Ultimate SaaS Go-To-Market Strategy Step-by-Step Guide for 2025

Cover your go-to-market strategy gaps to land, acquire, and grow more customers profitably with our proven 12 step GTM framework.

Launching a SaaS product or service without a thought-out, documented go-to-market (GTM) strategy is a recipe for disaster. Every year, 3,000+ SaaS startups ship products to be met by a roaring game of red bull vs parachutes as they battle to win in a “b2sea” landscape where competition is thick (over 30,000 publicly-listed SaaS companies vying for customers, attention, mindshare, and market share). Customer acquisition costs (CAC) continue to rise (60% year-over-year).

This step-by-step guide to SaaS go-to-market strategy will help you systematize your GTM process so you can efficiently launch products, acquire customers, and scale revenue predictably without missing the important stuff (see why GTM matters in #2 below).

Most entrepreneurs and SaaS C-suite will admit that a cohesive go-to-market strategy is important for launching products and scaling revenue. But in the excitement of a new product or feature launch, many ship with a loosely documented GTM “strategy” in the form of a few bullet points in an email thread, hoping to execute and hit the ground running.

The problem with launching “blind” like this is not just poor execution and inefficiency. Ineffective GTM and product launches can cause costly friction to build within your company, misalign teams, and start you off on the wrong foot with your first paying customers.

This can spell disaster as you start scaling your customer base. In 2022 alone, over £14B was wasted on failed product launches with poorly defined problems, value propositions, or product-market fit.

A well-executed GTM strategy that involves the entire organization and is documented at inception will help you launch and grow profitably by reducing friction and handoff errors internally and in your customer’s buying experience.

Without further ado, let’s look at a 12-step go-to-market strategy framework that SaaS leaders use time and time again to rapidly launch products and services and onboard and scale SaaS revenue while avoiding common pitfalls (figure 1).

What is a SaaS go-to-market strategy?

A SaaS go-to-market strategy is a plan that documents how a company will reach its target customer base and gain a competitive advantage during a product launch or entering a new market.

The term GTM originated in B2B marketing but has since expanded to include B2C SaaS companies and traditional product-based businesses as well. It covers not just the initial launch but the entire customer acquisition lifecycle to product-led growth and success.

SaaS go-to-market strategies are unique and need to cover much more than a traditional product launch playbook would. This is because of factors like recurring revenue models, emphasis on customer lifetime value (CLV), product-led growth (PLG), and continuous evolution and product development to keep up with rapid customer demands.

Key components of SaaS GTM strategies include:

• Market definition, target segments, and TAM/SAM/SOM sizing
• Ideal customer profile and company/individual buyer personas
• Positioning and messaging strategy with tailored messaging for each persona and stage of the buying journey
• Revenue model and pricing strategy design
• Distribution channels
• Demand generation plan
• Activation funnels
• Product-led growth & expansion journey
• Sales & customer success playbooks
• Onboarding experiences
• In-house sales & channel partner enablement resources
• Success metrics and evaluation

Why does your company need a solid GTM strategy?

Before jumping into the SaaS go-to-market framework and how to build each component, let’s look at why SaaS companies should invest in a comprehensive GTM plan from the get-go.

The evidence for why a complete GTM plan is essential to SaaS growth is pretty irrefutable. Check out these figures:

• 90% of startups fail due to lack of market fit, lack of a validated product market fit, and poor GTM execution and poor market execution in general.
• Product-led growth companies achieve a 30% premium in valuations over those with traditional sales-led go-to-market plans.
• Sales and marketing teams that are well-aligned with a single GTM playbook and vision will have win rates 38% higher than less-aligned teams. They also have 36% better customer retention numbers.
• Businesses that document and implement GTM strategies grow 30% faster than their counterparts.

But don’t take it from us. Look at some of the other excellent compilations of GTM statistics and results we found:

• Aligned teams, shared GTM vision
• Clear roadmap
• Repeatable processes
• Quick time to market
• Optimized resource allocation
• Consistent, customer-aligned messaging
• Risk mitigation
• Scalable GTM process

Build your SaaS GTM framework in 12 steps

Our 12-step go-to-market (GTM) strategy playbook for SaaS companies is a high-level framework that walks you through how to design and implement each GTM component. Each section will break down what we consider the most important features of that GTM component. Then you can adapt the ideas and use case examples to what is right for your SaaS startup or business and product.

