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Writer's pictureBrian Shea

CEOs Should NOT Publish a 2024 GTM Strategy Without a North Star




Headline: Data-driven organizations outperform their competitors. (But you likely already knew this)


CEOs today can no longer rely on their intuition. Instead, they must fully embrace the role that data will play in validating, expanding, or negating business decisions.


We often hear founder-led or midmarket CEOs proclaim "we will have a data-driven culture". Its a great quote for a town hall meeting, but what does it take to actually shift to a data-driven culture? It begins with an overhaul of multiple aspects of the company's strategy, including the Go To Market strategy. But first, it demands C-Level commitment to embracing research, benchmarking and data.


CEO Monthly recently published "How Executive Leaders Can Leverage the Data Rush". The author stated "Data-driven corporate cultures don’t just happen. Instead, innovation is advanced by open-minded and informed leadership. In the early days of business analytics, companies largely delegated data collection and decision-making to a sole technology savvy executive or department. Today, most leaders recognize that an integrated data-first approach that activates and involves all stakeholders is necessary for cultivating the best results."


The B2B buying motions and practices are completely different than only a few years ago. The modern buying teams are built with over a dozen decision makers and influencers, all which take a digital first approach to their research. These buyers preferred a frictionless buying experience, similar to their own B2C experiences.


The seismic shift in buying behaviors has resulted in 73% - 80% of the buyers' journey being completed without engaging a salesperson. (Still think your firm's prospecting plan can deliver the expected pipeline?)


To be competitive in today's B2B market place, an entirely new go-to-market playbook is required. Notice, its not creating a new marketing playbook, or rewriting a sales playbook, but the entire rebuilding of the entire GTM playbook. A buyer centric GTM playbook includes the people/talent strategy, the approach to skill & methods, defined processes for sales, account management & coaching, the right technology to enable the people, and a coaching framework for ongoing development. All are designed around how buyers CHOSE to interact and engage with your brand.




So where should the CEO start?


Before publishing a 2024 GTM strategy, CEOs should review the playbooks of each flywheel within the revenue system. If any of the flywheels (represented below) have not received a data-driven overhaul, this it's likely the CEO's revenue engine light is on.



Warning: GTM leaders shouldn't try and adjust the GTM playbooks once the 2024 GTM strategy is published. Take the time NOW to pump the breaks, bring in experts who can assess the revenue engine maturity, design and then help activate a data-driven maturity plan. We can help.




Check out this brief video on the topic https://vimeo.com/884119445?share=copy






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