Go-to-market strategy checklist for a new product

A go-to-market plan is the set of decisions you make before spending money on a launch. Which buyer you are for, why they would switch from what they use now, and what you charge and on what terms. Who sells it, where the first enquiries come from, and what you will do differently if the first month is quiet. Most failed launches in Indian SMEs are not product failures. They are launches where nobody decided the segment, the price and the channel, so the sales team improvised and the marketing spend went everywhere at once.

Start with the switch, not the product

The useful question is not "who needs this". Nearly everybody needs most things. The useful question is "who is annoyed enough with their current arrangement to change supplier this quarter".

That reframing changes the answer. A new industrial pump is not for everyone who pumps water. It is for the plant where the existing pump fails in the monsoon and the spare takes nine days to arrive. A new payroll service is not for every company with employees; it is for the firm whose accountant just resigned. Find the trigger, then write down where people with that trigger can be reached.

If you cannot name five real companies or five real people with that trigger, by name, the segment is still too vague to plan against.

The checklist

Work through these in order. Each line should have a written answer of one or two sentences, and a name against it.

• The buyer. One primary segment, described by industry, size, location and the role of the person who signs. Not three segments.
• The trigger. The event that makes this buyer look for something new.
• The alternative. What they use today, including doing nothing, and what it costs them.
• The reason to switch. One sentence a customer could repeat to a colleague without your help.
• The proof. What you can show: a trial, a sample, a pilot, a reference, a certificate, a guarantee.
• The price and the terms. Price band, what changes it, payment terms, GST treatment, and the discount you are willing to give and when.
• The unit economics. What it costs to make and deliver one, what it costs to win one customer, and how long before the customer is profitable.
• The channel. Direct, dealer, distributor, marketplace, retail or a mix. Decide who owns which territory before the first order.
• The first enquiries. The two or three sources you will use in month one, chosen because your buyer is already there.
• The sales process. The steps from enquiry to order, who does each one, and how fast an enquiry must be answered.
• The collateral. One product page, one specification or fact sheet, one price sheet for the channel, one short demonstration video. Nothing more until you have sold ten.
• The service promise. Delivery time, installation, support response, warranty and returns, written down before a customer asks.
• The stock or capacity plan. How many you can supply in the first sixty days without breaking your existing orders.
• The internal readiness. Who takes the calls, who quotes, who invoices, who handles a complaint, and what they have been told.
• The launch measures. Enquiries, qualified enquiries, quotations, orders and average value. Weekly, on one sheet.
• The stop rule. The number that would make you change the segment, the price or the channel, decided now rather than in an argument later.

Decide the channel before the launch date

Channel is the decision that most often gets postponed, and it is the one that is hardest to reverse. Appointing a dealer in a territory and then selling directly to a customer in the same territory creates a conflict that takes a year to repair.

Pick one primary route for the launch and one secondary. Write the territory, the margin and the minimum order into the dealer agreement before the first appointment, because changing it afterwards costs you the partner.

A worked example

For example, imagine a manufacturer of water treatment equipment in Bengaluru adding a compact softener for small commercial buildings. The details and figures below are illustrative. The temptation is to launch to everyone: apartments, hotels, hospitals, factories, schools.

The plan that works picks one. For example, the segment is paying guest accommodations and small hotels in Bengaluru with twenty to sixty rooms, where hard water damages geysers and guests complain. The trigger is a geyser or a washing machine failing. The alternative is a plumber's local fix that lasts a season. The reason to switch is stated as one sentence about geyser life and guest complaints. The channel is the plumbing contractors and borewell servicing firms who already visit these buildings weekly, given a fixed margin and a territory. The first enquiries come from those contractors, from a page for water softeners for PG and hotel buildings, and from a WhatsApp catalogue. The price is published as a band with the capacity that changes it. For example, ₹45,000 to ₹80,000 depending on the flow rate, an illustrative figure and not a quotation.

That plan fits on two pages, and every line of it can be checked in eight weeks.

Review it at sixty days, with numbers

A launch plan is a set of assumptions. The first sixty days tell you which ones were wrong, and the only way to know is to have written them down.

Look at four things. How many enquiries arrived, against what you expected. How many were the buyer you chose, rather than whoever happened to call. What the buyers objected to, in their own words, because that sentence is your positioning problem stated for you. And what you actually charged, against the published price, because a large gap means the price was wrong or the sales team is discounting to avoid a conversation.

Change one thing at a time. Changing the segment, the price and the channel together leaves you unable to tell which change helped.

What to do next

Take the checklist above and fill it in for the product you are planning to launch, in writing, in one sitting. The lines you cannot answer are the launch risk, and they are cheaper to solve now than in month three. If you would like an outside read on the segment, the price and the channel before you commit media spend, book the free audit.