Choose your GTM type

Before you build your GTM strategy, it is also important to identify which kind of go-to-market approach is right for your SaaS business.

SaaS companies will likely need to adopt a hybrid approach later down the line, but when just starting, it is better to focus on a single type and then later evaluate which approaches will help you scale the fastest and are the best use of your resources.

Product-led growth (PLG)

Product-led growth or PLG is focused on growing your SaaS business by allowing prospects and customers to discover value by using your product’s features through self-service or freemium paths before making a purchase decision.

This GTM type is best for:

• Products that are highly intuitive to use and enjoy a seamless user experience
• Lower price points, typically between $10 and $500/month
• Broader market appeal
• Products or services that allow virality or network effects to grow
• Key characteristics
• Free trial or freemium model
• Self-service onboarding process
• In-product upgrade notifications or pathways
• Product-driven growth as primary source of expansion
• Low to no sales involvement
• Product-led growth companies:

Some example – Slack, Notion, Figma, Canva, Zoom

Sales-led growth (SLG)

Sales-led growth means that your SaaS company relies on your inside or field sales team to acquire and onboard new customers.

SLG is best for:

• Complex, enterprise software solutions or products
• Higher annual contract values (ACV) of $50K+ per year
• Sales cycles that are longer (6 months plus)
• Customization or specific onboarding requirements that are unique for each customer
• Buying cycles that involve multiple stakeholders and people

Key characteristics:

• Demo-driven product evaluation process
• Sales development and account executive teams
• Custom sales proposals and pricing negotiations
• Implementation and customer success support for onboarding and adoption
• Account-based marketing strategy
• Sales-led companies:

Examples: Salesforce, HubSpot (enterprise edition), DocuSign (enterprise)

Marketing-led growth (MLG)

Marketing-led growth is based on a demand-generation strategy where you acquire prospects by using inbound content strategy, SEO, SEO, and paid ads to build credibility and attract audiences and use nurture campaigns to grow them into leads and convert to revenue.

Marketing-led growth is best for:

• Mid-market solutions of between $1K-$50K ACV
• Products of moderate complexity that can demonstrate clear buying intent
• Established markets with a lot of opportunities for content marketing, SEO, and other top-of-the-funnel tactics

Key characteristics:

• Inbound content marketing strategy
• Lead nurturing campaigns
• Marketing qualified lead (MQL) to sales handoff process
• Inside sales or sales development teams
• Marketing attribution and ROI focus

Marketing-led companies: HubSpot (SMB editions), Mailchimp, Buffer, Hootsuite

Channel-led growth

Channel-led growth companies use resellers, system integrators, and VARs as an additional way to extend their go-to-market channels and acquire more customers.

Channel-led growth works well for:

• Products or services that have channel partners offering other services that complement or are related to the SaaS product
• Complex solutions that require add-on services, either customization or implementation support
• Multi-tenant or multi-vendor software platforms

Key characteristics:

• Ecosystem of partners that sell and offer other professional services
• Service or product-focused partnership playbooks and enablement resources
• Additional implementation and setup resources that offer guidance for partners

Channel-led companies: AWS Marketplace, Salesforce AppExchange, HubSpot Services

12-step SaaS GTM playbook

Step 1: Define your target market and size

Before you start any other GTM planning or design work, do some market research to identify and scope your total addressable market (TAM).

This is also where you can decide on target customer segments you will prioritize in your marketing and sales efforts.

Define TAM, SAM, and SOM

First and foremost, define your total available market (TAM) to start scoping how big your prize is.

Your total addressable market (TAM) is the total demand that exists for a product category or industry across the globe or in the geography and market you target.

It is your best guess at the maximum amount of revenue potential that exists for your solution if the SaaS company had no competition and infinite resources.

Size the TAM

After defining your TAM, the next step is to size it or provide an estimate of its monetary or volume potential.

