Designing a Customer-Centered
Go-To-Market Strategy
March 2024
A customer-centered go-to-market (GTM) strategy prioritizes the needs and insights of customers and their real-world environments at every stage of bringing a product to market. It involves relational and trust-building work like listening, talking, observing, testing, and designing with and for customers. It also involves translating customer insights into a strategy that your GTM teams can execute on.
You may ask, “Why customer-centered?” Well, without customers, there is no business. And even though most companies will say that they’re “customer obsessed” and talk to their customers all the time, their behavior isn’t driven by customer needs or insights. Instead, behaviors are driven by the requirements of the technology, what the business wants, or what the business assumes the customer wants. It’s hard to engage customers…and exceptionally hard to do this well.
In this post, I identify key customer-centered questions that businesses can ask themselves while developing their GTM strategy. I’ve drawn from my experience leading GTM with advanced technology companies at the intersection of aerospace, robotics, and artificial intelligence.
Setting the context
Building and commercializing advanced technologies like reusable rockets, underwater remotely operated vehicles, humanoid robots, or scaled LLM agents is nontrivial. Before I dive into the questions, let me quickly set the context for this post by explaining:
-
Characteristics of advanced technology companies
-
The path to commercialization
-
GTM functions
-
Customer-centered GTM model
1. Characteristics of advanced technology companies
For the purposes of this article, “advanced technology companies” typically…
-
Build high risk & high cost technologies
-
Sell business-to-business (B2B)
-
Work closely with government to ensure compliance, influence policymaking, access contracts, fund research and development, etc.
-
Have a bias for a technology-first mindset
2. The path to commercialization
The path to commercializing advanced technologies requires research and development and continuous iteration and maturation of the technology. My observations around GTM strategy focus on the stages of commercialization highlighted below in pink: initial testing of the market all the way to full commercial launch.
3. GTM functions
I’ve organized questions into six critical GTM functions so that they are easier to apply in practice:
-
Product: Oversee product design and development, positioning, and messaging to ensure alignment with target market needs.
-
Market: Analyze potential markets to understand customer needs, competition, and market trends.
-
Marketing: Design and execute campaigns to create product awareness, generate leads, and drive demand.
-
Sales: Determine how the product will be sold, including sales channels, pricing, and sales team structure.
-
Partnerships: Identify and forge strategic partnerships that can extend market reach, build credibility, and enhance the product's value.
-
Customer Success: Establish systems to support customers post-purchase, ensuring satisfaction and long-term loyalty.
4. Customer-centered GTM model
A customer-centered approach requires GTM functions to continually engage the customer as they execute the GTM motion. In this model, “engagement” refers to a spectrum of experiences that you facilitate with a customer. This may involve listening, talking, observing, testing, and designing with and for customers. You might be informing, consulting, or co-creating with them.
Customer-Centered GTM Model
The customer is at the heart of the GTM strategy. The questions below help companies maintain a customer-centered GTM approach.
What came first: the customer or the solution?
How does the customer actually interact with the technology in the real world?
What are the tradeoffs of using the technology?
What is the customer insight that is driving our business strategy?
How will regulations impact the way we get the product into the hands of the customer?
Will we serve customers in the defense industry?
How generalizable is the technology across multiple markets?
What aspects of the technology can the customer (not) control?
How are we helping our customers promote the product?
How might our ethical stance help us build trust with the customer?
How can the customer tell that the technology actually works?
How do we make the buying process as simple as possible?
How are we helping the customer build their business case?
Why is the customer “hiring” our product?
How does our pricing strategy meet the demands of the customer’s business?
What partnerships are essential to our business?
What partnerships bolster our credibility with our customers?
What is each partner willing to sacrifice?
How well do innovation groups reflect our ideal customer profile?
What external factors affect the perceived success of the technology?
What do we need do to make sure the customer is successful?
Who is the patty in our ‘customer hamburger’?
How might we make an ordinary experience extraordinary?
How well do we know our own customer experience?
How do we practice delivering the customer experience?
Product
What came first: the customer or the solution?
