Confused about what a Go-To-Market strategy actually is? Join the club. As one reader put it: "I'm nodding along pretending I fully get it—but I don't." Let's fix that right now.

Last week, I received an email that honestly made me smile. Not because I enjoy someone's confusion, but because it reflected a question I've heard whispered in boardrooms and executive meetings for years—yet few have the courage to ask out loud.

The email came from Chris, a newly promoted VP of Sales at a growing software startup. He's facing a challenge many leaders encounter: everyone around him is talking about "Go-To-Market strategy" as if it's as simple as ordering coffee, while he's left wondering what exactly makes it different from regular sales and marketing.

Before I share my response, here's what Chris wrote:

Letter

Subject: Honestly, What Exactly Is a Go-To-Market Strategy? (Asking for a Friend)

Hey Marco,

Big fan of your LinkedIn articles and your advice always cuts through the noise, so I figured I'd ask you about something that's been bugging me for a while.

I recently got promoted to VP of Sales at a growing software startup. Everyone keeps throwing around terms like "Go-To-Market strategy," and frankly, I'm nodding along pretending I fully get it—but I don't. At least not clearly enough to lead our next big launch effectively.

My CEO keeps saying we need a "better GTM strategy" to boost our sales, and my marketing team agrees, but when I ask around, the explanations I get are vague and overly complicated. Can you please break it down for me?

What exactly is a go-to-market strategy, why does it matter, and where should I even start if I want to build one that's effective?

Thanks for helping a guy out—looking forward to finally understanding this!

Best, Chris D

I remember sitting in a boardroom in 2011, three months into a role as head of sales for a tech company that had just received Series B funding. The CEO asked about my "GTM approach" for our upcoming product. I nodded confidently while my brain screamed, "What the hell is he talking about?"

That night, I frantically researched and called mentors until I pieced together what I was actually being asked to deliver. I wish I'd had someone to break it down for me then, so Chris, this one's for you—and for everyone else pretending to understand.

If You Can't Explain GTM to Your Grandmother, You Don't Understand It Either

A Go-To-Market strategy isn't rocket science—though the consultants charging six figures to create one might have you believe otherwise. At its core, a GTM strategy is simply your master plan for how you'll deliver a specific product to a specific customer and make them actually give a damn.

That's it.

Think of it as the roadmap that connects three critical dots:

• Your product (what you're selling)
• Your target customer (who's buying it)
• The journey between them (how they'll find, evaluate, and purchase it)

Your sales team might have the best skills and systems in the world, but if they're trying to sell enterprise software to small businesses who can't afford it, your GTM is broken before you've even started.

The "Everyone Says It's Important So It Must Be" Fallacy

Why does GTM matter? Not just because everyone says it does.

Let me put it bluntly: without a clear GTM strategy, you're essentially throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping something sticks. You're wasting resources, confusing your team, and probably missing your targets.

When I was brought in to fix a struggling software company in 2019, they had a brilliant product but couldn't figure out why sales were flat. After a week of investigation, the answer was painfully obvious: their GTM was a disaster. They were targeting enterprise clients with their marketing but had priced the product for SMBs. Their sales team was trained on technical features while customers were buying based on ease of use.

The result? Marketing attracted the wrong leads, sales pitched the wrong benefits, and everyone wondered why conversion rates were abysmal.

Within six months of rebuilding their GTM from scratch, sales doubled. Not because the product changed—but because we aligned who we were targeting, what we were saying, and how we were selling.

From Clueless Nodding to Confidently Leading: Your 4-Step GTM Framework

So Chris, you asked where to start. Here's my straightforward 4-step framework that's helped dozens of companies build GTM strategies that actually work:

Step 1: Identify Who Actually Wants What You're Selling (And Forget Everyone Else)

Most GTM strategies fail at step one because companies can't resist the temptation to target "everyone who might possibly be interested."

What to do today: Pull out a blank sheet of paper. Draw three columns: "Who will buy first," "Who will buy next," and "Who will buy later." Be ruthlessly specific about your ideal customer profile for each column.

For a B2B software product, your "buy first" column might read: "SaaS companies with 50-200 employees, $5-20M in revenue, with a dedicated customer success team of at least 3 people, who are currently using [Competitor X] but frustrated by [Specific Problem]."

