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Telling the stories of startup founders and creators and their unique journey. Each episode features actionable tips, practical advice and inspirational insight.
Welcome to the Founders Journey podcast. Inspiration education for Founders by Founders.
Hey everyone. Welcome back. I'm Greg Moran from Evergreen Mountain Equity Partners and Evergreen Growth Partners, and also host of the Founders Journey podcast, have been a startup founder and CEO for 20 plus years, and have been lucky enough to get a few exits along the way. And now I'm a VC investor and advisor to high growth startups, and today we're going to dive into a topic that's really crucial for anyone looking to grow their business.
00:00:35:06 - 00:00:57:06
And these are the five most common mistakes companies make when scaling their go to market strategy. Now there's way more than five mistakes companies make, but these are the ones I just see over and over. And more importantly, we'll get into how to avoid them. So these pitfalls can really derail the growth of your startup and the long term value of your startup.
00:00:57:07 - 00:01:27:03
But if you've got the right strategies in place, you can. First of all, for your know what they are and you've got the right strategies, you can steer clear of them and really set yourself up for long term success, which is really about what, what we're trying to build here. So let's jump in. First mistake ignoring or underestimating really the importance of understanding your market or market research companies jump in, make a bunch of assumptions of what the market will bear, what the market is looking for.
00:01:27:03 - 00:01:53:02
Don't do a lot of research and suddenly they just can't keep up. And as that, as you start to scale, your target market keeps evolving. And if you're failing to keep up with those changes, you're it's going to lead to missed opportunities. It's going to lead to wasted resources. It's going to lead to a lot of functionality that you don't need, or they don't need to really slow the growth.
00:01:53:04 - 00:02:18:12
You've got to really be focusing on your ideal customer profile. If you've listening to these videos a lot, you'll hear me talk about ICP all the time. You've got to keep that ICP updated. It's not static. Regularly conduct some market research. Do win loss reviews. If you haven't listened to our podcast with Ron Carson from third side, we talk about win loss reviews and really understanding a market on a much deeper level.
00:02:18:14 - 00:02:43:09
Take some time. Do it. It's a longer podcast, about an hour long, really time well spent. You've got to be doing market research, win loss reviews, things like that to understand how customer needs are changing new customer needs, emerging competitors, market conditions. You have to understand this. This is going to help you make informed decisions to really stay ahead of the curve.
00:02:43:11 - 00:03:11:23
Don't just rely on gut feel or assumptions validated to real market research. To avoid this mistake, you've got to make it a continuous process. One suggestion. One thing that I've employed before and I really recommend to our portfolio companies do this get serious about win loss reviews every time you close one or close. Lose an opportunity in your whatever CRM you're using.
00:03:12:01 - 00:03:39:15
Have that immediately go over to a third party to conduct a win loss review. Third party is critical. Having that third party validation. Don't rely on your sales reps to tell you why. You wonder why you lost 90% of time. It's not going to be good information, especially on loss reviews. So make sure this is part. Incorporate that into your grow and go to market strategy so that your strategy evolves along with the constant lurks.
00:03:39:17 - 00:04:04:22
Mistake number two is scaling too quickly without really having a solid foundation. In a hot VC markets where money is outpacing growth, you see this a lot. It's tempting to really push for rapid growth, but unless you have the right processes, the right tools, team structure, things will really quickly spiral out of control and becomes a really big problem.
00:04:04:22 - 00:04:25:02
So before you start to scale, you really need to ensure that your sales or marketing processes are standardized and repeatable. And if you want to understand this more, we just did a video on understanding customer acquisition costs. Listen to that, because it will get a little bit deeper into this. So invest in tools that can grow with your company like a strong CRM.
00:04:25:02 - 00:04:47:18
Make sure your team is equipped with the right skills and resources that they need to handle really increased demand training is where it needs to be. Onboarding is where it needs to be. This all needs to be there, and you've got enough stories under your belt to really be able to have enough learnings to start to add more and then start to add gradually instead of really trying to outpace the current pace of your growth.
