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JOSE M BERMEJOBUSINESS COACH FOR FOUNDERS BECOMING FULL-TIME CEOS
Free GTM playbook

A good product isn’t a plan yet.

Go-to-market strategy template: a free GTM playbook in 10 steps.

The GTM Strategy Playbook is my free 16-page PDF for B2B founders and go-to-market teams. It walks you through 10 steps, and the 4 decisions inside them, that turn a good product into a plan your whole team can sell. Every step has a full worked example and space to fill in your own.

  • 16-page PDF
  • 10 steps, 4 decisions
  • Full worked example
Get the free playbook (PDF)

Free. 16 pages. Email and mobile number to download.

Get the free playbook

A 16-page PDF. Enter your email and mobile number, and the download starts right away.

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What’s inside the go-to-market playbookFrom market research to your next sales call.

Ten steps, in order. Some are work you do: research, map, write, build. Four are decisions your team commits to, and every later step depends on them.

GTM Strategy Playbook

10 steps, in this order

  1. 1Research and analyze your market

    You leave with 8 research files: SWOT, market context, substitutes and competitors, potential buyers, pains, advantages, buyer frustrations and objections.

    Action
  2. 2Target market: who to sell to

    You leave with your ideal customer profile (ICP), scored on 5 criteria with evidence.

    Decision
  3. 3The enemy to position against

    List every alternative your buyer has today, then pick the most common one that causes the pains you remove. You leave with the problem you’re uniquely placed to solve.

    Decision
  4. 4Competitor landscape

    You leave with a side-by-side map of every alternative, ugliest option first.

    Action
  5. 5Category: what are we?

    Write 2 or 3 candidate labels, test them on real buyers and keep the one they repeat back without help. You leave with the label buyers understand instantly.

    Decision
  6. 6Positioning angles

    Write several angles, each tied to what buyers already believe, and lead with the loss they fear. You leave with your angles, and the main one to test first in emails and ads.

    Action and decision
  7. 7Messaging platform

    You leave with what everyone in your company says: a positioning statement, a before-and-after, value pillars with proof, and lines that lower the risk.

    Action
  8. 8What this means for your website

    You leave with your landing page, section by section: hero, problem, how it works, value pillars, proof, comparison table, call to action and footer.

    Action
  9. 9What this means for your pitch deck

    You leave with 8 slides that tell the same story as your website, from the villain to the cost of the enemy and a “choose safety” close.

    Action
  10. 10What this means for your sales team

    You leave with a one-page kit for the next call.

    Action
A worked example in every step.Space to fill in your own.

The 4 decisions: your target market, the enemy you position against, your category label and your main positioning angle. Steps 7 to 10 turn them into the words your website, pitch and sales team use.

Get the free playbook (PDF)

Why the GTM playbook starts with one customerOne customer. One problem. One offer.

Most go-to-market plans fail the same way: they try to sell to everyone, so they sound like no one. The playbook narrows you to one ideal customer, one urgent problem and one clear fix. It’s built on how buyers decide.

“That’s me.”

People respond more to one person they can picture than to a crowd (the identifiable-victim effect), and pay more attention to what is about them (the self-reference effect).

One option sells

Shoppers offered 6 jams were far more likely to buy than shoppers offered 24 (Iyengar and Lepper, 2000). Too many choices stall decisions.

You learn faster

Every call, win and loss feeds one learning loop, so your message gets sharp in weeks instead of years.

You look safe

Buyers see a specialist as the lower-risk bet, and they will pay more for safe.

Need proof? Stripe started as payments for developers, sold as “seven lines of code.” It owned that small market, earned the references, then grew outward.

A go-to-market strategy example, step by stepMeet Fieldnote. Made up, on purpose.

Every step of the playbook shows how one made-up software company did it, so you see a good answer before you write yours. Fieldnote sells job scheduling and dispatch software to home service companies. It sold to “any business with technicians in the field.” Demos went well. Deals stalled.

Step 2: target market

One customer

Owner-run heating, cooling and plumbing companies with 10 to 30 technicians.

Still dispatching by phone and whiteboard. They lose jobs every week to missed calls, and the owner signs alone.

Step 3: the enemy

The whiteboard

Running dispatch on a whiteboard and the phone.

The most common way these owners run their day, and the cause of the pains Fieldnote removes: missed calls, and a schedule that’s wrong by 10am.

