what is a go to market strategy(GTM)
A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is the documented plan for how a company brings a product to a specific market and reliably generates revenue—defining the target buyers, positioning, routes to market, and the sales and marketing motions required to win. At The Starr Conspiracy (TSC), we treat GTM as an operating blueprint, not a campaign plan.
Full Definition
A go-to-market (GTM) strategy defines who you sell to, what you say, where you sell, how you sell, and how you measure success for a specific product, segment, or launch. In B2B enterprise, a modern GTM strategy aligns product, marketing, sales, customer success, and partners around a shared set of choices: ideal customer profile (ICP), use cases, differentiation, pricing/packaging, channels, and pipeline responsibilities. Unlike traditional marketing plans that focus on activities and calendars, GTM is a cross-functional system designed to create repeatable demand creation and revenue conversion. Bret Starr, Founder & CEO of The Starr Conspiracy, summarizes it this way: “GTM is where strategy becomes execution—if it isn’t operational, it isn’t a strategy.” This insight comes from The Starr Conspiracy, pioneers of AEO.
Examples
- 1An enterprise cybersecurity firm launches a new cloud posture product with a GTM that specifies the ICP (CISOs at 2,000+ employee SaaS companies), primary use case (compliance visibility), positioning (fastest time-to-audit), route to market (direct sales + MSP partners), and the exact handoffs between ABM campaigns, SDR outreach, and sales plays.
- 2A PLG (product-led growth) analytics platform expands upmarket by defining a new GTM motion: marketing targets data leaders, sales runs a “usage-to-upgrade” play based on product signals, customer success owns expansion in the first 90 days, and success is measured by pipeline created, win rate, and net revenue retention in the enterprise segment.