2023 | State of Go to Market

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report State of Go-to-Market Report 2023 CREATED BY: SPONSORED BY:

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report A word from our sponsor... ‘ Effective Go-to-Market processes are the secret weapon behind the fastest-growing companies. But bringing new products, features, and stories to market is chaotic, opaque, and challenging to execute well for even the best GTM pros. At Ignition, our mission is to turn this process into a repeatable, aligned, and insight-driven motion via the 昀椀rst AI-powered Go-to-Market Ops platform — so we’re thrilled to partner with PMA and GTMA on 2023’s State of GTM Report and share hard-won learnings from the trenches.’ Derek Osgood, CEO and Founder, Ignition 2

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Introduction 4 Part 1 6 Meet the participants Part 2 12 Go-to-Market leadership Part 3 16 Relationships with stakeholders Part 4 20 The Go-to-Market process Part 5 38 Go-to-Market budget Part 6 43 Launch effectiveness Part 7 49 Launch effectiveness 2.0 Part 8 53 Go-to-Market challenges Part 9 63 Go-to-Market tools Part 10 67 Looking Forward Part 10 82 Conclusion 3

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Introduction Welcome to the State of Go-to-Market Report 2023. Last year, our sister community PMA kicked off the 昀椀rst ever State of Go-to-Market Report, and uncovered some crucial insights into the world of GTM. This year, we’ve taken over the reins to deliver a report jam-packed with everything you need to know about the state of the Go-to-Market industry right now. We’ve broadened the scope of last year’s report, opening our research up to Go-to-Market professionals from any team, not just product marketers. After all, Go-to-Market isn’t delivered by one team alone, so we wanted to get the full range of perspectives for this year’s report. With this in mind, we’ll be looking at how GTM has changed in the past 12 months, and what’s stayed consistent. We wanted to get to the bottom of the biggest trends, processes, and challenges of Go-to-Market, so we really put our survey participants through their paces. In this report, we’ve covered leadership, processes, stakeholders, budget and more. Get unparalleled insight into Go-to-Market, plus the opportunity to see how you stack up against your peers. Let’s get into the results. 4

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Key highlights We know you’d love to read the full report, but if time isn’t something you have to spare, here are the highlights. • 37.2% of respondents described their company culture as product-昀椀rst, while only 25.6% said sales-昀椀rst. • 50% of respondents said product marketers lead Go-to-Market at their company. • Only 10.26% of respondents have a dedicated Go-to-Market director or manager. • The majority of respondents (79.6%) work with 昀椀ve or more stakeholders per launch. • The majority of respondents (56.4%) are launching 2 - 4 big products annually. • 15.4% of respondents reported not having a de昀椀ned Go-to-Market strategy at all. • The majority of respondents (59%) felt their companies underinvest, or signi昀椀cantly underinvest, in launches. • The majority of respondents (79.5%) felt that launches have a notable or major impact on revenue. • 62.8% of respondents answered that measuring the impact of a launch is a challenge. • Of the tools used for Go-to-Market, 43.6% of respondents said project management tools are the most useful, the most popular response by 23.1%. 5

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Part 1 Meet the Participants 66 1

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Meet the The participants of this survey come from companies of varying size, scale, industry, product type and market. But what really sets this report apart is that we looked beyond the product marketing function participants to understand the state of Go-to-Market. To paint a clear picture of Go-to-Market strategies, the functions they incorporate and the range of teams that contribute to them, we’ve surveyed participants from every age and stage of the GTM process: Company culture Company stage 9% Early pre-product market 昀椀t 37.2% Customer-昀椀rst 20.5% Early post-product market 昀椀t 25.6% Marketing-昀椀rst 32.1% Mid-growth with established 32.1% Product-昀椀rst Go-to-Market team 5.1% Sales-昀椀rst 20.5% Late growth/scale-up 17.9% Enterprise Market Product 66.7% B2B 69.2% SaaS product 6.4% B2C 7.7% Physical product 26.9% Both 23.1% Both 7

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Meet the participants North America Europe 61.5% 25.6% 2.6% 5.1% Asia 1.4% 0% Middle East 3.8% Central & South America Africa Australasia 8

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Meet the How many products do you support annually? participants 18% 15.4% 15.4% 14.1% 10.3% 10.3% 6.4% 2.6% 3.6% 1.3% 0% 1.3% 1.3% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11-20 21-30 >30 How many people are part of your team? 18% 12.8% 12.8% 12.8% 10.3% 5.1% 3.8% 6.4% 6.4% 3.8% 1.3% 2.6% 2.6% 1.3% 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11-15 16-20 >20 It’s interesting to note that our participants weigh heavily towards B2B and SaaS companies, which suggests Go-to-Market strategies have are more popular in these industries. Another key takeaway from this chapter is that sales-led has signi昀椀cantly dipped in popularity. In the State of Go-to-Market report 2022, sales-昀椀rst sat at 32.1%, with customer 昀椀rst at 28.6%. This year, sales-led has lost the second place position to customer-led, indicating a serious shift in priorities for our respondents. 9

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Meet the What’s your current job title? participants C-suite/ Product Product Marketing Sales Customer Go-to- Other executive 5.1% Maketing 6.4% Enablement success Market 7.7% 11.5% 52.6% 2.7% 4% 10% NB: Role titles have a lot of variety, such as President, Director, VP, Manager, etc. For ease of understanding these statistics, we’ve grouped more broadly by department and only noted speci昀椀c roles for the C-suite. It’s important to note this survey was targeted at professionals who see Go-to-Market as a key function of their role. It’s therefore very telling that only 10.36% of respondents have ‘Go-to-Market’ in their job title, suggesting Go-to-Market is still an under established function at most companies. It’s not surprising that the majority of respondents are in a product marketing role as it’s a function well positioned to carry out Go-to-Market. However, this does indicate that for many companies Go-to-Market activities fall to the employees most conveniently placed to carry them out, rather than investing in a dedicated GTM team. 10

vivo Mobile State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Meet the Which organizations took part? participants A breadth of companies lifted the lid on their Go-to-Market knowledge and experiences for this report. These included: 11