Step 5: the label

A live dispatch board

Their whiteboard, but it updates itself.

Plain English, and nothing new to learn. “Field service management platform” lost: it sounds like the big suites owners fear.

Step 6: the main angle

No lost jobs

“Never lose a job to a busy phone line again.”

Fieldnote tests it against “Your whiteboard, updated by itself” in cold emails and ads, and lets reply rates pick the winner, not the team’s favorite.

Where it lands in step 7: “A live dispatch board for home service companies with 10 to 30 techs: every call booked, every tech on time, running in a week.”

The rest of the example

Fieldnote, steps 1, 4 and 7 to 10

  1. 1Research

    Owner forums kept repeating one complaint: “I lose jobs because my dispatcher is on the phone all day and the whiteboard is wrong by 10am.”

  2. 4Competitor landscape

    Five alternatives, ugliest first: the whiteboard and phone, an answering service, a big all-in-one suite, a second dispatcher, and doing nothing.

  3. 7Messaging platform

    Five value pillars with proof, and lines that lower the risk: “Cancel any month.” “We set it up with you, in a week.”

  4. 8Website

    The headline is the main angle: “Never lose a job to a busy phone line again.” The button: “Book a demo.”

  5. 9Pitch deck

    Eight slides, opening with the whiteboard and the phone as the villain.

  6. 10Sales kit

    The core hook: “Most owners we talk to lose a few jobs a week to a busy phone line. Is that happening to you?”

Made up, to show how the steps work.The full example is in the PDF.

The GTM templates inside the playbookSpace to fill in your own

Every step ends with a “Your turn” box: short answers, one sentence per decision. Most steps also explain the buyer science behind them, from loss aversion to social proof. These are the go-to-market templates you fill in.

8 research files

SWOT, market context, substitutes and competitors, buyers, pains, advantages, buyer frustrations and objections. Each one feeds a later step.

Ideal customer profile template

Score 2 or 3 customer types on 5 criteria: urgency of pain, budget readiness, solution and problem fit, channel fit and proof needed. Rate each Low, Moderate, High or Very strong, with evidence. “Unknown” is a research gap, not a zero. Then commit to one.

Competitor landscape map

Every alternative side by side, ugliest option first: why buyers choose it, the pain it hides, and where you win.

Positioning template: angles to test

Five angles, each tied to what buyers already believe, with its theme and who it’s for. Then the main one to test.

Messaging framework template

A positioning statement, a before-and-after, value pillars with proof chains, and counter-risk lines. Your website, pitch and emails copy from here.

Landing page wireframe

Your landing page, section by section, in the order buyers ask their questions.

8-slide pitch outline

From the villain to a “choose safety” call to action: the same story as your website, slide by slide.

One-page sales kit

ICP flash card, core hook, 30-second talk track, discovery questions, objection answers, an email, a cadence and a win signal.

Get the free playbook (PDF)

A PDF, not slides. Print it, or share it with your team.

How to use this go-to-market plan template, and who it’s forIn order, with your team.

Anyone can draft the research. The 4 decisions need the people who will sell the plan.

How to use it

Before you start

  1. 1Work the steps in order

    Each one builds on the one before. The decisions in steps 2 to 6 come from your research files, not from opinions.

  2. 2Read the example first

    In every step, a white box shows how Fieldnote did it, so you see what a good answer looks like before you write yours.

  3. 3Then fill in “Your turn”

    Short answers. One sentence per decision. If you can’t write a decision in one sentence, you haven’t made it yet.

  4. 4Do it with your team

    Sales, marketing and product should all agree on the 4 decisions. That agreement is half the value.

One sentence per decision.Agreed by everyone.

Best for

  • B2B founders, owners and CEOs with a good product and no shared plan to sell it.
  • Go-to-market teams: product, marketing and sales leaders who need to agree.
  • A launch, a new market or a new offer that needs one clear message.
  • Teams whose demos go well, but deals stall and nobody can say why.

Not a fit if

  • You want a slide template. This is a PDF you work through.
  • You have no clients yet. Step 1’s buyer research starts from your best 10 clients.
  • You need an investor pitch. This is about selling to customers.
  • You want help making the decisions. That’s a go-to-market workshop.

