The fifth eBook in the Foundations category. It hands you a single-page go-to-market strategy template and walks each section so the page is filled in by the end of the eBook - customer, offer, positioning, channels, budget, timeline and review.
Members ebook·5 chapters· 15 minute read
Chapter 2
The GTM Strategy Template
The single-page template, walked from top to bottom with the prompts that go in each box.
Here is the template. It has eight rows on a single side of A4. Each row holds one or two short sentences - never a paragraph. The rows are in the order they're meant to be filled. You can't write a useful channel row before the customer row is sharp. You can't write a useful budget row before the channels are chosen.
We'll walk each row in this chapter at the level of "what goes in this box". Chapters three and four go deeper on the rows that need it. By the end of this chapter you'll know the shape of the page. By the end of chapter four you'll have it filled in.
If you take only one thing from the eBook, take this: write a sentence per row, not a paragraph. The discipline of brevity is the point.
The full chapter walks each row of the template with prompts, examples and the test that tells you the box is done.
The eight rows
The template, top to bottom
1. Customer this quarter (one sentence)
2. Offer being pushed (one sentence)
3. Position - who you're for and what you do better (one sentence)
4. Channels - the two or three you're using (named)
5. Conversion path (one sentence)
6. Milestones - three or four for the quarter (numbers)
7. Budget envelope - money and hours per week
8. Review date - the day you reread this page
How each row earns its place
The customer row sits at the top because every other row depends on it. The offer follows because the offer is what you're putting in front of that customer this quarter. Position sits next because you need to be able to say in one sentence why this customer should choose you over the alternatives.
Channels follow position because the channel choice is downstream of who the customer is and where they already are. The conversion path is the bridge between channel and offer - the named series of steps that takes someone from "saw an Instagram post" to "paid an invoice". Milestones make the quarter measurable. The budget envelope makes the plan honest about effort and money. The review date makes the page alive instead of decorative.
What goes in each box at sentence level
Customer this quarter
"Landlords with five to twenty properties within 15 miles." Not "property professionals". Not "local landlords". Specific enough that a stranger could picture three real people who fit.
Offer being pushed
"The tiered annual maintenance contract, starting at 95 pounds a month." Not "plumbing services". One named offer with a price.
Position
"For landlords who want fewer Sunday-night phone calls, we're the maintenance contract that prevents the call rather than answers it." One sentence that names who and what makes you different.
Channels
"Google Business Profile, Google reviews, two letting-agent partnerships." Two or three. Named. Not "digital marketing".
Conversion path
"Same-hour phone response, contract proposal within 48 hours, signed by week two." The journey, not the wish.
Milestones
"12 new contracts. 30 new Google reviews. One new agent partnership in conversation." Numbers, not adjectives.
Budget envelope
"200 pounds a month. Four hours a week of owner time." Money and hours, both honest.
Review date
"Saturday 14 February, 9am." A date and a time, in the diary, with no-one else invited.
What to do this week
Print the eight rows on a single page of A4. Don't fill any of them in yet. The next two chapters walk the rows that need the most thought. The page just needs to exist for now.
The recurring principle this chapter sits on is make the offer clear. The template forces the offer onto the page in a single sentence. The next chapter, Customer, Offer and Positioning, slows down the three rows that decide whether the rest of the page works.
The rest of this chapter walks through the practical steps, the templates and the checklists you need to put it into action. It includes worked examples, copy frameworks and the small decisions that make the difference between a plan that sits in a drive and one that gets used.
Inside you'll find a step-by-step playbook, a downloadable template, a checklist you can run this week and a short list of common mistakes to avoid before you start.
The full action plan, broken into weekly steps.
Ready-to-use scripts, templates and checklists.
Worked examples for different sized businesses.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them.
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