Go-to-Market Is Not Just a Launch Plan!

So, you’ve built the rocket: your sales team is prepped, your product is ready, and you're aiming for the stars.

But wait. Who's at mission control?

That’s your go-to-market (GTM) strategy – the brains of the entire launch. And the one fueling and steering this rocket? Product Marketing.

GTM isn’t a press release. It’s not a campaign. It’s not even your launch day. It’s the entire mission plan that makes sure your rocket gets where it needs to go: into the right orbit (market), at the right time (launch strategy), with the right payload (positioning).

Yet too many startups treat GTM like an afterthought. Or worse, they outsource it to the wrong team. In this essay, we’ll demystify GTM, bust common myths, show how companies have done it right (and wrong), and explain why Product Marketing Managers (PMMs) are essential to the process.

Why Founders Need to Care About GTM

Over 40% of startups fail because there’s no market need [1]. Another 20% fail due to poor marketing and distribution [2]. That’s over 60% of startup deaths tied directly to GTM failure.

Think about that.

You could build the perfect product. Solve a real problem. But if you can’t connect that product to the right audience in the right way? It won’t matter.

That’s GTM. And that’s why it needs to be led by someone who understands the product, the market, and the story.

Sales Is the Rocket. PMM Is the Fuel and Direction.

Let’s clear this up: GTM is not owned by Sales. It’s not just a Marketing thing. And it’s definitely not something you can leave to chance.

Sales is the rocket.

But a rocket without a flight path and fuel? It crashes. Or never takes off. Or spins out of control.

That’s where the PMM comes in. They:

Talk to customers
Gather market insights
Align product, marketing, and sales
Craft the narrative
Create the assets
Prioritize the right channels

They provide the fuel (customer research, messaging, enablement) and the direction (positioning, differentiation, strategy).

They don’t just "make slides." They make your rocket fly.

This powerful analogy comes from Jonathan Pipek, a top-tier product marketing consultant who generously shares his insights with the Product Marketing Alliance community which I’m part of.

GTM Is a Strategy. Not a Day.

Let’s kill this myth once and for all: GTM is not a launch plan.

It’s bigger. It’s the entire strategy for how your product reaches your target customer and becomes adopted. It’s a system. A process. A continuous loop of learning, launching, and optimizing.

Need proof? Airbnb launched three times. Each time they iterated their messaging, their user base, and even their distribution channels (Craigslist hack, anyone?) [3].

Their success wasn’t from a one-time blast. It came from treating GTM as mission control – constantly tuning trajectory until they reached orbit.

When You Need a GTM Strategy

GTM isn’t just for launches. You need it when:

Entering a new market or region
Targeting a new segment or industry
Switching GTM motions (e.g. product-led to sales-led)
Building a partner ecosystem
Scaling customer success

And of course, launching a new product or feature

Every one of these changes requires a reevaluation of your positioning, personas, messaging, pricing, channels, and motion.

(We’ll go deep into each of these in future essays. Subscribe if you want that breakdown. You won’t want to miss it.)

What Does GTM Include?

Here’s a quick peek at what GTM actually involves:

Target personas
Positioning
Messaging
Pricing and packaging
Differentiation
Distribution and channels
Enablement and feedback loops

We’ll unpack all of these in future posts. (Follow along if you want the full GTM blueprint.)

Great GTM Starts with Product Marketing

Product Marketing is the team best suited to lead GTM.

Why? Because PMMs are:

Strategists
Translators
Storytellers
Connectors

They understand the product and the customer. They connect engineering to marketing. They enable sales with the story. They own the positioning.

Slack? GTM led by product marketing. Dropbox? GTM led by deep understanding of user behavior. Stripe? GTM led by docs, dev love, and smart packaging.

All of these worked because someone owned the GTM thinking. And most often, it was product marketing.

Final Thought: Don’t Let Your Rocket Drift

You’ve done the hard work of building something great. Now give it the strategy it deserves to go the distance.

Your GTM strategy is mission control. And your PMM is the navigator.

Don’t launch without them.

Want more breakdowns like this? Follow for future essays on GTM, product marketing, and startup strategy.

And if you're planning a launch and don’t know where to start? Bring in a PMM. Or call one. Or at least stop expecting sales to fly the rocket and build the flight plan.

References

CB Insights. "The Top 20 Reasons Startups Fail."
Startup Genome Report.
Y Combinator Interview with Brian Chesky, Airbnb Founder.