- So in addition to this YouTube channel,
I also have this podcast.
It's called SaaS & Scotch.
It's super awesome.
I'll link to it below.
You don't have to go right now.
but on that podcast I interview founders just like you
that are actively going through the Shawshank Crawl
to the next stage of growth, to product market fit.
Now, one of the things that's been really cool
is I've been interviewing some second time founders,
and in fact, a lot of them.
A lot of second time founders that are doing it again,
they've had success before,
they're building another SaaS business,
and one thing that always sticks out
is second time founders absolutely obsess
not as much about product,
although that's important,
but about distribution
and go-to-market.
That's the big thing you learn,
and that's true just for me as well.
When I think about building a new SaaS business,
when I coach my Go-To-Market Coaching Program clients,
I'm like, look, you gotta obsess
about go-to-market and distribution,
because if you get that right,
you'll get enough attention in the market
and you'll be able to figure out
the product and make it great.
You'll get there.
So in this episode, I want to dig more
into what a go-to-market strategy actually looks like.
In this channel, I've done countless videos
on go-to-market strategy,
and focusing on specific components.
But I want to kind of zoom out
and talk about if you were to obsess about distribution
and go-to-market strategy, what does that look like,
what does the big picture look like
and how the pieces come together?
So in this episode, I'm gonna walk you
through those three key pieces that fit together
into a go-to-market strategy example
that's gonna be applicable to 99.9%
of B2B SaaS businesses out there.
So, that's what we're gonna do.
Intro.
(upbeat music)
What's up, everybody?
Welcome to Unstoppable.
I'm TK, and on this channel,
I help SaaS founders like you
grow your SaaS businesses faster
with an unstoppable strategy.
If you are new to the channel, welcome.
Be sure to hit the subscribe button (mouse clicks)
and that bell icon. (bell chimes)
That way you'll get notified
every single time I drop an episode with the TK energy.
Now, if you are already part of this channel,
if you're part of my SaaS Go-To-Market Coaching Program,
where I give you a step-by-step process
to actually build a go-to-market strategy, welcome back.
It's so awesome to see you guys over here.
Now, when it comes to building and scaling SaaS businesses,
distribution and having a go-to-market strategy is king.
I'll give you an example.
I get hit up nearly every other week
by a founder that is building in the sales engagement space.
Now, this is relevant because I started ToutApp.
ToutApp was my last SaaS business
and we started back in 2011, we grew it out,
and then we sold to Marketo.
We were one of the OGs in the sales engagement space
back when we didn't even call it sales engagement.
We were creating that category.
We created that category.
So nowadays there's clear winners in the space,
including SalesLoft and Outreach that are out there.
They'll probably IPO at some point.
But there's also a long, long, long tail
of other tools that are trying to displace them.
You have Mixmax, you have Apollo,
you have Mailshake, you have Lemlist.
And then on top of that you have new founders
that are coming into the space seemingly every other week.
So it's a very crowded space.
It's expected to be nearly a five billion dollar category,
so there's room for multiple players,
but it begs the question,
how are the new guys ever gonna win?
Now, what I noticed is there are people
that are winning in the space
that don't have the best product,
but actually have killer go-to-market strategies.
They have killer distribution.
In fact, like, I go into a lot of these tools
because in my coaching program,
Go-To-Market Coaching Program,
we actually help you pick the right tech stack
to build out your go-to-market strategy and mobilize it,
so I check out a lot of these outbound tools
because we teach you how to do outbound effectively.
And I always check out the new platforms.
When a new founder hits me up,
I always check out what they're doing,
as long as I can sign up for a trial.
And what's amazing to me is in a lot of cases,
it's not the best product that's winning in the market.
It's the ones with the best distribution.
The rest of them are kind of stuck
at anywhere between five and 15 million ARR.
The rest, they're just stuck and they're not quite growing,
they're not quite moving.
But the people that are really nailing distribution
and go-to-market strategy are winning,
and they don't even have the full product.
