Growth
Building a Go-to-Market Strategy That Actually Works
Written by
Lineke Kruisinga
Published on
March 15, 2025
Written by
Published on
A Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy is about making sure your product reaches the right audience, stands out, and drives revenue. For startups and scaling businesses, a solid GTM strategy can mean the difference between rapid growth and getting lost in the noise. Without one, even the best products can struggle to gain traction.
In this article, we’ll break down what makes a GTM strategy effective, why it matters, and how you can build one that actually works. No bullshit—just real, actionable steps to help you go to market with confidence.
Many founders believe that defining an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is the first step to success. But as Boris argues in The ICP is a growth killer for early-stage startups , rigidly committing to an ICP too soon can actually kill your growth. Instead of locking yourself into a narrow audience, he suggests testing different customer segments, staying flexible, and letting market feedback shape your ideal customers. Early-stage startups thrive on iteration—focusing too much on an ICP can cause you to overlook unexpected but highly valuable customer groups. In short: kill the ICP mindset and focus on real-world validation instead.
Instead of chasing every potential customer, an ICP helps you zero in on those who actually need your product, are willing to pay for it, and will stick around. It streamlines lead qualification, preventing wasted time on prospects who aren’t the right fit and helping sales and marketing work more efficiently.
But while an ICP keeps your targeting sharp, it’s not the full picture. Customer segments add depth by recognizing that not all buyers within your ICP are the same. They have different pain points, priorities, and behaviors. Where ICP helps define your ideal company type, customer segments help you understand the people within those companies—from decision-makers to end users.
Customer segments guide positioning, messaging, and product improvements. They help you refine how you speak to different audiences, personalize outreach, and tailor your offering to fit real-world use cases. Without them, you might have a great ICP but struggle to connect on a personal level.
Here’s how to test and refine them to ensure you're reaching the right audience.
Before testing, define who your customers are and what drives them. Think about their needs, behaviors, and decision-making process. Use frameworks like the Value Proposition Canvas, Jobs-to-be-Done, or an Empathy Map to structure your assumptions. Your hypothesis should answer key questions:
These insights set the foundation for testing.
Once you have your hypothesis, it’s time to validate it. The method you choose depends on your budget, goals, and how much data you need. Here are a few approaches:
Compare your findings with your original hypothesis. Look for gaps—did customers behave as expected? Did any insights surprise you? If your assumptions don’t match reality, refine your approach.
To help you define your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), we’ve made a list of key questions to guide your process. Use these to create a structured ICP template or worksheet that keeps your team aligned and focused on the right customers.
A Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy is your launch plan for making sure a new product actually succeeds. It helps you define your target audience, position your product, and map out the best sales and distribution channels. Most importantly, don’t just build something that sounds good—build something people will actually pay for. Testing your idea early is key. That means launching fast: have a basic website, a signup form, and a clear price from day one. Even if the product isn’t fully ready, getting early feedback (and even pre-sales) will tell you if you’re on the right track—or if you need to pivot before wasting time and money.
If you don’t know how to sell your product, no one else will.
Too many founders make the mistake of hiring a sales team before they’ve closed a single deal themselves. But in the early days, selling your product is your job. It’s not just about making revenue—it’s about understanding your customers, refining your messaging, and proving there’s real demand before scaling.
Sales isn’t something you can outsource right away. Before bringing in a sales team, founders need to:
✔ Pitch the product to real customers.
✔ Handle objections and understand buying hesitations.
✔ Learn what messaging resonates and what falls flat.
This hands-on experience helps you build a repeatable sales process, so when it’s time to hire, you’re bringing people into a system that actually works—not expecting them to figure it out for you.
Direct conversations with customers don’t just improve sales—they shape your product. Every sales call is an opportunity to:
If you skip this step, you risk building a product based on assumptions rather than real customer feedback.
At some point, founder-led sales won’t be scalable anymore. The key signs it’s time to transition:
✔ You have a clear Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and repeatable sales process.
✔ You’ve closed multiple deals yourself and know what works.
✔ You need to focus on other areas of the business (but sales demand is growing).
Start small—hire one or two sales reps and train them based on what you’ve learned. If they succeed, you know the process is solid. If they struggle, it’s a sign you need to refine your approach before scaling further.
⏩️ Founder-Led Sales vs. Hiring: When to Make Your First Sales Hires
A great product won’t sell itself. Before you think about scaling, automation, or paid marketing, you need to sell it yourself first. Founders who understand the sales process firsthand have a massive advantage—they know what works, what customers care about, and what objections come up.
Test Before You Go All In
Many startups make the mistake of locking into one approach too soon. The smarter move? Experiment first. Try different pricing models, outreach methods, and messaging before committing serious budget to a single strategy.
