A Typical Go to Market Strategy for B2B and SaaS?

Finding the right go to market strategy for your business is an important part of the product development process.

Going to market (GTM) is one of the key elements impacting the success and longevity of any new B2B or SaaS product. GTM encompasses a variety of aspects such as: marketing strategy, sales strategy, product launch strategy, post-launch support strategy, sales & marketing alignment and more. Here's how we at Devhaus approach the challenge.

What Is B2B Marketing?

In today’s digital world, B2B and SaaS companies have more options for marketing than ever before. Digital marketing has become more sophisticated and is expected to continue to do so.

If you are a B2B or SaaS company, you may be wondering what your go-to-market strategy should be. How do you know if you need a marketer? What does a typical Go To Market (GTM) plan look like for B2B and SaaS?

For B2B companies, this means create content that helps people solve problems or take action — whether they buy your product or not. For SaaS companies, this means creating content that helps people learn how to use your product — whether they buy it or not.

The goals of B2B marketing are different than B2C, and a go-to-market strategy needs to reflect that. The most common goals for B2B marketing are:

• Build brand awareness and reputation
• Generate leads and opportunities
• Increase website traffic
• Improve conversion rate
• Improve customer satisfaction

Once you’ve identified the pain points of your customer base and determined how your product solves those problems, develop messaging that resonates with them — and then communicate it everywhere! You want your message to be consistent across all channels so that people hear about your solution every time they visit or interact with any part of your business.

This approach works well for both B2B companies selling software as well as SaaS companies who sell subscriptions or licenses on an ongoing basis.

Essential Elements of a B2B Go-To-Market Strategy

Most B2B marketers agree that the go-to-market strategy is the most important component that drives success of a B2B product, but it is rarely well defined or exists at all during the early stages of product development.

The lack of B2B go-to-market strategy at this stage stems from several reasons, such as lack of real market validation, limited resources, and shifting priorities.

The below steps can help you get started on building your GTM strategy:

Determine Your Unique Value Proposition

The first step in developing your go to market strategy is to explore and establish your competitive differentiators. This can be defined as being a clear, simple and compelling statement used to differentiate yourself from your competitors. It should explain what value you offer to potential customers.

Gathering information is a critical step in developing your marketing strategy. Asking your customers interesting questions will pique their interest and provide a better understanding of what you do. Understanding their needs and wants will help you narrow down your target market and give you the insight you need for defining your value proposition.

Study Your Competition

Know what your competitors plan to achieve. As David Ogilvy noted, your direct competitors are your enemies, indirect competitors are your friends.

Every business has one thing in common: the customer. Every business owner knows that it is necessary to know your market inside out. What better way to get an edge on your competition than by utilizing their battle strategies? Not only do you study them, but you utilize them. Do what your competitors aren't.

Present Your Product as a Solution

When developing a go-to-market strategy for a B2B (business-to-business) or SaaS (software as a service) product, it's important that you present your product as a solution.

To have an effective go-to-market strategy for your B2B SaaS business, build a product that solves a problem for your target audience. The Product Market Fit is the foundation of a powerful go-to market strategy. Because you can't sell something if no one needs it and is willing to spend hard earned money on it.

A number of companies fail to do this and instead, present themselves as a vendor that offers products and services.

Develop Market Growth Strategies

While SaaS companies have adopted many different strategies to market their products, there are four common types of B2B SaaS marketing strategies:

• The Direct sales model is a traditional way in which the sales team manages all interactions with customers.
• The Lead generation model, where you acquire leads and then assign them to your sales team or partners.
• The Service provider model, where you partner up with other companies in order to sell your product or service alongside them.
• The Partner network model where you work with partners who have existing relationships with companies that might need your services and give them a commission for every deal they bring in for you."

Set Your Pricing Model

Pricing is one of the most important decisions in building a successful B2B SaaS business. It directly impacts your customer acquisition and retention strategies, as well as your overall revenue growth.

