How to build your GTM strategy from scratch

Proven frameworks from working with 350+ startups

👋 Hi, it’s Kyle Poyar and welcome to Growth Unhinged, my weekly newsletter exploring the hidden playbooks behind the fastest-growing startups.

Maja Voje

— better known as the

GTM Strategist

— is one of those people I knew I’d collaborate with eventually. She’s worked with 350+ startups to build out early-stage GTM strategies and generously shares those insights in her newsletter and on LinkedIn. Maja joins Growth Unhinged to unpack how to build your GTM strategy from scratch (pro tip: you need an early customer profile before you can get to an ICP). Keep reading, then check out related zero to $1M startup case studies and my emerging startup playbook.

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Many people mistake go-to-market (GTM) for “launch” or marketing in general.

However, GTM strategy is a set of activities that will propel your product to the scaling stage. The holy grail is to find at least one repeatable and scalable GTM motion that will drive your growth.

In this article, I will present three frameworks that will help you make your GTM journey faster and with less risk of failure. They are based on more than 12 years of my experience, having worked with more than 650 teams of different sizes and from various industries — including Fortune 500 companies.

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Three stages of GTM fit

The go-to-market (GTM) journey can be divided into three core milestones before you can start efficiently scaling: 

• Stage 1: Problem-Solution Fit. OK, you have done the discovery stage and found evidence that your product actually solves the problem. You have up to five paid customers — nascent product-market fit (customers from your rolodex and social networks). You are ready to continue your journey.

• Stage 2: Product-Market Fit. You start building a sustainable business model. The prerequisite is retention — that your customers return to the product and regularly use it. Not only can your product deliver value to the customer, but you can also capture some of the value to build a sustainable business. Call me strange for thinking that making money is important, especially if you are bootstrapping or operating within very limited resources 🤷

• Stage 3: Go-to-Market Fit. Find at least one go-to-market motion — a predictable and scalable way to attract customers to your product so that later on you can find more product-market fits (open new markets). These are the most common GTM Motions in the tech industry and for SaaS products . If there is something else working predictably well for you (retail marketing, events…), consider adding your choices to this list. 

A list of the seven most common GTM motions to consider. Two or three will typically work for you.

After you understand the core milestones, let’s step up the game with three mission-critical concepts that will more likely than not emerge on your go-to-market journey. I will help you explain these concepts by offering examples from the real company’s go-to-market journey and equip you with frameworks that will help you solve this dilemma with confidence (and for confidence, we need evidence - proof that something is working).

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Framework #1: Before there is an ICP, there is an Early Customer Profile

Often, teams start their “persona seeking” journey with a brainstorming exercise. As the outcome, they would define how Hans from Germany who drives Volkswagen and loves to ski is their Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). This is irrelevant if you are not selling Volkswagen accessories or skis. To avoid BS personas, you need to do a much better job in customer discovery, centering on jobs to be done. If you are selling to B2B, there is usually not one persona, but you need to understand the buying committee —a decision-making unit.

Many of you already know this and have done a fine job in defining ICP - but here is the trick: In the early stages of Go-to-Market journey, your ICP will require evidence (case studies, references, testimonials, compliance certifications and other “confidence boosters”) before happily taking your product for a spin. 

Here is when Early Customer Profile (ECP) kicks in. Instead of going around chasing references from all fields of life and trapping yourself in 6-18 months sales cycles, you should rather sit down, crunch some data, talk to users, and find a segment that will have:

• Burning pain point, aka the urgency to solve this problem now.

• Proven willingness to pay. last time I checked, product love alone does not keep the office lights on. You need to capture some of the value you created to pay your bills.

• Serve as a good reference and is willing to recommend your solution to peers.

• Proximity to you where you can actually reach them and strike a deal in a reasonable time. 

Framework you can use to define your ECP

This is why in the problem-solution fit stage, your first customers usually come from your contact lists, VCs or advisors. More likely than not, you will have to work your way up to the ICP by securing relevant pilot projects, case studies and references that will get you foot in the door of your ICP’s fortress.  

Example: DevStats is a data visualization and goal-setting tool that helps engineering leaders improve the efficiency of their teams and plan better. It connects with tools such as Jira, Github and others, which are super heavy in terms of IP.

Since many bigger teams (ICP) and teams from more data sensitive areas (pharma, medical, finance, etc.) require SOC security certifications and lots of evidence and proof that the tool will “pass their compliance”, the early customer profiles (ECP) in the next 3-6 months are teams up to 30 engineers that can make more autonomous decisions about the tooling. 