TAM sizing methods:

Top-down approach: Use third-party industry reports or research

Bottom-up approach: Estimate target customer counts X average spend per customer

Once TAM is defined and sized, it’s time to narrow the scope and get more granular by defining SAM and SOM.

Serviceable addressable market (SAM) is defined as the subset of TAM that your product or service can address given your current technology stack and geography, industry verticals, and demographics constraints.

SAM = TAM – Geographic restrictions – Industry focus or verticals – Target company size and revenue – Product availability

Serviceable obtainable market (SOM) is similar to SAM but takes into account more realistic market share projections given your SaaS company’s current size and resource levels.

The following example shows how TAM, SAM, and SOM can be defined and calculated for a project management software SaaS product as an example:

Example: How to define TAM, SAM, and SOM

Target market: Project management software or PM software

TAM: $5.6 billion global PM software market as of 2023 (see source 1)

SAM: $1.2B North American SMB project management software segment (see source 2)

SOM: $120M with existing product capabilities (3% of SAM)

Source 1: MarketsAndMarkets

Source 2: TeamBuildingSoftware (survey data)

Source 3: Assumption (subjective)

Segment prioritization framework

In addition to TAM sizing, it is important to scope out your target customer segments to determine which will be the first to go to and prioritize in marketing and sales plans.

Prioritization factors for target segments:

• Market size and growth potential
• Competitive intensity
• SaaS company’s competitive advantage
• Resource requirements to pursue
• Time to revenue

Step 2: Build ideal customer profiles & buyer personas

The next step in your SaaS go-to-market playbook is to do some legwork and develop the target ideal customer profiles (ICP) and buyer personas you will focus your marketing and sales efforts on.

A common mistake here is to create generalized buyer personas that are too vague and contain just four to six generic high-level traits.

While a high-level list of “target customer profile is a mid-size IT company with over 500 employees and growing revenue and cloud strategy” is useful, it does not offer sufficient details to understand the real customer and craft messaging to really resonate with them.

Developing detailed ICPs and personas will help to paint a better picture of your ideal customer and the actual people at these companies that matter to help you create your positioning, value proposition, and tailored messaging for each persona.

ICP components

To create a comprehensive ICP, collect information on these components of each ideal target company:

Firmographics:

• Number of employees and annual revenue
• Industry/sector and sub-verticals
• Location and geographic coverage
• Company stage and funding status
• Existing technology stack and integrations

Behavioral characteristics

• Current solutions/tools/processes
• Pain points and buying goals
• Buying process and decision-makers
• Budget and procurement process
• Timeframe for adoption

Buyer personas

To complement the ICP, also develop detailed personas that represent key people at a target ICP who play a role in evaluating and purchasing your SaaS solution.

Buyer personas should include the economic buyer (budget authority and buying decision maker), the technical buyer (evaluates the tech stack and implementation requirements), and the end-user (daily product user and champion).

Persona development components:

Economic buyer:

• Role in target company: CTO, VP engineering, Director of operations, Head of security
• Goals: Save money/time, increase efficiency/security, reduce risk, other pain points
• Concerns: ROI, security, integrations, TCO, other interests specific to the role
• Technical buyer:
• Role in target company: Engineering manager, IT director, DevOps lead
• Goals: Implementation effort and timeframe, product roadmap, feature requirements
• Concerns: Implementation effort, technical debt, team adoption and buy-in, customization
• End-user:
• Role in target company: Developer, Project manager, Designer
• Goals: Productivity, ease of use, meeting workflows
• Concerns: Learning curve, feature completeness, reliability, other high-level interests
• Step 3: Craft your positioning & messaging

SaaS go-to-market strategy and positioning are vital in shaping customers’ first impression of your company’s offer. It’s important to think through your positioning and messaging ahead of the launch to shape how your brand is positioned in the customer’s mind, as well as map out your messaging to appeal to specific target personas.

