Do you want to know what's the most important
slide when you are raising your seed round, or your series A round, or beyond?
It's the TAM slide, the total addressable market.
You want to know what the most second important slide is, the one that really kills deals
if you don't nail it right?
It's your go-to-market slide.
See, investors want to know if they were to give you that dollar, or a million dollars,
or $10 million, how are you going to turn that into $2, or $2 million, or $20 million?
They want to know what your go-to-market strategy is because there's so many different ways
to go to market, and they want to know if this investment is actually going to yield
a return.
And one of the biggest clues they look for is if you know how to actually market and
sell whatever you're building.
In this episode, I'm going to walk you through
the three principles you absolutely need to know to nail the go-to-market slide so that
you can actually establish your go-to-market strategy, you can actually raise that next
round of funding, and you can accelerate your path to the next stage of growth.
Intro, what's up everybody?
Welcome to Unstoppable.
I'm TK.
And on this channel, I help SaaS founders like you grow your SaaS business faster with
an unstoppable strategy.
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It's really awesome to see you over here.
I remember for our seed round, our go-to-market slide for ToutApp was to explain how we were
nailing our PLG model.
We were product-led growth, we were self-service, and we were really starting to really dial
that in.
Our seed round was about, "Here's how we acquire customers using PLG."
This was in 2011.
We didn't call it PLG, we called it self-service.
When we were raising our series A, we had
already dialed in on our PLG model, but we started to realize we could get bigger deals.
We put some sales people on it, and bring on entire sales teams.
Our go-to-market strategy deck had to show how we had the self-service PLG model locked
down, and we were starting to get bigger and bigger deals using our sales-driven model,
both super important.
And our series A story was about, "We're going to nail this bigger sales teams, and we want
to get every sales team in the world."
We would have to tell the story in the go-to-market
slide in these two different fundraisers in very unique ways, but at the end of the day,
I noticed as I pitched every investor, there were the same things they were looking for
in the question they really wanted answered.
That's how I developed these three principles on what you should put in your go-to-market
slide.
And by the time you watch this video, not only will you know how to have a really great
go-to-market slide, you will also know what are the critical components that goes into
a proper go-to-market strategy that you should be building anyway to make a successful business.
And that way, you'll also get a successful fundraise.
If you're excited to get into principle number
one, go in and smash that Like button for the YouTube algorithm, and let's jump right
into it.
The first thing you absolutely need to represent in your go-to-market slide is, what is your
ACV and sales cycle?
What is your average contract value?
And what is your sales cycle?
Let me explain this a little bit more, because investors really want to understand, "What
kind of sale is this?"
If you're doing product-led growth, then they want to understand, "Well, what's the average
customer value like?
How much are they signing up for?
Is it a $99 a month product?
Are they pre-paying for the year and taking a 20% savings through the credit card?
What is the scale and size of the deal?"
If it's sales-driven, they want to know what your average deal size is.
Is it a 50K deal, or a 250K deal, or a million dollar deal?
They also want to know how long it takes to
get deals done, what are your average sales cycle is.
By the way, both these examples are on opposite ends of the spectrum.
At ToutApp, we had the $30 a month, just swipe the credit card model.
And that's how we raised our seed round.
And by the time our series A came around, that was just humming.
And we also had a 50 to 75K average deal size, 30 days to 45 days sales cycle, high velocity
sales model.
And we were starting to inch up towards enterprise.
We had different ways to go to market, and we were...
One was locked and the other one was being tweaked.
We had to communicate this, and investors want to understand what yours is, "What is
the model?"
They also want to know, but based on these
two things, they'll start to understand, "Well, are they sales-driven or marketing-driven?"
They'll also want to know, "Are you doing a high velocity mid-market sale, or these
big enterprise deals that take like a year to complete before you know if you're doing
anything right?"
These are the big things that are going through their head, because as you're thinking about
this, whether it's high velocity or enterprise sale, whether it's marketing-driven or sales-driven,
they're starting to understand how expensive it's going to be to actually fund at this
company and fund the growth, meaning, the reason PLG is so popular is, if you're truly
PLG-driven, you just need to invest in marketing.
You don't need to hire salespeople, which are way more expensive, and they don't actually...
