Our go-to-market system

As we built several ventures, we needed a common approach to structure decisions without applying the same tactics to every market.

We organised it into two parts: strategy, then the action plan.

1. Strategy: APOP

Audience

Who do we want to serve?

Which groups or segments do we want to test?

What problem does each group face?

If there are several, which seems most important to focus on today, and why?

We don’t want to force a single ideal customer profile too early. For some ventures, the audience is already fairly clear. For others, we compare several groups before choosing.

What we want to clarify is:

who + a problem important enough to act on.

Positioning

Once we understand the audience and the problem, we formulate the positioning.

We use a simple structure:

For [audience] who [problem], [product] is a [category] that [main benefit].

And, where useful:

Unlike [alternative], [important difference].

The alternative isn’t necessarily a direct competitor. It might be the status quo, a manual process, an informal network or several tools used together.

If there are several audiences with different problems, we may need different positioning for each.

The point is to make a clear decision about the customer, the problem, the category and the value we bring, rather than write an elegant sentence.

Offer

What are we offering today to solve this problem?

Product or service, format, price, support, terms, what’s included and what isn’t.

If there are several segments, should the offer be the same for each or adapted?

At first, some of the offer may still be a hypothesis to test.

Promotion

How do we reach each audience?

Which channels best suit each segment?

LinkedIn, targeted outreach, partners, advertising, work on the ground, content and events: the mix depends on the venture.

At this stage, we choose the channels.

What we want to test

After APOP, we add a simple question:

What do we need to observe to believe this strategy is working?

It could be a qualified enquiry, an introduction that moves forward, a purchase, a repeat purchase, activation, retention, an accepted price or another sufficiently concrete behaviour.

If there are several segments, we compare the signals across them before deciding where to focus resources.

2. The action plan

The action plan sets out what we’ll actually do within the channels we’ve chosen.

Attract

What actions will help us reach the right people and build trust?

For example: posting on LinkedIn, contacting a specific prospect list, working with partners, organising tastings or launching a targeted campaign.

Convert

How do we turn that interest into a concrete next step?

It could be a demo, an introduction, a trial purchase, a landing page, a tasting or a very clear, simple offer.

Retain

What needs to happen for a customer to stay, buy again or reuse the product?

We look at actual use, experience, repeat purchases, retention and the value delivered.

Two approaches run throughout

Nurturing

Keep being useful before, during and after the sale.

Someone who isn’t ready today may be ready later.

Referrals

Someone can recommend a venture without ever becoming a customer.

That’s why referrals aren’t placed only at the end of the customer journey.

The overall principle remains simple:

Every touchpoint matters.

The method is the same for Jago, Tiimora and Dumaan.

What changes are the audiences, problems, positioning, offers, channels, actions and signals to measure.