Nailing your go-to-market positioning

Judy LoehrVenture Partner | Cloud Apps Capital Partners

GTM expertise from 15 years working with B2B cloud application

companies

Fifteen years go-to-market

experience with B2B cloud

companies

Agenda

The Impact of Strong

Messaging

3 Hard Truths

5 Go-To-Market Considerations

The “3 Rooms” Approach

Before & After

3 Homework Assignments

Alignment

Product roadmapMarketing

SalesPartnerships

Helps sales tell your story and

creates a sense of urgency for your

prospects

Awareness

PressInvestorsProspects

Strong positioning accelerates your

business

i Sales Cycles

Creates a shared vision and purpose for

employees and recruiting

Recruiting

HARD TRUTH #1: NO ONE CARES

“No one cares about your belly button, and no one cares

about your product.”

Judy Loehr

HARD TRUTH #2: YOU’RE NOT AS

ALIGNED AS YOU THINK

Anything less than 100% alignment will

sink an early-stage company or stall-out growth at your later

stage company.

“You should try to be more like Slack.”

Most oft-heard advice in 2015

HARD TRUTH #3: YOU’RE GETTING

BAD ADVICE

Focus on the right business model

and go-to-market tactics for your

market,your product

and your prospects

5 go-to-market considerations

AUDIENCE MESSAGINGCHANNELS PRICING & PACKAGING

CAC MODEL

Your unique

segmentsMust be

developed within

the context of

everything else

Where are they

looking and

learning?

“Right-size” for

your segments

and your

strengths

Work through your

acquisition model

and costs

AA

YOUR CONTEXT

Often called the “why”, it’s actually the

“why now”. What’s going on in your

market and what makes you relevant.

YOUR VALUE

Focus is on your target customer

segments, how the “why now” context

is impacting them, and the impact you

could help them make on their

business.

YOUR PRODUCT

Here’s where you first introduce your

product…with a structure that reinforces

your value.

THE 3 ROOMS:a guided

messaging structure

What’s happening in your market?

What’s new in your target industry’s

world?

Are you attacking an established

model?

Why is this happening and

important now?

How are you relevant to

what’s happening in your market?

Primary audience: press &

investors

Room 1: create a compelling context

for your company

What’s their biggest use

case?

Would the board care?

Is it a top 3 priority?

How do you help the

company and your buyer?

What’s stopping them

today?

Primary audience: your prospects

Room 2: clearly articulate your

value for your target

customers

Re-shuffle your features

Structure your product to

reinforce your value

52 features vs.

3 modules

Incorporate structure into

your product & demo

Just because you have an API does not mean your product is a

platform

Primary audience: your evaluators

Room 3: explain your product

(in the context of your prospects & your value)

GRIDGRID“The Salesforce of online billing”

GRID

• Product & technology

focused

• No context

• No “why”

• No urgency

ZUORA’S ORIGINAL MESSAGING (2008)

ZUORA’S NEW “3 ROOMS” MESSAGING

“The Subscription Economy” Zuora powers

subscription businesses Zuora RBM includes everything

you need to manage and grow your subscription business.

Commerce | Billing | Finance

(Context)

(Value)

(Product)

EXERCISE #1 TARGET AUDIENCE MATRIX

SEGMENT CURRENT

CHALLENGE(S)

3 – 5 clear

segments

Customer

segment 1Very short description• Sample company

• Sample company

SPECIFIC USE

CASE

Very short & to

the point

statement of what

they need to do…so they can [5

words]

“Colorful, between-

friends expression

here.”

Biggest blocker here

(what’s stopping

them)

Ex: “But I can’t because it

still takes 15 $!#% hours to

pull all the data together

each week.”

Short headline (1 line only)

• Biggest impact 1 …with capability A

• Biggest impact 2… enabled by

feature B

• Biggest impact 3 … with rich

capability C

SPECIFIC USE CASE REASONS TO CHOSE [YOU]

What they need

to doWhat’s

hindering their

use caseThe benefits they will

get from your solution

EXERCISE #2 PRODUCT STRUCTURE

MODULE LEADERSHIP MESSAGE

3 – 5

modules

Module 1Very short description• Included feature 1

• Included feature 2

• Included feature 3

Biggest impact value here

(short)

….with your proof point / enabler

here

Short headline for this module (1 line only)

• Short benefit 1 …with capability A

• Short benefit 2… enabled by feature B

• Short benefit 3 … with rich capability C

REASONS TO CHOSE [YOU]

Will become intro copy on

your website’s product detail

pageCan become headline and

bullets on a product page on

your website

EXERCISE #3 COMPANY NARRATIVE

1) Start with what’s happening in the

market… that is affecting your target

customers• What’s causing pressure?

• What’s being disrupted?

• What’s disrupting your customer’s world?

(CONTEXT)2) Frame their current situation…

and how it is hurting / challenging them• What are they currently having to deal with and do

now?

• What options do they have?

• Highlight the pitfalls/risks of their current options

• Flush out their options and the trade offs for each

one

(FROM TARGET AUDIENCE MATRIX)

3) Define the ideal, utopian solution for the

times…

in their terms, for their needs and goals• This is not yet about you or your product

• Do not mention your company or product yet

• Just tee up what an ideal solution would look like

• Keep it in the context you set up4) Now introduce your company’s vision…

and high-level value of your product• “That’s why we started [COMPANY]”

• “To help companies struggling with…. transforming into…

etc.”

• Avoid product detail! Just give 1 line overview of your

product and then focus on how it helps your target

customers.

(FROM PRODUCT MODULE MATRIX)

Q&A

Judy LoehrVenture Partner | Cloud Apps Capital Partners