The Complete Guide to a Successful Go-to-Market Strategy
- Guy Timmers
- 6 days ago
- 13 min read
A Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy is the foundation for predictable commercial growth in B2B companies. This blog explains why many SaaS and tech companies struggle with fragmented commercial activities and how a well-thought-out GTM strategy solves this. By bringing together eight essential building blocks - from objectives to tactics - you create a structured approach that connects teams and accelerates results. With the right GTM strategy, you not only achieve better commercial results but also gain more control over your growth strategy.
Table of contents
In many growing B2B companies, commerce is driven by a mix of commitment, experience and opportunism. Teams work hard, campaigns are rolled out, sales is not idle. But as the company grows, a nagging feeling arises: we are busy – but not always with the right things. The pipeline is erratic. The collaboration between marketing and sales is chafing. New propositions are launched without a clear definition of target group or message. And who is responsible for the bigger picture? That often remains unclear. In this phase, it often turns out that something fundamental is missing: a clear Go-to-Market strategy - often abbreviated to GTM. Not as a buzzword, but as a guiding framework that makes choices. That gives direction to campaigns, provides structure to sales, and ensures that teams work together – instead of alongside each other – on growth. Yet many companies in SaaS, tech and IT services do not have this clearly defined. GTM is seen as complex, something for later, or confused with marketing plans or sales objectives. This leads to fragmentation, delays and loss of control. In this guide, you will learn what a Go-to-Market strategy really is – and why it is a crucial building block for scalable growth. We show where things often go wrong, which elements are indispensable, and how you can restore commercial coherence as an organization – whether you are a founder, CEO or investor.
What is a Go-to-Market Strategy (and what isn't)?
A Go-to-Market strategy is the plan with which you as an organization bring your offering to the market, in a way that is commercially successful and scalable. It is the connecting whole between your product, your target group, your message, your channels and your commercial objectives.
A good GTM strategy essentially answers three questions:
For whom do we solve which problem?
How do we bring that story to the market?
How do we ensure that marketing, sales and customer success teams work together to do this successfully?
The goal isn’t just to market your product, but to build a predictable, repeatable commercial machine ( also called the Revenue Factory by Winning by Design ). That works with the right customers, through the right channels, at the right price, with the right message – and where the entire team knows what they’re working towards.
What a GTM strategy is not
In practice, a GTM strategy is often confused with:
A marketing plan. This describes campaigns, channels and content – often without a clear customer problem, without alignment with sales, and without clear goals.
A sales plan. Focused on targets, incentives and sales tactics – but usually without marketing and customer data firmly interwoven.
A positioning or branding document. Important, but mainly focused on image formation, not on actually guiding leads to customers.
A component of your business strategy. Your GTM strategy is closely related to your broader business strategy, but it is not a summary of it. Your business strategy tells you what you want to achieve. Your GTM strategy shows you how you will achieve that commercially.
Why is a GTM strategy so important?
Without a clear GTM strategy, you work in a fragmented way. Marketing and sales operate separately. Propositions are not communicated consistently. ICPs (Ideal Customer Profile) are too vague or too broad. And predictability in your pipeline is lacking. You not only lose efficiency – but also trust, direction and growth opportunities.
A good GTM strategy is exactly what ensures:
Sharp choices (target groups, channels, propositions)
Better collaboration between teams
More control over funnel, conversion and revenue
And a joint story to the market
Why is a GTM plan often missing in growing companies?
Most SaaS and IT companies start with focus: one customer type, one solution, one or two people doing the selling. In the beginning, that works. You sell on relationships, enthusiasm and direct contact with the market. But as the team grows – and marketing, sales and customer teams each get their own role – it starts to chafe.
It is then that a sharp Go-to-Market strategy becomes crucial. But it rarely happens in time. Why?
1. GTM feels like something for later
Many founders and commercial teams see GTM as something for when “we really start scaling” or “when things get more complex.” But as soon as you have more than one salesperson, run campaigns or add a marketing team, you need GTM. Especially if you serve multiple propositions, markets or ICPs (Ideal Customer Profile). Are you waiting until you really can’t do without it? Then you’re actually already behind the facts.
