We’ve had the great privilege of working alongside hundreds of B2B clients as they undertake the process of defining or revising a commercial strategy and implementing organizational change.

This report, “Transformations in B2B Go-to-Market Design: Connecting Strategy to Execution,” coalesces the project expertise and market experience of professionals from Integration’s international Marketing & Sales practice. Our organizational structure, which approaches projects by functional expertise rather than product or sector, had enabled us to leverage insights from more than 20 diverse industries to build, test and refine our go-to-market methodology.

At Integration, our differential centers on embedding our work in the daily reality of our clients. For us, there is no other way to understand the challenges a business is facing. We believe this dedication to knowing our clients’ realities is the key to developing bespoke recommendations, and generating true, lasting transformation.

From this perspective, the tools offered in this report are strictly intended to be tailored to your reality—and only represent part of the complete approach. In addition to technical strategies, our goal here is to bring the same practical focus to people and change management that we do in live engagements, which match business solutions to the culture of each organization.

From us—those who have developed hundreds of B2B go-to-market designs—to you, those who have undergone or will undertake this process in the future, we offer our comprehensive approach to commercial strategy as a springboard for dialogue, intended to be shaped and fitted to your unique circumstances (never to dictate or predefine a specific course of action).

We welcome your comments and questions, and look forward to any opportunity to discuss our work further with you.

In our work with more than 500 CEOs each year, we find the challenge of connecting goals to concrete actions universally difficult. Across industries, products, services, regions and company sizes, executives continually speak to us about the hardship of translating business aspirations into practical steps.

This includes the sizable effort it takes to develop a new commercial strategy. However, unlike other business solutions, an effective go-to-market (GTM) stands out for its ability to resolve several of the key concerns of CEOs at once—including the critical priority of linking strategy to execution.

The potential of the GTM to connect strategy to execution exists across many scenarios, but the B2B landscape represents dynamic possibilities; how a company reaches its clients is only the beginning. A strong B2B GTM will consider multiple demands depending on the type of service or product it offers, including why customers should choose the business as a partner, how to incentivize long-term relationships, the scope of after-sales services, opportunities for innovation and more.

In our experience, a majority of businesses overlook—and under explore—rich possibilities. For example, we see companies gather limited information on customer perceptions, fail to assess the size of individual opportunities and skip detailed financial analyses.

The B2B GTM journey is also often thought of as exclusive to the sales area, but we believe capturing its full value requires much wider perspective and buy-in. For instance, if product improvements can attain higher market share, research and development, legal and production will be valuable inputs—or if you plan to pursue new sectors, there may be impacts to logistics and supply chain.

Buy-in is critical in managing how employees respond to news of the new commercial strategy as well. Anxiety tends to spread quickly throughout organizations, especially when professionals remain in the dark about changes to the status quo. Unmanaged fear can become active resistance, creating risk to implementation and success in the long run.

For this reason, the first and most important alignment of the B2B GTM should be positioning who will be included in its development and the role they will play. In our view, this is a whole-organization transformation that must be driven from the C-suite. This is rooted in our belief that for any transformation to be successful, it must strike a careful balance between the “technical”—data, analysis, design, planning, etc.—and the “touch”—attention to the people who will bring it to life. By leveraging the power of the CEO to spearhead the B2B GTM, the impact of the commercial strategy will not only be more relevant and powerful organization-wide, but deeply responsive to the needs of the business.

To show how our approach works pragmatically, we offer here our comprehensive Strategy-to-Execution toolbox (part two), a hands-on guide that combines technical strategies with best practices in change management and implementation. In addition to supporting the design of a bespoke B2B GTM, the toolbox continuously links ideas to actions by placing emphasis on adhering to your reality. For example, as we’ll explore further in the Market Foundation section of the toolbox, one of the common flaws of non-implementable B2B GTMs is the attempt to replicate a commercial strategy that relies on old paradigms and doesn’t match the current needs of the business. Thus, one of the first steps we’ll cover is how to establish your reality and position the B2B GTM for success from the outset.

With the toolbox as our foundation, we’ll then take an accelerated view of how different strategic tools fit within B2B “clusters.” In the B2B Cluster Framework: The Different Realities of B2B Go-to-Market Design (part three), we’ll divide B2B companies into six clusters, and discuss how to optimize the B2B GTM based on specific demands and potential solutions.