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Part 2 Go-to-Market leadership 1212

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market Leadership is a bit complicated when it comes to Go-to-Market strategy. With so many different teams and stakeholders involved, it can be hard to pinpoint a single owner of leadership your strategy. Having one decision maker can improve consistency in your strategy, but with something as broad as Go-to-Market, leadership must understand the priorities and responsibilities of each team involved, which is a challenge for just one person. Product marketing teams are typically associated with Go-to-Market, as they tend to sit between teams and have a more holistic view of a business, making them well situated to lead GTM. However, only 50% of our respondents identi昀椀ed product marketing as leading Go-to-Market at their company, which is signi昀椀cantly lower than last year’s 81%. This suggests the ownership of GTM is diversifying, which is a notable shift in the Go-to-Market industry. Which team leads Go-to-Market in your company? Product marketing 25.6% Product 50% Program/product management 1.30% Comms/growth/other marketing function 5.10% Sales/CX 7.70% Other 10.30% 13

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market Who is responsible for Go-to-Market in your company? leadership Going even more speci昀椀c than the team responsible for leading Go-to-Market, we wanted to 昀椀nd out if companies have one single leader of their Go-to-Market strategy. And, if they do, is this leader a member of the c-suite, a senior leader of a team within the company, or someone dedicated speci昀椀cally to the Go-to-Market function. As Go-to-Market is tied closely to marketing, we expected to see CMOs featured regularly here, but we were surprised to see CROs pop up almost as often: Don’t have CEO 2.56% 6.41% Other CRO 14.1% 7.69%7.69% CMO Go-to-Market 5.13%5.13% director/manager 10.26% Product marketing Product 5.13% 19.23% Marketing Customer success 2.56% 0% Sales enablement 1.28% NB: Role titles have a lot of variety, such as President, Director, VP, Manager, etc. For ease of understanding these statistics, we’ve grouped more broadly by department and only noted speci昀椀c roles for the C-suite. 14

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market leadership “There isn’t one single person who owns Go-to-Market. It’s a combination of the Marketing and Product teams.” Gaston Tourn, Curio “There is no one person who owns GTM at our company. Our VP of Marketing and I (Senior Director of Communications and Branding Strategy) work with all department heads (VP of Product, VP of Sales, VP of Revenue Operations, and VP of Account Management) as well as the two CEOs/co-founders to devise a plan that works for everyone and for the brand as a whole.” Laura Goldstone, AdDaptive Intelligence “Our Product Marketing Team in partnership with Program Management.” Katie Moss, SugarCRM It’s clear from these results that Go-to-Market isn’t a strategy with one clear leader, there’s a variety of people and teams with a claim to the role. While product marketing roles do rank highly for Go-to-Market ownership, many companies prefer a collaborative approach to GTM leadership that draws in different functions and perspectives. 15

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Part 3 Relationships with stakeholders 1616 3

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Relationships As we’ve discussed, Go-to-Market is a broad strategy, encompassing nearly every function within a business. That means a good Go-to-Market strategy relies heavily with stakeholders on cross-functional collaboration and the ability of teams and stakeholders to work together. Let’s see how well our respondents get on with their stakeholders: On average, how many stakeholders do you work with on each launch? 1 3 4 5 6 8 9 10 11-15 >20 4% 3% 9% 18% 10.3% 13% 3% 18% 10.3% 5.8% 2 7 16-20 1.3% 1.3% 3% 17

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Relationships Which internal stakeholders do you 昀椀nd it easiest to collaborate with? with stakeholders Product Marketing Finance Content Sales Sales Customer Other 33.3% 26.9% 2.6% 7.7% 18% enablement success 2.6% 3.8% 5.1% Which internal stakeholders do you 昀椀nd it hardest to collaborate with? Product Marketing Finance Content Sales Sales Customer Other 24.40% 11.50% 14.10% 2.60% 23.10% enablement success 10.30% 3.80% 10.30% As you can see, the number of stakeholders our participants work with varied quite signi昀椀cantly, with 昀椀ve and 10 being the most popular brackets. This supports our assertion that cross-functional collaboration is a critical tool for Go-to-Market professionals, whose role requires them to work with a signi昀椀cant number of stakeholders. 18

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market Unusually, product teams were voted both the easiest and the most dif昀椀cult internal stakeholders to work with. The fact that it scored highly in both categories could be leadership indicative of one of two things: 1. Product is the most common stakeholder for any Go-to-Market professional to work with, so the increased exposure to the team increases the likelihood of our respondents having an opinion on their product team. 2. As the majority of our participants are product marketers, their relationship with the product team will be one of the most important for their role and the stakeholder relationship they’re thinking about the most, which has therefore in昀氀uenced our results. Whatever the cause, the results con昀椀rm that a signi昀椀cant number of respondents agree that their relationship with the product team impacts their experience of Go-to-Market strategy. To skip ahead, a majority of respondents listed ‘alignment with the product team’ as their greatest Go-to-Market challenge (Part7), which backs up this analysis. We can theorize from this that alignment with the product team is a key factor in the success of Go-to-Market strategy. We’ve also seen a correlation between respondents who described product as the easiest stakeholder to work with and respondents who answered 50% or more of their launches are successful, however the reverse of this wasn’t true. 19