They're not profitable for the first six months because they have to be trained.
Investors know that if you're PLG-driven, you're probably going to be a more efficient
go-to-market machine, whereas if you are doing big enterprise deals, yeah, it's great, but,
man, there's a lot of risk and a lot of investment, upfront investment required to actually get
that machine going.
And this is why it's super important, principle
number one, talk about your ACV and your sales cycle, and explain it in a descriptive way,
so investors can start to understand, "Okay, cool, got it.
These guys, these gals understand how to get a deal done, and they're going into this market
segment with this type of deal, with this type of motion.
Here's how much marketing is involved, and here's how much sales is involved."
You start to actually paint that picture, but you lead with the ACV and the sales cycle,
because this gives direct clues to the investors and creates their imagination on how they're
going to have to fund that, the growth.
That's principle number one.
Once you've done that, the big question in
investor's minds is, "How efficient are you guys?"
Ultimately, companies with efficient go-to-market strategies, go-to-market machines, go-to-market
motions, win.
Now, you can have a highly efficient, a high velocity sales-driven model.
It's possible.
You can also have a highly efficient PLG model.
At the same time, you can have highly inefficient PLG models, and highly inefficient sales models.
It's not one or the other, and believe it or not, everyone's like, "Oh, it's got to
be PLG."
It doesn't have to be PLG, because sometimes your buyer prefers to talk to a human.
You can be PLG all day long, they won't talk to you, they'll just go to your competitor,
say, "We want to talk to a salesperson."
What the real goal is, is not whether you
have salespeople or not have salespeople, not whether you're marketing-driven or sales-driven.
It's about what your buyer wants, your audience, your target market, your market segment.
What do they want?
How do they buy?
And how do you create an efficient go-to-market strategy to deliver that?
This is why principle number two is, you have to show your CAC, customer acquisition cost,
and what your payback period is.
Between these two, investors will start to understand how efficient your go-to-market
is.
Now, let's just say you're in the seed stage.
If you're raising your seed round, then you may not have all of the data on exactly how
much a customer costs, because maybe you got it in all different ways.
Explain that, say like, "Look, we acquired our customers and got to this revenue through
all these different channels.
On a blended basis, the CAC is this, but we think we're going to double down on this channel,
and the CAC will come down.
And it costs us this much to actually acquire a customer, and this is how long it takes
to make that money back from that customer, the payback period."
What investors are really looking to understand
is, "Have you thought about, how do you actually acquire a customer?"
How much does it cost?
How can you make it more efficient?
And how do you actually make sure that you are actually reclaiming that money back as
quickly as possible so that the customer starts to turn a profit?"
Now, you may not be profitable on the first customer purchase, although that's not impossible,
but you at least have to understand how many months it takes before the customer does become
profitable, because then, the investors will start to understand, "Cool, how quickly can
you reinvest that money back into growth, if you are turning a profit, and you are managing
for the recurring revenue?"
CAC is super important to communicate in the go-to-market slide, and to actually get them
to think about like, "Okay, we're thinking about, how do we actually make these customers
profitable?
How do we double down on the channels?"
It shows depth in your go-to-market strategy, and that's what investors really look for.
Before I go to principle number three, let
me pause here for a second.
Are you starting to see the power in this?
There's two things going on here.
On one hand, it's going to help you think about what you need to have a successful go-to-market
strategy that is efficient.
Number two, it's also telling you how to communicate to investors that you're thinking deeply about
it, and you actually have a go-to-market strategy.
This is why showing the ACV and the sales cycle, talking about the market segment you're
going after, the motion, is super powerful, talking about the CAC you're seeing, and how
you're going to drive that down, and what opportunities there are, and how quickly you
make that money back, is also super powerful.
If you're starting to see the power in this, can I just get a yes in the comments below?
Also, smash that Like button for the YouTube algorithm.
It really, really likes it when you do that.
Now, if you are in the stage where you're
building out your go-to-market strategy, if you want an efficient go-to-market strategy,
if you want a framework to follow to build your go-to-market strategy, then I encourage
you to join my SaaS Go-To-Market coaching program.
Inside of that, I give you the step-by-step training on exactly how to build a go-to-market
strategy and execute on it.