“Tech-first” companies have a bias for building exciting new technologies, even if they have not yet defined a target market. They run the risk of solving problems with technology because they can, not because they should. It is essential to conduct customer discovery in order to define the target market. Success in this approach relies on the willingness of technologists to redesign the solution to meet the market’s specific needs and context.
E.g., Google Glass was developed as a top-secret project at Google X. Lauded as cool technology when it was first launched, customers quickly realized that there was no practical use case for Glass. Even X engineers were split on the goal of Glass – was it fashion or function? Glass was named “the worst product of all time”, criticized for being buggy, poor fitting, and raising concerns around privacy.
How does the customer actually interact with the technology in the real world?
The way we expect the customer to behave with technology in idealized and hypothetical environments can be vastly different to the way they behave in the real world. Conducting observational research, prototyping, and roleplaying in real world environments is critical to the success of the product. It’s also necessary for pressure testing the assumptions we hold about the customer. While this may all sound obvious, it’s common for technologists to focus on optimizing the technology at the risk of deprioritizing the needs of the user and their environment.
E.g., Pepper is a humanoid robot that was used to lead recreational exercise classes in Japanese nursing homes. It was assumed that having Pepper lead classes would create more free time for caregivers. In practice, however, clients would not follow Pepper’s instructions unless caregivers stood beside the robot and copied its motions. It also took extra time for caregivers to set up and manage the robot. Ultimately, Pepper was deemed counterproductive, and the technology was abandoned.
E.g., Touchscreens became a standard fixture of the modern-day vehicle, popularized with the launch of Tesla Motor’s Model S. Despite their beautiful and sleek interface, touchscreens have been found to divert the driver’s attention away from the road and promote unsafe driving. This has led the Euro NCAP to consider new testing rules that require vehicles to have physical controls for basic functions in order to earn a 5-star safety rating.
What are the tradeoffs of using the technology?
Adopting new technology requires customers to change their current behavior…and changing behavior is incredibly hard, even when it benefits us (take diet or smoking cessation, for example). Identify the change required by comparing the current customer experience to the expected and actual experience when they are using the technology: what are the tradeoffs for the customer? If the solution is too painful to use, the problem is not important enough to solve, or the technology is not solving the right problem, the customer is unlikely to change.
E.g., Hug is a robot designed to help caregivers lift their clients in nursing homes. While the robot eliminated the physical strain of lifting, it also changed the dynamics of the caregiver and client relationship. Hug was cumbersome and time consuming to set up and transport from room-to-room, shifting the caregiver’s attention away from the client to the robot. Hug also minimized physical interaction, which caregivers believed was critical to building trust with clients. Ultimately caregivers stopped using Hug, deciding that the robot undermined their ability to provide meaningful care.
Market
What is the customer insight that is driving our business strategy?
According to Good Strategy Bad Strategy, a strategy is an approach to overcoming a challenge and is comprised of a problem to solve, an insight that the business knows about the customer/market, and actions to take to solve the problem. The insight is often the hardest for a business to articulate because it requires a deep understanding of the customer. It’s also obvious when the insight is missing because teams lack conviction, shared rationale, and a clear focus on how to solve the problem. The insight aligns all teams (product, sales, customer success, etc.) on the go-to-market motion.
E.g., Coinbase is a digital currency exchange platform founded in 2012 that allows users to buy, sell, store, and trade cryptocurrencies. They discovered that, ironically, a growing base of customers wanted to own decentralized currency while maintaining all the benefits of a secure, reliable, and centralized platform. This insight formed the premise of Coinbase’s platform, bridging the gap between traditional finance and the crypto economy.
How will regulations impact the way we get the product into the hands of the customer?
Regulations shape the way companies form, function, and ultimately engage with customers. Advanced technologies tend to operate within highly regulated industries and, in some cases, the technology may be so novel that it prompts new types of policy and political pressures. Identify and track regulations that impact the GTM strategy and determine what this means from a customer standpoint. For example, does it enforce safety standards they must comply with, create requirements for managing data, require them to use the product differently, or introduce new purchasing options? Create contingency plans in case of regulatory delays or change.