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Part 4 The Go-to-Market process 2020 4

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market The launch process is often long and complicated. There’s a lot to do and it can be very time-consuming. Plus, there’s no such thing as a one size 昀椀ts all launch. Big product process launches might have a year long cycle, whereas small feature launches or updates can be rolled out with much less effort and time. Understanding your capacity for launches and knowing what a realistic Go-to-Market cycle is for your business is a big step toward having an effective Go-to-Market strategy. How many “big” things do you launch annually? 1 5-12 (we launch things annually) (we launch things monthly) 25.6% 15.4% 2-4 12+ (we launch things weekly/bi-weekly) (we launch things quarterly) 56.4% 2.6% How many “small” things do you launch annually? 1 5-12 (we launch things annually) (we launch things monthly) 3.8% 44.9% 2-4 12+ (we launch things weekly/bi-weekly) (we launch things quarterly) 29.5% 21.8% 21

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market How often do you put together a plan for Go-to-Market launches? process Never Rarely 1.3% 7.7% Always 32% Sometimes 20.5% Most Launches 38.5% 22

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market On average, how many hours would you say you spend on each “big” launch? process 0-25 26-50 51-100 101-150 151-200 >200 21.8% 20.5% 23% 3.9% 9% 21.8% On average, how many hours would you spend on a “small” launch? 0-25 26-50 51-100 101-150 151-200 >200 75.6% 7.7% 6.4% 2.6% 2.6% 5.1% 23

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market Philosophically, how much importance would you say your company places on launches? process No importance 0% Low importance 14.1% Medium importance 52.6% High importance 33.3% Do you have a de昀椀ned launch process? Yes 30.8% Sort of 53.8% No 15.4% 24

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your Go-to-Market processes’ level of process maturity and effectiveness? 20.5% 21.8% 14.1% 14.1% 15.4% 5.1% 5.1% 2.6% 0% 1.3% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 At this point, it’s interesting to note that the length of time spent on big launches compared to small launches was highly sporadic. We had multiple respondents who claimed to spend zero hours on small launches, while others professed to spend over 300. While very few responded with zero hours for time spent on big launches, enough respondents answered less than 10 for us to be curious about why. As a result, we looked into the correlation between time spent on launches and company size. We found for the most part that early pre-product market 昀椀t companies and early post-product market 昀椀t companies are spending the least team on big launches, with the majority spending 25 hours or less. That said, while the majority of early post-product market 昀椀t respondents said less than 25 hours, the next highest response was over 200 hours. 25

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market At this point, it’s interesting to note that the length of time spent on big launches process compared to small launches was highly sporadic. We had multiple respondents who claimed to spend zero hours on small launches, while others professed to spend over 300. While very few responded with zero hours for time spent on big launches, enough respondents answered less than 10 for us to be curious about why. As a result, we looked into the correlation between time spent on launches and company size. We found for the most part that early pre-product market 昀椀t companies and early post-product market 昀椀t companies are spending the least team on big launches, with the majority spending 25 hours or less. That said, while the majority of early post-product market 昀椀t respondents said less than 25 hours, the next highest response was over 200 hours. 26

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market What are the most important factors for an effective Go-to-Market strategy process “Alignment of stakeholders and messaging.” Andrea Featherston, Christensen “Unique relatable messaging, product market 昀椀t.” Jacob Driggs, Stukent “Effectively integrating research and insights into strategic planning, clear and differentiated positioning centered around a narrow target, and effective cross-functional coordination.” Derek Osgood, Ignition “Demo readiness.” Abhinav Gupta, ZS 27

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market process “Clear roles & responsibilities, cross-functional accountability, regular communication, documentation of major decisions, attention to detail, understanding of customer needs, and alignment with company vision.” John Milo, LeanData “Established lines of communication and collaboration.” Sean Storer, Slack “Targeting, positioning, stakeholder buy-in, timely execution, and personal touch from customer success managers.” Srijit G, Legl “Sales enablement, Product/tech readiness, and internal alignment.” Jonathan Hayes, Sungage Financial 28

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market process “Matching the strategy to the message to the enablement.” John Notman, Wrike “Business case and outcomes alignment and upstream business engagement in planning.” Bethany Miles, Sage “There are several important factors that can contribute to a successful go-to-market process.Some of the most critical ones are: 1. Clear and well-de昀椀ned target audience 2. Competitive analysis 3. Pricing strategy 4. Marketing and sales alignment 5. Metrics and measurement 6. Distribution channel 7. Iterative approach” Arun Pandi R, GTM Engage 29

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market process “Alignment of goals from the onset is the most important factor when de昀椀ning a go-to-market strategy. This can help to prevent duplication of effort, improve communication, and ultimately lead to better results.” Gaston Tourn, Curio “Alignment on GTM plan and collaborating with partners.” Divya Shroff, Momentive “Product Fit/Customer Relevance.” Bryn Baker, Google “Communication processes and cross-team buy in.” Steve Bozic, Seismic 30

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market process “Project Management/Planning.” Emily Pathmajeyan, Carrum Health “Messaging that appeals to what customers are actually looking for, stakeholder buy-in on timelines, budget, and scope, and a great program management partner.” Lauren Moon, Atlassian “Targeting and messaging.” Hope Chauland, Microsoft 31

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market From your perspective, what does a successful Go-to-Market strategy process look like, process and how do you measure this success? “From my perspective, GTM lifecycle entail product research (persona, industry and market, CMI), strategy (roadmap, packaging, differentiation, epics and themes), positioning and messaging (taking positioning to market though messaging levers, themes and attached evidence) marketing (awareness, penetration, enablement, credibility), feedback loop and underlying measurement as per de昀椀ned objective for each stage, for each stage.” Abhinav Gupta, ZS “Rapid product adoption and consistent usage one, three, six months post launch. This is measured in active usage stats and expansion revenue or new customer revenue.” Sean Storer, Slack “A successful GTM process has clearly de昀椀ned and agreed-upon roles and responsibilities with a standard set of activities for small/medium/ large launches.” Srijit G, Legl 32