Positioning framework:

• For [target customer segment]
• Who [have this problem or need]
• Our
  • 

    Lead Gen Genie

    This is Subscription Product

    £10.00+
  is a [solution category]
• That [key benefit/outcome]
• Unlike [primary alternative]
• We [primary differentiator]

Message architecture:

• Primary value prop and key benefit statement
• 3-4 supporting pillars
• Proof points for each value pillar
• Persona-tailored messaging
• Examples of value messages:
• For engineering managers at SaaS companies
• Who need efficient and cost-effective internal tool development
• Our ProductFlake.io is a low-code platform
• That helps teams deliver webhooks and APIs 10x faster
• Than any other alternative
• Unlike other low-code platforms, we don’t trade off developer productivity
• For IT and software operations teams
• Who are constantly firefighting security breaches
• Our Premium plan includes access to the Security & Compliance Hub
• With all of our platform’s security features built in
• Unlike many other solutions on the market
• We have extensive data encryption in transit and at rest

Step 4: Set pricing & packaging

This stage of your GTM framework involves defining the revenue model (subscription tiers, usage-based, freemium, etc.) and pricing (tier packages or consumption-based) that will make your solution attractive to prospects while allowing you to optimize revenue and achieve your desired CAC:LTV ratios and other metrics.

Pricing model options

Choose which pricing model will work best for your SaaS. A few options include:

1. Tiered subscription pricing
2. Usage-based pricing
3. Freemium or free-trial
4. Coupons or promotional discounts

Essential considerations:

• Value-based pricing relative to expected value to customer
• Competitor pricing benchmarking
• Perceived value and low-risk trial or entry point
• Appealing price points and attractive upgrades
• Volume discounts for larger plans
• International currencies or localized pricing
• Tiered subscription

Companies can offer multiple subscription plans or packages with more features, higher limits, support options, or seats included.

Good for:

• Mass market appeal, solutions with clear product capabilities that can be included in tiered form
• Clear upgrade paths (usually the plan above it)
• Simple consumption-based subscription model to choose fromExamples:
• Basic ($29): Unlimited domains with 100 webhook creation and 10 deployment plans.
• Professional ($99): Unlimited domains, webhook creations, and 50 deployments plans
• Enterprise ($299): Unmetered plan for custom pricing with IT and security integrations and support options.
• Usage-based pricing

Usage-based plans tie the consumption of specific services or resources to the price. Users pay according to how much of a service they use (API calls, log records, message traffic, etc).

Good for:

• Products or services with variable usage and predictable costs
• Companies that grow via virality or network effects
• Examples:
• Per API call ($1/call)
• Per GB transferred or processed
• Per message or record produced by software
• Per user or user growth (licensed seats)
• Freemium or free-trial

Freemium pricing is free tier of product with limited capabilities for an audience (usually referred to as “freemiumers”). Paid tiers include upgrades to these restrictions and capabilities (performance, features, security, additional integrations, and support).

Good for:

• Product-led growth (PLG) or viral growth
• Mass market products

Examples:

• Free ($0): 10 webhook creation, 5 deployment plans, API call metrics, and basic email support.
• Pro ($15): 50 webhook creations, 20 deployment plans, priority support, and Google Chat integration.
• Business ($25): Includes pro features with additional capabilities like security integrations and custom support options.
• Coupons or promotional discounts
• Coupons or promotional discounts are special offers and pricing given on top of normal or subscription plan pricing. These promotions are temporary and usually have expiry dates. Coupons or promo codes can be time-bound or based on other qualifiers (account holder types, customer success score, and other filters).
• Good for:
• Coupon codes can be used to reduce CAC, promote awareness, increase trial-to-revenue conversion, and grow revenue.
• Coupon redemption as shared success metrics (marketing and sales)
• Examples:
• Volume discounts: 10% discount for $1000+/month plans
• Promotional discounts for annual vs monthly payments (5% savings on annual plans)

Step 5: Select distribution channels

In SaaS distribution channels, we refer to the paths that prospects and leads will take on their way to discovering, evaluating, and purchasing your product or service.

Typically, there are multiple channels you will select from and mix to create the best GTM channel mix for your SaaS startup. These include direct, indirect, and digital channels.