There are many ways to set prices for your SaaS product or service. The most common pricing models include:

• Perpetual License – This is the classic model where customers pay for a license to use your software for as long as they want, without any further obligations. This model is popular with enterprise customers who plan to use the software for a long period of time and want no additional fees after they make their purchase.
• Subscription License – Customers pay a recurring fee each month or year to use the software, which includes all upgrades and support services included in the payment plan. This model is great when you want predictable revenue and predictable costs over time, but can be harder to manage if you have seasonal spikes or dips in your business activity levels.
• Time & Materials – You charge customers based on how much time they spend using the software (hours or days), plus any additional fees like consulting services or customizations required by your customer’s team members.

Set Success Metrics and KPIs

There are many metrics for success. There are three types of KPIs you can track as part of the B2B go to market strategy.

1. B2B lead generation and conversion metrics - Understand how many leads convert into opportunities at each stage and how much revenue they drive. To measure this, you can use a funnel tool like Hubspot’s CRM or Salesforce’s Pardot to track each stage in the sales process.
2. B2B customer retention and satisfaction metrics - Retention is an important metric when it comes to measuring success in the B2B. You should be tracking retention over time to see how often customers buy again and how much more they spend with you over time compared to other companies in your industry.
3. SaaS product KPIs **** It’s important to track KPIs for your product as well, since SaaS businesses make money by charging their customers a recurring fee every month or year for using their software.

Here are some of the most essential elements of setting KPIs:

• Revenue
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
• Customer Retention Rate (CRR)
• Churn Rate
• Market Share
• Average Revenue per User (ARPU)

Tips and Best Practices

B2B go to market strategy is a complex thing. It requires a lot of thought, planning and execution.

A successful B2B go to market strategy requires an understanding of the customer needs and wants, their business challenges and how your product can help solve those problems.

It also requires an understanding of how your company will serve them better than others do.

Here are some tips to develop a successful B2B go to market strategy:

• Understand your target audience and what makes them tick.
• Define your ideal customer profile and build a persona for each group in your target accounts.
• Identify the main decision makers and influencers within each account that you want to win over.
• Develop a clear value proposition that shows how your company helps them solve their problems better than anyone else can do it.

Your Go to Market Strategy Should Be Based on What You’re Selling and Your Target Audience

B2B companies need to be careful with their go to market strategy because there are many different types of buyers within the same company, and they all have different needs. For example, a sales representative may want something very different from an HR manager or executive leadership team member. For these reasons, it's important for b2b companies to create multiple ways for customers and prospects to interact with them before making any purchase decisions.

The same is true for SaaS businesses--they need multiple channels through which customers can engage with products/services at different points in their buyer journey (e.g., awareness stage vs consideration stage).

It's important to remember that your go to market strategy is unique and should be tailored to fit your business needs. There are many factors involved in choosing the right approach, including what type of product or service you're selling and who your target audience is. You should also consider how much time and money it will take before you start seeing results from any given sales strategy.

Need a Growth Strategy Cheatsheet?

Are you still looking for actionable insights and practical tips to accelerate your business growth? Come check out our Growth Strategy Cheatsheet now.

This valuable resource offers practical tips and insights to help you accelerate your business growth and improve your go-to-market strategy. From identifying your target audience to building a strong brand and optimizing your sales process, it covers all the key areas you need to focus on to achieve success.

Using Grants to Help You Subsidise Your Next Digital Marketing Project

If you're new to the concept of growth we'd strongly advice to work closely with subject matter experts, and explore Growth services to help you through this journey.

Here are some of the top grants that could help get your Project subsidised by up to 70 or 80% ( for certain industries ). To help you understand better, our VP of Advanced Services - Dom has taken the time to explain. Watch the overview video below:

Our Top Grant Pick: Market Readiness Assistance (MRA) Grant

The Market Readiness Assistance (MRA) Grant is a program offered by Enterprise Singapore, aimed at helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) based in Singapore expand into overseas markets. The grant provides funding support of up to 70% of eligible costs for activities such as market assessment, market entry, and overseas promotion.

This initiative also offers SMEs access to a range of in-market services such as business matching, market intelligence, and networking opportunities. The MRA grant is designed to help Singaporean businesses become more competitive in the global market and to encourage them to explore new opportunities beyond their domestic borders.

If you're an SME looking to expand your business internationally, the MRA grant could be an excellent opportunity for you to take advantage of.

If you're keen to explore the grants further, book a call with our lovely team today!