Free Resource - Helen Forsyth, Fractional CCO
The exact framework I use with every startup and SME client - from Purpose to OKRs. A practical guide to building a go-to-market strategy that actually converts, built on 25+ years of commercial execution.
Most GTM strategies fail not because the market is wrong, but because the planning behind them skips steps. Purpose is never defined. The ICP is assumed rather than researched. The message is too broad. The call to action is ambiguous. And success is never defined in advance, so nobody knows whether it worked.
This framework fixes all of that. Use it for every campaign, every outreach programme, every product launch, every market entry. Before you spend a pound or a minute, run it through all five stages.
Before you do anything - write the email, launch the campaign, hire the SDR, sponsor the event - you must be able to answer one question clearly: how does this action take us towards our vision, mission, and goals? If you can’t answer it, the action doesn’t pass the first gate.
Purpose is not the same as a goal. A goal is “get 10 new customers this quarter.” Purpose is the deeper alignment between what you’re about to do and why the business exists. When every action is anchored to purpose, you stop doing things because an investor suggested them, or because a competitor is doing them, or because it worked at a previous company.
Does this action take us closer to our vision or further away?
Would we still do this if it were harder than expected?
If this activity disappeared tomorrow, would it be missed by the business?
Spray and pray is never effective. Your Ideal Customer Profile is not “mid-market B2B companies in the UK.” It’s a specific person, in a specific role, in a specific type of organisation, with a specific problem, who has a specific reason to act now. The more specific, the more effective every downstream action becomes.
A well-defined ICP makes your messaging sharper, your outreach more targeted, your sales conversations more relevant, and your marketing spend more efficient. It is the single most foundational commercial decision you will make.
Who are our best existing customers, and what do they have in common?
Who do we convert fastest and retain longest - and why?
If we could only target one type of buyer for the next 90 days, who would it be?
Once you know who you’re talking to, you need to know exactly what to say to them. The core message is the single, clearest reason your ICP should pay attention to you. Not ten reasons. One.
Less is always more. If your value proposition requires a paragraph to explain, it’s not a value proposition yet - it’s a product description. Your buyer is busy, sceptical, and exposed to more noise than ever. Your message needs to cut through instantly.
If your ICP read this message in five seconds, would they immediately understand what it’s for and why it matters to them?
Can every member of your team communicate this message consistently?
Does the message speak to the problem, or just describe the product?
Every piece of outreach, every marketing asset, every conversation, every email must end with a clear and deliberate call to action. Not an implied one. Not an optional one. A specific, unambiguous instruction that tells the buyer exactly what to do next and removes any friction in doing it.
A soft CTA (book a call, find out more, download our guide) invites low-friction exploration. A hard CTA (start a trial, sign the NDA, confirm your place) asks for a commitment. Both are valid - the key is knowing which one is appropriate for this buyer, at this stage, on this channel.
Is the next action completely obvious to the reader?
Is the barrier to taking action as low as it can possibly be?
Does the CTA reflect where this buyer is in their decision journey?
If the CTA were removed, would the reader know what to do next? (If yes, the CTA isn’t clear enough.)
Before you execute anything, define what success looks like. Not vaguely (“we’d like to see more leads”) but specifically (“we will generate 20 qualified conversations with CFOs at mid-market SaaS companies within 90 days”). This is your OKR: Objective, with measurable Key Results.
Defining success in advance does two things. First, it gives the team a clear target to aim at. Second, it gives you the data to evaluate the initiative honestly at the end - which means every action, successful or not, produces learning that improves the next one.
This is not perfection. Messy action beats paralysis. But messy action with a clearly defined success metric is far more powerful than messy action in the hope that something sticks.
If we do this perfectly, what specific, measurable thing will be different at the end?
How will we know in 30, 60, and 90 days whether this is working?
If the result falls short, what will we learn and what will we change?
Book a free one-hour workshop and we’ll work through the five stages for your most pressing commercial challenge together.
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