Distribution channels to consider:

• Direct channels
• Company website (self-service)
• Inside sales (business development)
• Field sales (enterprise)
• Channel partners (resellers)
• Indirect channels
• Marketplaces (AWS, GCP, Shopify, Salesforce AppExchange)
• System integrators (SIs) and consultants
• Industry associations
• Digital channels
• Search engine optimization (SEO)
• Paid ads (search, social media)
• Social media and community
• Email marketing and nurture campaigns

Select channels based on these considerations:

Buyer preferences

Customer lifetime value (CLV) and CAC ratios

Margin and channel economics

Scalability of channel

Competitive channel strategy

International and geographic coverage

Step 6: Create your demand generation plan

Demand generation in a SaaS go-to-market strategy refers to the comprehensive plan that will generate awareness, interest, leads, and drive conversions to onboard new customers.

Focus should be placed on inbound and top-of-the-funnel digital marketing strategies and channels as part of the demand-generation phase to capture as much prospective data and CDP’s (customer data platforms) to allow sales and marketing to do their jobs in the long term.

Components of a demand-generation plan:

• Content marketing strategy:
• Blogs, landing pages, guides, whitepapers, and case studies
• Webinars, virtual events, and workshops
• SEO and organic
• Paid ads (pay-per-click PPC) ads
• Social media marketing and marketing communities
• Account-based marketing (ABM)
• Partner and reseller enablement (collateral, resourcing, etc.)
• Account selection research
• Multi-touch orchestration plans
• Prospect nurture campaigns and planning
• Sales-enablement material sharing
• Automation and organization processes

7. Align Sales & Marketing Teams

Clarify the processes and shared responsibilities between sales and marketing teams to improve the overall quality and experience of the leads you are generating. Remember: If the leads aren’t converting into customers, it’s not only the sales team’s problem.

Agreements:

• Marketing: X number of qualified leads each month

• Sales: X hours to follow-up with each lead

• Both: X % MQL-to-customer conversion

Lead Handoff:

• MQL qualification criteria

• Standardized lead scoring model

• Automated routing/assignment

• Feedback loops for lead quality

Shared KPIs & Reporting:

• Pipeline generation and movement

• Customer acquisition cost by channel

• Lead-to-customer conversion rates

• Revenue attribution/ROI tracking

Regular Communication:

• Weekly pipeline review meetings

• Monthly performance analysis

• Quarterly strategy alignment sessions

• Ongoing feedback and process refinement

8. Involve Customer Success Early

Start building out the processes that will set your customer success team up for success in terms of customer activation, retention, and expansion.

Onboarding Process:

• Time-to-value optimization

• Progressive user education

• Success milestone identification

• Support and intervention triggers

Activation Metrics:

• Product usage depth and frequency

• Feature adoption and engagement

• Setup and integration time

• Team invites and adoption

Expansion Strategy:

• Usage-based upgrade triggers

• Additional feature upsells

• New team/user invites

• Cross-sell/add-on product promotion

Customer Health Scorecard:

• Usage patterns and trend analysis

• Support ticket volume and sentiment

• Engagement with educational/training content

• Renewal probability/risk factors

9. Develop Launch Plan & Timeline

Your plan should be a comprehensive view of every task with clear deadlines and owners.

Pre-Launch (8-12 weeks out):

• Beta testing with early customers

• Product documentation and training materials

• Sales enablement and objection handling prep

• Marketing creative asset development/approval

• Pricing and packaging finalization

Launch (4-6 weeks out):

• Phased rollout plans by customer segment

• Marketing and PR campaign activation

• Sales team ramp and training

• Customer feedback channels and monitoring

• Performance tracking and optimization

Post-Launch (Ongoing):

• Results analysis and reporting

• Process refinement and optimization

• Expansion planning and execution

• Customer success program scaling

Risk Assessment & Mitigation:

• Technical rollback procedures

• Customer communication plans

• Competitive response strategies

• Budget reallocation contingencies

10. Execute & Monitor KPIs

Set and track KPIs to understand the impact of your efforts and identify areas for improvement in your GTM strategy.

Acquisition Metrics:

• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) = Total Sales + Marketing Spend ÷ # of new Customers

• CAC Payback Period = Time to payback Customer Acquisition Cost

• Lead Conversion Rates (visitor-to-lead, lead-to-opportunity, etc.)

