Launching a new product or entering a new market in the B2B world can be a high-stakes endeavor. While it’s important to start with a great product or service, it’s often not enough to guarantee success.
An organization can have the most interesting or useful product, but if they don’t know who to sell it to, how to price it, or what messages will resonate with buyers, the efforts may fall flat.
This is where a B2B go-to-market (GTM) research strategy can be a game changer.
Market research helps organizations turn their products into solutions that a target audience is willing to buy. By dedicating a small portion of a product launch budget to research, an organization can make data-driven decisions and prevent costly mistakes.
A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is a plan that outlines the key steps an organization must take to bring their new product or service into the market. The research portion of the strategy serves as the foundation for the plan and will ultimately inform all aspects of the launch.
The B2B go-to-market research strategy is the data-driven process that will help businesses answer questions critical to their success, such as:
Addressing these questions through research will provide insights into each step of the product launch, from early development to marketing.
Research for the launch should focus on a variety of areas that directly impact the effectiveness of the go-to-market strategy:
Pricing in the B2B world can be incredibly complicated and vary greatly from industry to industry, and buyer to buyer. While one buyer may value something at $500, another may value it at $5,000.
With this in mind, the research should focus on:
B2B GTM research should be used to help organizations both find their target audience and create more granular segments of interested buyers, as opposed to broadly targeting an entire industry.
Understanding how to correctly position your offering is also critical. Conducting interviews or surveys with your target can provide clear directions on the type of positioning that will resonate most.
Branding and messages ultimately give a voice to your GTM strategy. Research and insights should define how you communicate with your audience.
Building a GTM strategy is a step-by-step process. Here’s how to approach it effectively:
When setting goals, it’s important to think about where you want to end up with the product/service you’re launching. You also want to establish what success looks like (i.e., % market share, hitting revenue targets, having a low customer acquisition cost, etc.). Establishing these goals early on not only provides alignment for your sales, marketing, and product teams, but provides you with something to measure your success against.
A successful go-to-market (GTM) strategy is built on solid data. With this in mind, it’s important you work with experienced researchers or with a specialized market research firm like Drive Research.
Data can be collected through in-depth interviews or surveys (primary research) or through data sources that already exist, such as industry reports or reviewing competitor websites (secondary research). This research will help you better understand your audience, what resonates with them, how your product or service will be received, and how to properly sell your offering.
Ultimately, the data collected through this research will feed into all other aspects of your GTM strategy so it’s important to be thoughtful about how you approach the research.
This is one of the most critical steps of a GTM strategy and it should be heavily informed by the research. While an ICP can serve as a starting point, utilizing detailed buyer personas (based on your segmentation research) can help take your strategy to the next level by knowing the unique benefits and pain points associated with each type of buyer.
Understanding your competitors through research is essential for a successful launch. Gaining a deep understanding of the current marketplace allows you to find a unique approach to selling your product or service.
Recommended Reading: Benefits of Conducting Competitor Market Research
Your unique selling proposition (USP) is what your audience will remember you for. It’s not just about the features of your offering, it’s about your competitive advantage. This could be new technology, a unique customer experience, or serving a specific niche. The research should confirm that this value proposition is unique and truly valued by your audience.
This is where your marketing team will need to leverage the research insights. Good data-driven messaging focuses on the following:
As you prepare for launch, it’s important to recognize that your go-to-market strategy isn’t a one-and-done project. Ultimately, it’s important to track key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure success and identify potential future improvements.
These KPIs could include lead conversation rates, sales cycle length, customer acquisition cost, or customer lifetime value. The data should be regularly reviewed, and strategy (along with research initiatives) should be revisited based on these results.
Developing a robust B2B go-to-market research strategy is the most critical step for successfully launching a new product/service and sustaining growth.
Launching a new offering can be a risky endeavor, but developing a strategy allows your organization to make more calculated, data-driven decisions.
Making an investment in research helps you understand your market, your audience, and your competition, and will ultimately help you build a resilient, profitable business.
Drive Research helps B2B teams validate their ideal buyer, pressure-test messaging, and build launch plans with proof instead of gut feel.
We run surveys, interviews, and message testing with your actual decision-makers, then translate the findings into clear positioning and go-to-market direction. Want to take guesswork out of your next launch?
Reach out for a quote.