The foundation of our approach to B2B GTMs is the Strategy-to-Execution toolbox—a comprehensive, three-part guide to tailored commercial strategy design. Although the toolbox represents a proven path, the solutions that result and what implementation looks like in each context are entirely unique. The toolbox includes the key ingredients of Market Foundation, GTM Design, and Change Management and Implementation. However, change management is not the “third element”; it cuts across all components. It is both the crux of the transformation and the other half of the solution.

All GTMs begin with defining their objectives, which should be aligned with the strategic goals of the company. Some B2B GTMs are intended to hit several targets at once but will likely be focused on increasing profitability or capturing higher market volume or share. Once these objectives are defined, the first step is to establish the Market Foundation your company is operating within. Fundamentally, this stage entails robust information-gathering and detailed analysis—and it is a critical moment to understand the reality of your company, from the outside-in.

It sounds simple, but many businesses start off by recycling well-worn B2B GTM designs that cloud and limit possibilities from the outset. The two most common paradigms involve taking a past B2B GTM model and modifying it (“the taboo”), or replicating the strategies of competitors to emulate their results (“the copy and paste”). In theory, these approaches sound OK and may lead to some good ideas—but they inherently entail adapting something that’s already been done to fit your current circumstances.
In addition to reducing the likelihood of an effective implementation, these tactics don’t facilitate the right strategies because they don’t respond to the demands of your business now. For instance, where your product or service is sold; what your clients do with your product or service; the role it plays in their businesses; whether or not you are meeting expectations in quality, service, pricing and more. Simply put, it doesn’t matter whether you choose the taboo or the copy and paste; both fail to define the demands your business must fulfill from the perspective of the market—from the outside-in.

While awareness of competitor movement and what’s been done at the company in the past are sound practices, the key is to not rely on them too heavily, especially to the extent of little other exploration or research. This has high potential for misfire in identifying ways to differentiate the value of your business for your clients. To achieve this understanding, three core actions are needed to establish your Market Foundation:

a. Voice of the market: a diverse, objective, end-to-end view of the client ecosystem, typically gathered through a questionnaire and/or interviews. A sample that covers all regions and channels is the goal here—satisfied vs. dissatisfied customers; those who value price over service and vice versa; distributors vs. wholesalers vs. resellers, etc. The output should be a clear picture of what matters to each customer type so that solutions can be developed that meet their needs while ensuring the efficiency and efficacy of your internal operations.

One example of how the voice of the market benefits the B2B GTM can be illustrated through the case of a paper and derivatives manufacturer that used interviews to divide their clients into two groups. The first included clients for whom office materials were essential. They placed orders frequently and required the company’s products for everyday operations. For these clients, service and a one-stop shop for goods were more critical than cost. By comparison, the second group comprised clients who purchased paper in bulk and maintained high inventory levels, making price more critical than service. Consequently, the B2B GTM included two commercial model designs that ensured both needs were met while netting a cost reduction for the manufacturer: one incorporated a distributor with a solid service reputation and product offerings to complement the clients’ needs, while the other secured the most cost-effective delivery method possible.

b. Demand distribution index: an overview of demand by region to gain detailed knowledge of the size of different opportunities by location. This index should be matched to choices about how (or whether) to specialize the commercial model. Likewise, it can indicate where too much effort is being expended on a small opportunity vs. where untapped profit has yet to be captured.
As one possibility, the demand distribution index added depth and detail for the paper and derivatives manufacturer described above, solidifying the decision to segment commercial models per client type. However, specializing approaches may not be viable if the regions you serve don’t represent the critical mass and profit needed to justify higher costs.