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market From your perspective, what does a successful Go-to-Market strategy process look like, process and how do you measure this success? “PM & PMM building a well de昀椀ned strategy together with executive alignment, managing a detailed cross-functional tactical plan with alignment and commitment from all stakeholders. Stakeholders sharing resources and plans in a shared repository, and communicating with the GTM team regularly about status, updates, and roadblocks. “Each function executing on the plan according to a shared vision and held accountable to deliver their part. Each team feels like a valued contributor. Success is measured according to: 1. Deadlines met by each function working on execution. 2. Con昀椀dence in the 昀椀eld to sell and support the solution. 3. Awareness in the target market. 4. Pipeline generation. 5. Customer satisfaction with the solution.” John Milo, LeanData “All teams aligned internally, cohesive messaging, effective use of owned channels, positive customer sentiment post-launch & measure through: revenue, product adoption, customer response, marketing impressions/in昀氀uence.” Jonathan Hayes, Sungage Financial 33

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market process “A successful GTM process has a de昀椀ned beginning, middle, and end with speci昀椀c goals, activities, and owners that are well-de昀椀ned throughout. Teams know their objectives and can deliver on them seamlessly, and cross-functional partners are all working together toward a common goal. A retrospective process is put in place to determine what went well and what could be improved after every release, and there are well-de昀椀ned goals and KPIs for each team.” Katie Moss, Sugar CRM “All internal teams know the value prop, story and positioning. And your target audience learns why this new product/service is valuable to them and X% is taking the next step.” Leslie Weller, Session AI “A well oiled machine of all stakeholders understanding their piece of the gtm puzzle. Success can look like a lot of things but it can be seen through product adoption, marketing metrics, successful feedback loops from sales, success and support.” Nicole Ward, Our Family Wizard 34

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market process “Success should be measured based on commercial success, customer adoption success, and operational ef昀椀ciency to deliver processes.” Bethany Miles, Sage “A successful Go-to-Market process means driving the highest value possible at the highest ef昀椀ciency because it allows the business to maximize its ROI.” Gaston Tourn, Curio “Alignment on all elements of the launch, tactical as well as strategic, and executing launch on time.” Divya Shroff, Momentive “Alignment at every stage with clear swim lanes, stakeholders, accountability and ownership of all parts of the puzzle.” Bryn Baker, Google 35

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market process “Effective communication to key launch recipients, measured by quantitative results and supported by qualitative feedback.” Steve Bozic, Seismic “Customer adoption (existing + prospective), customer retention, lead generation, competitive switches, and pipeline builds (revenue generation).” Emily Pathmajeyan, Carrum Health “When all x-functional teams are aligned on the value and messaging for the launch and are working towards the same KPIs. We measure it through 30/60/90 days Retros to understand how we did - both quantitatively and qualitatively.” Stuti Dutt, Hootsuite “Sales, adoption and awareness.” Hope Chauland, Microsoft 36

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market process “Successful Go-to-Market is simple, but hard: Have you reached your customers with something they actually want? Achieving this balance requires alignment with product, sales, data analytics, design, program management, customer support, and so on. Measuring success is a combination of measuring CSAT changes, new feature adoption behaviors, and active usage bumps.” Lauren Moon, Atlassian 37

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Part 5 Go-to-Market budget 3838 5

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market Knowing how much to spend on a launch, and how to use your budget effectively, can be a real challenge. And getting the budget you need for Go-to-Market really depends budget on being able to demonstrate the value of investing into GTM to your CFO. So let’s take a look at what a budget for a successful Go-to-Market strategy might look like. 501,000+ 10% 251,000-500,000 0-20,000 5% 55% 51,000-100,000 10% 51,000-100,000 Average 10% launch budget 21,000-50,000 15% 39

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market What percentage of your budget is typically spent within the launch window budget (+/- 30 days from launch)? 76-100% 0-10% 11.5% 14.1% 51-75% 11.25% 29.5% 24.4% 26-50% 20.5% 40

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market How do you feel about your company’s current level of investment (time + money budget + resourcing) into launches? Signi昀椀cantly invest 1.3% Overinvest 3.8% Signi昀椀cantly underinvest 14.1% Right amount 35.9% Underinvest 44.9% 41

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market 59% of our respondents feel like their company underinvest, or signi昀椀cantly underinvest, in the launch process. It’s important to remember, an appropriate budget will vary from budget business to business, depending on the resources you have to work with and the size and intention of your launch. Of the respondents who fell under the underinvest to signi昀椀cantly underinvest umbrella, we saw some correlation between this and their budget size. $0-$20,000 $21,000 - $51,000 - $101,000 - $251,000 - $501,000 + 54.1% $50,000 $100,000 $250,000 $500,000 14.57%% 10.41%% 10.41% 6.25% 14.58% The majority of respondents unhappy with their launch budget fall into the smallest launch budget bracket, but there are also some counterintuitive results. The second largest group of unsatis昀椀ed respondents has the highest launch budget. Plus, we had several respondents who answered $0 - $20,000 and that their companies overinvest. So, while there is some correlation between the lowest budget bracket and budget dissatisfaction, what this demonstrates more than anything is Go-to-Market budgets have to be tailored to the individual business. 42

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Part 6 Launch effectiveness 4343 6

