What is a Go-To-Market strategy? Fully Explained by an Ex-CMO

In this video, I'm going to explain to you what a go-to-market strategy is and what it isn't. The goal of this video is to create such a clear understanding of what a go-to-market strategy is that you can create your own so you have your product land in the market to be the option as opposed to just one of the options. I'm Hattie. I've spent 10 plus years in tech as a product marketing manager, chief marketing officer, and chief executive officer. I have done go-to-market strategies like the back of my hand many, many, many times across this decade plus in my career. and I have lent on other go-to-market experts and my clients in order to build out this fully fledged video training just for you. So let's get into it. First, let's define terms. What is go-to-market? Go-to-market is a company-wide plan for you to sell your products or service to the market. Many points go into this from your positioning, your messaging, what is your product, whether you're product-led or sales-led, what's your pricing and packaging. It takes into account everything that basically makes up your organization structure and also your product as a whole and how it's positioned in the market. It is not a checklist or a box ticking exercise. It's a holistic approach to see how you're going to win in the market, how you're going to win customers and how you're going to win in your use of resources as effectively as possible. So why should you care about having a go-to-market strategy? It's because if you start executing without a strategy you're going to waste a lot of time money and resources in the pursuit of winning the market so there are a lot of businesses that are like well we have campaigns running we do ads we do outbounds why is it not landing why are we not winning customers it's because you have to first set up the strategy that then creates the plan and then the go-to-market plan then creates the actions and the tactics that you then do off the back of it not the other way around so then making sure that you do it in succession where strategy first planning second actions third is the way to do it and that's why you should care about building out an effective go-to-market strategy a lot of people confuse go to market with a product launch and that is not correct they are not the same so a launch is about taking something new to the market whilst go to market is a holistic approach that is happening the campaigns are running the activities are happening the plan is in action whether you're launching something new to the market or not that's the difference so then the question becomes what is product market fit and this is an absolute non-negotiable in order to have an effective go-to-market strategy product market fit is where you have strong demand in a specific market where customers buy use and recommend your product or your solution because they are willing to have their problems solved and you can solve it whole product market fit can hinder your go-to-market strategy and that's why it's an absolute non-negotiable to have beforehand otherwise it will not land effectively in the market meaning it won't drive sales for you because there's no product market fit therefore poor product market fit can actually hinder the chances of your go-to-market strategy being successful and that's why it's absolutely critical to nail this beforehand so why is a go-to-market strategy important a go-to-market strategy is important because it leads to more effective results in terms of speed revenue and efficiency, reducing the potential financial losses and optimizing your resources. But also cohesive storytelling and positioning in the market which is effectively what you want people to remember or to think about when your company name pops up. Also out of this you can create as mentioned a really clear plan for yourself and your team to act upon so everyone is working in the same direction and this is why it is absolutely critical to have the CEO's buy-in to your go-to market strategy. If you're trying to build one out without the CEO bought into this, it is not going to work. You need to make sure that from day dot, if you are the CEO or you're a product marketing manager or a go-to-market expert, you need to make sure the CEO is looped into this process. It is absolutely critical to then having everyone else bought in later down the line. And I personally saw this firsthand when I was a chief marketing officer. I was helping the organization, this software company, move in a different direction because we were B2G, which was business to government. But I had found some market research that enabled me to speak to the other C-suite members about how we should focus on B2B in the next year. So therefore, having the CEO bought into this new go-to-market strategy where we can land and expand within B2B was actually really critical for everyone else being bought in. So making sure that the CEO is bought in is absolutely a non-negotiable step to getting buy-in and to getting the strategy put into place and effective across not only your organization also for your potential customers the number one question that i get from product marketers just like you is how can i stop being overlooked undervalued and start getting paid what i'm worth well i've put together a free live virtual masterclass that goes over the five biggest career mistakes that pmms make that keep them overlooked, undervalued and underpaid. So hit the link in the description box below or scan the QR code on the screen right now in order to grab your spot at the next one. I'd love to see you there and now let's get back to the video. So who needs a go-to-market strategy? You do if you want to take a new product to market via a product launch which will be based on this go-to-market or you want to take an existing product to a new market. So when it comes to go-to-market here is a framework to follow in order to make it as effective as possible starting with the five w's who what where when why so first who are you targeting who is your icp what is their persona write it all down make sure it's crystal clear especially if you've done the product market fit stage you will have information about who your ideal customer is what they look like what organization size they're at etc so make sure you spend a lot of time clarifying who the person is like an owl like an owl you need to be asking who okay cheesy but true then what problems you help them solve this is where your jobs to be done will be handy your competitive statement making sure it's really clear as to what you help them with and have that very clearly defined as well then where are you targeting them is it in a specific vertical a specific market a geographical location making sure you're really clear on the where you're targeting them as well then the when is it seasonal is it within a specific event at a time that's a specific within the year because sometimes your buying season can be very different from the rest of the year right so it's about the when and then finally it's the why why are we doing this why are we going after them versus someone else why are we going after this market why we focused here why is it all of our resources here it's very clear that the ceos who really clarify this outcompete the other organizations that just aren't very clear on what the actual why is and if you remember simon sinek's book start with why that's his point baby start with why then there are what i like to call in my framework the five h's the first h is how are you positioning and messaging your product that is very key you want that clarified the second h is how are you going to price and package your offering? Is it going to be in a solution selling way or is it going to be modular? Is it going to have discounting? Is it going to have a free trial or freemium? Is there going to be sales involved etc etc. So it's around how are you pricing and packaging your offering. The third H is how you translate this into a sales deck or sales enablement collateral. How are you going to enable the actual selling component to happen? The fourth page is how you're going to enable the internal champion at an organization to get this deal over the line. Because according to Gartner, Forrester and Harvard Business Review, it takes six to ten people in order to get a B2B deal over the line and for a purchase for a software in order to be made. So some videos on YouTube and some even articles will have you believe that you need to touch all ten people in