Take the case of a professional services company with a fleet of salespeople. The company was aware that specialized salespeople were more effective in selling products to specific client segments than those with general knowledge. But, this was difficult to maintain across multiple regions. Using the demand distribution index exercise, the company identified that 10 regions represented 40 percent of their revenue, and there were strong business incentives for building a more technical, specialized sales force in these areas. In contrast, in the other geographies the company served, a hybrid model that guaranteed broad coverage (with some specialization where warranted) proved to be a strong solution.

c. Cost-to-serve: this is a well-known exercise, but in our experience, it usually isn’t done effectively—either per client, or by aggregating results per channel. Similarly, the criteria behind the cost allocation may mask the profitability of some clients, leading to decisions that affect the B2B company’s bottom line. Factors to consider include client-based research and development, selling services, customer service and more. An exacting picture of profit and loss per client makes comparisons between and among industries possible. In turn, this enables adjustments, new service-level definitions and the possibility of cutting clients if needed. A key benefit of cost-to-serve analyses is the ability to break free of a one-size-fits-all service model; service levels may be of more or less importance to your business but are of significant value to discussions focused on profitability.

Returning again to the case of the paper and derivatives manufacturer, after determining the value of service vs. price for each client type, the cost-to-serve exercise was used to select the commercial model for the group focused on price (those who bought in bulk).

Another, more complex example involves a chemical company with a mix of regional and overseas clients. Due to the fluctuation of currency rates, at times the in-country clients were more profitable, but at other times, the export-related clients were more profitable than a subset of the in-country group. This understanding was facilitated by a rigorous cost-to-serve analysis that was performed by channel, giving the company new visibility into logistics and customs costs, among other factors. Ultimately, this led to prioritizing the in-country clients, but the B2B GTM also facilitated a strong service level design for overseas clients, who at times were more profitable than some (but not all) in-country clients. The cost-to-serve exercise further analyzed clients by country to prioritize sales opportunities.

The second part of the Strategy-to-Execution toolbox, B2B GTM Design, is composed of the six fundamental tools we use to ensure a new commercial strategy considers all opportunities. These tools represent choices, as well as vehicles for unique, actionable solutions. The classic approach considers each individual tool depicted below, starting with Segmentation and working around to Commercial Model, Service Level, Sales Structure, Commercial Tools and finally, Customer Action Plans.

It is hard to understate the value of change management and its bearing on implementation. A company could possess unmatched technical skills and develop an iron-clad strategy, yet still fail if change management is not given consistent attention from the start of the transformation. This part of the new commercial strategy, the “touch,” is the true X-factor, relying directly on each company’s knowledge of its culture and people. It is imperative to tailor the implementation and the design of the B2B GTM to the reality of the organization.

For example, if the company has an aggressive culture, the implementation of the new commercial strategy might also be more aggressive—faster, with higher targets and increased pressure on stakeholders to manage new work fronts while maintaining existing ones. Or, it might be slower, methodical, and include pilot testing if that’s how the company typically operates. In either scenario, actions that don’t fit with the business culture risk employees feeling that the commercial strategy doesn’t make sense, doesn’t match their values, and thus, they don’t buy into the transformation.

While we believe professionals are frequently a company’s most valuable asset, they can also be the ones who limit discussions, perpetuate old paradigms and bring resistance to change. Executives might also be guilty of adding to these problems, but it is their role to spread calm throughout the organization, as we believe most issues result from fear and poor communication. This is where the tactical role of the CEO, specifically, comes into play.

The CEO must steer the change-management effort in parallel with the design of the B2B GTM, which will be carried out by the commercial area and other departments. This gives many people in the company the opportunity to contribute to its future, while the CEO guarantees that all areas are on board and that the implementation strategy adheres to the company’s culture. It should be the CEO who positions the balance of “touch” vs. “technical” as a top priority, which includes three core aspects:

1. Commitment from the C-level. It’s worth saying more than once. This is an essential, foundational component of positioning the new commercial strategy as a whole-company journey. In terms of change management, it is also the first step of the process. This effort must originate at the highest level of the business to ensure the B2B GTM is top of mind, organization-wide.
2. A multifunctional approach. Once the whole-company journey is set in motion, a multifunctional approach to communications will kick off the buy-in process. This means announcing details of the B2B GTM to the key areas that will be impacted in a practical way. For instance, messages crafted for each department or audience group, shared through forums such as workshops or one-on-one conversations.
3. Stakeholder management. Stakeholder management is perhaps the most important element of the change-management process. Done effectively, it minimizes silos in thinking and helps professionals understand the motivations of the B2B GTM. While the multifunctional approach may address professionals in groups, stakeholder management means listening to individuals and preventing small concerns from getting bigger. This should be done with honesty, sensibility and respect—and from the very beginning. It’s important to remember, however, that communication does not mean making everyone happy and giving them what they want; it means ensuring they feel heard and know what to expect.

