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This week’s research note includes:

• GTM Research: How to think about metrics and KPIs for GTM

• GTM Problem of the Week: How do you define Go-to-Market

• GTM News

• GTM Events

GTM Research: How to think about metrics and KPIs for GTM

A weekly deep-dive into new GTM research and insights

As Larry Freed, one of Sarah’s mentors, told her (over and over):

You can’t manage what you can’t measure.

What you measure and track is going to change as your business grows and changes.

At Problem-Market fit, aka the Ideation Phase, you want to track metrics by function:

• Sales activities (calls, demos, opportunities) 

• Marketing activities (traffic, MQLs)

• Funnel conversion rate

• Cost per lead (CPL)

• Bookings

• Win rate

At Product-Market Fit, aka the Transition Phase, think about tracking metrics by account segment, such as:

• Engagement

• Pipeline coverage

• Deal velocity 

• Average deal size

• Gross Revenue Retention(GRR)

• Efficiency metrics like magic number, CAC

At Platform-Market Fit, you’ll evolve to tracking metrics by customer cohort:

• Lifetime Value (LTV)

• Time to Value (TTV)

• Net Promoter Score (NPS)

• Customer Return on Investment (ROI)

• Revenue and pipeline by product

• NRR / Net Expansion

• Gross Margins

• Growth by category

Scorecards Align Teams

Scorecards of KPIs and OKR’s do more than just keep us busy frantically putting decks together in the days before a board meeting or monthly executive team check in.

Common metrics reinforce common goals.

If you’re struggling with alignment between GTM teams, one of the first things you can do to get a common language is develop a common scorecard.

Here is a template for a GTM scorecard.

Here is a template for a CMO-CRO scorecard.

Metrics for the Motions

So far, we’ve been talking about high-level metrics that you might report to an executive team or board.

But last week on an advisory call, Lindsay was asked, “How do I know whether my GTM motions are working or not? How do I know if they’re working better in Q2 than they did in Q1? How do I know where to invest and where to divest?”

Here are the 6 GTM Motions again to refresh your memory.

Here’s an overview of what kinds of metrics to track for each of the 6 GTM Motions.

Note: there is a difference between a GTM campaign and a GTM motion.

A GTM motion is a coordinated strategic effort across multiple teams which has specific pipeline and revenue targets.

Clearly you need to measure resulting revenue!

A GTM campaign is a subset of GTM activities that are done in service of a motion.

The following metrics are intended more for motions than campaigns.

Because that list is pretty small and most companies aren’t running every single GTM motion, here are the metrics broken out by motion.

Inbound

Inbound attribution can be tough. Sometimes a customer will have seen a long cadence of outbound emails and social media ads and then request a demo on the website. Make sure you’re consistent about how you track and classify an inbound lead.

Another tip: if you want your team to focus on the ICP, only count the visits, leads, and SQLs that are within your ICP.

Outbound

CAC is a tricky calculation for the Outbound motion because companies tend to count their entire sales team’s salary on the cost side of the equation, when in fact the sales team could also be contributing to Partner-Led, sales assisted Product-Led Growth, Event-Led, and others.

Again, pay attention to ICP here.

Product-Led Growth

For some companies, a tour or demo will be a top-of-funnel activity, for some it will qualify them to be in pipeline. These are just suggestions; make them work for your business.

Read more about Product-Led Growth here.

Partner-Led Growth

There are 5 kinds of Partner programs you could be using, and metrics will vary for each, but here are some high-level ideas.

Event-Led Growth

Read more about event-led growth and how to measure it’s success as you evolve here.

Community-Led Growth

The influence of community on growth is tough to measure and track, but it can be done.

Read more about community-led growth here.

Learn More about the GTM Motions

GTM Problem of the Week

Send us your most pressing GTM problem, and if you’re selected, you’ll get a short session with an analyst to answer it!

Dear GTM Partners,

How do you define go-to-market? My CEO thinks Go-to-Market and marketing are the same thing. As VP of Marketing, I want to get sales and CS involved in a more cohesive GTM strategy.

Marketing Leader in the Bay Area

Dear Marketing Leader in the Bay Area,

You’re not alone. We talk to a number of GTM leaders who think of the terms marketing and GTM interchangeably.

Here’s what we shared recently about the difference:

Go-to-market is a transformational process for accelerating your path to market.

Marketing is one of the disciplines that is essential to getting GTM right.

If GTM is the cake, marketing is the flour.

If GTM is the puzzle, marketing is the puzzle piece.

If GTM is the revenue engine, marketing is the fuel.

This is our formal definition:

Marketing cannot do that alone!

We used to think of GTM as a relay race.

Product starts with the baton. Once the product is working, they hand the baton off to Marketing who run a lap to generate some demand. Marketing hand off to Sales who close the deal. Sales hand off to Customer Success, who onboard and service the account.

Think about GTM more like a soccer/football game.

There are constant passes back and forth between sales, marketing, customer success, and product. Nobody takes the ball from one end of the field to the other end alone. Everyone is touching the ball constantly; there is not necessarily a linear, predictable process.

GTM is not an individual sport. It’s a team sport.

We’d love to host you and your CEO at one of our upcoming roadshows or virtual events.

Hope that helps, but we are always here to pitch in if you need us! 

Send in your GTM Problem of the Week.

We solve GTM problems like this every single day!

Book a call to learn more about how we can help.

Book a Call

GTM News

GTM news, nuggets, announcements, and what we’re reading

• We’ve been talking a lot about the role of fractional executives. Scott Barker has some good ideas on how to launch a fractional practice.

• G2 created an AI City visualization to help us explore what areas of AI are the hottest and fastest growing.

• Vidyard just got $15M in funding!

GTM Events

A list of upcoming events of interest to GTM professionals

• April 25, 1 p.m. Virtual: How RevOps can Propel your GTM Strategy for 2024

• May 9-10, Seattle, WA: GTM Made Simple Roadshow

• May 15-16, St. Louis, MO: Gainsight Pulse

• May 23, VIRTUAL: Elevate Ops (Pavilion)

• June 6, Boston: Pavilion CRO Summit

We had a great time seeing so many of you last week in NYC at Goldenhour and the Pavilion CMO Summit. Hope you have a great week!

Love, 

The GTM Partners Team