A Roadmap To Success
Clarify. Define. Execute.
Success comes from a strategy that adapts as you go. This means figuring out what your business really needs and building an agile plan to get there.
It's an ongoing journey of adaptation, so you always have to have a clear and effective way to keep aligned with the needs of the business, while continually enhancing your GTM engine.
Step 1: Clarify What Success Looks Like
Get Clarity on Business Goals
Quickly get clarity on the overall goals of the business and the GTM motion. Get a deep understanding of the current challenges and opportunities.
Inspect the GTM Process
Review the current GTM process and any planned changes. Who is the ICP? How does the buying process work? Who's involved when? Etc.
Review Capabilities
Review and/or document current capabilities in place to support the GTM process and future needs.
Define Future State
Based on the reviews, conversations, and documentation; define the desired future state.
Step 2: Validate & Build
1
Validate Future State
Validate the future state with key stakeholders to get alignment and buy-in on the desired end state.
2
Prioritize Focus Areas
Define top focus areas with Value/Effort Matrix or RICE model to prioritize what to include in the roadmap.
3
Align Resources
Ensure internal and/or cross-functional team alignment in order to properly resource against the focus areas, and account for dependencies.
4
Build Roadmap
Build the roadmap within a resource e.g. Asana for ongoing tracking and visibility.
Step 3: Publish & Communicate
Publish The Roadmap
Publish the roadmap in a format and location that all stakeholders can access, and provide feedback. Make final iterations based on feedback.
Communicate
Set clear expectations with stakeholders on timelines and how/when updates, and progress, will be communicated.
Step 4: Execute in Sprints
Tackle the roadmap in defined sprints to continuously make predictable progress.
Developed A Lead Management Program Within A Complex $13B Revenue Organization
Vision
Create a new stream of pipeline by activating the marketing and sales engine to unlock massive potential sitting in the CRM.
$20M
In New Pipeline
Within six months of launching the program
Context
STMicroelectronics, a huge multi-national semiconductor company with offices all over the world, desired to stand up a marketing and sales funnel. Marketing had been collecting leads for years but there was no process in place to score and route them to the right sales function to follow up. I was hired to stand up this program globally.
Steps To Define And Execute The Roadmap
1
Step 1: Clarified What Success Should Look Like
Spoke with marketing and sales leadership, plus several regional leads, to understand the current situation and what their ideal outcomes would look like.
2
Step 2: Validated The Vision And Approach
Packaged up what I learned from all the stakeholders, outlined the program charter and expected outcomes, and validated the vision and the approach to get there. Incorporated feedback and locked in the plan.
3
Step 3: Published The Roadmap And Communication Plan
After integrated stakeholder feedback, I published the roadmap along with the communication plan. I also identified a sales lead from each region that would meet with me as needed, to validate the process as the details were developed and built.
4
Step 4: Executed And Rolled Out With Enablement
I staggered the launch in the regions, to pilot first in one sub-region, before rolling out to the entire region, and then eventually all regions. In addition to piloting, the secondary goal was to build enthusiasm within the sales teams prior to launch, by seeing other areas generate new pipelines.
Showcase Internal Technology To Scale Campaign Ops With No Additional Headcount
Vision
Enable marketers to focus more on marketing, to support more revenue and operations, on creating more impactful capabilities.
40%
Increase In Campaign Production
With no additional headcount
Context
Nintex, a process and workflow SaaS company was undergoing large growth organically, and via acquisitions. Marketing Ops was not going to be funded to support additional FTEs to enable this growth. However, the marketing and sales team was growing to drive more pipeline and revenue. Therefore, I had to scale how we put marketing programs into market. It made the most sense to heavily leverage the internal technology to support this change.
Process To Define And Execute The Roadmap
1
Step 1: Clarified What Success Should Look Like
It was clear that marketers should be spending as little time as possible in martech and more time in front of customers, analyzing what works, as well as developing new programs. I mapped out a vision where marketers spent more energy on defining their programs and campaigns and much less time setting them up.
2
Step 2: Validated The Vision And Approach
This vision was shared with marketing leadership and all regional leads to validate the approach, and the proposed phased approach to get there.
3
Step 3: Published The Roadmap And Communication Plan
After integrated stakeholder feedback, I published the roadmap along with the communication plan. I identified regional champions to collaboratively preview updates to get quick feedback, and then be the regional person to champion the final solution.
4
Step 4: Executed And Rolled Out With Enablement
Phase I involved rolling out standardized, documented processes supported by project management software to serve as the backbone for the process execution. Phase II then introduced several workflows that automated several steps. Every phase was coupled with enablement sessions and on-demand resources.
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