PositioningvsGo-To-Market Strategy

Positioning is the deliberate act of defining how your product is perceived in the minds of your target customers compared to alternatives. It dictates your obvious ideal customer, the specific problem you solve, and why you are clearly better than the status quo.

A Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy is the plan for how you'll reach, acquire, and serve customers profitably. It answers three questions: WHO is your ideal customer? HOW will you reach them? WHY will they choose you over alternatives? There are three dominant GTM motions: Sales-Led (Salesforce, $80K+ ACV), Product-Led (Slack, Figma, <$1K ACV self-serve), and Channel-Led (Microsoft through resellers). Choosing the wrong motion for your price point and buyer is the #1 reason startups stall at $1-5M ARR.

The 'all-in-one' trap. Most startups are terrified of turning away potential customers, so they use vague, broad messaging like 'the modern platform for teams.' When you try to be everything for everyone, you end up competing with everyone and appealing to no one.

The fatal trap is running a Sales-Led GTM with a Product-Led price point (or vice versa). If your product costs $29/month, you cannot afford a $15K CAC from a sales team — the math doesn't work. Conversely, if you're selling a $200K enterprise contract, a 'sign up free' button won't close deals because enterprise buyers need RFPs, security reviews, and executive alignment. Dropbox tried to go upmarket with sales reps for a $150/user product and burned $100M before pivoting back to PLG.

Write your positioning statement: 'For [Target Customer] who [Need], [Product] is a [Market Category] that provides [Key Benefit] unlike [Main Competitor/Status Quo].' If your sales team can't recite this, you don't have a position.

Map your GTM motion to your ACV: Under $1K ACV → Product-Led Growth (self-serve, free trial, community). $1K-$15K ACV → Inside Sales (demo-led, 2-4 week sales cycle). $15K-$100K+ ACV → Field Sales (relationship-led, 3-6 month cycle). Calculate: GTM Efficiency = Net New ARR ÷ Sales & Marketing Spend. Target: >1.0 for healthy, >1.5 for efficient. Below 0.5 means your GTM motion is wrong for your market.