2. Everyone works – but no one sees the whole picture
Marketing generates leads. Sales calls back. Customer success ensures onboarding. Everyone is rowing – but not necessarily in the same direction. You see this reflected in poor conversion, vague messaging, misunderstandings about the target group. Or worse: leads that don’t land anywhere, customers that drop out, and teams that unintentionally get in each other’s way. Without central control over GTM, initiatives do not reinforce each other – and your growth slowly but surely stagnates.
3. GTM sounds like 'strategy' – and therefore abstract or heavy
Go-to-Markets strategy is often seen as something that takes months, costs a lot and ends up in a thick presentation somewhere. That scares off – and so people postpone it. But a good GTM strategy is concrete, action-oriented and directly applicable. In fact: it should be translated into clear tactics, tasks and rhythm in the team. Not a separate document, but a foundation for your commercial operation.
4. There is no clear owner
Marketing focuses on brand and leads. Sales on turnover. Customer Success on retention. But who is responsible for the entire customer journey? For the coherence between channels, messaging, conversion and retention? If that is unclear, GTM becomes a side issue. No plan, but a sum of separate efforts. And that is reflected in the results. A clear GTM strategy provides direction, ownership and coherence. In the next section you will read how to build such a strategy – step by step and without lengthy consultancy processes.
The 8 Building Blocks of a Strong GTM Strategy
An effective Go-to-Market strategy is a coherent plan that defines your commercial course: who you are there for, what problem you are solving, how you enter the market, and how you convert that into growth. It is not about filling in separate parts, but about creating an integrated, action-oriented model that provides direction and rhythm to your commercial organization.
Below are the key building blocks of a mature GTM approach:
1. Objectives: what do you want to achieve?
A good GTM plan starts with your commercial ambitions. What is your sales target – not just for the coming year, but also for the next 2 to 3 years? How much turnover do you want to achieve? What does that mean for the growth you need to accelerate? This determines the scale of your approach. A company that wants to grow by 20% makes different choices than an organization that wants to triple in three years. Your GTM must therefore fit the growth curve you have in mind – in timing, in resources and in market approach.
2. The problem: what problem are we really solving?
Customers rarely buy a product – they buy a solution to a problem they recognize and want to solve. Behind every purchase is an underlying problem that leads to a specific need. An effective GTM strategy therefore starts with the most painful, urgent problem that you solve – not your solution.
💡 Example: You’re building a SaaS solution for expense processing. You’re not selling “smart OCR” or “automation,” you’re solving the problem of employees losing receipts, finance losing days on audits, and managers having delayed insight into expenses. The value is in solving that problem — not the technology behind it.
3. The market: where is this problem felt most acutely?
Not every target group experiences your problem equally strongly. Your GTM strategy therefore makes sharp choices: in which market segments, sectors or growth phases is the urgency the highest? Here you work out your ICPs: what are the characteristics of organizations that recognize the problem, are prepared to tackle it, and for which your solution fits in terms of scale, needs and budget? The sharper your segmentation, the more targeted your messaging, and the more effective your sales.
4. The solution: what do you offer that really helps?
Only when the problem and the market are clear, you define your solution. Not as a feature list, but as a concrete answer to the pain your customer experiences. What makes your approach or offer relevant and credible for this target group? Which components are essential in your proposition to really solve this problem? Your customer does not have to understand everything - only why you solve this better, faster or more efficiently than others.
5. Distribution (channel): what is the smartest way to reach these customers?
Who is best able to reach these future customers? Which routes will quickly bring you to your ideal customer – with the least resistance? Will you sell directly with your own team? Will you work via implementation partners, integrations, marketplaces or co-selling with a large tech player? Or will you choose a combination of channels, depending on your segment and buyer? A good GTM strategy makes conscious choices here – based on return, feasibility and speed.
6. Competition: Who else is solving this problem?
In every market there are alternatives. Sometimes direct competitors, more often other ways of solving – such as in-house work, spreadsheets or maintaining the status quo.
A good GTM therefore contains a clear competitive strategy:
How do you position yourself in relation to alternatives?
What customer doubts do you need to resolve?
What are you demonstrably better at?
Your proposition will only gain strength if you know what you are contrasting and where you are making distinctions.