• Sales Velocity = (Opportunities x Average Deal Size x Win Rate) ÷ Sales Cycle Length

Revenue Metrics:

• Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) = Predictable Monthly Subscription Revenue

• Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) = Annualized Subscription Revenue

• Net Revenue Retention (NRR) = Revenue expansion minus churn from existing customers

• Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) = Total Revenue ÷ total Customers

Customer Health Metrics:

• Activation Rate = Percentage of New Users that reach Success Milestones

• Time to Value = Time from signup to first key outcome

• Churn Rate = % of Customers canceling subscriptions

• Net Promoter Score (NPS) = Indicator of customer satisfaction and likelihood to advocate

11. Gather Customer Feedback

Collect data to influence your product and GTM optimization.

Feedback Loop:

• Post-purchase surveys/interviews

• Quarterly business reviews with key customers

• In-app usage and feature request tracking

• Customer advisory board meetings

• Win/loss analysis with prospects

Feedback Analysis & Action:

• Feature request prioritization

• Messaging and positioning refinement

• Pricing and packaging optimization

• Customer success process refinement

• Product roadmap input

Feedback Loop Touchpoints:

• Product team feature development

• Marketing message testing

• Sales objection handling and training

• Customer Success playbook updates

12. Iterate & Scale

Analyze data, get feedback, and look for ways to expand your GTM efforts by channel, segment, geography, and product.

Optimization Opportunities:

• Channel performance and ROI (double down on the best ones)

• Segment expansion (find new adjacent segments)

• Geographic expansion

• Product extensions (new features/products for existing/customers)

Scaling Levers:

• Marketing automation & personalization

• Sales process standardization & training

• Partner/channel development

• Advocacy/referral programs

Continuous Improvement Process:

• Monthly performance reviews & analysis

• Quarterly strategy and performance assessment

• Annual GTM strategy refresh and planning

• Ongoing competitive and market intelligence gathering

Real-World SaaS GTM Examples

Slack: Product-Led Growth Success Story

The Challenge: Enter the crowded team collaboration space and stand out against incumbent email and tools.

Slack’s GTM Strategy:

• Target Market: Knowledge workers at all company sizes

• Model: Freemium with Product-Led Growth mechanics

• Positioning: “Email killer” for team communication

• Distribution: Self-service signup with built-in team invitation

• Key Innovation: Viral growth loops with team invites and channel sharing features

The Result: Grew from 0 to $100M ARR in 5 years. Successful IPO and $27.7B acquisition by Salesforce

Key Takeaways:

• Make your product experience the driver of your acquisition and retention

• Viral mechanics supercharge growth and reduce CAC

• Design the world’s best user experience to create natural word-of-mouth

HubSpot: Marketing-Led to Hybrid

The Challenge: Compete against large incumbents like Salesforce with a small team and limited resources

HubSpot’s GTM Strategy:

• Target Market: SMBs in need of marketing automation and sales enablement

• Model: Marketing-led inbound with freemium CRM as anchor product

• Positioning: “All-in-one” marketing, sales, and service platform

• Distribution: Content marketing, SEO, partner ecosystem

• Evolution: Sales-led motion added to target enterprise segment

The Result: Startup to $1.3B revenue public company with 135,000+ customers in 7 years

Key Takeaways:

• Build sustainable competitive advantage through content marketing

• Freemium products and services lower barrier to adoption

• Hybrid motion allows expansion across multiple customer segments

DocuSign: Sales-Led Enterprise Focus

The Challenge: Create a whole new product category for electronic signatures and digital agreements.

DocuSign’s GTM Strategy:

• Target Market: Enterprise legal, procurement, and HR departments

• Model: Sales-led with enterprise sales focus

• Positioning: “Digital transformation” for legal and agreement processes

• Distribution: Direct sales with partner channel development

• Education: Customer education on electronic signatures’ legal validity and compliance

The Result: Created $50B+ new market category. Successful IPO and serves 1M+ customers worldwide

Key Takeaways:

• Education-first goes down market to create new product categories

• Enterprise sales work for complex, high-value solutions and niches

• Compliance and security are table stakes for enterprise customers

Best Practices & Pitfalls to Avoid in SaaS GTM

Keep It Simple & Focused

Best Practice: Focus on one primary customer segment, one key message, and one main channel to start. Learn how to dominate in these areas before expanding.