IMPLEMENTATION

Implementation is the point at which all elements of the Strategy-to-Execution toolbox converge. It is also when change-management efforts will tangibly take shape. We define implementation through three key steps, but to make these principles pragmatic relative to the CEO, here we’ll focus specifically on how that role is embedded within each.

1. Define your strategic premise. The strategic premises of the GTM are what justify how the implementation will take place. For example, if the company is in financial trouble, a tight timeline and capturing results immediately could be the strategic premise. Making this decision is precisely the CEO’s role, as is formulating communications about these decisions. Defining the strategic premise should result in a roadmap of steps for the implementation to follow, and a calendar of when each milestone of the B2B GTM will be activated.
2. Implementation architecture. This takes the roadmap away from the CEO and details it so that the proposed timeline can be validated or challenged. At this stage, four elements should be discussed to build a full view of the implementation architecture:
   • A complete list of all activities included in the B2B GTM
   • How long each individual activity will take to complete
   • Who is responsible for executing each activity
   • How each activity is connected to those around it: what actions cannot take place until others are completed, and how each phase impacts the next. For example, if communications have not been completed, commercial work fronts cannot be implemented. This step should also analyze the availability of resources—if there are too many work fronts for the number of professionals, the CEO must decide if the timeline should be extended, or if other activities will be deprioritized.
3. Project management. Strong project management is how the implementation architecture (roadmap and timeline) is maintained. The project manager should serve as a liaison between the leaders of the work fronts and CEO. The two primary responsibilities of the project manager are 1.) to coordinate the process and 2.) guard its design. For this reason, it is ideal for the project manager to be included in the B2B GTM from the design phase. The project manager should be able to streamline details into executive summaries, make connections between areas and identify actions in advance. Importantly, being able to recommend solutions rather than report progress and problems is key to boosting the CEO’s capacity to make quick, effective decisions.

Though the Strategy-to-Execution toolbox serves companies of all types, the vast differences in products, services and business models of B2B companies equates to a diverse world with multiple realities. To continue refining your B2B GTM, our B2B Cluster Framework divides businesses into six clusters based on the demands they must fulfill, with our six classic tools prioritized among them.

The B2B Cluster Framework we present here is the result of analyzing more than 50 industries and sectors* and distilling the most prominent drivers of market dynamics and commercial demands across them. Variables that make a deep impact on a few sectors but are irrelevant to the majority have been eliminated from consideration. As a result, from dozens of possibilities, we have arrived at a set of criteria that separates a wide scope of B2B businesses into six core clusters (although variation among internal business units may occur).

While our depth of experience is not exhaustive among all the sample industries within the framework, our cross-functional approach to consulting (by competence rather than industry) enables this wide view of similarities and differences between clusters. If you find that variables that are important to certain segments of your business are not included, we encourage you to factor them into the segmentation tool of the B2B GTM Design stage. The goal here is to advance your ability to swiftly target the actions that mean the most to your cluster, and shed light on where opportunities have yet to be captured.

The B2B Cluster Framework divides companies based on a set of three simple criteria. As you review the questions below, keep track of your answers; we’ll use them to plot your position on an X-Y axis and explore the dynamics of your cluster.

a. Sector Dynamics: “Does my business serve one sector or many?”

The number of sectors your business serves represents your Sector Dynamics, but how you answer this question isn’t about volume—it’s about your commercial model. If you serve many sectors, for instance, it will be important to understand how your clients use your product or service, and any differences in purchasing processes. This will allow you to adapt your commercial model to your clients’ needs, whether you decide to focus on a few sectors or all of them. By comparison, if you sell to just one sector, knowing how opportunities are concentrated among clients is key. If large players represent a majority of your potential long-term contracts, customer loyalty and high service levels are important considerations.

b. Product / Service Dynamics: “How does my product or service impact my client’s reality? Is it core (essential) to their services, or complementary?”

This step is about understanding to what extent you impact your client(s). Knowing your Product / Service Dynamics is not a question of your value but assessing what percentage or portion of your product or service accounts for your clients’ production costs. Do you enable their offerings through product range, knowledge, service level and so forth, or do you facilitate what they make or offer through raw materials or other components?