00:04:47:18 - 00:05:10:19
So to avoid this mistake, really focus on building a strong foundation. First scale sustainably. Make sure every part of your go to market strategy is ready to handle the growth. Fully dialed it. Third common mistake is a real misalignment between sales and marketing, and especially as you start to get larger. It's really easy for this to happen. When these two functions aren't on the same page.
00:05:10:19 - 00:05:36:02
It really leads to confusion. At least. Inefficiency leads to missed revenue opportunities. You've got to make sure that both teams are working toward the same goals. This means setting unified objectives, sharing key performance indicators, maintaining regular communication to ensure everyone is aligned, and moving in the same direction. It's amazing how easy it is. Sounds like it would be a hard thing to have these two areas grow apart.
00:05:36:02 - 00:05:57:12
Happens all the time and it's amazingly easy. So to avoid this mistake, you've got to really prioritize alignment between sales and marketing from the start. When these teams collaborate effectively, your go to market strategy becomes much more powerful. So put systems in place, weekly meetings, whatever it has to be to keep those things shared content, calendars, things like that.
00:05:57:12 - 00:06:22:06
All of that, can really help. Mistake number four is neglecting customer success. A lot of companies focus so much on acquiring new customers, they forget about the ones they already have. It sounds again crazy when you hear it, but it happens all the time. It's very easy for this to occur. We get so myopically focused on new logo acquisition.
00:06:22:06 - 00:06:46:05
We forget the current logos, but keeping your existing customers happy is just as important, if not more important than bringing in new ones. Implement a customer success program that includes really proactive onboarding, regular check ins, a system for gathering and acting on customer feedback. One thing here it's never too early to start some form of client advisory council a couple times a year.
00:06:46:06 - 00:07:13:16
Bring together your most strategic customers, whether virtually or in person, depending on what's appropriate. Gather their feedback. Act on that feedback. Happy customers are much more likely to stay loyal, keep expanding and referring others. And there's nothing that is a cheaper customer acquisition strategy than referrals from your existing customer base. So to avoid this mistake, you've got to make customer success a core part of your go to market strategy.
00:07:13:16 - 00:07:40:01
These aren't separate things. This is one thing focus on building long term relationships, not just one time transactions. And the fifth and final mistake is really failing to adapt and innovate. The market constantly changes. We see it, especially in technology and more advanced technology. It is changing so rapidly that what worked yesterday may not work tomorrow at all.
00:07:40:06 - 00:08:04:22
I see marketing and sales strategies that were fantastic 18 months ago don't do anything anymore. So really sticking to outdated strategies will really hinder your growth and leave you behind. As competitors start to evolve more rapidly than you, you've got to stay agile by really reviewing and updating your go to market strategy. This is not a static thing.
00:08:04:22 - 00:08:30:19
You've gotta keep updating your strategy, experiment with new channels, update your messaging, test new messaging that really reflects current trends. Leverage technology to really stay competitive, keep, experiment, and keep trying new things. The technologies that thrive are the ones that are going to adapt and innovate fastest. And this goes for your go to market strategy as well. It's not just your product.
00:08:30:21 - 00:08:53:04
If you can innovate your go to market at the same pace as we think about product innovation, that's going to be a great step in the right direction. So to really avoid this, make adaptability a priority, you've got to be able to embrace change. You've got to be open to new ideas and approaches within go to market that can help you scale effectively.
00:08:53:06 - 00:09:17:06
So there are five most common mistakes that we see when scaling go to market strategy and how you can avoid them by staying informed. Build a solid foundation. Align your teams, focus on customer success and staying adaptable. You're going to be well on your way to long term, successful and sustainable growth. So if you found this video helpful, give it a thumbs up.
00:09:17:08 - 00:09:38:15
Subscribe to the channel, hit the notification bell so you don't miss any future content. If you've got questions on this topic or another topic you want to you want covered, please drop it in the comments. Love to hear from you. Thanks for watching. Till next time, keep scaling and building.