E.g., In January 2020, NASA lifted prohibitions on human-tended research opportunities aboard commercial suborbital vehicles. This meant that scientists could secure NASA funding to fly a passenger to space with a research payload. The policy change opened new revenue channels for launch providers and spurred sales campaigns targeting scientists with human-in-the-loop experiments, particularly those developing wearable technologies.
Will we serve customers in the defense industry?
An early strategic decision for founders to make is whether or not they will serve the defense sector. Doing so means that their technology may be used for national security and warfare applications. Companies working with the defense sector are beholden to the funding mechanisms, politics, and timelines of their customers. Acting as a defense contractor may also deter business from specific funders, customers, or partners.
E.g., A private contractor builds underwater remotely operated vehicles for the defense industry. The recent emergence of venture capital firms exclusively funding defense sector businesses has enabled the contractor to secure early capital to support their R&D efforts. They are actively looking to secure a pilot project with the U.S. Navy.
How generalizable is the technology across multiple markets?
Startups often aspire to build generalizable advanced technology to serve multiple markets. Humanoid robots, for instance, are being built to serve a range of diverse human needs, starting with industrial use cases (manufacturing, factories, etc.) and gradually moving to consumer use cases as the technology matures (households, care facilities, etc.). While the underlying technology may be adaptable, the users and contexts to which it is applied can significantly affect its design, functionality, and acceptance. Technologists must be willing to redesign the solution to fit the needs of different markets over time.
E.g., ASIMO is a sophisticated humanoid robot that Honda started developing in 1986 whose goal was to provide services to humans. ASIMO had impressive yet superficial capabilities, and turned out to be highly impractical at helping humans with specific tasks in the real world. So, while ASIMO could walk and kick a soccer ball, it could not fold laundry or wash dishes. Honda retired ASIMO in 2018 to focus on applying its technology to more specific use cases.
Marketing
What aspects of the technology can the customer (not) control?
Technology automates tasks, creating less manual work for humans. Clearly articulate how customers can control and manage the technology. This is especially important for technologies that may produce high risk and high impact results. Not only does this set the customer’s expectations, it helps them assess, anticipate, and mitigate risks in case of a system anomaly or failure.
E.g., A researcher is preparing a scientific payload for flight aboard a reusable launch vehicle and designs her experiment with the understanding that she can only control the internal contents and environment of the payload chassis. She builds redundancy into her experiment by including an internal power source to ensure that it operates seamlessly, even if there is power failure between the vehicle and the payloads. She also understands that if there is a mission failure, she will not be able to recover her payload.
How are we helping our customers promote the product?
Power customers are 10x users who love the product and tell their friends about it. Help these customers promote the business – this may involve creating exclusive content for them, providing them with unique access to the business, co-creating the product together, or providing them with forums for storytelling. Customer-to-customer validation of the product is far more valuable than any direct marketing effort. This is a particularly powerful tactic in niche technology communities where word-of-mouth dominates (e.g., aerospace, submersibles).
E.g., An AI company has created a community to engage its customers through in person events and online forums. They identify highly engaged users within the community and grant them with an exclusive invitation to beta launches and special access codes that they can share with friends.
How might our ethical stance help us build trust with the customer?
A code of ethics clarifies how a company navigates ethical challenges and demonstrates its commitment to issues like data privacy and societal impact. This is particularly helpful to have when technology risks are high and building trust with customers is paramount to a company’s success. In a competitive tech landscape, a clear ethical stance can serve as a differentiator and help rally customers that share similar beliefs and values.
E.g., AI research firms like Open AI, Anthropic, and Meta have recently launched large-scale language models (Chat GPT, Claude, and Llama, respectively). Each company has taken a different approach to responsible development and the privatization of AI: Open AI published a Charter outlining their core principles and commitments, Anthropic has made a commitment to transparency through ‘Constitutional AI’, and Meta launched a free and open-source model for research and commercial use, governed by their Responsible Use Guide.
Sales
How can the customer tell that the technology actually works?