If you are an enabler, your product or service is complementary, and if you are a facilitator, you are core—your clients cannot create their products or services without your company or another like it. Each situation corresponds to important actions and impacts. For instance, pricing is all-important in core products, as upticks make a direct hit on your clients’ bottom line. By comparison, practical actions that ensure smooth service and dissuade customers from switching to competitors are of value for companies whose products or services are complementary.

c. Innovation Dynamics: “How important are innovations to my industry? Is innovation constant, or an opportunity to stand out?”

The way we answer this question is by determining whether innovation is a matter of “survive” or “differentiate” in your B2B world. Your response will dictate whether innovation must be embedded into the DNA of your company, or if doing so could help you win market share. For example, digital companies must constantly turn over new products, fix bugs and anticipate new conveniences just to stay in the game. A paper products company, by contrast, could introduce an innovation that improves margins and grabs attention, securing its future. Commercial tools as opposed to models—processes over structures—gain relevance here for those that have the potential to differentiate. By comparison, processes that guarantee product or service turnover are crucial in the survive category. They also impact the B2B GTM in terms of the company’s ability to communicate innovations to the market, the profile and technical ability of its professionals (sales force), how performance is assessed internally and other elements.

With the answers to these criteria in hand, you are no doubt already forming ideas or asking questions that will drive key actions of the B2B GTM. Multisector, complementary, differentiate? Single sector, core, survive? To begin plotting your position in the B2B Cluster Framework below, we’ve divided our three criteria between the X and Y axis, with Single Sector / Multisector corresponding to Y, and Product / Service Dynamics and Innovation Dynamics grouped into X. This delineates how you make your offering vs. the elements that influence your industry—your market dynamics compared to your commercial demands.

To better understand where your company fits within the chart, consider the same frame again on the next page, this time with samples of how various industries and sectors are categorized by Sector Dynamics, Product / Service Dynamics and Innovation Dynamics.

Do you see where you fit? Each title represents the essence of the demands that will drive the B2B GTM for that cluster. How well does your cluster name describe the needs of your business? Find a quick description of the each cluster’s core characteristics on the following page.

With an understanding of your cluster position, we’ll now deep-dive into the full framework, including the challenges, solutions and priority tools that are most impactful within each group.

As we hand-select different tools to work with by cluster, we encourage you to consider that prioritizing some doesn’t strictly mean others should be eliminated—the tools we’ve chosen are simply the ones we believe have the greatest potential to generate results. To recall again the tools from the Strategy-to-Execution toolbox, see the image below, or revisit the details of the B2B GTM Design stage on chapter-3.

As each cluster offers specific information intended for different B2B company types, we encourage you to flip through to your section of interest. Also, see the appendix at the end of the report for more detail and example companies by cluster.

Companies pursue B2B GTMs for a variety of reasons—some for the promise of conquering new horizons, increasing profits or capturing market share. Others to keep pace with innovation, invigorate their commercial identity or attain clarity about financial results. Whatever the reason, we know transformation is intrinsically hard and difficult to articulate, much less pollinate throughout an entire organization.

For this reason, how you choose to approach the journey is as important as reaching its endpoint. We began by saying that linking strategy to execution is a top concern of the CEOs we work with, and that GTMs are naturally effective in solving this problem. However, the success of implementation hinges on paying consistent attention to culture and change management, which we believe is a truth that can be applied to any challenge your organization faces.

The road ahead will undoubtedly be challenging, requiring adjustment and complex choices. There are no ready-made solutions—at least not ones that will be as effective as a fresh, bespoke commercial strategy design. There are, however, tools that can be effectively tailored to your reality. Our Strategy-to-Execution toolbox and B2B Cluster Framework were custom-built with this necessity in mind. To support discussions within your organization, we’ve created a full matrix that captures the takeaways of all six clusters within the B2B Cluster Framework. We encourage you to use and share it to progress conversations about your next B2B GTM and its potential.

In the end, a truly transformative B2B GTM—one that accelerates specific objectives and advances the success of your company and its professionals—requires striking a careful balance between technical expertise and implementation in the specific context of your business. Consistently turning to reality as the guide to your B2B GTM is the best way to not only position your company for success but achieve it.