How to move away from Founder-Led Go-To-Market

Rebel GTM recently had a panel discussion with three early startup founders and CEOs about Go To Market challenges, opportunities, and growing the business.  On the panel were Ellen Goodwin, Co-Founder and CSO of Artifcts, Guarav Mehra, CEO of Atheer, and Maleka Momand, Co-Founder and CEO of Esper.

• Artifcts is a B2C and B2B2C platform that helps people capture and store memories of personal objects.
• Esper is a policy management software for governments.  
• Atheer is a B2B aftermarket service performance platform pivoting from hardware to SaaS solutions.

Each panelist had unique views of the early-stage startup and how to move beyond founder sales to a more process-oriented GTM strategy.  Because each of these companies serves a different market and industry, their insights were varied, but some commonalities were discussed that apply to every startup.

Don’t Boil the Ocean

Guarav stated that you should not be all things to everybody because then you are nothing to anybody.  Be something to a particular someone.  It is all about initially focusing on a smaller segment that you can handle and can serve as a smaller company, which means you have to say no to some deals or segments. Find your value proposition that can be tested and truly resonates with a specific segment. In the end, find the segments where your solution is essential for someone to buy.

Ellen said they started with nine personas to target, but that was too much, so they narrowed it down to three, which had four hidden personas.  Unfortunately, this segment was still too big for them to target initially.  They further focused on personas with which the founders had previously connected and looked to these networks first.  Ellen had a connection to AARP, and her CEO had connections to high-net-worth individuals.

One other note from the panel is to look at your target segment’s sales cycles.  If you sell to enterprises with six-month to one-year sales cycles and only have one year of funding, then they should not be your initial target customers.

The overall message is to be very intentional about who, what, and where you will target and who, what, and where you will not.  Write it down and let the entire company know.  Then test, track, and review the results.  Will this target pivot?  Most likely, but get the data and then pivot if needed.

Start Talking to Prospects before MVP

This panel's recurring theme is to spend lots of time with your customer and prospects, especially if you are in the early stages and have no sales, product, or engagement data.  Even if you have not released your MVP, you should be talking to prospects and your network.  Don’t wait till you have the “perfect” product to start your GTM.  Get feedback from your target segment on the product and learn if this is the right target segment.

As Atheer pivoted to a SaaS product, they had customers in various segments but didn’t know who would be the right target going forward, so they tested a 30/30 feedback project.  Talk to 30 prospects in 30 days to get more feedback on their needs and if this was the right segment to target.  This can also be done with messaging or positioning.  What is that painful need where your solution becomes the no-brainer buy?

Find the Right Salesperson Persona

Maleka had a funny story about hiring salespeople to target her government prospects.  Esper’s buyer persona is the deputy director of a government agency.  Maleka initially hired super seasoned gov-tech account executives that had been following the government for 20 years, but they were slow, lazy, not hungry at all, were waiting for deals to fall into their lap, and had no urgency.

Then she went the opposite way and hired 20-year-olds calling, smiling, and dialing the entire time.  They had the urgency and hunger but didn’t match the executive presence they needed for these deputy directors.  So they kept churning the sales team until they found the right sales persona, which is a person with a Master’s degree or JD who has an executive presence and communication skills to be able to speak to high-level government officials.

She noted that churning a salesperson can cost you $500K, so any salesperson churn is costly.  You must create a salesperson persona matching your target persona and hire accordingly.

Documented Leap of Faith

They all spoke of being an early-stage startup and not having the mountain of marketing and sales data that helps you find the right customer at the right time.  They recommended gathering all the feedback you can about your target market, finding what you feel is their essential pain and need, testing your theory quickly, and pivoting accordingly.  Document these tests, what worked and didn’t work, and revise the plan.

They all acknowledged that as a startup, they don’t have the metrics or data to show them the way, but they need to take the leap of faith and follow where their customers lead them.

Product-Market Fit vs. Go-To-Market Fit

Everyone talks about product-market fit, where you have determined a need in the market for the product you are offering.  But no one talks about Go-To-Market fit.  Atheer determined they had a good product-market fit and won some customers, but their organization did not have a GTM fit with the market, so using the 30/30 idea above, they found out the nuances of what the buyers needed and who they were.  

They discovered what the buyers think about, what it takes for them to buy from you, and what they hear from your message and brand.  Then they took these data points to create a better GTM fit with the market.  They also determined they needed help, so they worked with Rebel GTM to redefine their messaging and positioning and clarify the value proposition.  Rebel took all the feedback from prospective buyers and distilled it down to concise messages of value to specific personas that can be replicated on a larger scale in marketing and sales.  They also needed to find the ideal sales persona to deliver these messages.

High-level insights is continually talking to your prospects and customers from before MVP to a mature product.  And in addition to a product-market fit, you need a go-to-market fit.

Artifcts is a solution to unite the objects in our lives with their stories, connecting people, helping to declutter without guilt, and ensuring our stories—not just objects—live on for generations.

Atheer is a service performance platform that helps equipment manufacturers deliver exceptional and profitable customer service, especially when relying on an extended network of dealers, installers, and service partners.

Esper is an end-to-end policy platform and system or record for government entities to create more equitable and easy-to-access policies.

Rebel GTM is a fractional Go to Market services practice. We fuel double-digit growth for our B2B technology clients with GTM expertise and “SWAT” teams that quickly deploy proven practices and operational execution.