When it comes to unproven and complex technologies, “seeing is believing” for the customer. They insist on live in-person demonstrations in order to trust that the technology actually works. Building customer confidence may involve hands-on testing opportunities, special access to the technology, exclusive livestream events, or site visits to see the technology in action. While live demos are costly, they can make all the difference in closing a deal. On the contrary, pre-recorded demos are a weaker form of validation that may generate more skepticism than trust (see Nikola’s staged electric truck or Google’s faked Gemini video). If you create a pre-recording, at least make it believable: consider a raw, uncut, and non-theatrical video that clearly shows the technology doing what it’s supposed to do.
E.g., SpaceX livestreams its missions, including their most recent test flight of Starship, a two-stage super heavy lift launch vehicle, that flew for the third time in March 2024. SpaceX has also had the humility to share their failures, demonstrating how difficult it is to build and fly reusable rockets.
E.g., At Tesla AI Day 2022, Tesla livestreamed a “very close to production” version of their humanoid robot, Optimus, in front of an audience of journalists. While acknowledging that the prototype was too early to be fully functional, Optimus demonstrated the range of motion of its arms and hands.
How do we make the buying process as simple as possible?
Buying advanced technology is complicated. It often requires executive buy-in, raises safety, reputational, ethical, and regulatory flags, involves new technical concepts and language, heightens the customer’s public profile, and more. Determine the minimum viable buying process: the simplest and most streamlined process through which a customer can complete a purchase, while still meeting all necessary requirements and ensuring a positive experience. Guide the customer through the buying process, de-risking the most laborious steps and showing them a structured path to purchase.
E.g., To de-risk the sales process, a payload sales channel partner walks a customer through the basic steps involved in purchasing a payload. Given that launch costs and technical testing are common sales objections, the partner facilitates introductions to appropriate funders who can offset costs (space agencies, government groups, private organizations, etc.) and technical integrators who can service specialized safety and integration needs (technical firms, consultants, researchers, etc.).
How are we helping the customer build their business case?
Advanced technologies may have no or few established benchmarks for success. It is incumbent upon the business to help customers understand the value of the technology and their return on investment. This is particularly important when there are sunk costs up front and the economic returns are not immediate. Helping customers build the business case can cultivate shared expectations and ensure full utilization of the technology.
E.g., A healthcare provider is interested in leasing a commercial cleaning robot for use across its patient facilities. A sales agent helps them determine that operating one robot for 4 hours a day and 3 days a week at 1 site will help them stay compliant with CDC hygiene standards and expand cleaning services to all hours of the day. At this rate of utilization, they should break even on costs by the 10-month mark. The agent also uncovers that the purchase is an opportunity for the provider to build their reputation as a technology forward institution, a key strategic objective set by their board.
Why is the customer “hiring” our product?
Understanding the reason why a customer has purchased the product is critical for segmenting and maturing the customer pipeline. The ‘Jobs To Be Done’ (JTBD) framework is based on the idea that people “hire” products or services to get a job done. The job may be functional, emotional, or social. Identifying the job to be done for each customer helps improve segmentation, calls out the difference between early and late adopters, and focuses sales and marketing efforts.
E.g., An academic institution is interested in flying a scientific experiment to space with a new launch provider. While they were excited about conducting microgravity-based research, the JTBD for the customer was primarily emotional: the institution wanted to leverage co-branding with the launch provider to demonstrate their appetite for innovation. They felt that this was an opportunity to raise their public profile and attract prospective students.
Does our pricing strategy make sense for the customer and their business?
The cost of delivering advanced technology remains high until it is produced at scale. While startups experiment with pricing strategies at first, having a deep understanding of the customer's business will help establish a pricing model that works for them and creates natural on-ramps for customers to pay more over time. Learn about their business model. Analyze sales patterns to see how they buy from you and what they spend. Imposing high, recurring costs on customers to quickly hit revenue targets (often at the behest of investors) can be problematic and overinflate the customer’s expectations around the value you provide. Unless ROI is tied to concrete outcomes like customer revenue, customers must be convinced of the perceived value the technology provides.
E.g., A launch provider has created special pricing for scientific payloads developed by K-12 students. The payload is priced at a rate that is realistic for K-12 schools (i.e., a cost that a grade school can fundraise for) and becomes one of the most popular selling payload options.
