I bet you are in the thick of another “interesting planning season” — trying to navigate growth, retention and budget (re)allocations in the face of continual market shifts and demand uncertainty (caused by economic forces, forecast and demand murkiness, competitor moves, market consolidation, talent needs, etc.).
Many GTM/growth leaders I know are heavily engaged in some version of a Plan → Re-plan → Re-re-plan exercise that is trying translate the chaos into WAYS THEY CAN WIN.
My advice: try to avoid knee-jerk, tactical, blunt force, cost cutting or budget expansion (yes, many companies are doing this) exercises that leave your go-to-market strategy unexamined. That’s a big mistake. If you need to adjust your spend, of course, DO IT. But do it STRATEGICALLY — and with the COURAGE to challenge the “Growth Strategy Status Quo” at your company.
My suggestion: use this year’s planning and re-planning as a LEVER to quickly evolve and improve your end-to-end growth engine (for acquisition, retention, and expansion).
HOW? How can you avoid knee-jerk moves and instead, use this moment as a transformation and change management lever?
In short: put the CART behind the HORSE.
STEP 1 (THE HORSE)
Take a fresh look at the pillars of your go-to-market strategy by asking and answering a short list STRATEGIC QUESTIONS with your cross-functional GTM team.
– What are our most important growth priorities as called for by our corporate strategy?
– What are our revenue growth goals across acquisition, retention and expansion?
– What kind of pipeline coverage do we need — by when — to feel good about hitting those goals?
– Are we positioned correctly within our category in the eyes of our customers and prospects (especially in light of their customers’ shifting needs, current market trends, and competitive moves)?
– Are we using the right paths to market and GTM motions to connect prospects and customers to our offerings?
– Are we targeting the right segments, accounts, personas, use cases and needs where we win?
– Are we using the right messaging, content, channels of engagement, offers, products and services?
– Are we integrating our actions, content, messaging, offers, and channels coherently and with good CX across channels, journey stages, personas, and our GTM teams?
– How cross-functionally aligned (no really) are we in how we set goals, plan, execute, measure and optimize our marketing, SDR, sales, and customer success efforts, processes and systems?
– Are we using our technology, data and analytics (martech, salestech, adtech, data, workflow automation, reporting) in ways that are aligned with our GTM priorities and growth plays?
– What are the top 3 to 5 things that we learned from exploring these topics that will MOVE THE NEEDLE CORRECTLY for us?
STEP 2 (THE CART)
Optimize and (re)allocate your budget, tactics and activities in support of your refreshed, cross-functionally aligned growth strategy.
If you approach your planning / re-planning this way, things will become much, much easier and often, obvious. Things to divest/stop, invest/start/do more tend to jump out at you. This also de-risks the actual execution of your plan/re-plan by getting the cross-functional GTM team on the same page, or at least bringing disagreements or misunderstandings to the forefront — so they can be authentically and proactively solved.
Doing this might seem daunting. But trust me, you can do this quickly. It doesn’t have to be a long, drawn out process. Also, what’s the alternative? Top-down blunt force mandates or siloed guessing? Please.
NOW is the time to keep the CART (your campaigns, plays, tactics, activities, operating model, and yes, budget/spend) behind the HORSE (your growth goals + GTM strategy).
Reach out if you’d like some deeper advice/tips. We do this regularly with our clients and can help your team quickly validate and install a refreshed, right-sized GTM and growth strategy that helps you win in 2023 and beyond.