order to get the deal over the line when actually that is not true. The way to do this is actually to really optimize for that internal champion and to have them be the person that you efficiently set up and you enable them to do the selling for you. So then the question becomes how do you equip the internal champion to be the person who moves through all of these different layers of stakeholders in order to get your purchase over the line. Every single good chief marketing officer, product marketing manager, usually good in marketing, knows that you have to focus on the internal champion and not the individual 10 otherwise you're spreading yourself too thin and who the heck has the resources all the time to be creating collateral dedicated to each and every one of those 10 stakeholders no focus on the internal champion then the final h of the five h's is how are you going to prompt people to get to that aha moment and to get actual product adoption it's really important if you want people to continue to use your tool as opposed to just signing up and never logging in back again how are you going to prompt it so the first thing to clarify for a go-to-market strategy is what is the goal is it to dominate a specific market to raise another round of funding for market penetration within somewhere new or to reposition within a specific market the goal is really clear only when you define it so get very clear on the goal so how do you then make sure that your go-to-market strategy is bulletproof talk to your ICP which is your ideal customer profile or your prospects before you build because feedback is going to make you rich in two things either it's going to make you rich in knowledge or in riches in revenue or in both because that feedback you'll be able to utilize towards the direction in which you go in in terms of your go-to-market strategy and here's the thing if you feel like they will just say yes to you or agree with you or say this is amazing even though truthfully they might not, you might want someone else as a third party to conduct these interviews with your ICP. It is very important you get them done, making sure that you will get actual, truthful, very honest feedback back. If you just want them to pander to your feelings, it's not going to be useful when it comes to you landing in the market, because the market always decides, not your feelings. So make sure that you get back actual, honest advice and feedback from your icp however you do that then understand what it is that they would pay to have solved and i use this word pay very deliberately because a lot of people as mentioned will say that's a great idea but when you say okay great let's take a payment it'll be like oh no well blah blah blah excuse excuse excuse hey real quick before we jump back into the video i want to say two things firstly thank you for watching it seriously means a lot that you're here but did you know that 85 percent of people who watch my YouTube channel aren't subscribed, which means that there's a high probability that you aren't subscribed either. So if you're enjoying this video right now and you haven't subscribed yet, I would highly encourage you to subscribe. It would help a lot more other PMMs find out about the channel and upskill and uplevel themselves as well. Secondly, if you're a product marketing manager who feels overlooked, underpaid, and just not respected the way you feel you should be at work, I want to encourage you to join me in a very special online experience called the Profitable PMM Challenge. It's a special five-day live coaching experience where I will take you through the exact system that I've used in my career and for my clients to help position you as a more respected, more valued and higher paid PMM without burning out, having to beg anyone for a promotion or waiting for someone else to value you. Whether you want to grow in your current role or position yourself for a promotion raise or a new job i would encourage you to join the profitable pmm challenge you'll get daily trainings practical exercises and if you go vip you will have an additional one hour live coaching call with me to have your specific questions answered the link is in the description or the show notes check it out and i will see you inside the profitable pmm challenge now let's get back to the video now here's the strategy that you want you want them to be able to leave a deposit you want them to take a next step and that's the only way you can truly validate whether this go-to-market strategy is going to accomplish the goal that you want is only when people actually pay even though you say it's a refundable deposit just in case it doesn't go through whatever you have to take some sort of monetary amount from them so then you can validate this idea and you can validate your go-to-market strategy no hypotheticals allowed but if you're in the other position where you've built first and then now you're going to take it to market to see get ready to pivot very hard and to adjust and be flexible with your offering because if you haven't done the legwork of speaking to customers first and actually building it off the back of what they said and trying to take money before you even build now you're going to get ready to pivoting what your offering is when it lands on the market and you have to be open to that if you're going to be really strict on this is what i do this is what i want i'm going to make people buy it it's actually really tough and that's where a lot of business owners go wrong whether it's a small business up until you know fortune 500s you want to make sure that people actually pay for what it is you have and therefore that's why the product market fit element is very very important it's about the demand for your solution then once you have paying customers how do you make sure that you activate retain and upsell them because as you know you spend less for a current customer who you can then upsell versus paying more for a new customer every single time so the goal is what is then the strategy to put in place to then upsell retain and make sure that your customer is paying more therefore increasing the ltv lifetime value of that customer and of that account another way to make it bulletproof is to make sure that your go-to-market strategy is flexible and dynamic and not set in stone a lot of people will create a go-to-market strategy do it and be like right we're done and never look back never iterate never take account the feedback that's coming in from new prospects and customers and what they require etc so it is a very dynamic revable piece of strategy that is meant to turn and twist and adapt to what the market is what the competitors are doing what the customers are saying etc etc so making sure that it is a dynamic living document that you update with time is going to make it bulletproof for you and then measuring both qualitative and quantitative data is going to make sure that this is bulletproof because having both feedback from the actual people but also the data from the numbers and the click-throughs etc will enable you to take further action and to put your resources where it best sits. So how is a go-to-market strategy different from a marketing strategy? A marketing strategy usually outlines the promotional activities, the tactics and the campaigns that are usually time-bound and when it is compared to a go-to-market strategy, a go-to-market strategy is a holistic take across not only the marketing function but product, sales, customer support and it's a constantly on go-to-market strategy that then adapts according to what you're learning from the different teams, from your prospects, from your customers and also from the market. So the go-to-market strategy is always on, always adaptable, always flexible and then the go-to-market activities within the go-to-market strategy are dictated upon from the go-to-market itself. If you'd like to go deeper into this topic I have my top recommended go-to-market books where there is a link down below where you can download all of them, all of the names, all of the ones I recommend. They are Hattie approved so then you can go deeper into this topic and if you would like to learn how to build out a go-to-market strategy that generates millions in revenue I highly recommend watching this video in order to learn how to do this yourself and how she has done it multiple times throughout her 10 plus years in her career. So watch this video and see how you too can build out a go-to-market strategy that absolutely lands in the market.

