This is part 1 of a 3-part series we will be writing on Go-To-Market Strategies. Stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3 in the coming weeks. 

True story: Today, we got a qualified lead from overseas requesting a discovery call. This wasn't our first engagement, actually. The initial engagement BT Partners had done with them was to create as POV for the industry given new market target, the Philippines, and then secondly, an exploratory tactical initiative that generated "qualified leads". The initial engagement was "okay" in our professional standard and so, to be honest, we felt that was the end of that. No more additional projects with us.

Today, we received their request for support. The call went something like this:

"This is our problem statement, Cindy. We need to generate about 10 qualified demos per month so we can create a robust pipeline in the next three months to ramp up for a good 2022. We need your help to achieve this."

This kind of request is not new to us. In fact, many of our clients start out with something similar to this question because the truth is this is how many inexperienced corporate execs plot an objective for market entry or market penetration - often no clear historical basis and no clear roadmap on how to achieve it.

So to elaborate on this requirement, I asked their team about some existing marketing initiatives they were doing and what response they were getting. After that, I asked them about their sales activities and some sales metrics. Here's what we got:

• Marketing initiatives: Search PPC campaigns, Facebook traffic ads and lead gen ads, LinkedIn promoted posts, email campaigns. Total demos booked in the last 12 months = 45-50
• Sales initiatives: Sales workflow - unclear; the average number of touches to get demo - no clear number (we were told they are trying to prioritize closing some hot deals), sales email sequence - unknown.
• Qualitative feedback (according to the team) - response is amazing, all demos go positively (evidenced by clapping, exhilarated reactions, etc.), everyone is eager except they are unsure of their capability to make a purchase decision because of cash flow constraints, because of budget priorities, etc.

This problem is multi-faceted and the solution will also have to be multi-faceted. Here's our quick analysis as we were on the call:

Marketing - not enough customer discovery activity done so far, the company had not yet successfully launched into the Philippines, the extent of brand familiarity are to those that the sales reps have successfully contacted and got to do demos (which were not much according to them), their closest competitors are local and the top of mind brands in their space were global unicorns and was free to use, the company had not yet solidified their value superiority versus these top competitors.

Sales - Lack of laser focus on sales execution specifically pipeline building given the ideal client profile (ICP), there was no tracking of sales activities and results so no data available which means no sales optimization available at all, seems to have a spray and pray approach

Product - barrier to trial was high due to the initial investment required, value proposition could be matched by putting together several services that were free to use and so the budget objection was further aggravated by the presence of free alternatives (where the user friction was significantly far greater than the friction on price - but I don't know if the ICP knew this from the demos and pitches, and again, there was not enough customer discovery activity done for this new market to feed into product strategy.

By listing down our initial diagnosis from the discovery call, we understood right away that the engagement wasn't going to be like the initial one where its a one-and-done, tactical engagement. Let me offer a restatement of the objective: "The company has to (1) successfully enter the Philippine market by establishing its (1.1) brand, (1.2) product, and (1.3) value and (2.1) generating interest for the product and (2.2) generating qualified leads and deal opportunities." This being our diagnosis and restatement of the problem, we believe that the go to market strategy must be ultimately owned by the marketing team.

The marketing department should own go to market strategy

When you look at most successful market entry stories, a common denominator is a strong brand and a strong awareness for the brand in this new market. Take the case of Shopee as they entered the Philippine market. When they entered the Philippines, Lazada already had a 3-year start and Lazada too was no small competitor as both are founded and backed by overseas giants. So when Shopee entered the PH space, it had to make sure their brand position was clear and their value proposition for both buyers and sellers was clear. Despite the 3 year headstart that Lazada had on Shopee, we can safely say that today, the two mega-platforms are neck to neck when it comes to brand recall. This means that if we try to track their conversion cycle from a typical potential customer or ICP, we can surmise that the ICP can name both players and define advantages and disadvantages to some degree of accuracy. This type of awareness is due to the foundational investments they've made in the brand, in the product, and in the value proposition.

Admittedly, marketing departments cannot do it alone and therefore it is imperative that there is strong alignment between Product, Sales, and Marketing teams and initiatives.

Sales and Product must commit to Marketing

With our technology clients in BT Partners, one of the things we often see as problematic at the beginning is that almost all of them do not have any clear alignment between Sales and Marketing. Yes, almost all of our clients start out with some semblance of a sales team and sales process but almost always the marketing team is just a graphic designer and a social media manager.

If as we have opined above that Marketing is the key and ultimate owner of a go-to-market strategy, it is imperative that both Sales and Product teams support and commit to the marketing strategy agreed on by the company. This means that as the company or the marketing team further explores the industry and the customer landscape (we offer this guided, collaborative workshop called Customer Discovery Workshop), and launches initiatives based on these insights, the sales team must commit to holding their end of the stick by prioritizing lead conversions through efficient discovery calls, effective prospecting, and demos, commitment to understanding how to navigate the local deals, etc. The product also needs to hold its end of the deal in ensuring they get the prospects' early feedback about the product, take into consideration local CD insights and build those into the product or at least the product roadmap, or even support marketing and sales by offering a trial version of the product or a free-to-use version to at least give ICPs a taste of the value being offered by the product or service.

A successful market entry is not easy but not impossible

Entering a new market or increasing market penetration should never be seen as a one-and-done project. Successful go-to-markets include investing time, energy, resources to very foundational stuff that may or may not produce immediate results as we hope but they are building blocks to a future where we do see actual results being achieved by our teams.

If you need help in breaking down your go-to-market strategy and coming up with ways to improve and optimize, reach out to us at partners@btpartners-asia.com and we'd love to see how we can help improve your demand generation and conversion activities.