Go-to-market strategy

A product without a path to buyers is a hobby. Go-to-market (GTM) is the system that takes a defined customer, a clear promise, and a repeatable motion from first touch to paid usage — and then to expansion. Engineers feel it when pricing pages ship, when "enterprise SSO" jumps the roadmap, and when PLG funnels need instrumentation.

GTM is not a launch party. It is who you sell to, what you claim, how buyers buy (self-serve vs sales), and which channels create qualified demand. Change any one piece and CAC, sales cycle and NRR change with it. Channels get their own depth in distribution. Early selling craft lives in founder-led sales. Product-led vs sales-led design is in PLG vs sales-led.

Concepts in this section

Read them in order.

Step	Concept	What it answers
1	ICP and personas	Who buys, who champions, who blocks?
2	GTM motions	PLG, inside, field, or partners?
3	Matching motion to ACV	Can this price pay for this sales team?
4	Beachhead strategy	Where do you become the default first?
5	GTM funnel metrics	How many emails does 10 customers take?

ACV is the gravity well. Under ~$5k is usually self-serve. Mid five figures is inside sales. Six figures is field. Complexity (on-prem, regulated data, rip-and-replace) pushes you up the table even when ACV is modest. An $8k ACV with a $180k AE implying two closes a week is a motion that probably cannot pay for classic AEs yet.

Work backwards from the goal. 10 customers at 20% demo-close, 50% conversation-to-demo, 10% reply-to-conversation, 5% email-reply is 20,000 cold emails. If you cannot send them, you need inbound, a tighter ICP, better rates — or a different motion.

When product and sales fight, translate: sales asks for features that expand win rate on ICP. Product should push back on features that only close non-ICP logos that will churn. Packaging has to match the motion: self-serve needs a credit-card path; inside sales needs a quoteable SKU; enterprise needs order forms and a security packet, or cycle length doubles.

Common mistakes

ICP as "anyone with a website."
Forcing enterprise sales onto a $3k ACV, or self-serve onto a six-month integration.
Horizontal "everyone" GTM because the TAM slide looks bigger.
Blending PLG and enterprise CAC so neither motion can be debugged.
PLG top-of-funnel into an enterprise-only pricing page.

Key takeaways

ICP + personas define who buys and who blocks. Positioning is the promise relative to alternatives.
Motions — PLG, inside, field, partner — map primarily to ACV and product complexity.
Beachhead / bowling pins beat horizontal "everyone" GTM.
Core metrics: pipeline coverage, stage conversion, cycle length, win rate, feeding CAC/payback.
Product, pricing and channels must agree, or CAC explodes.