Subscribed 2015: Nailing Your Go-to-Market Positioning (Growth & Leadership Academy)

Nailing your
go-to-market
positioning
Judy Loehr
Venture Partner | Cloud Apps Capital Partners

GTM expertise from
15 years working with
B2B cloud application
companies
Fifteen years
go-to-market experience
with B2B cloud companies

Agenda
The Impact of Strong Messaging
3 Hard Truths
5 Go-To-Market Considerations
The “3 Rooms” Approach
Before & After
3 Homework Assignments

Alignment
Product roadmap
Marketing
Sales
Partnerships
Helps sales tell your
story and creates a
sense of urgency for
your prospects
Awareness
Press
Investors
Prospects
Strong positioning accelerates your business
i Sales Cycles
Creates a shared
vision and purpose
for employees and
recruiting
Recruiting

HARD TRUTH #1:
NO ONE CARES
“No one cares about
your belly button,
and no one cares about
your product.”
Judy Loehr

HARD TRUTH #2:
YOU’RE NOT AS
ALIGNED AS YOU
THINK
Anything less than 100%
alignment will sink an
early-stage company or
stall-out growth at your
later stage company.

“You should try to be more like Slack.”
Most oft-heard advice in 2015

HARD TRUTH #3:
YOU’RE GETTING
BAD ADVICE
Focus on the
right business model
and go-to-market tactics
for your market,
your product
and your prospects

5 go-to-market considerations
AUDIENCE MESSAGINGCHANNELS
PRICING &
PACKAGING
CAC
MODEL
Your unique segments Must be developed
within the context of
everything else
Where are they
looking and
learning?
“Right-size” for your
segments and your
strengths
Work through your
acquisition model
and costs

AA
YOUR CONTEXT
Often called the “why”, it’s actually the “why
now”. What’s going on in your market and
what makes you relevant.
YOUR VALUE
Focus is on your target customer segments,
how the “why now” context is impacting them,
and the impact you could help them make on
their business.
YOUR PRODUCT
Here’s where you first introduce your
product…with a structure that reinforces your
value.
THE 3 ROOMS:
a guided
messaging structure

What’s
happening in
your market?
What’s new in
your target
industry’s world?
Are you attacking
an established
model?
Why is this
happening and
important now?
How are you
relevant to what’s
happening in
your market?
Primary audience:
press & investors
Room 1: create a
compelling context
for your company

What’s their
biggest use
case?
Would the board
care?
Is it a top 3
priority?
How do you help
the company and
your buyer?
What’s stopping
them today?
Primary audience:
your prospects
Room 2: clearly
articulate your value
for your target customers

Re-shuffle your
features
Structure your
product to
reinforce your
value
52 features
vs.
3 modules
Incorporate
structure into
your product &
demo
Just because you
have an API
does not mean
your product is a
platform
Primary audience:
your evaluators
Room 3: explain
your product
(in the context of
your prospects & your value)

GRIDGRID
“The Salesforce of
online billing”
GRID
• Product & technology focused
• No context
• No “why”
• No urgency
ZUORA’S ORIGINAL MESSAGING (2008)

ZUORA’S NEW “3 ROOMS” MESSAGING
“The Subscription
Economy”
Zuora powers
subscription
businesses Zuora RBM includes everything you
need to manage and grow your
subscription business.
Commerce | Billing | Finance
(Context)
(Value)
(Product)

EXERCISE #1 TARGET AUDIENCE MATRIX
SEGMENT CURRENT CHALLENGE(S)
Customer segment 1
Very short description
• Sample company
• Sample company
SPECIFIC USE CASE
Very short & to the
point statement of
what they need to do
…so they can [5 words]
“Colorful, between-friends
expression here.”
Biggest blocker here
(what’s stopping them)
Ex: “But I can’t because it still
takes 15 $!#% hours to pull all
the data together each week.”
Short headline (1 line only)
• Biggest impact 1 …with capability A
• Biggest impact 2… enabled by feature B
• Biggest impact 3 … with rich capability C
SPECIFIC USE CASE REASONS TO CHOSE [YOU]

EXERCISE #2 PRODUCT STRUCTURE
MODULE LEADERSHIP MESSAGE
Module 1
Very short description
• Included feature 1
Biggest impact value here (short)
….with your proof point / enabler here
Short headline for this module (1 line only)
• Short benefit 1 …with capability A
• Short benefit 2… enabled by feature B
• Short benefit 3 … with rich capability C
REASONS TO CHOSE [YOU]

EXERCISE #3 COMPANY NARRATIVE
1) Start with what’s happening in the market…
that is affecting your target customers
• What’s causing pressure?
• What’s being disrupted?
• What’s disrupting your customer’s world?
(CONTEXT)
2) Frame their current situation…
and how it is hurting / challenging them
• What are they currently having to deal with and do now?
• What options do they have?
• Highlight the pitfalls/risks of their current options
• Flush out their options and the trade offs for each one
(FROM TARGET AUDIENCE MATRIX)
3) Define the ideal, utopian solution for the times…
in their terms, for their needs and goals
• This is not yet about you or your product
• Do not mention your company or product yet
• Just tee up what an ideal solution would look like
• Keep it in the context you set up
4) Now introduce your company’s vision…
and high-level value of your product
• “That’s why we started [COMPANY]”
• “To help companies struggling with…. transforming into…etc.”
• Avoid product detail! Just give 1 line overview of your product and
then focus on how it helps your target customers.
(FROM PRODUCT MODULE MATRIX)

Q&A
Judy Loehr
Venture Partner | Cloud Apps Capital Partners

Subscribed 2015: Nailing Your Go-to-Market Positioning (Growth & Leadership Academy)

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