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Watchdogs and Go-To-Market

Taking a tech innovation to a new market requires understanding the local competition before investing in local infrastructure. Recruited bridgehead partners and customers played a crucial role in the successful market entry. Watchdogs are essential in each stage of the process. They deliver the necessary insights to recruit and onboard the most suitable customers and partners.

This article is about

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The value of hiring an advisor.

Working with a qualified go-to-market advisor will lower upfront costs and the risk of failure. The reasons for this are less need for recruiting agencies and less need for office space and traveling. A Go-to-market advisor brings a conceptional framework and a local network of service providers, so he can quickly scale operations. Working with a qualified Go-to-market advisor makes things easy without the need for compromising on your business ambitions. You can test things without the effort of hiring staff and signing long term contracts right from the start. If the initial concept fails, you can fine-tune or even abandon the operation.

Bootstrapping Services

Irrespective of whether your go-to-market strategy is direct or indirect, winning the first 3-5 reference clients in a new market is crucial for your ability to create a bridgehead, achieve break-even, and move towards scaling and market dominance.

Bootstrapping services are designed for software companies with high value/high price solutions, long sales cycles, and a complex decision-making environment. The objective of the Bootstrapping service is to help you win the first 3-5 reference clients in a new market within the shortest possible time frame. 

Candidate checklist ✅

  • How good is his conceptual framework?
  • Does he understand pitfalls and provide workarounds?
  • Does he declare potential hidden interest or bias?
  • Does he easily compromise on quality?
  • Does he bring target market insights?
A Conceptual Framework:

A Roadmap communicates the vision and progress of what’s coming next for your Go-to-market. The Roadmap is outlining which services models we are building and when we will finish. It’s communicating when we are making those products or features and assigning participation at each stage. Customers Purchase Decisions are driven by:

  • Your customer Value Proposition
  • Your Reference Base
  • Your Track Record in the relationship
  • Your Professional Approach displayed in the sales process

 

Geoffrey Moore and Clayton Christensen have written about the hurdles that 🇺🇸US-based tech firms are meeting when bringing their technology to the market. In this case, the target market is not the home market but a new region, where the company neither has a significant footprint nor experienced staff. 

The Planning and Implementation process to keep the resources required to an absolute minimum while still meeting the need for an ambitious game plan. You have done your homework and know about defining a market in general, concepts of marketing, black swan, “blue vs. red-ocean” markets.

Value Proposition

The first checkpoint is, whether your Value Proposition is qualified for the new target market. Analyze the main competitors, their competitive approaches, market size, dominating technologies, and price structures. And do the same on your Customer and Supply Side.

Distribution Strategy

Most software companies start out selling directly to their end-users. Can they continue selling directly to their end-users when entering new markets? Check local laws, technical restrictions before you end in significant business commitments in terms of employment, user rights, and intellectual property.

Distribution Framework

The Distribution Framework includes all programs and the legal agreements required to enable the internal organization to successfully implement the distribution strategy.

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Implementation

Go-to-market Implementation covers customer acquisition, partner acquisition, local brand building, and setting up the legal, technical, service, and support processes in the new region.

Implementation with local bridgeheads

Go-to-market Implementation covers customer acquisition, partner acquisition, local brand building, and setting up the legal, technical, service, and support with qualified bridgehead partners. These companies are ideal because their strategic interest is in line with your strategic interest. Inadequate managers may not understand the impact of the hidden bias of potential partners.
A qualified go-to–market advisor will be able to help you set the processes and gateways. Based on the results of a proper target market analysis, he will have identified the requirements for an ideal bridgehead customer and the requirements for a perfect bridgehead partner. Your preparation will set you apart from the approximately 80% who mess up a go-to-market implementation in the long run.

Wave 1: Readiness

The initial phase of the implementation roadmap gives you the insights plus valuable time to decide whether to sharpen your existing value proposition.

what to do

Analyze your main competitors, their competitive approaches, market size, dominating technologies, and price structures. A precise analysis of your current and planned business processes is a neutral and objective comparison of what you have versus what you need.
Gather information such as main competitors, competitive approaches, market size, dominating technologies, and price structures. (e.g…). Premium local content creation and distribution will play a major role in our go-to-market process.
  • What are your potential customers currently using today?
  • What were the reasons, they have decided for this service?
  • When are your potential customers planning to change?
  • Who is currently supplying your potential customers?
  • What are their key strengths and key weaknesses?
  • Local Market Presence = Virtual Office

results

  • Niches that are under-served. 
  • List of potential customers, looking for products or services like yours. Relevant opinion leaders and suitable growth partners for your business.
  • We can validate the actual value proposition and identify initial local bridgehead candidates
Wave 2: Bridgeheads

Recruit & manage key partners

what to do

Recruit & manage the key partners that will help us build a highly competitive offering in the target market.- Focus on strategic and cultural alignment. 

  • Business Development
  • Media and Analyst Program
  • Direct Marketing Programs
  • Local Market Presence = Virtual Office

results

  • Initial bridgehead customers and partners
  • Sales Pipeline
Wave 3: Growth

Manage key partners and lead generation

what to do

Develop sales capability to meet the growing demand. Maintain a high level of sales activity. Gear up marketing activity to support high growth. Lead generation to maintaining momentum.

Outbound selling to customers and re-seller prospects using your corporate identity. Build sales pipeline – Focus on early successes and establish local references.

  • Business Development
  • Media and Analyst Program
  • Direct Marketing Programs
  • Local Market Presence = Virtual Office

results

  • Initial bridgehead customers and partners
  • Sales Pipeline
Wave 4: Transition

You want to take the operations in-house

what to do

Conduct an unrushed search for the best leader for your activities mid term. Find the candidates who will bring expertise, drive, and industry attention to your firm

Business Development

  • Maintain a high level of sales activity as before
  • Support the transition to client’s local subsidiary or appointed partners

Market Presence

  • Maintain a high level of sales activity as before
  • (when appropriate) establish local company & offices

results

  • Initial bridgehead customers and partners
  • Sales Pipeline
  • Sales Capability Footprint
  • Sales Funnel Metrics