7. Velocity: How fast and scalable is your growth plan?
Ambition is great, but feasibility is really important. That's why you calculate how many leads, opportunities and deals you need to achieve your goals - and whether your organization is set up for that.
What is your target sales productivity (how many deals per rep)?
Is your market big enough for the volume you need?
Do you have sufficient capacity (in sales and marketing) to carry this plan?
Velocity forces you to test your GTM plan for realism and scalability.
8. Tactics: How do you bring the plan to life?
This is where many companies fail: the translation of strategy into action. An effective GTM strategy determines which tactics you use to guide your buyers efficiently and with sufficient volume through their journey. Think of outbound activities (telephone and email), event sponsoring, Account Based Marketing (ABM), partner activation or co-selling - depending on your market and maturity.
These choices should follow logically from all the previous building blocks:
Does it suit your target audience?
At your market complexity?
At your team capacity?
Without actionable tactics, your GTM remains a theory – with little impact in practice.
Did you know that cohesion makes the biggest difference?
You can have all the components perfectly worked out separately. But without coherence your strategy will remain a collection of ideas.
🔍 Did you know that organizations with good alignment between sales and marketing…
Achieve 32% more turnover
Retain 36% more customers
Achieve 38% higher win rates
(source: Aberdeen Group )
💡 And according to SiriusDecisions, companies with alignment grow 24% faster in revenue and 27% faster in profits – within 12 months.
👉 In short: it is not only what you choose in your GTM plan that determines your success, but especially how well it is aligned .
Typical mistakes in SaaS, tech and IT services
Many organizations claim to have a Go-to-Market strategy. But if you ask further, it often turns out to be separate documents, sales plans or positioning slides. Well-intentioned, but insufficiently coherent or applicable.
Below you will find the mistakes we encounter most often with our customers. Often recognizable - sometimes painful.
1. GTM is confused with branding or marketing
“Our GTM? Yes, we just launched our new corporate identity and website.” When GTM is confused with branding, positioning or marketing campaigns, the foundation is often shaky.
Branding is how you look . Marketing is how you get attention . GTM is how you sell structurally and repeatably to the right customers, with the right message and via the right route.
A GTM strategy is about structure, choices and alignment. Not just visibility.
2. ICPs are too vague – or not shared across teams
Almost every company claims to have a “focus.” But often ICPs are broadly defined and internally interpreted differently. For example, marketing focuses on large financial services companies with an international presence, while sales focuses on SMEs in the financial sector – or even on a completely different industry. The result? Confusion, conflicting campaigns, vague messaging and poor conversion.
Without a shared, clearly defined ICP – including pain points, context and buying behavior – everyone is talking to a different audience.
💡 Plus, if sales and marketing aren’t focusing on customers who have the biggest problem, it’s not just bad for conversions – it’s risky for your entire business model.
You see it reflected in important metrics:
Higher Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC), because sales has to put in too much effort to convince 'doubtful cases'.
Lower customer retention because the customer wasn't actually a good fit.
A negative impact on Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV).
3. There is no coherence between tactics
There’s a webinar. And a whitepaper. And an outbound campaign. And someone is doing ‘something’ with LinkedIn. But who is coordinating these actions? Nobody. As we said before: everyone is rowing hard – but not necessarily in the same direction. Without clear GTM coordination, it feels like “we’re doing everything”, but the results are missing. Initiatives don’t reinforce each other, there is no rhythm or coherence, and learnings from the market are left behind.
4. Sales and marketing work in isolation
Without a clear GTM strategy, recognizable situations arise:
Marketing sends 'leads', but sales doesn't trust them
Sales wants a different target group than marketing target
There is no common definition of the pipeline, so no data-driven optimization
Customer success does not know what was promised in the pre-sales phase
Everyone is on their own island. And if the targets are not met? Then people mainly look at each other. And that is a shame. Because as we showed earlier:
Companies with strong sales-marketing alignment achieve 32% higher revenue, 38% higher win rates and 36% higher customer retention
5. The focus is on the solution, not the problem
Many GTM approaches are product- or solution-driven. “Our AI tool helps you report automatically.” But if you only focus on your solution, you will only reach the 3% of your market that is already actively looking for a solution and has already largely completed their buyer journey. The rest – the 97% – only recognizes symptoms, frustrations or inefficiencies. You connect with that by starting from the problem that you help solve.
