MBA is about a lot of things, and no one can deny the value of case competitions, whether it's for enhancing one's CV or for earning PPIs and cash awards. They can also become a topic of conversation during personnel interview interactions. For all case competition fans, a tutorial on how to prepare for a GTM-case competition should be a fascinating read. GTM Strategy and case competitions around it are going to be a major part of all MBA student’s journeys. I will be focussing on GTM strategy first and then will discuss how to excel in GTM case competitions.
GTM Strategy: Product marketing specialists, managers, and other decision-makers employ a go-to-market strategy to ensure a seamless launch of a new product, entry into an unfamiliar market, or the re-launch of a prior brand/company.
Essentially, a GTM strategy is a detailed action plan that outlines how a new product or service will be delivered to end-users. While each product has its own approach, every GTM plan has the same ultimate goal: to gain a competitive edge. The main goal while preparing should be to focus on highlighting how the idea that is being pitched by you is going to give a competitive edge to the product. This clear goal should dictate your plan and approach toward the case.
A common GTM strategy boils down to two areas in the most basic sense:
The Pricing strategy and The Distribution Plan.
Today, though, firms tend to be a little more explicit when it comes to GTM strategy, and to excel at these case competitions, you should have a clear idea about them. All go-to-market strategies must have the following elements:
Target Market: Prior to anything else, you should have a clear idea of who your target audience is. This includes elements such as demographics, psychographics, geography, and others that can help you restrict your target. You'll also need to establish buyer personas and narrow down the perfect profiles you want to target.
Value Proposition: Two other critical components of the GTM approach are value proposition and a clear description of the product (the challenges it solves, for example). These will assist you in positioning the brand and can further be leveraged to come up with ideas that make the product stand out from the crowd. These two key things should be the focus of research and analysis that you will do for the case.
Pricing Plan: Determine a suitable pricing strategy based on your target market and positioning objectives.
Distribution Plan: Last but not least, make sure you have a solid distribution strategy in place for your idea.
Sometimes participants don’t create understand the difference between GTM Strategy and Marketing Strategy. While there is a lot of overlap between the two strategies, there are some distinctions as well. A clear about them will help the participants in getting the extra edge. So, let's understand the distinctions between them.
GTM Strategy Vs Marketing Strategy
While there are some parallels between the two tactics, they are not the same. But how do they differ exactly? A go-to-market strategy is a short-term, one-time strategy used when introducing a new product or entering a new market. A marketing plan, on the other hand, refers to your ongoing attempts to maintain that competitive advantage and reach your end customers.
The GTM strategy and the marketing plan will be the same for organizations that are just getting started. They can broaden their game-plan with a marketing strategy for their existing products after a period, once they've successfully penetrated their markets.
A clear idea about this distinction will help in addressing the problem which is being presented by the case and coming up with a unique solution.
The theme of your presentation should focus on attaining a decent Product-Market fit. Let’s now focus on how to create and present a GTM strategy in your presentation for case competitions.
Target Market and Buyer Personas: You must have considered the pain points your presentation would alleviate when coming up with the concept. The basic definition of your target market is the second item on the list. Begin by asking broad inquiries, like Who will be confronted with the problem(s) that my product will address? What demographic characteristics characterize them? Is it possible that psychographic and geographical elements are at play here? What other factors, if any, would you include in your market definition?
This will help you zero down on the particular group you want to target. If you're working on a case for a B2B company (like a SaaS provider), take it a step further and design buyer personas. Create a value matrix, which entails assigning a pain point and a product message to each buyer persona, to explain the value offered to your stakeholders.
Marketing Strategy
Marketing Techniques: Will you utilize outbound techniques, inbound methodology, or a combination of both, depending on the case? Taking advantage of content marketing, SEO, and other strategies while also engaging in paid channels and interruptive methods, such as display ads, print, cold calls, and so on, is usually the best option.
Positioning: How do you want people to think about your idea? Find a way to set yourself apart from the competition in the market.
Branding: Determine the language you want to use, the color you want to use, and the values and promises you want to communicate using your target market as a guide.
Pricing Strategy: Consider the market you're targeting and your value proposition while developing your price plan. To make your selection, you may always rely on the good old pricing matrix.
Quantitative Analysis: You'll need to utilize the correct customer satisfaction measures to track the performance of your GTM plan and thus increase the credibility of the idea you are pitching. Two metrics that can be used are as follow:
ROI- In basic terms, the ROI for your sales approach is the Revenue Per Dollar of Sales Expense. Simply divide your total revenue by your total cost of sales to arrive at this figure.
Customer Acquisition Cost- Customer Acquisition Cost shows the complete cost of gaining a single customer, as the name implies. To calculate it, multiply the overall cost of your sales, marketing, and customer service activities by the annual income earned by a client's contract.
Enough on the technical side now let’s talk about the soft sides of these case competitions like picking the team and the preparation.
The Team: Because of your experimenting and networking, you should be able to identify your strengths and shortcomings, as well as make friends with others who have complementary skills. The next step is to decide which competitions you'd like to enter, based on the likelihood of serious participation, case topic, and submission conditions.
Having a shared group for all group tasks and competitions may appear appealing at first, but as you become more familiar with each other's work styles, your relationship as a group grows stronger. However, in a time crisis, the most efficient method for achieving these various deadlines may be a one-man per project/case situation, severely limiting your growth opportunities and producing a higher output than would have been possible with the combined work of the entire group. Different groups, while more difficult to manage, help to ensure that duties aren't left until the last minute and, to some extent, limit procrastination and free-riding. So, keep all this in mind while picking up the team.
The Presentation: Whether you despise or enjoy giving PowerPoint presentations, it is a talent that will not only help you get through the next two years of MBA but will also be highly prized in the future. Winning requires excellent presentation skills. Pre-designed framework slides and templates aid in the organization of your thought process, allowing you to consider the flow of your PPT and the story you want to tell, and improving the quality of your final submission dramatically. As an added bonus, you'll save time on the final edits. Please keep the basic core of the GTM strategy in your mind while preparing the presentation.
How to win: It's the same as an investor wondering, "How can I always beat the market?" There is no single rule that guarantees victory, but some habits may increase your chances of success. Collaborate with different people on different projects/competitions and figure out the best team with complementary skill-sets, choose which GTM case competitions to target, and put your best effort into them. Additionally, interact with previous year winners and other seniors to gain insights for specific competitions and companies, improve your PPT and presentation skills. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best!!
That would be all for now. I have tried to be as exhaustive as possible while writing this. Hopefully, readers find it helpful.