Some ways to test your GTM approach:
Once you know what’s working, then you scale it.
Master the Skills Before Automating
You wouldn’t automate a process you don’t fully understand—sales is no different. If you or your team don’t know how to sell, throwing money at automation won’t fix the problem.
Before you scale:
✔ Make sure your sales team knows how to handle objections.
✔ Build repeatable, tested sales scripts that actually convert.
✔ Understand why people buy before automating outreach.
SEO & Paid Marketing Come Later
Too many startups throw money at ads before knowing who their customers actually are. Big mistake. SEO and paid marketing only work when you already have a proven strategy.
Once you know:
✔ Who your ideal customer is.
✔ What messaging converts.
✔ What channels bring in the best leads.
Then you invest in paid ads and long-term SEO. Not before.
Below are the key elements and how to execute each step effectively.
1. Identify Your Target Market
You need to know who will actually buy it.
A target market is a group of people or businesses with shared characteristics—things like industry, demographics, pain points, or buying behavior. The process of identifying them is called segmentation.
Ask yourself:
✔ Are you selling to businesses (B2B) or consumers (B2C)?✔ What pain points does your product solve?
✔ Will you segment based on demographics (age, income, location) or psychographics (values, behaviors, lifestyle)?
2. Clarify Your Value Proposition
Your value proposition is the reason customers choose you over the competition. It answers the question: Why should someone buy from you?
Some companies position themselves as cheaper alternatives, while others focus on unique features or solving a problem that no one else has tackled. Your value proposition should be as much about your customer as it is about your product.
To define it, ask:
✔ What pain points does your product solve?
✔ How does it stand out from competitors?
✔ What unique experience or features does it offer?
3. Define Your Pricing Strategy
Pricing isn’t just about covering costs—it’s about positioning. Price too high, and you risk scaring customers off. Price too low, and you undermine your profitability.
To find the right balance, consider:
✔ What does it cost to produce and deliver your product?
✔ What price point ensures a healthy profit margin?
✔ How much are competitors charging?
✔ What is your customer willing to pay?
Also, think about whether a subscription model (recurring revenue) or one-time transactional model makes more sense for your business.
4. Craft Your Promotion Strategy
Your promotion strategy should outline exactly how you’ll market your product.
Some key questions to answer:
✔ Is your audience best reached online or offline?
✔ Do they respond better to outbound marketing (ads, cold outreach) or inbound marketing (SEO, organic content, social media)?
✔ Where do they spend time? (LinkedIn, Instagram, industry events?)
✔ What marketing tactics fit within your budget right now?
5. Choose Your Sales & Distribution Channels
Sales and distribution are about getting your product into customers’ hands as easily as possible.
Some questions to ask:
✔ Does your product require in-person sales, or can it be sold online?
✔ Should you sell direct-to-consumer (DTC) or through third parties?
✔ Where does your audience already shop?
✔ How can you make the buying process frictionless?
6. Set Metrics & Track Performance
The only way to know if your strategy is working is to track the right metrics.
Some common GTM success metrics:
✔ Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) – How much does it cost to acquire a new customer?
✔ Cost per Dollar of Sales Expense – How much are you spending to generate each dollar of revenue?
✔ Conversion Rate – How many leads actually turn into paying customers?
✔ Sales Cycle Length – How long does it take to close a deal?
If your numbers aren’t where they should be, tweak your approach. If CAC is too high, refine your marketing efforts. If your conversion rate is low, adjust your messaging or pricing.
The best products don’t just solve problems—they solve the right problems. To build something people will actually pay for, you need to understand what truly matters to them. And the only way to do that? Talk to your customers.
Skip the Guesswork – Have Real Conversations
Too many startups assume they know what customers need without ever speaking to them. Instead of guessing, have direct conversations. But don’t waste time on vague questions—ask about their biggest pain points, the things that slow them down, frustrate them, or cost them money.
Understanding customer pain points is key to building a product or service people actually need. Below are the four most common pain points
1. Financial Pain Points – Too Expensive, Not Enough Value
Price is one of the biggest deal-breakers for customers. If they feel they’re overpaying for a product or service, they’ll start looking for alternatives that offer more value for their money.
2. Process Pain Points – Too Many Friction Points
Sometimes, the biggest issue isn’t the product itself—it’s the experience of using it. Process pain points happen when customers face unnecessary hurdles, whether it’s slow response times, clunky user interfaces, or inefficient workflows.
Ask yourself:
These frustrations lead to churn. If customers feel like every interaction with your company is an uphill battle, they’ll go elsewhere.
3. Support Pain Points – When Help Isn’t Helpful
Good customer support can turn a bad experience into a great one—but if support is slow, unhelpful, or inconsistent, it can make things worse. Support pain points arise when businesses don’t have the right systems in place to resolve customer issues efficiently.