But this is important to understand
because the ones that are winning
will actually generate more cash,
they'll actually have more growth,
they'll be able to raise more,
and they'll be able to reinvest that cash,
and then the product is going to actually leap ahead.
Whereas the other way around, you can have the best product,
where you keep spending money on the best product,
but if no one finds out, then you'll never grow.
You see the difference?
And this is why a go-to-market strategy is super important.
Now, in this channel,
I've talked about go-to-market strategy
in a lot of different specific ways.
I'll point out some of those videos
as we go through the example,
but I wanted to zoom out and just break it down to, like,
what does it look like
when you actually have a successful go-to-market strategy
that's differential and helps you win?
So if you're excited to dig in,
I'm gonna walk you through the three key components of it.
If you're excited,
you can go in and smash that like button (icon squeaks)
for the YouTube algorithm. (mouse clicks)
And let's go to principle number one.
Principle number one, or the first part
of your go-to-market strategy,
is you need to actually have deep customer insights.
You need to have some macro trends,
and you need to codify it into an ideal customer profile.
There's a reason I'm phrasing this differently.
I actually redid this card a couple of times
because I didn't want to just say
you need to have an ideal customer profile,
because if you've been a long-time follower of my channel,
or, you know, you probably have
some sort of an ideal customer profile.
But if you're inside of my Go-To-Market Coaching Program,
you do it totally differently,
because we teach you what are the other things
that really matters beyond an ideal customer profile.
You need to have deep customer insights.
You need to understand what's going on in their world.
You need to understand what are the big macro trends
that are happening.
You need to understand what is the alternative
to your product that they would be using
if they weren't using you.
You need to understand what's on stake.
This is what I call deep customer insights.
And if you have these deep customer insights,
those are the beginnings of a go-to-market strategy
because that will help you actually craft
everything else that comes after.
And a lot of times, first of all, in the early stages,
founders tend to over-index on product
and not think about go-to-market.
And when they do go-to-market,
they tend to over execute on execution
instead of these strategic things.
Let's send off a thousand emails, right?
Let's run a thousand dollars' worth of ads
instead of thinking about, well,
what are the deep customer insights?
How are we different?
What are the macro trends?
How do we codify that into the ICP?
This is what the first piece of a go-to-market strategy is,
and you actually have to ask yourself these questions.
If you want to dig more
into how to actually really craft an ICP,
three things you didn't know about an ICP,
I did a video that goes into some of the highlights.
You can check that out here. (icon pops)
You don't have to go right now.
I'll link to it below, but I did a whole ICP video
that you can learn more about it, as well.
So that's principle number one
in you go-to-market strategy example,
is you need to have the deep customer insights.
That's how you craft that strategy.
And if you don't have that and you just jump to execution,
it won't really work, so that's the first one.
The second thing that you have to figure out
is to send out a 1,000 emails.
No, just kidding, I'm totally joking.
That's not what you needed to be doing.
That's, you're, like, so far away from that.
Like, the second thing you really need to figure out
once you have these insights
is thinking about what is the positioning of your product?
What is the value proposition of your product?
How do you actually message this value proposition
and the positioning in the market
so you can differentiate yourself?
And how do you craft that
into an actual strategic narrative?
This is a bunch of stuff over here,
but this is really what you need to have.
Because if you don't do the hard work on these pieces,
crafting that email, crafting that ad,
writing that LinkedIn post,
whatever you're doing to get attention,
it's gonna be out of nowhere
and you won't be able to differentiate.
If you are truly the 12th sales engagement tool
in the market, then you need
to actually spend a lot of time on this, for example,
to really differentiate, because otherwise it's like,
yep, we help you send a 1,000 emails also,
except, what, we're two dollars?
I'm like, look, if I'm gonna send out a 1,000 emails,
I wanna pay a sufficient amount of money.
