"Thank you for your flaws"

GTM done differently

Hi all —

I keep having the same conversation with founders, so I figure I’d make a public service announcement here.

Founders keep saying something like this:

“We are still not feature-complete, which means during sales calls we need to find a way to talk about our roadmap to get the deal done, without making explicit promises about timelines. It’s really hard to do this well, and I KNOW it hurts our conversion rates and makes us look like a startup.”

This reflects a MASSIVE (but extremely common) misunderstanding about the whole point of go-to-market.

Your go-to-market motion is just words and images that create expectations in your prospective buyer’s mind.

YOU CHOOSE the words and images you use. If buyers have objections or are demanding specific features, there’s a problem with the words and images you’ve used in your sales & marketing. The same is true when you’re apologizing for your product or saying, “yeah we’re working on that.”

The whole point of go-to-market is to create the right expectations in your buyer’s mind based on what they need to accomplish and what you can deliver. Every single flaw you THINK you have can be turned into something they THANK you for:

• Your customer dashboard isn’t built? “The best part? You don’t have to learn a new system.”

• Your product’s design is really basic? “The best part? There’s just one screen for you to deal with.”

• Your advanced tiers aren’t ready for bigger buyers? “The best part? Our base package is something that HUNDREDS of people JUST LIKE YOU are able to implement without any customization or hassle - it just works.”

• Onboarding takes 2 months? “If you sign up this month and pay up front, you can move up on our waitlist and you’ll be live in 8 weeks.”

Customers can choose you over their alternatives BECAUSE of your flaws if you do this right.

Of course, your prospective buyer isn’t a blank state: She has knowledge and experiences that interact with the words and images you use. Maybe she’s done demos of competitors. Maybe she “knows your category pretty well.” At very least, she’s not an idiot. So you need to do this thoughtfully.

But the point stands: You can design your go-to-market in such a way that buyers choose you and thank you despite - or even because of - your limitations.

No more making excuses for the product - go generate revenue!