There Is NEVER “Just One Way!”

I see so much talk about GTM, selling, marketing, customer service strategies. Too many claiming, “We have found the way….” Others saying “Here is the playbook for your GTM strategy…..” In some sectors, like SaaS, we’ve seen many organizations struggle and fail by implementing the “SaaS GTM model.” The SaaS PLG motion differs from the SaaS individual/team focus which differs from SaaS technologies that can only be implemented on an enterprise wide basis, and this differs from a channel/partner based motion.

Likewise, we see the same for processes, methodologies, playbooks, outreach, marketing, and all other things that help us engage customers. And we see the same templates for recruiting, whether it’s SDR, BDR, AE, AM, Specialists, and so forth.

We seem fixated on applying these formulaic approaches to everything we do. Yet we seldom consider, is there a different way? Is there a way that may be a better fit for our organization’s purpose, goals, cultures, and strategies?

Often, what we focus on, both as leaders and individual contributors is the way we learned things early in our careers, or the way we always did things. For example, one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in my career is when I was the new CRO at a tech company. I had been recruited from IBM. I remember getting frustrated in meetings with my team, finally exploding, “This is the way we did it in IBM. One of my RVPs quietly said, “Dave, we are not IBM, we are very different. If you want to do things the way you did them in IBM, why did you leave?” That comment floored me, he was right. The company I now worked for was in very different markets with very different strategies and target markets. Imposing “my way” would have been a disaster.

We fall into “default behaviors.”

A few weeks ago, I was speaking to a senior GTM executive at a client. We were talking about major shifts in their Account Based strategies and focus. This person had extensive experience in another company in a similar industry, he kept insisting on “This is the way we do Account Based selling/marketing. I had worked with his previous company and knew what he was suggesting came straight from their playbook. I said, “I understand this is what you did at your past company, but what we are trying to do and achieve in this company is very different. What you are suggesting doesn’t fit in this company.” As we worked through it, he started to understand this “new way” would be far more impactful in this organization.

Likewise, a couple of months ago, I had a conversation with a CMO. Again, we were talking about shifts in her teams marketing strategy, how they worked with sales, the kinds of programs and content needed. She had an older school mental model, thinking marketing focused on grand, image, advertising, and meeting the quota for MQLs. When we spoke about changes the team needed, looking for different kinds of content, better digital engagement, more marketing engagement through the buying cycle, she was very uncomfortable because it was so different than the way she had been used to doing things. After some healthy back and forth, and conversations with others in the organization, she started seeing she needed to adopt a different strategy and approach to support the organization.

We often see companies that may be head to head competitors adopting very different approaches in competing in the same markets. One client I worked with had a classic SaaS GTM approach: Marketing-SDRs-BDRs-AE-Demo-AE. A competitor I worked with later had a very different approach. They had no SDRs, BDRs or AEs. They had channel/partner managers. Their entire GTM approach was a channel/partner led approach. What they did to support their partners and to drive growth in their markets was very different than the other company, but both were very successful in what they did.

There is another, perhaps more critical, aspect to the “Just One Way” strategy. Doing this eliminates all differentiation. For example, if our GTM motion is the same as everyone else in our markets, we don’t look different! Rigid promotion and adherence to “Just One Way,” eliminating differentiation is devastating to everything we do–as organizations and individuals.

But there is another more fundamental reason for failure of a “Just One Way” strategy. We are all different. Organizationally, our purpose, values, cultures, offerings, strategies are very different. How our people work, how we hold the customer, partners, and community is different. Individually, the same applies. As we look at these differences, we recognize there are a multitude of ways we do these things, each with advantages and each with disadvantages.

And we learn and adapt.

Which brings me to a final point. There is never Just One Way. And whatever Way we choose is never forever. We live in changing worlds and how we engage in those worlds mandates we continually change, grow improve.

Afterword: Here is the AI generated discussion of this post.  Enjoy!