Sales & go-to-market
Sales and go-to-market strategy for technology businesses
Good technology does not sell itself. It sells when the proposition is clear, the buyer is the right one, and the sales approach matches how that buyer actually decides.
I work with technology and SaaS businesses on sales and go-to-market strategy, and on the leadership needed to make it happen: 25+ years across technology, enterprise software, SaaS, product, pre-sales, consulting and delivery.
Where go-to-market usually breaks down
- The proposition describes the product, not the problem it solves.
- The target buyer is too broad to sell to properly.
- Marketing generates interest that sales cannot convert.
- The launch had a date but no commercial plan behind it.
- Pricing and packaging make the decision harder than it needs to be.
- Nobody has decided which deals the business should walk away from.
Sales strategy for technology businesses
Sales strategy is a set of decisions before it is a set of activities: which segments, which problems, which buyers, what value you claim, how you prove it and what a qualified deal looks like.
Once those are agreed, the practical work follows: qualification standards, deal shaping, discovery that surfaces real value, pricing discipline and a pipeline the leadership team can trust.
SaaS sales strategy
SaaS changes the commercial model, not just the delivery model. Revenue is earned over time, so acquisition, onboarding, retention and expansion all have to be part of the sales strategy.
That includes the harder conversations: moving an existing customer base to a subscription proposition without eroding the revenue you already have.
GTM leadership
Strategy without leadership stalls. I can lead go-to-market as a fractional or interim commercial leader, working with your sales, pre-sales, marketing and product teams to get the plan into the market.
Hands-on where needed: shaping the proposition, developing opportunities, leading bids and coaching the team through the deals that matter.
Commercialising a new product
New products fail commercially more often than they fail technically. Commercialisation is the work of turning capability into something a customer understands, wants, can buy and can use.
I have done this repeatedly: shaping the proposition, validating it with real customers, and building the sales approach that turns early interest into paying deals.
Go-to-market in practice: internet TV and Bush / Virgin Media
At Saatchi & Saatchi I worked on the development and launch of a new internet TV product, helping design the user experience and shape how customers would interact with the service, at a time when internet TV was an emerging proposition.
I also worked on the launch of a major new Bush product developed in conjunction with Virgin Media, bringing together the product, technology, customer experience and go-to-market approach for launch.
Launching a SaaS product: Sage Timesheet
Sage Timesheet was an established enterprise software business with a large existing customer base. I helped launch Office Timesheets, a new SaaS alternative to that proposition.
I worked across the proposition, sales approach and customer engagement, taking the new offering to existing customers and identifying opportunities to move them to the SaaS model, creating significant new revenue streams from an established base.
Let’s talk it through.
If sales is harder than the product deserves, or you have a launch you cannot afford to get wrong, let's talk it through. I will tell you where I think the commercial problem actually sits.