🧠 If you want your GTM to resonate with your market, you need to make the buyer think – not promote your product.
6. GTM is not sufficiently buyer centric
Selling is no longer a matter of 'having your pitch ready'. Selling is helping to buy.
And that means: you have to connect with the journey your buyer is making. What triggers their orientation? Where do they drop off? How do they make decisions internally? If your GTM only looks at your internal pipeline (MQL → SQL → deal) and doesn’t pay enough attention to how the customer really buys, you’ll miss the connection – and with that the momentum.
7. No one is responsible for GTM as a whole
GTM is not something that 'happens automatically'. It needs an owner. Without that, it remains fragmented.
Marketing focuses on reach, leads or MQLs
Sales on turnover
Customer success on retention or NRR
Everyone has their own metric – but no one feels responsible for the whole.
And so silos are created. GTM is meant to break down those silos. To ensure that marketing, sales and customer teams are working towards the same goal – with shared goals, one language and a single strategy.
What does a good GTM strategy actually deliver?
We have discussed why a GTM strategy is often missing, what the building blocks are and where it goes wrong. Perhaps you have already started calculating in your head, or you have seen the mistakes in your own organization. But what does it really bring you - in practice?
Here it is again, compact and concrete: this is why it pays to have your GTM in order.
Better management of data & progress
GTM forces you to sharply define goals, ICPs, pipeline and tactics. This not only makes it easier to adjust – you also know why something works (or not). No more guesswork, but:
Clear pipeline performance
Understanding velocity metrics
Reliable forecasting accuracy
ROI by channel or segment
More peace and clarity – also for you as a founder
Perhaps the biggest gain: grip. You know where you stand, what the next step is, and how to achieve it. Your teams work with the same compass. No more noise – just rhythm. And you? You don't have to be in between everything anymore.
And what else?
Without repeating it all (because we just did), GTM also provides:
Higher conversion
Less noise between teams
Better retention and LTV
Faster growth, less waste
More alignment = more results
In other words: GTM is not a nice-to-have. It is your growth accelerator.
How to develop an effective GTM strategy?
(And how do we do that at LeapLogic?)
A good Go-to-Market strategy is not a theoretical report. It is a plan that lives, provides direction and is actually executed. But how do you ensure that you quickly get to the core - without getting bogged down in post-its, opinions or complexity? At LeapLogic we do this with one fixed start: FunnelCamp™ .
FunnelCamp™: a concrete GTM plan in a short time
FunnelCamp™ is an intensive, goal-oriented workshop (series). In 1 to 3 days we work with you and your (senior) stakeholders towards a fully developed Go-to-Market strategy.
We don't just map out where you are – we ensure that you and the entire team know where you are going, how you will get there and what it specifically requires.
You get:
Insight into commercial objectives and growth direction
Clear choices in market, ICP, proposition, competition and approach
A concrete GTM strategy with tactics, channels and role division
A 100-day sprint as a flying start for execution
Comprehensive tactics briefings, ready for execution by your team, LeapLogic or other partners
And all of this is visual, tangible and supported by your team.
And then? No plan without action
A GTM strategy only works when it comes to life in your organization. That is why we at LeapLogic also offer support in the implementation phase. This can be done in various ways:
Through a fractional GTM expert who helps you manage the execution
Through coaching and support from our GTM consultancy team
Or by calling on our team of specialists for topics such as positioning, content, tooling, campaigns or sales enablement
Together we determine what is needed to not only put your strategy on paper – but to make it work in practice.
Why this works
Our approach is not a self-invented model or an AI-designed approach. We work with a proven method developed by Align.me , and based on the results of more than 4,000 GTM plans worldwide. By using FunnelPlan™ software, we also work quickly and in a structured manner towards a strategy that stands - and is easy to translate into concrete actions, dashboards and is recognizable for your team.
No time wasted. No battle of opinions. But a GTM that works.
Whether you are working on your next growth phase, financing round or a later exit – GTM is at the heart of what makes you scalable.
At LeapLogic, we help you make that happen – with a practical approach, not big plans.
👉 Schedule a no-obligation call – and discover what GTM can deliver when it’s really done right.
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