“All great truths begin as blasphemies.”
- George Bernard Shaw
Most go-to-market strategy advice agtech startups receive is terrible.
Because it’s largely based on a logical fallacy.
Most companies believe that when people see the widget we’ve built, they’ll immediately understand how cool it is technically and how valuable it is financially.
But most people don’t. They don’t get why you've built this thing. They don’t get why they should care.
And they really don’t know why they need to give you money for it...until you give them a new framework with which to see their problem.
Most of the go-to-market brain trust will push you down the road to competitive analysis, market research, and other tactics designed for mature markets.
But what did the market research say about tractors in 1870?
Or what was the competitive analysis on Roundup Ready soybeans in the late 80’s?
What was the market saying about auto-steer in the 90’s?
The problem with traditional go-to-market approaches is they unconsciously assume you are:
Competing for market share.
In an existing category.
With a “better” or incrementally improved product.
They can't help you build a concept that no one’s ever heard of before. They can’t work with you when the customer doesn't have a line item for your product or service. They can't help you redefine the problem in the customer’s mind.
And research tells us that in technology categories, the category king normally takes about 76% of the market capitalization.
Because no one remembers the also-ran, they only remember the first.
So if your go-to-market is not built to design a new category of your own, then you’ll be letting someone else define the problem, prescribe the solution and set the value for the outcome you deliver.
A bad plan for success.
Instead, you need to build your go-to-market to have the conversation with your customer on the terms you establish
You need to move the thinking in the industry from where it is today to where you want it to be.
This should impact the way you price your product, the way you promote your company, and the methods you use to place your solution in front of the target customer.
Stop robbing your future valuation in the name of scaling the distribution of users. Upselling later is harder than it looks today.
Stop softening your market differentiation by selling through an existing distribution network. The channel usually won’t save you unless their is market pull for your product downstream.
Stop hiring salespeople and expecting that they’ll be ready to “just sell.” Early sales depend on organizational learning and renaissance team members who are willing to take the time to educate the customer.
Remember, there is nothing more important to the future value of your company than the way you build your go-to-market today.
Start investing in your story as if it matters. Start designing your category.
Make something different. Make people care. Make fans, not followers.