A go-to-market plan on one page: what it needs and how to write it

A go-to-market plan answers one question: how will the right people find out about your product, and why will they buy it? It doesn't need to be a 40-page document. In fact, if it doesn't fit on one page, it's usually because the hard decisions haven't been made yet.

Here are the seven parts we put on that page, and the questions each one has to answer.

1. Who it's for

Describe the customer you're going after first, specifically enough that you could list twenty real companies or people who fit.

• What kind of organisation or person, and what size?
• Who decides to buy, and who uses it day to day? Are they the same person?
• What are they doing today instead of using your product?

"Small businesses" is not an answer. "Independent dental practices with two to six dentists, where the practice manager handles bookings and payments" is.

2. The problem, in their words

Write down the problem the way your customer would describe it, not the way you would. If you've spoken to customers, use their phrases. If you haven't, that's your first task.

A useful test: would a customer nod if they read this sentence? If it needs explaining, it's probably your language, not theirs.

3. Positioning

One or two sentences that say what the product is, who it's for and why it's better than the alternative they use today.

For practice managers at independent dental practices who lose hours to missed appointments, [product] is a booking and reminder system that fills cancelled slots automatically, unlike a calendar and phone calls.

This sentence isn't marketing copy. It's the reference everything else is checked against: the website, the sales pitch, which features come next.

4. Pricing and packaging

Decide how you charge and roughly how much, before you launch.

• What does the customer pay for: per user, per location, per transaction, a flat fee?
• What would the cheapest serious option cost them, including their own time?
• Is there one plan or several? Fewer is easier to sell at the start.

You can change prices later, but launching without a price usually means launching without customers.

5. Channels

Pick the two or three ways you'll reach those customers, not ten. For each, say why you believe the customer is there.

• Direct outreach: works when you can list the customers by name
• Search and content: works when customers already search for the problem
• Partners: works when someone else already has the customer's trust, such as a supplier, an association or a consultant
• Events and communities: works when the customer group is close-knit

Write down what you'll actually do in each channel in the first 90 days.

6. The sales process

How does someone go from first hearing about you to paying? Write each step and who owns it.

1. A lead arrives (from which channel?)
2. Someone qualifies it (what makes a lead worth pursuing?)
3. A demo, trial or conversation (who runs it?)
4. A proposal or sign-up
5. Onboarding

Then set up the system to track it, even if that's a simple CRM to start. A sales process that lives in someone's inbox can't be measured or improved.

7. Targets for the first 90 days

Finish with three to five numbers you'll review every two weeks, for example:

• Conversations with target customers
• Qualified leads
• Trials or pilots started
• Paying customers
• Revenue

Pick targets that tell you whether the plan is working early, not just whether you hit revenue at the end.

Write it, then test it

The first version of this page will contain guesses. That's fine, as long as you mark which parts are guesses and plan how to test them: ten customer conversations, a landing page, a small outreach campaign. Update the page as you learn. A plan you revise every month beats a perfect one written once.

If you're launching a product or entering a new market and want help building the plan, or the CRM and outreach behind it, get in touch or read more about our business development work.