A strong support system means:
✔ Fast and effective responses from human agents or AI-powered chatbots.
✔ A centralized system where all customer interactions are tracked.
✔ Proactive support—solving problems before customers even need to ask.
Using omnichannel support tools can make a huge difference by ensuring a seamless experience across email, chat, phone, and social media.
4. Productivity Pain Points – Internal Inefficiencies Hurting Customers
Ever had a support agent struggle to route a query to the right team? Or a team member waste time searching for information that should be easily accessible? That’s a productivity pain point.
The key difference between process and productivity pain points is this:
When interviewing potential customers, focus on specifics:
✔ What’s the biggest challenge in your workflow/business/life?
✔ What solutions have you tried, and why didn’t they work?
✔ What would make a product an absolute must-have for you?
Avoid broad, generic feedback—people tend to say what they think sounds good rather than what they’d actually pay for. Instead, push for concrete examples and real frustrations.
Customers may have a long wish list of features, but not all of them are deal-breakers. The key is separating must-have problems from nice-to-have ones.
If your product only solves a nice-to-have problem, it’ll struggle to gain traction. Build around the pain points people actively look for solutions to and are willing to pay for.
Once you’ve identified the problems your customers can’t ignore, use that to build your pricing strategy. If your product saves them time or money, how much is that worth to them? Price based on the value you provide, not just what competitors charge.
As explained earlier, a Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy is about how you bring a product to market, while a marketing strategy is about how you grow it over time. The two are connected, but they serve very different purposes—yet many startups get this wrong by jumping into marketing before nailing their GTM.
Why Most Startups Fail by Focusing on Marketing Too Soon
It’s tempting to go all-in on marketing from day one—running ads, creating content, and driving traffic. But if you haven’t validated your GTM strategy first, you’re throwing money at a leaky funnel.
Marketing works best when:
✔ You know who your ideal customer is and where to reach them.
✔ Your pricing and sales process have been tested and refined.
✔ You have a repeatable way to convert interest into revenue.
Without these, marketing becomes expensive guesswork. You might generate leads, but if they don’t convert—or if your product isn’t positioned correctly—you’ll burn through cash without results.
How GTM Lays the Foundation for Scalable Growth
A strong GTM strategy ensures that when you invest in marketing, you’re not just driving traffic—you’re driving qualified traffic that converts. It helps you answer:
✔ Who is your target customer?
✔ What messaging and positioning work best?
✔ What channels actually bring in paying users?
Once you’ve tested and validated your GTM approach, you can scale marketing confidently, knowing you’re investing in something that actually works.
Want to dive deeper into marketing strategy? Check out
🚀 Guerrilla Marketing 101: A Game-Changer for Early-Stage Startups
🚀Unlocking the Potential of Video Marketing for Startups
🚀Why PR is Essential for Startups and How to Build a Winning Strategy
Here’s how to execute your GTM strategy the right way—step by step.
Launch a Simple Version of Your Product
Don’t wait for perfection. Get a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) out there as fast as possible. A basic version of your product lets you:
The goal is to learn, adapt, and iterate—not to impress people with an over-engineered launch.
Get Initial Sales Manually
No fancy funnels. No automated outreach. Founders should sell first. This gives you firsthand knowledge of what works, what doesn’t, and what messaging actually converts. If you can’t sell it yourself, don’t expect a sales team to figure it out for you.
Experiment with Different Acquisition Channels
Set Up a Basic Inbound System
Make sure you have:
✔ A website that clearly explains your product.
✔ A pricing page (if relevant) so customers know what to expect.
✔ A contact form so leads don’t slip through the cracks.
Test Localization Needs
If you’re selling internationally, messaging and strategy need to be adjusted per region. Not every market reacts the same way to pricing, sales tactics, or branding. Test small before committing to a full-scale rollout.
Expanding into new markets isn’t as simple as translating your website and calling it a day. Localization goes beyond language—it’s about adapting your entire go-to-market (GTM) approach to fit different cultural, economic, and behavioral landscapes. If you don’t get it right, even a great product can fail in a new market.
Adapting Messaging Without Losing Your Brand Identity
Every market has its own way of communicating. What works in one country might fall flat in another. But while your messaging needs to be adapted, your brand identity should stay consistent.
How to do this:
✔ Maintain core brand values while tweaking tone, language, and storytelling.
✔ Adjust marketing angles based on local customer pain points.
✔ Use region-specific case studies and testimonials to build trust.
Successful brands don’t just translate copy—they make it feel local while keeping their core message intact.
Why Translation Alone Isn’t Enough
A direct translation might technically be correct, but does it resonate? Localization considers cultural nuances, buying behaviors, and even humor. What makes a product appealing in Germany might not have the same impact in Japan.
