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Panel Interview

B2B SaaS: GTM for $1M and beyond

Div Manickam

Sept 2023

divmanickam

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Panel Instructions

Given what you've learned so far, create a presentation that would lay out your GTM strategy to drive the first $1m book of business. �This would include topics like:

What are the key pillars of your strategy?
What teams are critical to your success?
How would you align those teams to your strategy?
How would you measure success?
Once you hit $1M, what would you do next?

Panel:

Time: 20-30min presentation | 30 min Q&A

divmanickam

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Go-to-Market: Empower the business

Target Market

Trends
Objectives
Market sizing

$

Industries/Verticals

Education
Retail
Healthcare
Manufacturing

Customer

Persona

Business X

Differentiation
Enhance customer experiences
Improve operational efficiency
Gain business visibility

Competition

A
B
C

Partner

Strategic Solutions

GSI
SI

Technology Alliances

ISV

Analyst

Gartner MQ
Gartner Summit
Forrester Insights
Forrester Wave
IDC

divmanickam

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Market Opportunity in [B2B SaaS]

Competitor A focuses on extracting data from source systems and loading it into cloud data platforms.
Deep partnerships with data vendors and system integrators

Competitor B is a cloud-first, open-source tool that helps its users to move their data faster.
Need for improved data observability

Competitor C is a platform built for analysts to replicate their data with no configurations.
Targeted departmental leaders with automated data capabilities.

Stat 1

Source: Gartner Magic Quadrant

Stat 2

divmanickam

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How we win | GTM Team | Shared OKRs

Product, �UX

Marketing

Engineering

Partners

Customer Success

Pricing, Finance

CUSTOMER

AWARENESS

Demand generation
Content syndication
Social media
Field events, conferences

CONSIDERATION

Demos, webinars
Win/Loss + competitive intel
Media and analyst engagement
Sales, partner enablement

DECISION

Customer/Partner references
Early adopter program

Team / Process Interlocks

Sales

divmanickam

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100 day discovery: Product marketing assessment

Step 1: Understand the market

Step 2: Understand the customer

Step 3: Understand the competition

Messaging and Positioning: Customer Differentiation

divmanickam

https://divmanickam.substack.com/p/customer-differentiation-for-messaging

100 day discovery: Product marketing assessment

Step 1: Understand the market — read the analyst reports, and gather data points that will help guide where the market is going

Step 2: Understand the customer — I created an interview guide to ask the right questions to our most valued customers. And validate by asking these questions to internal stakeholders from sales to customer success, to the executive leadership team.

Step 3: Understand the competition — This is where it’s important to not just know where the market’s going and what our customer needs are, but also understand where the competition is headed in this ever changing market. Is this industry disrupted by external forces like Covid-19 pandemic or in the process of disruption? Competition and market intelligence is key to get the right pulse and temperature check.

Step 3 is not as much to mimic or copy what the competition is doing, but it’s for setting the company and product portfolio apart and having clarity of how to differentiate from the competition. And to help customers understand our true value, our unique differentiation.

Messaging and Positioning: Customer Differentiation

Interview - https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vREywF7-qHpWOOu9T-uBoWeJo501x0Qc2Eb1FOyzlQSmrMjsriRuIdLAWkd-EfQ9g/pub

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Product Launch | Integrated Marketing Program

divmanickam

1

Planning/

OKRs

Webpage |

Collateral

5

Early Adopter Program

Partnership

Training for Services, Support,

Customer Success

10

Launch:

Webinar/Event

Announcement

Blog

Social Media

6

30-90-180

Days Metrics

8

3

Positioning | Messaging

2

4

Demo | Video

7

Global Sales/ Partner Enablement

Analyst & Media

9

Cross-functional Initiatives (Product, Sales and Marketing)

divmanickam

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Product Launch OKRs - x% Adoption Goal (Road to $1M)

�30 days

# of certifications started
x early adopter references

�60 days

Certifications completed
Data by source (volume)
Support tickets
Win rate | Average deal size | Sales confidence

�90 days

PQL

x deals with $$ ACV

Trial conversion

x customer case studies
Customer/partner story (Press release)

�100 days and beyond

$1M bookings by industry and region�
# of reference customers for Gartner MQ

divmanickam

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Div Manickam

Company Values

Inspire

Trust & Credibility

Influence

Extreme Ownership

Impact

Results & Relationships

divmanickam.substack.com

divmanickam

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Thank You

Quote

divmanickam

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Appendix

Content Portfolio - Div Manickam

divmanickam

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Persona : Business X

General managers, VP - Business units
Corporate functions - HR, Marketing
BI Analyst, Data Scientist

Customer surveys show that solving data and analytics is the business process companies want to solve next

divmanickam

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Customer �Interview Questionnaire

Interview: Customer Differentiation & Positioning

Name:

Introduction

How long have you worked in [Industry]? What’s your favorite experience in [Industry]? And why?

Is there anything you’d like to know from me before we get started?

Just to check, are you ok if I record this conversation for note taking?

Setting the context

What is your role within the company? And can you talk me through some of your responsibilities?

What are your business’ goals and how does [Company/Product] support your objectives?

What are some of your industry’s unique issues?

Which department does your role report to?

Who else in your company uses [Company/Product] ?

A day in your life (Customer pain points)

Can you describe a typical day or week in your role?

Before using [Company/Product], how were you supporting [area of focus]? If [Company/Product] didn’t exist, what did, or would you use as an alternative?

What’s the hardest part of your job? What do you think absorbs the most of your time?

What were the top three pain points you faced before [Company/Product]? How much time, resource and money do you think that was costing you? Any anecdotes are helpful.

What are your top three to five internal or external barriers?

Decision making and buying criteria

When looking at [Company/Product], what were the top one to three things that caught your eye? What was the moment you thought “yes, I need to buy this product”?

What was your main buying criteria? Were there any deal breakers for the acceptance or rejection of purchasing our product?

Who was involved in the purchase process?

What features/capabilities did [Company/Product] provide that other vendors/solutions did not? What were the must-haves on your checklist?

How will you measure the success of your investment in [Company/Product] technology?

Unique attributes and value

What are the main use cases you rely on [Company/Product] for?

Do you have any statistics you can share in terms of how our product has helped support your KPIs?

Is there anything you use our product for that you hadn’t initially planned on?

Which part(s) of our product do you find most valuable?

If you had to sum up the benefits of our product in one sentence, what would it be?

The opportunity

How has implementing [Company/Product] benefitted your customers?

What areas of our product, if any, do you struggle with most? Or see the least value in?

Is there anything you think our product should have or do that it doesn’t already?

What are your future plans for our product? Are there any market trends you are seeing?

Summary

Is there anything else you think we should know?

Thank you for your participation and engagement. Much appreciated.

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@divmanickam

Messaging and Positioning

divmanickam