The Essential Framework For Becoming a GTM Juggernaut
Some of you have read my story of how I transitioned from Founder to Marketer. Leading marketing for high-growth startups with few resources and little time for 18 years, I learned to rely on proven frameworks. I will tell you about one of the central frameworks I use in this article. If you have a business looking to scale efficiently or are beginning to struggle, getting your Go-To-Market (GTM) Positioning right is a game changer.
In 2018, I was 14 years into my career working for a company called flexReceipts. flexReceipts powered digital receipts for major retailers like Under Armour, GNC and Michael Kors. The product not only provided retailers with email receipts but also inserted customized offers within the receipts to encourage customers to purchase again.
But like many young companies that experience initial success only to see growth eventually stall - we had a problem. The flagship product was no longer innovative, and many retailers had already adopted some form of digital receipts solution. The thing was, flexReceipts was venture-backed, and like most, there was pressure to become the next Silicon Valley Unicorn.
Discovering GTM Positioning
With sales slowing, we realized there was no longer Product-Market Fit, and demand for the existing product was diminishing. It was at that point that leadership decided to expand the company’s value proposition with additional products that could insert offers into other types of post-sale transactional messages, including Packing Slips, Order Confirmations and Shipping Updates. We were evolving from a single product company - flexReceipts - to a more complete post-sale engagement solution.
As a part of this intervention, we chose to rebrand as flexEngage. But a simple rebrand wasn’t enough. We needed to revisit who we were, what we were about, who our customers were, what problems we solved and how we were different. That’s when I met a positioning expert who had worked for the great Andy Cunningham. Andy is a Silicon Valley legend and Positioning expert who helped Steve Jobs launch the Macintosh in 1983, worked with him at NeXT and Pixar and later repositioned brands like Oracle, Cisco and Blackberry.
At flexEngage, I was introduced to Andy Cunningham’s 6Cs of Positioning. I eventually met and worked for Andy some years later when she personally taught me her powerful framework. Here is some of what I learned from her.
The Centrality of GTM Positioning
Al Ries and Jack Trout, authors of the seminal book, ‘Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind’ famously said that Positioning is how we come to ‘own real estate in the mind of the buyer.’ Getting your message to stick with customers requires repeating a compelling narrative that is simple to remember and easy to share.
Consider the first word or phrase you think of when I mention the following brands: Apple, Coca-Cola, Nike, Patagonia or Chick-fil-A. The words or phrases that came to mind are no accident.
GTM Positioning is essential to the development of that narrative. In fact, Positioning and Branding go hand in hand. Positioning is the intellectual understanding that underpins any product, service or solution. Branding is the emotional expression. I like to explain that Positioning establishes the strategy behind the brand. A Positioning strategy offers a blueprint for how a company will succeed in the market. At its most basic, Positioning answers the essential questions of buyers: Who are you, and why do you matter? It helps align the business around a strategic narrative and clear Go-To-Market approach.
The 6C Framework
To position any brand, you must start with research and feedback. You need insights from the company’s internal teams, customers, the market and competitors. Once you put these findings through Andy Cunningham’s 6C lens, that’s when the magic happens.
The 6Cs of Positioning are:
Core - Who are you (DNA, Vision, Mission, Values)
Community - Your customers and those that influence them
Category - Where you fit in the marketplace
Context - What makes your brand relevant now
Competitors - How are you different, and what can be learned from competitors
Criteria - Essential factors for competing in your space
Applying the 6C Positioning framework has allowed me and my teams to multiply our effectiveness and grow revenues faster and better than before. Now, with my company AH Marketing, whenever a founder comes to us with any of the challenges below, we ask them to consider their GTM Positioning. Challenges like:
Business at Risk
Poor Product-Market Fit
Message Not Resonating with Buyers
Pipeline Dried Up
Low Conversion or Close Rates
Low Average Contract Value
Sales Feeling Unsupported
Improve Your GTM Positioning
After a successful repositioning and rebranding, flexEngage was acquired for an undisclosed multiple in 2022 by Klarna, a 2-billion dollar financial services and payments company. Since 2018, I have employed the 6C positioning framework to help underwrite GTM growth, and so should you.
Is your brand and message failing to resonate with customers? Do you sense a central piece is missing that can help you better connect with your buyers and grow more quickly? AH Marketing can help position your company to win in the marketplace. Please reach out for a Complimentary Strategy Session where we can discuss your GTM strategy and what’s standing in the way of sales.