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Launch Launches are the centerpiece of any Go-to-Market strategy. A lot of work goes in on either side, but at the end of the day, a successful launch is why we’re all here. This effectiveness means the effectiveness of a launch is really important to us all. Our criteria for a successful launch was that it meets or exceeds 昀椀nancial and/or adoption targets, as success can look very different from company to company. Roughly what percentage of your launches are “successful” (e.g. meet or exceed 昀椀nancial and/or adoption targets)? 0-25 26-50 51-100 101-150 18% 32% 30% 20% 44

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Launch Roughly what is the typical adoption rate (%) of new products your company launches? effectiveness 0% - 25% 30.8% 26% - 50% 42.3% 51% - 75% 21.8% 76% - 100% 5.1% Roughly what percentage of a new product’s sales happen within 90 days of launch at your company? 0% - 25% 47.4% 26% - 50% 32.1% 51% - 75% 14.1% 76% - 100% 6.4% 45

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Launch Roughly what was your company’s revenue growth rate (%) last year? effectiveness 55% 24% 8% 9% 4% 0% - 25% 26% - 50% 51% - 75% 76% - 100% >100% 33.3% 46

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Launch How much do you believe launches positively impact revenue at your company? effectiveness No impact 2.6% Major impact Minor impact 21.8% 17.9% Notable impact 57.7% 47

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Launch From these results, we can see a clear correlation between product launches and achieving the intended results of a Go-to-Market strategy. The majority of respondents effectiveness found that most product sales happen within the launch window and that launches have a notable or major impact on their company’s revenue. An interesting statistic to pull out here is that the majority of respondents said less than 50% of the products they launch are adopted. This seems at odds with the rest of the data in this section, which indicates launches are generally successful. This leads us to two possible conclusions: 1. Expecting a more than 50% adoption rate is unrealistic and a successful launch doesn’t necessitate a higher adoption rate than this. 2. The success of these launches is being mitigated by underutilisation of customer-success strategies and the post-launch stage of Go-to-Market. Both of these conclusions are likely true, but the answer depends on the company and its goals. 48

Part 7 Launch effectiveness 2.0 49 7

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Launch We dug a little deeper into the data to see how the success of a launch is affected by effectiveness 2.0 other aspects of Go-to-Market strategy. Let’s take a look at the results. ‘What % of your launches are successful?’ vs ‘Philosophically, how much importance would you say your company places on launches?’ Low importance Medium importance High importance 0-25% 4% 7.7% 6.4% 26-50% 2.6% 21.8% 6.4% 51-75% 5% 19% 7.7% 76-100% 2.6% 4% 12.8% ‘What % of your launches are successful?’ vs ‘Do you have a de昀椀ned launch process?’ Yes Sort of No 0-25% 1.3% 12.8% 3.9% 26-50% 11.5% 16.7% 3.9% 51-75% 10% 16.7% 3.9% 76-100% 7.7% 7.7% 3.9% 50

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Launch ‘What % of your launches are successful?’ vs ‘Philosophically, how much importance effectiveness 2.0 would you say your company places on launches?’ Rarely Sometimes Most Launches Always 0-25% 2.6% 5.1% 9% 1.3% 26-50% 3.9% 9% 11.5% 7.7% 51-75% 1.3% 3.9% 11.5% 14% 76-100% 0% 2.6% 6.4% 10.2% ‘What % of your launches are successful?’ vs ‘On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your GTM process’ level of maturity and effectiveness?’ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 2.6% 7.7% 5% 2.6% 0-25% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 0% 1.3% 2.6% 2.6% 9% 12.8% 3.9% 26-50% 0% 0% 0% 0% 51-75% 0% 1.3% 3.9% 3.9% 5% 5% 5% 6.4% 0% 0% 76-100% 0% 0% 1.3% 0% 1.3% 5% 3.9% 3.9% 2.6% 1.3% 51

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Launch ‘What % of your launches are successful?’ vs ‘Philosophically, how much importance effectiveness 2.0 would you say your company places on launches?’ Signi昀椀cantly Underinvest Invest the right Overinvest Signi昀椀cantly underinvest amount overinvest 0-25% 3.9% 7.7% 3.9% 1.3% 0% 26-50% 3.9% 21.8% 7.7.% 0% 0% 51-75% 5.1% 10% 12.8% 1.3% 1.3% 76-100% 1.3% 3.9% 12.8% 1.3% 0% By comparing these data points, we can see a broad correlation emerging between the amount of investment, planning and importance put into a Go-to-Market strategy and the number of successful launches a company has. 52

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Part 8 Go-to-Market challenges 5353 8

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market Like any work worth doing, Go-to-Market has its challenges. While eliminating all challenges is an unrealistic goal, identifying your key challenges enables you to take challenges steps to mitigate them. If you can identify patterns in your strategy, you can take steps to make the process more effective and reduce or remove blockers to your success. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the most common challenges identi昀椀ed by our survey participants. What is the biggest challenge in the Go-to-Market process? “There’s been much said about how to build a go-to-market plan; with a quick Google search, you can 昀椀nd a myriad of frameworks that help product managers, product marketers, CEOs, and CMOs ensure their new product is launched with the highest likelihood of success. To be clear, we at Fluvio ascribe to and support this micro-level strategy (product-level) for our clients, but where we think most companies fail resides in their macro-level ability to sustain successful product and feature launches.” Devon O’Rourke, Fluvio “Execution with limited resources.” Gaston Tourn, Curio 54

