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Where to play, and what to say when you get there.

Segment choice, positioning, the pricing narrative, the channel plan and the order it all happens in, for a new product, a new category or a new country.

A dart sitting in the bullseye of a dartboard.
Typical length
Six to eight weeks
Ends with
A plan with an order
Presented to
Whoever owns the number
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What a go-to-market strategy settles

Four things: which segment you go after first, what you say to them, where you meet them, and in what order you spend. Companies usually have a view on all four. What they rarely have is agreement, a sequence, and a number everybody accepted before the spending started.

The work is a series of decisions made in the open. We bring a first read on positioning back to you before it is finished, so you can argue with it while it is still cheap to change. A plan that is presented complete at the end is a plan nobody in the room owns.

It ends with a document that a marketing team, a sales team and a finance director can each read and act on: the segment order, the message hierarchy, the channel split, the budget sequence and the measurement baseline. If we get the segment wrong, everything after it is wasted, so that decision gets the most argument.

Scope

What is included

  • Segment choice and sequencing

    Which buyers first, which second, and which are being deliberately left for later. Naming what you are not going after is the part that saves the budget.

  • Positioning and message hierarchy

    One sentence on what you are and who you are for, then the two or three claims underneath it that a salesperson and a campaign can both use without contradicting each other.

  • The pricing narrative

    How the price is explained and what it is compared against. We work on how you justify the number, and we say when the number itself looks wrong for the segment you have picked.

  • Channel plan with the reasoning

    Where the budget goes and why that channel rather than the obvious one. Each channel carries the job it is doing, so it can be cut later without argument if it is not doing it.

  • Launch sequence

    What happens in which month, what has to be ready before it, and what is deliberately held back. Most launches fail on order rather than on content.

  • The measurement baseline

    What we are moving, where the number stands today, and how long the plan gets before it is judged. Agreed before anything runs, so the review at the end is a comparison.

How it runs

  1. Weeks one and two

    Interviews with your team, your sales people and your customers, plus whatever research already exists. If market research has just been done, this stage is shorter and we say so rather than repeat it.

  2. Weeks three to five

    Segment sizing, competitor and category work, and a first read on positioning brought back to you unfinished. You argue with it at this stage. That is what the stage is for.

  3. Weeks six to eight

    The plan written out: segments in order, message hierarchy, pricing narrative, channel split, budget sequence and the measurement baseline. Presented once to the people who have to act on it, then handed over.

What you get

  • A positioning statement and the message hierarchy under it
  • Segments in priority order, with the sizing behind the order
  • A channel plan with a budget split and the reasoning per channel
  • A launch sequence by month
  • The measurement baseline and what success looks like at each review

How it is judged

  • Whether sales and marketing describe the offer the same way six weeks later
  • Pipeline created in the segments the plan prioritised
  • Cost per qualified lead against the baseline agreed at the start
  • Win rate against the competitors the positioning was built to beat

Questions we get asked

How long does it take?

Six to eight weeks. Closer to six if recent research exists and your customers are easy to reach, closer to eight if we are starting cold in a segment you have never sold into. We tell you which end you are at after the first conversation.

Do we have to run it with you?

No. The plan is written so your own team or another agency can execute it, and it names the channels and the sequence without assuming who does the work. We would rather it ran well elsewhere than badly with us.

What do you need from our side?

Time with whoever owns the commercial number, access to your sales team, and permission to speak to customers. We also need the real budget rather than an aspirational one, because sequencing is the whole point and it changes with the figure.

What if we disagree with the positioning?

That is why you see it at week four rather than week eight. We bring it back unfinished and expect to be argued with. If we still disagree at the end, the document records our recommendation and your decision, so the reasoning survives either way.

Can you do this for a launch that is already in progress?

Yes, and it is common. We work with what is already committed, say plainly which of those commitments we would not have made, and build the sequence forward from where you actually are.

Next

Settle where to play before you spend

Tell us what you are launching and who you think buys it. We come back with what we would need to answer first, where we would expect the plan to disagree with you, and how long it takes.

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