Do you recall the most business savvy reindeer of all?
Once upon a time, there was a marketer named Randolph. Randolph, let’s call him “Randy,” lived in upstate New York as a marketer. Not just a marketer, though—Randy considered himself a growth marketer, and he had a vision. He had a vision of a go‑to‑market strategy that would transform marketing forever; one where sales and marketing were converged, every piece of marketing was mapped and tailored to a detailed customer journey, and the entire strategy was built to engage, nurture, and convert. This was a GTM strategy that would be flexible, scalable, and squarely focused on growth.
The best part yet? It took care of the biggest problem Randy had faced during his time as a marketer—random acts of marketing.
“Throwing campaigns at the wall never works,” he tried to explain to his friends on the marketing team— Dash, Derek, Parker, Vixie, Collin and Carrie, Donny and Barbie. “Can’t you see? Sure, it gives us vanity metrics but it isn’t setting us up for long term success.”
His friends merely laughed. There was no time or appetite to revamp their entire marketing strategy. Besides, perhaps this next round of keyword targeting would work. They got so frustrated with Randy talking about growth marketing strategies, in fact, that they didn’t invite him to the holiday party.
“Ol’ ‘Go‑to‑Market’ Randy told me he was going to try to pitch his strategy to the CEO,” Parker said. The others smirked.
“Good luck with that!” Donny said. “There’s no way Sandra will be interested in his strange ideas.”
Meanwhile, Randy was in his office, alone, hard at work. He mapped out the entire vision. It looked something like this:
It was nearly Christmas when Randy decided it was ready. He added the final details to his presentation, outlining the demand process model, benchmarking and the quantitative modeling showing the ROI and ramp plan for the new GTM strategy. This was a presentation that their CEO, Sandra K., would never forget.
On his way to her office, he ran into the rest of the marketing team in the cafeteria.
“You on your way to pitch your ideas to Sandra?” Vixie said. They laughed. “Crazy GTM Randy!”
What they didn’t realize is that, that very morning, Sandra had been reading the latest headlines.
“S&P 500 closes lower for a fourth straight day as recession worries jolt markets”
“U.S. banks warn of recession as inflation hurts consumers; shares fall”
“B2B companies face increasing challenges as resignations rise and buyer preferences shift”
“Why you shouldn’t cut back on marketing during a recession”
A stormy recession was looming on the horizon, and it was arriving faster than she had anticipated. She needed something, a new, scalable, sustainable way of thinking to help them weather this storm and stay ahead of competition.
This was what was on her mind when Randolph knocked on the door, with his presentation ready.
“Come in!” she said, adjusting her red blazer.
“Sandra, I’d like to pitch you an idea for a go‑to‑market strategy that I think can transform and improve our alignment with our customers,” Randy said.
Sandra raised her eyebrows.
“Is this why the others call you names, like Go‑To‑Market Randy?” she said.
“Yes—but I know that this vision will help guide us through 2023 and beyond!” Randy said.
Sandra gestured to go ahead, and Randy began his presentation. He outlined how, first, they would take a step back and do a deep dive on their customer segmentation. The key is to deeply understand the buyer based on macro trends in the marketplace and the pain points impacting how they do business today, their buying habits, where they consume content, and what they’re asking online. They’ll use this understanding to fine-tune their ICP and segmentation and create an in-depth buyer journey.
But, just as people aren’t stagnant, this buyer journey won’t be either, he explained. They’ll keep an open dialogue with the buyer throughout their journey, gathering zero-party data and addressing their needs through conversation tracks and content marketing.
“Do you see why this is better than the broad segmentation we have right now?” Randy asked.
“Yes, I’m following,” Sandra said, leaning forward.
Next comes rethinking sales, marketing, and customer success teams.
“Ideally, we’d no longer silo these areas and create one, converged growth B2B go‑to‑market organization,” Randy said. “But that’s the big vision. For now, we need to make sure sales and marketing are completely aligned. They’re not measured by different metrics—they’re all aligned around customer journey stewardship with blended teams and a common goal!”
He outlined how this can be done by converging sales and marketing around one conversation track with the customer, working together to orchestrate automated and live touchpoints so the customer has one, consistent experience with their brand. The goal is for sales and marketing to work as one team around a growth model that goes from Engage, to Convert, to Succeed, to Grow.
The cherry on top, he said, is the tech stack.
“It’s been five years or more since we last evaluated the tech we’re using,” he said. “It’s time we do a tech audit, and weed out what’s not being used. When it comes to go‑to‑market strategy, I recommend we focus on keeping only the tech solutions that help identify quality leads, track where they are in their journey, and enable us to have personalized, value-based, two-way conversations with buyers.”
Randy took a deep breath.
“And that’s… that’s my go‑to‑market strategy,” he said. “It sounds complex, but I know we can do it and I think it’ll really drive results. Plus, we don’t have to do it alone.”
Sandra was taken aback. This was exactly the fresh perspective she needed after reading the harrowing headlines. She immediately pinged the entire marketing team to come to her office. They filed in—Dash, Derek, Parker, Vixie, Collin and Carrie, Donny and Barbie—ready to laugh and point at Randy and his strange ideas.
“I’d like you all to sit and listen to Randy’s presentation,” Sandra said.
The team gasped.
“He’s developed the go‑to‑market strategy that we’ll be implementing in Q1 of next year,” she said. “Thanks to Randy, we might be able to weather this impending storm of a financial crisis. In fact—Randy, you might even go down in the history of this company. Well done!”
“But Sandra,” Parker chimed in, aghast. “This strategy will take weeks to implement, and—”
“It’s worth it,” Sandra said. “What, do you expect us to sit here and not change anything? Now pay attention.”
As Randy walked through his presentation to his peers, he felt a swell of pride. Sometimes, it pays to think differently.