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market “Understanding why a product team built what they decided to build - challenges getting market research and product information from product managers in a timely fashion so that a GTM strategy can be built and the solution can be launched in time to meet executive goals.” John Milo, LeanData “Sales and client focussed tactical approach and high acquisition cost as compared to preferred product led GTM, SaaD aligned margin, frictionless sales and pull based content impact.” Abhinav Gupta, ZS “Internal alignment across groups (what we’re building, why, pricing, where we’ll win).” Christine Matu, Coconut Software “Securing budget, in昀氀uencing the team to see GTM as more than just a “launch” or a moment in time and measuring success.” Divya Shroff, Momentive 55

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market challenges “Budget.” Hope Chauland, Microsoft “Alignment of stakeholders, not having an assigned project manager/project management role, and not having enough VOC to make quick decisions. Emily Pathmajeyan, Carrum Health “At the Enterprise level it may seem like GTM resources abound, and that’s sort of true. But aligning auxiliary resources on timing, budget, and core messaging can be tricky when there are so many different initiatives in 昀氀ight at once.” Lauren Moon, Atlassian “Competitive landscape.” Bryn Baker, Google 56

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market challenges “Executive alignment on business cases and targeted outcomes, and validating prioritization of launches to drive growth.” Bethany Miles, Sage “Ongoing user education.” Sean Storer, Slack “Shifting timelines and priorities.” Steve Bozic, Seismic 57

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market The challenges we see the most are: challenges • Getting alignment between teams, in particular on priorities. • Getting the right budget and resources for Go-to-Market. • Getting 昀椀nancial investment and support from senior leadership. Honorable mentions go to not having a de昀椀ned Go-to-Market leader and getting other business members to understand the value of a GTM strategy. How do the problems with Go-to-Market differ between large launches and small launches for you? “Large launches only accentuate the dif昀椀culty of executing at high quality with limited resources because they typically require a signi昀椀cant amount of investment, which most startups lack.” Gaston Tourn, Curio “Typically a large launch has more aspects to it, which makes it harder to measure since data isn’t always available, and even when it is, it isn’t easy to make comparisons across tactics.” Divya Shroff, Momentive 58

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market challenges “Scale and impact of teams affected.” Bryn Baker, Google “Large launches require more top-level buy-in which can be hard to gather. Small launch communication may fall through the cracks with customers/CS.” Steve Bozic, Seismic “Smaller efforts sometimes do not get the right amount of attention to ensure we can address marketing and customer adoption.” Bethany Miles, Sage “Large launches get more resources but require more coordination and time.” Sean Storer, Slack 59

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market “Small launches mean you have more control over your own channels, challenges messaging and resources. When a large budget or an important feature is being launched and there’s a lot of attention on the messaging and strategy, you often have far more people weighing in on the launch every step of the way. Finding the balance without getting “too many cooks” is tricky.” Lauren Moon, Atlassian “Budget.” Hope Chauland, Microsoft “Scope and executive visibility.” John Milo, LeanData 60

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market Which of these common Go-to-Market obstacles applies to you the most? challenges No de昀椀ned, repeatable process 30.8% Hard to communicate/align stakeholders 42.3% cross-functional work is hard to stay on top of 21.8% collecting customer research fast enough 5.1% Having to create all copy/assets yourself 30.8% Not con昀椀dent in building the best plan 42.3% Too much tool fragmentation 21.8% Measuring impact of launches 5.1% Other 5.1% 61

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market For this question, respondents were allowed to choose more than one option. As with the qualitative questions, alignment and cross-functional working were 昀氀agged up as challenges two of the biggest challenges. But by far and away the leading challenge for our survey participants is being able to measure the impact of launches. This does track with our qualitative data, as being able to explain the value of Go-to-Market to other business members was raised repeatedly as an issue. Being able to measure the success of your launch is essential for demonstrating its value as a business function. Our top advice for handling this challenge is to decide which metrics you’re going to track at the very start of your Go-to-Market strategy and de昀椀ne your goals early on. You can learn more about metrics for successful Go-to-Market strategy here: How to measure the success of your product launch 62

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Part 9 Go-to-Market tools 6363 9

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market You can’t carry out an effective Go-to-Market strategy without the right tools. Let’s 昀椀nd out which tools our respondents are using the most, and which they think are the most tools important for Go-to-Market. Which of these categories of tools do you use in the Go-to-Market process? (For this question participants were allowed to choose multiple answers) Roadmapping 51.3% Project management 76.9% Documentation/decks 84.6% Communication/messaging 76.9% Other collaboration 16.7% Design 44.9% Asset management 39.7% Surveys/research 50% Marketing automation 38.5% Analytics 56.4% Other 0% 64

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market Which tool do you consider most useful for the Go-to-Market process? tools Roadmapping 10.3% Project management 43.6% Documentation/decks 17.9% Communication/messaging 20.5% Other collaboration 0% Design 0% Asset management 1.3% Surveys/research 3.8% Marketing automation 0% Analytics 2.6% Other 0% 65

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Go-to-Market There’s a pretty consistent correlation between the most used tools and the most important tools for Go-to-Market, as selected by our respondents selected. This is tools promising, as it suggests that most participants can use the tools they 昀椀nd most valuable for their role. Project management tools were voted the most useful, which tracks with our 昀椀ndings that clear leadership is a challenge for Go-to-Market. When many stakeholders have a claim on a project and ownership is unclear, having a really robust tool to keep track of every moving part of your project is essential. Surprisingly, only 2.6% of participants considered analytics the most important tool, compared with the 62.8% who identi昀椀ed measuring launches as their biggest challenge in the previous chapter. This indicates an underutilization of analytics tools across the industry. This could offer some insight into why measuring launches is such a challenge. 66

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Part 10 Looking forward 6767 10