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Framework #2: Nail differentiated positioning by doubling down on your unique vale proposition (UVP) and unique selling proposition (USP)

Days of being something like an “AI-powered decentralized all-in-one CRM solution for businesses” are over.

As the market entry barriers are lower than ever and customers are getting immune to generic pitches craving the “what is in it for them” epiphany in a nutshell, positioning is more important than ever.

In simple words: sometimes the only way to stand out as a new player on the market is to communicate 10x value compared to existing solutions for your target customers. Most companies cannot really compete on price in the long-term (economies of scale are hard to achieve) and, ultimately, there can only be one cheapest player on the market. It is the race to the bottom. Break their inertia and reluctance to implement changes with differentiated positioning.

Here is an example of how positioning influences price perception

Your job to be done here is to develop a differentiated positioning:

• Define your UVP (unique value propositions) aka your promise to the customer

• Develop convincing USPs (unique selling propositions) aka why are you the go-to choice for your ICP? How are you different/better than competitive alternatives?  

Here is the key 🔑: you always position in relation to something. That something can be a service, DIY process, doing nothing, direct competitors, or even something that your potential users tweaked in Excel.

Here is an example of how PostRewriter used the positioning framework to focus on “ease of use”

Start by understanding the competitive alternatives — how your target customer is currently solving the problem. Next in line is understanding the evaluation criteria — what is important to the customers when making this decision and comparing alternatives. Bring all the elements together and score — how good is a certain competitive alternative in solving this problem?

You will either find evaluation criteria or competitors that will give you a fair fighting chance where you can thrive on the market. Choose your battles and play on your strengths. These are always the pillars of a winning strategy. 

Example: Post Rewriter is an AI copywriting tool that competes against ghostwriters on LinkedIn as well as DIY solutions (aka Claude, ChatGPT) and other automation tools (direct competitors). It turns out the criteria to compete is “ease of use” so we went ahead, tested and validated such messaging:

• UVP: Turn your unique thoughts into a successful LinkedIn post while you have a coffee - for better copywriting

• USP1: Trained on 60K+ viral LinkedIn posts curated by a copywriter who made $5 million for his clients (+33% reach)

• USP2: No one will know that you use a shortcut 

• USP3: Safe to use — not a LinkedIn integration that could jeopardize your profile 

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Framework #3: Create a GTM masterplan to secure traction without breaking the bank

After you have figured out who is your target audience and what to say to them, it is time to get users into your product — yaaayyyy! 🎉

Here is where GTM motions, mentioned at the beginning of this article, come into play.

If you have not secured Product-Market Fit yet, we cannot talk about GTM motions just yet — but there are actions you can try to figure out what would work best for your target market?

Always go where the audience is. If you do not know that, ask them. Run some interviews or send them an email/survey in which you ask “You have a problem X - where would you turn for inspiration, guidance and suggestions to solve it?” 

After you have secured Product-Market Fit, your next job is to systemize and optimize GTM motions. These are predictable and scalable ways to get customers. For most companies, two or three GTM motions will work best. 

Example: AI-enabled B2B influencer marketing platform Expert9 is on a mission to get 1,000 users, 200 weekly active users and 10 paying customers with $0. What should they do? Here is the plan! 

• Step 1: Tap their personal network to get first 10 case studies of brand collaborations. 

• Step 2: Present these case studies and create content on LinkedIn, then send outbound messages to their ICP to secure first 5 customers. Booster: It will help if they eat their dog food — work with influencers.

• Step 3: Now, how to scale from 5 to 50 brands that will work with influencers is the real question to handle. From their early validation, their first GTM motions will most likely be outbound (sending out emails and DMs on LinkedIn to CMOs and heads of growth), inbound (content creations and collaborations) and partnerships (with agencies for reselling, exclusive deals with influencers and brands).

I use “GTM Power Hour” framework with my teams to define objectives and plan for the next period. You can grab the template in Miro here.

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PMF is a cycle, not a magic moment in time

I like to think of PMF as a cycle. Most companies take five to seven spins to align all the elements. Every time I fail to validate something, I remember that Nokia started with toilet paper, Lamborghini with tractors, and McDonald’s with hot dogs.

The faster we spin it, the more likely we are to be the lucky one to cross the chasm. So let it spin.

Coming up with assumptions, testing, analyzing, and iterating is the best way to align all the moving parts of PMF and GTM motions. It does not have to be magic ✨, use the scientific method, look at the numbers and test hypotheses 🤠

Good luck on your go-to-market journey. I am cheering for you!

If you like what you read today, subscribe to my

GTM Strategist

newsletter on Substack, where we tackle GTM best practices and examples every Friday. And don’t miss my Power Hour GTM canvas template on Miro!