Real localization means:
✔ Understanding how different regions talk about their problems.
✔ Adapting calls to action, marketing campaigns, and visuals to fit cultural expectations.
✔ Tweaking product features or packaging if necessary to match local needs.
Example: In some markets, formal language builds trust, while in others, a casual, conversational tone works better. Getting this wrong can make your brand feel out of touch.
Pricing Sensitivity Varies by Region
What customers are willing to pay changes drastically across markets. A pricing model that works in the U.S. might be completely unrealistic in Southeast Asia.
Things to consider:
✔ Local purchasing power – How much are customers in this region willing to spend?
✔ Competitive landscape – Are you positioning yourself as a premium product or an affordable alternative?
✔ Payment preferences – Do customers expect subscriptions, one-time payments, or something else?
Example: In emerging markets, freemium models or flexible payment options often perform better than high upfront costs.
⏩️ Localization for Startups: How to Scale Globally
Here’s a small recap of what we’ve discussed—what not to do when launching your product. Even the best ideas can fail if your Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy isn’t solid. Startups often fall into the same traps—moving too fast, too slow, or focusing on the wrong things at the wrong time. Here are the biggest GTM mistakes and how to avoid them.
1. Relying on Marketing Before Nailing Sales
Marketing can drive traffic, but it won’t fix a weak sales process. Too many startups burn money on ads, content, and brand awareness without first proving they can close deals. If you don’t know who your ideal customer is and how to sell to them, no amount of marketing will fix that.
✔ Sell first, market later – Founders should lead sales in the early days.
✔ Refine your messaging based on real conversations, not assumptions.
✔ Test sales channels manually before scaling with paid acquisition.
2. Skipping Customer Validation
Assuming there’s demand for your product without actually testing it is a fast track to failure. Just because something sounds great on paper doesn’t mean people will pay for it.
✔ Conduct customer interviews before investing in development.
✔ Pre-sell or launch an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) to test demand.
✔ Use real feedback to adjust product features and pricing before scaling.
3. Ignoring Pricing Strategy
Pricing too high scares customers away. Pricing too low undermines your value and kills margins. Either mistake can slow growth or make it impossible to scale.
✔ Research what your target market is willing to pay.
✔ Test different pricing models (subscriptions, one-time payments, freemium).
✔ Factor in costs, competition, and customer expectations to find the right balance.
4. Delaying a Launch
Startups often wait too long, tweaking and perfecting instead of launching. The problem? You learn more in the market than you ever will in planning mode.
✔ Launch before you're 100% ready – Perfect is the enemy of progress.
✔ Get early customer feedback and iterate as you go.
✔ Adjust based on real-world data, not assumptions.
5. Expanding Too Fast
Many startups think global before they’ve even nailed one market. Expanding too fast stretches resources thin and makes it harder to build momentum.
✔ Win in one niche first before chasing multiple markets.
✔ Focus on depth over breadth – dominate one segment before moving on.
✔ Make sure your GTM strategy is repeatable before scaling internationally.
A strong GTM strategy is about understanding your customers, selling before scaling, and testing before committing. Validate demand early, lead sales yourself, and refine your approach before throwing money at marketing. No bullshit, just strategic execution.
Startups that skip these steps struggle to gain traction. The ones that get it right? They grow fast—and sustainably. Focus on customers first, and scale when you’re ready.
Want to scale up your startup? Apply here.
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What is the difference between a Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy and a marketing strategy?
A GTM strategy is about how you bring a product to market—covering sales, pricing, distribution, and customer validation. A marketing strategy focuses on how you grow awareness and attract customers over time. Many startups fail by focusing on marketing before having a solid GTM foundation.
Why should founders handle sales first before hiring a team?
If you can’t sell your product, no one else will. Founders must lead early sales to refine messaging, understand objections, and validate demand. Once they’ve closed deals and built a repeatable sales process, they can scale with a structured sales team.
How do I know if my product is ready for market?
Your product is ready for market when you have: ✔ Clear customer validation (real people willing to pay for it). ✔ A working sales process, even if manual. ✔ A simple website and pricing model in place. ✔ Initial traction or feedback that justifies scaling efforts.
Why is localization important in a GTM strategy?
Markets vary in culture, pricing expectations, and buying behavior. Simply translating content isn’t enough—you need to adapt messaging, positioning, and pricing for different regions. Companies that localize effectively build trust faster and gain a competitive edge.
What are the biggest GTM mistakes to avoid?
-Relying on marketing before nailing sales. -Skipping customer validation and assuming demand. -Ignoring pricing strategy and guessing on what to charge. -Waiting too long to launch instead of iterating early. -Expanding too fast before dominating a niche.
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