📚 Download my Top GTM Book Recommendations: https://hattiethepmm.kit.com/e2f609e51a

💸 Save your spot for the next live Product Marketing Masterclass 💸
https://www.productmarketers.com/masterclass-yt

➕ Follow me on LinkedIn for daily posts: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hattiethepmm/


📌 What Is a Go to Market Strategy?
In this video, I break down exactly what a Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy is, and what it isn’t. If you're a product marketer, founder, CEO, or early-stage startup builder, this is the go-to (pun intended!) training you didn’t know you needed.

After 10+ years in tech as a Product Marketing Manager, CMO, and CEO, I’ve built and launched hundreds of go-to-market strategies that not only landed but dominated in competitive markets. Today, I’m sharing everything I’ve learned, from building out strategies with clients, to what I've learnt from my clients, to uncover the real difference between GTM strategies vs. product launches and GTM vs. marketing strategies.

✅ In This Video, You’ll Learn:

- What a go to market strategy really is (and isn’t)
- Why GTM is not just a checklist or a launch plan
- The 5 Ws & 5 Hs GTM framework (Who, What, Where, When, Why + How)
- Why product-market fit is a non-negotiable
- The biggest mistakes people make when executing without a strategy
- How to activate, retain, and upsell customers post-launch
- How to align sales, marketing, and product teams with a single cohesive GTM motion
- How to bulletproof your go to market plan using real feedback & dynamic iteration

🎯 Who Needs a GTM Strategy?

- Founders & CEOs launching new products
- Startups expanding to new markets
- Product Marketers needing clear frameworks
- Teams looking to align product, sales & marketing under one strategy

Don't waste time or budget on random tactics. Start with strategy. Build your go-to-market plan right.


I’m Hattie, ex-CMO/CEO and Product Marketing Manager in tech with 10+ years in corporate leadership and as an individual contributor. 

I’ve built teams, led at the C-suite level, and coached professionals who are tired of being undervalued. Hard work alone isn’t enough. If you want a promotion, a salary increase, better treatment, and real influence, you need to understand the system, and learn how to navigate it.



DISCLOSURE 
Information shared here is for educational purposes only. Individuals and business owners should evaluate their own career strategies, business strategies, and identify any potentials risks. The information shared here is not a guarantee of success. Your results may vary. Copyright © Product Marketers Limited 2026.