I want to, like, go for the premium provider,
make sure my domain reputation is protected,
make sure my list is warm,
make sure I'm doing all the things in the right way, right?
Like, I would want to spend money on that
'cause there's lots on the line.
My pipeline is on the line.
So you need to actually figure out,
well, how do we differentiate in a very crowded market?
And it's always a crowded market.
Let's just say you're not doing sales engagement.
Let's say you're going into a brand new category.
No one else is doing it.
Well, guess what?
Your biggest competitor is just as bad
as the sales engagement space.
Like in the sales engagement space, it's 12 other tools.
Your competitor in this brand new category is apathy.
It's that spreadsheet.
It's doing nothing.
And so just as much effort needs to go
into actually thinking through your positioning,
your value prop, your messaging, your narrative,
all those core pieces.
If you want to think more or double click more into this
and what are the different things to think about,
some principles to consider, check out this video,
where I go into the value proposition canvas.
It's a tool that's pretty cool
to help you start to think about your value proposition.
It's one part of this, but in all these other pieces,
but it's an important place to start
if you want to start to think through those pieces.
You don't have to go right now.
I'll link to it below.
Now, before I go into the third one,
let me just pause here for a second.
If you're starting to get some aha moments here
of the difference between execution and strategy
and why distribution is so important
in the market that you're in,
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 likes it when you do that.
Now also, if you're thinking
about how to craft these pieces,
it's perfectly normal if you're like,
man, that's a lot of pieces.
Like, how many YouTube videos do I need to watch?
Like, how many other places do I need to go for advice?
This is slightly different than what I was told.
And for my mentors and (indistinct),
like, if your head's spinning a little bit, don't worry.
This is exactly why I created
my SaaS Go-To-Market Coaching Program.
We actually dig into these pieces
and give you a step-by-step framework to follow.
I'll tell you more about it at the end of this video,
but let's go to principle number three right now.
And also, if you haven't smashed that like button,
please do so.
It just means the world to us.
Okay, principle number three is you,
once you have your deep customer insights, right?
And then you have your positioning and your messaging,
which you develop from these deep customer insights,
once you have that, then it's about delivering
a consistent set of marketing and sales activities.
I call this a Broadway show.
So what ends up happening is,
if you don't have the strategy in place,
if you don't have the deep customer insights
and the messaging and positioning and all those pieces,
and you start doing marketing and sales, you're like,
let's just put in a thousand dollars on ads,
and let's, like, I don't know, do SEO,
and let's do this and let's do that,
and you're all over the place
and you're making stuff up every week
and you're not tethered to a strategy,
and therefore you won't know what to iterate on.
And if something's not working,
you won't know what to tweak.
You'll be in the middle of nowhere.
But, if you actually run
a consistent set of activities every week,
then you can measure those and you can iterate on those
and you can actually drive what I call a Broadway show.
Now it turns out if you're in SaaS,
if you're in B2B SaaS, there are six key ways
that you can actually generate demand.
Once you have your messaging and your positioning
and the customer insight, once you have all that.
If you want to dig into
those six key ways of driving demand,
you can check out this video.
You don't have to go right now.
I'll link to it below.
Those are the six key channels that you can think about,
from easy to hard,
and there's some things to consider on that.
You can check that out.
But what you need to be doing
is focusing on the key channels
and being consistent on those channels,
because it takes time.
That's one of the biggest things about B2B SaaS.
It's not an overnight thing, right?
Sometimes people will do it.
They're like, oh, we went on a product hunt
and did a lifetime deal, and now we have a 100 customers.
I'm like, great.
Now you have a 100 customers for life
and no recurring revenue.
Like, what do you do now?
What have we learned from this?
I dunno.
So it's super important to actually be building
scalable go-to-market machines
where you are actually scaling up channels one at a time,
honing in on the messaging,
doubling down on the messaging that's working,
and you scale it, but it takes a little bit of time.
When you do it that way,
it compounds just like your recurring revenue,
and then it turns a curve
and it starts to scale really quickly.