Notice how different that is from "mid-sized tech companies."

Mistake to avoid: If your target customer description could apply to more than 20% of the market, it's too broad to be useful.

Step 2: Map Their Buying Journey (Not Your Selling Process)

Your internal sales process doesn't matter nearly as much as understanding how your customers actually make decisions.

What to do today: Interview 5-10 recent customers with a simple question: "Walk me through every step from when you first realized you had a problem to when you signed the contract with us."

Document each touchpoint, influence, objection, and decision factor they mention. You'll likely discover their journey looks nothing like your CRM stages.

Mistake to avoid: Don't rely on your sales team's perception of the buying journey. They only see parts of it, and their view is biased by their role.

Step 3: Build Your Messaging Around Problems, Not Features

I've reviewed hundreds of pitch decks and most make the same fatal mistake: they lead with product features instead of customer problems.

What to do today: Create a simple matrix with your top three customer segments down the left side, and these three columns across the top:

• Primary problem they're trying to solve
• How they describe this problem in their own words
• How your solution uniquely addresses this (in benefit terms, not feature terms)

Mistake to avoid: Using internal company language instead of your customers' actual words. "Improved operational efficiency" means nothing compared to "stops you from wasting 5 hours every week on manual reports."

Step 4: Choose Channels and Tactics That Match Your Customer's Behavior

The final piece is determining how you'll reach your target customers where they already are—not where you wish they were.

What to do today: For each customer segment, list:

• Where they get information when researching solutions (specific publications, communities, events)
• Who influences their buying decisions (internal stakeholders, external experts)
• What evidence they need to justify a purchase (ROI calculations, case studies, free trials)

Then match your channel strategy to these realities, not to what's trendy or what your marketing team prefers.

Mistake to avoid: Spreading resources too thin across too many channels. It's better to dominate two channels than to have a weak presence in ten.

The Hard Truth Most GTM Consultants Won't Tell You

Three months after implementing this framework at a healthcare software company, their CEO called me with a confession: "I was skeptical about simplifying our GTM this much. I thought we needed something more sophisticated, but I was wrong. We're closing deals faster with less effort."

Here's the hard truth: an effective GTM strategy doesn't have to be complicated. In fact, complexity is often the enemy of execution.

The best GTM strategies I've seen fit on 2-3 pages and are so clear that everyone from the CEO to new sales hires can understand and apply them.

When You Know It's Working

You'll know your GTM strategy is working when:

• Your sales cycles get shorter because you're targeting the right prospects with the right message
• Your conversion rates improve at each stage of the funnel
• Your customer acquisition cost decreases
• Your team can confidently explain who you sell to, why they buy, and how you reach them

I remember walking into a client's office six months after rebuilding their GTM. The receptionist—not even part of the sales team—could perfectly explain who their ideal customer was and why they chose this company over competitors. That's when I knew the GTM wasn't just a document but had become part of their DNA.

From Nodding Along to Leading the Conversation

Chris, the next time your CEO mentions GTM, you won't be nodding along pretending to understand. You'll be the one leading the conversation, asking the right questions, and driving clarity.

And here's a final thought that might surprise you: the best GTM strategies evolve constantly. What works today won't work exactly the same way next year. The companies that win treat their GTM as a living framework, testing assumptions and adapting based on market feedback.

So what's your next step after reading this? Pick one customer segment, apply this framework, and test it on a small scale. Gather data, refine your approach, and then expand.

What's the biggest challenge you're facing in your current go-to-market approach? Share it with me, and let's continue this conversation.

About the Author

Marco Giunta works with private equity firms as an operating partner managing a portfolio of companies, specializing in go-to-market strategy development and revenue acceleration. After spending decades watching executives nod along in GTM discussions without true understanding, he's dedicated his career to demystifying complex business concepts and providing actionable frameworks that drive real results. Marco has helped dozens of B2B companies transform confusing, ineffective GTM approaches into clear strategies that deliver measurable revenue growth. When he's not helping companies fix their GTM problems, you can find him discussing the finer points of Italian espresso or analyzing the latest F1 race strategy. Have a GTM challenge keeping you up at night? Reach out anytime at marco@marcogiunta.com or visit https://marcogiunta.com.