I'll tell you more about it at the end of this video.
Let's go to principle number three.
Principle number three is, you also want to
highlight your key channels.
Here's the thing investors are really looking for in your go-to-market strategy slide.
What they're really looking for is if you've found your unfair distribution advantage yet.
They want to know if you have an unfair distribution model, and that's what every great startup
is seeking.
They're looking to find, "What is our unfair way we can compete and actually acquire a
lot of customers?"
The startups that looked for that, the startups that optimized for that are the ones that
win outsize rewards.
What they're really looking for is, have you
tested the key channels?
Have you actually started to figure out which channel works?
Have you started to get an unfair advantage in one of the channels?
What they're really looking for is, where is your unique and unfair advantage in your
go-to-market strategy?
Maybe you got really good at doing outbound.
Maybe you created this really unique strategic narrative, and now, you're having authority
in this space, and everyone loves you on LinkedIn.
Maybe LinkedIn is not where you audience hangs out, and they don't check their emails, so
you've gotten really great at cold calling.
Maybe they're all on Facebook, so Facebook ads linking to your manifesto, and your lead
magnet is converting really, really, really well.
Every startup is seeking for that really great
channel, and really great unfair advantage.
And once you nail that, and you communicate that to the investors in the go-to-market
slide, their eyes will widen, because they'll say, "Okay, got it.
So you're telling me you guys understand your ACV and sales cycle, you understand how much
it costs to acquire a customer, and you also have an unfair advantage you've hacked on
one of these key channels, and have gotten really great at it?
Here's all my money."
This is what investors are really looking for.
And this is why this is the second most important slide in the pitch deck, the first one being
the total addressable market, because they also want to know that, "If I give you a lot
of money, is there enough market to go after?"
This is why the total addressable market needs to be huge, and that's why it's the most important
slide in the deck.
And the second most important slide is showing
them through these key things, you actually know how to take their money, invest it in
distribution, and get a lot of customers really fast.
That's the power of the go-to-market slide.
To recap, let's recap these really quick.
Number one, you want to highlight your ACV and sales cycle.
This will actually open up the discussion around what your...
Whether you're sales-driven or marketing-driven, and what segment of the market you're going
after.
Then, you want to talk about what your CAC is, and what your payback period is.
It just starts talking about how efficient you are, and what the opportunities on that
are.
And then number three, you want to talk about, what are the key channels that you've developed
and gotten really great at, and how are you going to get even better at it and develop
your unfair advantage?
Now, if you are building out your go-to-market
strategy, and you're tired of watching a billion pieces of videos and all the conflicting advice,
then I invite you to join my SaaS go-to-market coaching program.
Now, the coaching program is different than free videos.
The free videos, I give you principles, I do my best to give you as much value as possible
in 10 minutes.
The coaching program is a full training program, where I walk you through, step-by-step, the
framework to follow to build your go-to-market strategy.
We also meet every Wednesday, where I answer your questions and coach you through the process.
We also have one-on-one strategy sessions,
where we can dig into key things that you're doing, and what's working and what's not.
I work with you, alongside you to help you build out that go-to-market strategy.
That's the difference between just doing it on your own, versus following a very well-defined
framework.
If you're building that go-to-market strategy, you want to reduce your execution risk, you
want a framework to follow, you actually want to work with someone that's been there, done
that, then I invite you to check out my SaaS go-to-market coaching program.
Just go to tkkader.com/gtm for all of the
details.
On that page, you'll get all the details on what the program entails.
You'll be able to apply to join the program.
Once you apply, we'll get on a phone call, and we'll review where you are in the business,
what your goals are, and if I can help you, I'll invite you into the program, and you
can make your decision.
Just go to tkkader.com/gtm, and I will see you on one of the calls.
Also, if you got value from this video, go
ahead and smash that Like button for the YouTube algorithm.
I drop a video like this two to three times a week with actionable strategies and growing
your SaaS business.
If you're new here, and you haven't subscribed yet, be sure to hit the Subscribe button and
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And lastly, remember, everyone needs a strategy for their life and their business.
When you are with us, yours is going to be unstoppable.
I'm TK, and I'll see you on our strategy call, and also the next episode.