That's the power of SaaS,
and it takes a little bit of time, but in the long run,
it compounds and accelerates, which is the power.
That's why these are so amazing.
So you can check out that video for the six key channels,
but what's more important is the third principle,
which is you need to have this consistent set
of marketing and sales activities.
When you do these three things, number one,
get the deep customer insights,
number two, actually flesh out your positioning,
your value prop, your messaging, your narrative,
and then you feed into your consistent set
of marketing and sales activities,
when you do those three things stacked up,
that's when you actually have a go-to-market strategy,
and then a go-to-market machine that you can scale,
you can iterate on, you can tweak,
and you're tethered to it,
and that's when you actually start to accelerate growth.
That's the power of it.
So that's what I had for you today.
Now, if you are in the midst of all this
and you're figuring all these pieces out,
you're figuring out, how do I get the customer insights?
How do I figure out my macro trends?
How do I craft it into my ICP?
How do I actually create my strategic narrative,
my messaging?
How do I actually feed that
into a consistent set of marketing and sales activities?
This is exactly why I created
my SaaS Go-To-Market Coaching Program.
Inside of this coaching program,
we help you actually develop your ICP the right way.
We help you flesh out your manifesto and craft it,
and then we help you run a Broadway show.
We teach you how to do each of these key pieces
step-by-step.
Now, what's the difference
between watching all of my YouTube videos
versus joining the program?
All my YouTube videos will talk about these core principles.
Like, the most I can do in a 10 to 15 minute period
is get you to realize what's out there, what's possible,
what the core principles are, right?
Now, in the coaching program,
it's about quickest path to results.
It's about actual coaching.
So you actually get step-by-step videos
on do this and then do this and then do this.
It's an actual framework to follow.
When you have a framework to follow,
it reduces execution risk.
Also, you get to get my coaching.
We can look at what you're working on
and I can coach you through the process
because I've been there before.
Between those two things,
between the step-by-step training plus the coaching,
you actually can actually execute on these key pieces
10 times faster and get results faster.
That's the whole point of the coaching program.
So if you're in the stage
where you're figuring these key pieces out
and you're realizing, look, I need to have
my go-to-market strategy laid out,
we need a framework to follow,
we need to execute, we need to grow faster,
then I invite you to apply to join
my SaaS Go-To-Market Coaching Program.
It's super simple.
Just go tkkader.com/gtm,
tkkader.com/gtm.
Go over there.
You'll get all the details on the program.
You can hit the little application button
and we'll get on a call once you fill out the application.
We'll get on a call.
We'll talk through where you are in your business,
what your goals are,
and if I feel like I can help,
we'll get you into the program.
That's, it's as simple as that.
And most of all, we will actually talk
about where your business is at
and that'll help us understand,
well, are there choke points?
What are the optimizations?
What can we do?
Like, it gives us an opportunity to understand
where you are and what might be holding you back.
So it's super powerful.
So just go to tkkader.com/gtm,
and you can get access to applying for the program
and we can get on a call and we can figure out
how to get you in and get you building
your go-to-market strategy and go-to-market machine.
Lastly, if you got value from this video,
please smash that like button if you haven't already
for the YouTube algorithm.
Also comment below with any questions you have
about go-to-market strategy, an example that I gave.
If you have questions, post them below.
I reply to every single comment.
If you have a fellow founder or a team member
that would get value from this video,
please share this video with them.
It would mean the world to us.
If you haven't subscribed already,
we drop an episode like this two or three times a week,
so be sure to hit the subscribe button (bell chimes)
and that bell icon. (bell rings)
I'll link to the videos I mentioned down below
so you can check those out, as well.
I'll link to the coaching program down below
so you can apply there.
And lastly, remember, everyone needs a strategy
for their life and their business.
When you are with us, yours is gonna be unstoppable.
I'm TK.
I'll see you in the next episode.
(upbeat music)