E.g., A company leases their autonomous food delivery vehicle on a 3-year subscription contract. They find that customers negotiate shorter lease terms in order to test the utility of the vehicle and the high price point is only achievable by a small number of large enterprises. The company adjusts their pricing model by reducing lease terms and creating tiered pricing based the size of the customer’s business.
Partnerships
What partnerships are essential to our business?
In the world of advanced technologies, partnerships can make or break a business. Technologies may be so niche that their success (revenue generation, market access, etc.) relies on a small number of highly influential partners like NASA, the U.S. Department of Defense, or foreign governments. It’s imperative to identify and foster healthy partnerships with these stakeholders. Understand their needs, politics, and operations, and learn how to show up as their partner.
E.g., An aerospace firm is developing a lunar lander and aims to become a contractor with the U.S. government, a process that requires the approval of a handful of key leaders. Leveraging their past collaborations with NASA, the company creates a strategy to engage these leaders over time. They anticipate turnover of these champions based on organizational and political shifts.
What partnerships bolster our credibility with our customers?
Advanced technologies are hard to build, capital intensive, and have a number of dependencies (e.g., supply chain, regulations). Partnerships play a critical role in providing these companies with access to key resources, expertise, and markets. By working with established and respected partners that customers trust, companies can quickly gain strategic validation and build investor confidence. Ideally both partners are invested in a shared outcome (see What is each partner willing to sacrifice?).
E.g., Figure AI, a humanoid robotics startup, and OpenAI, an AI research firm, announced a partnership to develop next-generation AI models for humanoid robots. The partnership provides Figure with access to Microsoft's AI infrastructure and services to support the deployment of humanoid robots. OpenAI’s investment is validation for Figure, a two-year-old company that is in the process of developing its first commercial prototype.
What is each partner willing to sacrifice?
Partnerships are a two-way street. When each partner is willing to give up something that is meaningful to them, both parties are more likely to stay motivated in the partnership. This may be in the form of tangible (capital, manufacturing support, etc.) or intangible investments (logo use, C-suite access, customer introductions, etc.). This shouldn’t be an easy decision. Without this investment, there is little incentive for both parties to take the partnership seriously. Sticky and sustained partnerships are critical to building industry credibility.
E.g., An AI startup and a major management consulting firm announce that they are exploring a joint business relationship. The startup will provide the consultancy with access to their AI platform and in return the consultancy will introduce the startup to 3 of their major accounts.
How well do innovation groups reflect our ideal customer profile?
Innovation groups are teams focused on exploring industry trends, testing new technologies, and identifying growth opportunities. They tend to be enthusiastic early customers and serve as a warm entry point for startups to collaborate with established corporations, fueling initial traction, resources, and visibility. At the same time, these groups are incentivized to take incremental risks and tend to have short attention spans. They may not represent your ideal customer profile and their investment as a partner does not necessarily indicate market acceptance. Validating product market fit requires partners beyond innovation groups.
E.g., A biotech startup partnering with the innovation arm of a large pharmaceutical company is given access to internal scientists, co-working space, and co-branding opportunities. The innovation group has agreed to explore a pilot project to evaluate the technology's potential and fit with the company's needs. While the partnership increases the visibility of the startup, it's not clear if the pharma company actually needs or wants its services.
Customer Success
What external factors affect the perceived success of the technology?
Advanced technologies operate in complex systems. Even if the solution works as intended, its impact may be influenced or even minimized by external factors. Mapping the ecosystem around the technology can help identify these factors, how important they are to the success of the technology, and help the company determine whether or not they can and/or should try to control them.
E.g., Tesla Motors is an energy company that took a comprehensive approach to making electric vehicles at a time when electric charging infrastructure was sparse. For customers to gain the full benefit of their electric vehicle and address “range anxiety” from customers, Tesla proactively created a network of fast-charging stations and home charging solutions.
What do we need do to make sure the customer is successful?
The 'minimum service offering' is the service you must deliver so that the customer is successful. Not only does this set service expectations for the customer, it creates a shared definition of “success”. Anything below this threshold will likely result in a poor customer experience and anything beyond is likely an opportunity for service expansion. Given that it’s common to overoptimize services for early customers, clarifying the minimum service early on will help minimize confusion about what the customer is paying for and will be asked to pay for.