Common Pitfall: Trying to target “everyone” or having a “kitchen sink” approach to GTM leads to convoluted messaging and high resource needs without clear results.

Example: Instead of “targeting all businesses that need project management software”, focus on “software development teams at 50-500 person companies using agile”.

Test & Learn

Best Practice: Validate assumptions quickly by running small experiments or tests before going big.

Testing Framework:

• Identify key assumptions and hypotheses to test

• Create minimum viable experiments/tests

• Define success/failure criteria for each experiment

• Iterate and learn quickly based on results

• Scale successful approaches

Common Pitfall: Creating GTM plans at 10x size without market testing or validation, then getting blindsided when these “behemoths” fail.

Focus on 1 Segment/Channel at a Time

Best Practice: Master one channel, one segment before moving onto the next to ensure focus and avoid spreading your efforts too thin.

Prioritization Criteria:

• Market size and accessibility

• Competitive advantage strength

• Resource requirements

• Time to revenue

• Learning potential/opportunity

Common Pitfall: Targeting many customer segments from the start which reduces messaging clarity and conversion rates.

Focus on Both Acquisition & Retention

Best Practice: Invest in customer success and retention efforts from day one to get LTV up and CAC down.

Retention-Optimized GTM Elements:

• Robust onboarding process

• Proactive customer success management

• Regular value demonstration

• Expansion opportunity identification

• Community and advocacy programs

Common Pitfall: Acquisition-only focus that drives up churn and creates negative unit economics.

Mix Inbound & Outbound Appropriately

Best Practice: Combine inbound and outbound tactics in your GTM mix based on where your target customers are and your business needs.

Indications to Add More Outbound:

• New product categories where education is needed

• Complex B2B sales processes

• Large enterprise accounts

• Displacing competitors

• Entering new geographies/market

Common Pitfall: Believing in “inbound only” or “product-led only” GTM approaches for every situation.

SaaS GTM Plan Template

A complete, downloadable go-to-market planning template. The templates is a master template that contains all 12 steps of the GTM framework. Use this to build your tailored GTM plan. It’s available in both Word and Google Docs formats.

1. Executive Summary

• Market opportunity/size

• Target customer segments

• USP/Pain/EvAngelion framework

• Key success metrics/goals

• Resources needed/timeline

2. Market Analysis

• TAM, SAM, SOM sizing

• Competitive landscape

• Market trends & opportunities

• SWOT analysis

3. Customer Definition

• ICP

• Buyer personas & key decision makers

• Customer journey map

• Pain points & desired outcomes

4. Product Strategy

• Positioning statement

• Key messaging framework

• Feature prioritization

• Pricing and packaging

5. GTM Execution

• GTM model (PLG/SLG/MLG/Hybrid)

• Channel strategy & distribution

• Demand generation

• Sales process & enablement

• Customer success

6. Launch Plan

• Pre-launch checklist

• Launch timeline/milestones

• Risk assessment & mitigation

• Success criteria/KPIs

7. Measurement & Optimization

• KPIs

• Reporting & analytics setup

• Feedback collection process

• Iteration and continuous improvement plan

How to Start Implementing Your GTM Strategy

Planning your GTM strategy is the most important step. But it’s only the first step. Building a great GTM program is a journey, not a destination. It’s a continuous process of learning, optimizing, and scaling based on what you learn.

Our Advice for Getting Started:

1. Assess where you are today: Audit your current GTM efforts, use this list to identify what you’re doing, and use this GTM checklist for things you should be doing

2. Choose your priorities: Pick your starting point based on your product and market, then focus on those areas before expanding your efforts

3. Start building your plan: Use the 12-step GTM framework to create a plan customized for your product and your market

4. Test early and iterate fast: Run focused pilots before scaling to test and validate your assumptions

5. Measure performance and iterate: Track KPIs and optimize your efforts based on data and results

Remember: GTM planning and optimization is not a one-time task, it’s an iterative, ongoing process. Build a strong foundation and improve based on feedback and performance data.

SaaS companies that will win in 2024 and beyond are the ones that master the art of balancing great product with great business, customer obsession with operational efficiency, and innovation with proven best practices. Go-to-market strategy is where it all starts.