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Looking forward We’ve talked a lot about what the state of Go-to-Market is now, but it’s time to look to the future. How can Go-to-Market strategy improve, and what can we look forward to in the next 12 months? First up, we asked our survey participants their top tips for Go-to-Market strategy. Directly from Go-to-Market professionals and leaders, these are actionable tips you can implement now to improve your strategy. What’s your number one tip for effective Go-to-Market? “Symphomize, constellate and orchestrate different functions driving the agreed purpose and strategy, under the ambit of SaaS economy.” Abhinav Gupta, ZS “Operationalize the process as much as possible – create one single source of truth for insights, goals, strategy, and the executional components like tasks and assets, so any cross-functional stakeholders know exactly how to consume your plans.” Derek Osgood, Ignition “Keep strategy and execution focused on addressing the validated needs of your target audience (enable marketing and sales to speak to actual needs con昀椀rmed by actual people).” John Milo, LeanData 68

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Looking forward “Build assets on time but assume the dates will slip.” Sean Storer, Slack “Align internal stakeholders before the process starts.” Shriya Dash, Disruptive Technologies “Over-communicate with stakeholders.” Andrew Gibson, Bluevine “Build a scalable process with clear roles and responsibilities and adequate resourcing to support.” Srijit G, Legl 69

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Looking forward “Taking a step back and making sure everyone understands the goal. Who are you building for? Why do they care? What problem does this solve? Answering those questions and having everyone on the same page allows you to move forward strategically.” Nicole Ward, Our Family Wizard “Ensure alignment on what success looks like, how it will be measured, and how it will be shared.” Bethany Miles, Sage “Identify the problem you’re solving for.” Gaston Tourn, Curio “To get buy-in from stakeholders and partners, be sure to take them along a journey of why the go-to-market plan is important, and what the impact of it will be.” Divya Shroff, Momentive 70

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Looking forward “Understand your customer.” Bryn Baker, Google Communicate early and communicate often. Focus on risk awareness/ mitigation plans and what may hold up a launch.” Steve Bozic, Seismic “Communicate, communicate, communicate everything with your stakeholders, even things that you think are obvious or minor. You’ll be surprised by how much they didn’t know when you’re in the thick of it day- in, day-out.” Emily Pathmajeyan, Carrum Health “For effective GTM, my number one tip is to understand your customer’s pain points so well that it feels like you’re having those same frustrations yourself. It’s the best way to ensure you’re crafting the right messaging.” Lauren Moon, Atlassian 71

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Looking forward “Communication.” Hope chauland, Microsoft What’s the one change you’d like to see your company make in their approach to Go-to-Market? Nobody’s perfect, and we all have things at work we’d like to see done differently. If you’re a manager or senior leader looking to better understand their team’s concerns, you’ll 昀椀nd the most common complaints from our respondents below. Alternatively, if you’re just looking for some solidarity from your peers, you’re also in the right place. “Move more toward product-led Go-to-Market.” Abhinav Gupta, ZS 72

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Looking forward “Product Managers should not work in silo - PMs should let PMM aware of product plans when strategy is being built, not after a launch date is set/ committed to by executives.” John Milo, LeanData “Smaller, more agile teams.” Sean Storer, Slack “All teams must buy-into GTM and prioritize care & attention towards it.” Srijit G, Legl “Formalized approach to de昀椀ning prioritization of launches based on ROI/outcomes.” Bethany Miles, Sage 73

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Looking forward “Fewer but more thoughtful launches.” Gaston Tourn, Curio “More measurement.” Divya Shroff, Momentive “Better use of planning and execution tools.” Bryn Baker, Google “More discipline ahead of future launches.” Steve Bozic, Seismic 74

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Looking forward “Using an actual Project Management tool for roadmapping & GTM.” Emily Pathmajeyan, Carrum Health “In a big company like ours, more transparency across different products means there would be more opportunities for collaboration and streamlined messaging.” Lauren Moon, Atlassian “More internal enablement before external.” Hope Chauland, Microsoft 75

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Looking forward A common thread here is just setting expectations and understanding for Go-to-Market strategies at the top of the product cycle. Respondents predominantly feel their companies lack clear and de昀椀ned leadership when it comes to Go-to-Market. This is consistent with our challenges chapter, where survey participants identi昀椀ed unclear leadership and poor collaboration between teams as signi昀椀cant roadblocks for successful GTM. What trends do you think we’ll see in Go-to-Market in 2023? Go-to-Market is an ever-evolving strategy, and we’re expecting to see some really exciting developments in the next 12 months. With the growth in popularity of partnership and ecosystem GTM models, as well as the industry shift away from traditional sales-led marketing, there’s a lot of potential for change. So we couldn’t wait to 昀椀nd out what our survey participants expect to see in the future. “I think people will look at OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT and other PLG motions and be inspired to test a PLG approach for their company/ products. Many will begin testing a free entry point alongside an enterprise, high-touch motion and begin to 昀椀nd an equilibrium that produces max performance.” Devon O’Rourke, Fluvio 76

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Looking forward “Convergence in products, AI omnipresence, in昀氀uencer led marketing, outcome-based business models, community based GTM, joint - partner GTM, customer success, CRM integration, in-person events, knowledge sharing, distributed and focussed, personalized, content, content and more content, value-driven content positioning across customer lifecycle, marketing automation, CX integration and analytics, Brand elevation and focus on brand equity.” Abhinav Gupta, ZS “Tech consolidation and reduced marketing budgets.” John Milo, LeanData “Smaller more targeted launches that can be iterated on quickly and cheaply.” Sean Stoner, Slack 77

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Looking forward “Fewer but more thoughtful launches due to limited resources during an economic recession.” Gaston Tourn, Curio “Bundling and automation trends.” Bethany Miles, Sage “More tools that allow you to build the product launch process.” Divya Shroff, Momentive “More tools to help manage launches, and generative AI to write copy.” Srijit G, Legl 78

