, tech-savvy market (like the UK or the States) will be different than in an emerging market.
In an emerging market, customers are less likely to be familiar with your solution. In addition, infrastructure might not yet exist to support its widespread adoption.
Your product (and the messaging around it) will therefore need to differ for each geographical market, to ensure that that product fits that market.
Size matters
The size of your addressable market in each region can also affect how well your product fits.
For example, a solution that works well for enterprises in Europe might need to be re-positioned, or even re-engineered, for mid-market companies in Asia.
Constantly adapting to fit
To summarise:
- Successful scale-ups adjust their approach to PMF based on the sophistication and needs of the specific markets they are trying to enter; and
- Vigilance and adaptation are essential.
Product Marketing’s Role
Sales and product marketing should work collaboratively. Continually realigning to ensure that the perfect fit exists in each market for each product.
Product marketing’s role in achieving PMF cannot be underestimated.
They should:
- bridge the gap between the product team and the market;
- act as the voice of the customer within your company; and
- be involved in: competitive analysis; market research; and defining (and continually redefining) the messaging that will resonate with key customer segments.
The perfect PM Fit!
When sales and product marketing collaborate effectively, their messaging will align. Not only with what the product does, but also with the needs of the specific market and the customers within it.
If you get it right, a feedback loop develops:
- Insights gained from sales engagements will help product marketing to refine the value proposition, and vice versa;
- PMF will become more and more accurate; and
- The problems described above (see No PMF?) should begin to disappear.
(And if they don’t, the problem might lie elsewhere. In which case, we can help you to find and solve it.)
Next time
In the next edition of GTM Strategy, Back to Basics, I’ll look more closely at three commonly used metrics to describe the market your organisation operates in: Total Addressable Market, Serviceable Addressable Market and Serviceable Obtainable Market (TAM, SAM and SOM).
In the meantime, if you’d like to know more about PMF or would like to chat about how Toggle Switch could help your business to grow, do please get in touch.