E.g., An aerospace company has created a rideshare service for payloads aboard their reusable launch vehicle. “Success” to the customer means that their payload flies to and from space without issue. To ensure success, the company must safely integrate the payload into the vehicle, complete the mission, and hand the payload back to the customer, post-flight. To this end, the company provides the customer with a payload locker and basic integration services to ensure payload compliance. Any services related to payload design, contents, or testing are the responsibility of the customer.
Who is the patty in our ‘customer hamburger’?
Buying advanced technologies involves many stakeholders. If we simplify this into the customer hamburger model, we see that…
*Inspired by Marooney
-
The top bun is the buyer – the executive who decides to make the purchase, allocates budgets, and sets high level strategic direction.
-
The tomato, lettuce, and cheese are the evaluators – experts (technical, legal, regulatory, etc.) who ensure various levels of compliance, safety, integration, and approval are met.
-
The patty is the strategic leader – the leader who is responsible for continuous use and scaling of the product internally.
-
The bottom bun is the user – people who directly use the technology and can be leveraged to share ideas and advocate for the product. They may not be fully bought into the technology at first.
In larger customer organizations that purchase complex technology, it’s critical to set up the patty for success. The patty ensures that the customer gets the most value out of the purchase: they bridge the gap between buyers and users by operationalizing the buyer’s goals across their organization while making sure that users are putting the technology to work. The patty may not be obvious or established during the sales process.
E.g., A large pharmaceutical company is launching a space health program and is interested in conducting a scientific experiment aboard a reusable rocket. Approval for the program was provided by the Chief Commercial Officer. The strategic leader is a senior level director who assembles a team who plans the program activities and identifies scientists (users) who will build the experiment.
Engagement
How might we make an ordinary experience extraordinary?
When was the last time you heard someone rave about the last cold call they got or how much they loved attending a quarterly business review? These are typical and at worst, painful experiences that are a part of any go-to-market motion. Making these ordinary experiences extraordinary can be an unexpected delight for the customer. Sometimes ‘extraordinary’ can mean making a process more efficient, providing clear and simple communications, or setting expectations.
E.g., An AI firm set up 60 min monthly check-ins with customers to solicit feedback. After noticing that customers regularly cancelled or rescheduled these calls, the firm asked customers to help them co-create a better check-in experience. Together they developed a structured agenda for every call, time boxing discussion for feedback and reducing meetings to 25 min.
How well do we know our own customer experience?
Surprisingly few executives and employees know what it’s actually like for customers to interact with their company from end-to-end…they’ve never experienced it themselves. Start by eating your own dog food and gain insight through empathy building. Understand the customer journey you’ve designed by going through it yourself as a customer would – this includes experiencing every process, conversation, email, document, PowerPoint deck, and conference call.
E.g., While employees that work for a company that builds rockets for human spaceflight do not have the opportunity to fly to space, they can still directly engage with the product by touring and sitting in rocket prototypes, testing UX simulations, observing mission control, and completing astronaut training.
E.g., Blind carbon copy external communications company wide so that all employees receive emails that customers receive.
How do we practice delivering the customer experience?
When was the last time you practiced running a QBR, sales call, customer support videoconference, or in-person onboarding meeting? Delivering a product or service is a performance…and it’s impossible to get better without practice. Practice establishes consistent expectations and standards for what “great” looks like. Give yourself the time and grace to make mistakes, learn, iterate, and improve the experience by testing or dry-running it internally before taking it live to a customer. Cultivate a culture where practice is encouraged.
E.g., A VP of customer success has an account manager who she favors and entrusts with her largest accounts, complaining that the rest of her team “isn’t good enough”. Her CEO encourages her to level up the entire team by providing training that includes role playing common customer scenarios. Role plays are recorded in Gong so that other teammates can review and provide feedback.
Tags: Go-to-Market, Customer Experience, GTM, Sales, Partnerships, Experience Design, Human-Centered Design
© 2024 Andrea Yip