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Looking forward “Segmentation marketing: will be increasingly important as segmentation marketing will identify groups of consumers who share similar needs, interests, and behaviors so that marketing efforts can be tailored to meet their speci昀椀c needs and preferences. Using segment marketing, PMMs can create more targeted and effective marketing campaigns. “Sustainability and social responsibility: GTM focus should expand to include environmentally and socially conscious GTM strategies. Especially as customers are becoming more socially conscious, promoting and using eco-friendly products and practices, supporting charitable causes, and communicating transparently about their impact on society and the environment.” Kangelon Kay Dexter, Meta Platforms “AI driving customer understanding.” Bryn Baker, Google “Everyone will be talking about AI/GPT.” Steve Bozic, Seismic 79

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Looking forward “More ways to launch products via social media.” Emily Pathmajeyan, Carrum Health “So many! I think product-led GTMs since many budgets are cut and marketing staff has decreased. I think this will then create demand for more creative launches.” Samantha Mullett, Local Boys “The future of GTM is probably going to see a lot more AI baked into the processes. The question is: how do we leverage this technology without sounding like, well, robots?” Lauren Moon, Atlassian “Less budget.” Hope Chauland, Microsoft 80

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Looking forward “Product-led GTM, growth and monetization becoming more important to the product function instead of pricing/market development teams.” Steve , Dosh “Overall, Product Marketing and GTM-related roles are becoming more mature and more structured around consistent processes for better outcomes. That said, there’s still a long way to go for organizations to realize that Product marketing & GTM is not about creating brochures, it is about building the plans to make a meaningful impact in the product lifecycle and eventually, the bottom line.” Pauline Monin, SES-imagotag Unsurprisingly, many respondents raised the issue of AI and ChatGPT. But we also had a signi昀椀cant number 昀氀ag concerns about reduced budget and a need to move towards product-led growth strategies to effectively carry out GTM with less resources. We also had several respondents bring up a need to become more customer focussed as customers become more discerning about who they buy from. While these may seem like three different concerns, they do have a common thread. In each case, the respondents are thinking about future-proo昀椀ng their strategy and predicting which challenges they’ll face as the state of the market shifts. Having this kind of awareness and critical thinking about which challenges will be raised in the future enables you to make sure you’re ready to meet them. 81

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Part 10 Conclusion 8282 11

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report Conclusion And so we reach the end of the State of Go-to-Market Report 2023. It’s been quite the journey, and we’ve learned a lot. The key trends we’ve seen this year include a move away from sales-led Go-to-Market strategies and an increased interest in 昀椀nding new ways to approach launches. Rather than a consensus on one single approach, there’s increased diversity in the strategies GTM professionals are road-testing. Product-led is popular, but not used exclusively. The challenges facing Go-to-Market professionals are consistent with our 2022 report, with unde昀椀ned leadership and alignment being the most prominent concerns. It’ll be interesting to see how this develops over the next year, and if any notable changes take place. Company size and budget are still barriers to a de昀椀ned Go-to-Market strategy, but we’re have seen an increase in the number of respondents who felt their companies invested the right amount in a launch. While this isn’t a drastic change, it is indicative of a shift in the right direction. The overall takeaway from this report is that effective Go-to-Market does require buy-in and support from not only senior leaders but, from employees across a business. With the broad scope of the strategy, the number of stakeholders, and the number of business functions involved, aligned priorities and an understanding of the impact of Go-to-Market are essential. The solution to this, as we saw in our challenges and tools chapters, is proper investment and strategy around measuring the impact of Go-to-Market. With this in mind, we’ll be carrying out a deep dive into Go-to-Market metrics later this year. 83

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report A special Supporting sponsor: thank you We couldn’t be happier to have partnered with our friends over at Ignition on this report. Ignition is a Go-to-Market Ops Platform which creates better product handoffs and tighter alignment with GTM teams, ensuring every product launch or feature release drives revenue impact. Built by experts from Rippling and Facebook, it uni昀椀es research, roadmapping, and measurement in a single hub to reduce tool fragmentation and cost — and uses AI-powered work昀氀ows and analysis tools to extract actionable insight, drive a repeatable planning process, and automate revenue team enablement. Embedded tools for critical GTM work like tracking competitive intelligence help PMM & PM teams turn Ignition into their day-to-day workbench, while cross-functional teams get a centralized source of truth for plan documentation, assets, and tasks. Ignition is backed by Product Marketing Alliance and top-tier Silicon Valley investors such as Altman Capital, Bling Capital, Hiten Shah, and GTM executives from Opendoor, Uber, and Airbnb. 84

State of Go-to-Market 2023 Report A special Contributors thank you Kate Onley-Gregson Copywriter Kate is our copywriter at Go-to-Market Alliance, who loves creating content to keep our community informed, entertained and empowered to get the most out of their role. They’re always open to feedback and would be thrilled to hear from you! Richard King Founder of Product Marketing Alliance Rich is the Founder of Go-to-Market Alliance and is at the helm of our voyage to elevate the GTM role worldwide. He’s responsible for what happens next with the community so if you’d like to have your say, don’t hesitate to get in touch - Rich is always open to invaluable feedback and ideas. Bryony Pearce Head of Content Bryony is the brains behind the Aladdin’s Cave of content we generously churn out for members and non-members alike. She’s known as the Product Marketing Alliance ‘Oracle’, and has a never-ending supply of new ideas. Feel free to share your feedback with her - she’d love to hear it! Lucy Finch Graphic Designer Meet Lucy, our talented Graphic Designer who specializes in ful昀椀lling all our design needs. She’s in charge of creating the layout and incorporating visual elements in this report and is always eager to hear your thoughts on her designs! 85