Who wrote the playbook

Jose M Bermejo

Jose M Bermejo

Go-to-market workshops and consulting for B2B companies

  • Go-to-market and positioning work with 50+ B2B tech companies worldwide, and 100+ workshops run.
  • 15+ years selling B2B tech, first as a chief revenue officer who grew revenue 120%.
  • $10M+ in deals I closed myself, from $5K to $1M each.
  • Turned Microsoft partnerships into a sales channel.
  • Executive MBA, IESE Business School.

In a go-to-market workshop, your team and I make these same 4 decisions together, then build your messaging, website, pitch and sales kit.

About JoseJose on LinkedIn

Some of the 50+ B2B tech companies I’ve run go-to-market and positioning work with

  • YPX Realty
  • Virnect Global
  • SolarWinds
  • Citeline
  • Scale Factory
  • Shooju
  • Introhive
  • DentalBee
  • Simplisure
  • Callstack

Client results

Plain Concepts

$100K

A $100K deal through a channel they’d never cracked.

What we changed
We dropped the broad pitch: one ideal customer, one offer, and a small first step that felt safe to say yes to.
What happened
Their first new logo in 5 years.

Pablo PeláezPablo Peláez CEO, Plain Concepts, a software and AI services company

Revvue

30

30 demos in the first month.

What we changed
Same tech, new problem. It moved from “reduce waste” to “fix your Google reviews”, a hair on fire pain for chain restaurants.
What happened
30 demos in the first month, then 25% growth a year.

Karan SinghKaran Singh CEO, Revvue, software for restaurant chains

Digital Smile Design

$200K

A service that wasn’t selling reached $200K in sales in 3 months.

What we did
I trained and coached the team.

Brendon Macdonald CEO, Digital Smile Design

DentalBee was acquired by Overjet, and Squadcast by SolarWinds, each after a positioning strategy workshop with me.

What teams say about the go-to-market workshop

Jose’s go-to-market strategy workshop has been instrumental in clarifying our product positioning strategy and launch plan! Their methods and deep understanding of technology markets are unmatched to commercialize high-tech innovations. They’re the go-to team if you need help launching a new tech-based product or Innovation!

Lya RebeloGo-to-Market Strategy at Citeline

Help with your go-to-market planThe hard part isn’t the template. It’s the deciding.

Which customer, which enemy, which label. These calls feel risky, and teams argue about them for months. In a go-to-market workshop, we make them together.

  1. STEP 125 minutesFree

    Exploratory chat

    Pick a time that works for you. Tell me what you’re taking to market, and which decision your team is stuck on.

    You leave knowing if a workshop is the right next step, and which decision to make first.

    Book a 25-minute exploratory chat

  2. STEP 290 minutes to 4 daysYour team and me

    Go-to-market workshop

    Your team and I make the 4 decisions and build your messaging, website, pitch and sales kit, from one 90-minute session to a full sprint of 2 to 4 days.

    What you get: your playbook written, agreed by everyone and ready to sell from. See the go-to-market workshop

Need more than the 4 decisions? Go-to-market consulting adds research with your buyers and a launch plan with owners and dates.

Go-to-market strategy template: questions

What is a GTM playbook?

A GTM playbook is a working document that turns your go-to-market strategy into steps your whole team can follow and sell from. My GTM Strategy Playbook has 10 steps, from market research and your ideal customer profile to positioning, messaging, your website, your pitch deck and a sales kit. Four of the steps are decisions your team commits to.

What should a go-to-market playbook include?

A go-to-market playbook should include who you sell to, the problem you solve, how you compare with every alternative, and what everyone in your company says. It should also show what that means for your website, pitch deck and sales team. Mine adds a full worked example and the buyer science behind most steps, so every answer ends in words your team can use.

Is the go-to-market strategy template free?

Yes. The GTM Strategy Playbook is a free 16-page PDF. You get it right away by entering your email and mobile number in the form on this page. It includes the 10 steps, the 4 decisions, a full worked example and space to fill in your own answers. If your team wants help making the decisions, that is a go-to-market workshop, and it starts with a 25-minute exploratory chat.

How do you write a go-to-market plan with a template?

Work the 10 steps in order, because each one builds on the one before. Start with the 8 research files, so your decisions come from evidence, not opinions. In every step, read the worked example first, then fill in “Your turn” with short answers, one sentence per decision. Finish by turning the decisions into your website, pitch deck and sales kit.

What is a good go-to-market strategy example?

A good go-to-market strategy example shows the decisions, not just the headings. In my playbook, Fieldnote, a made-up dispatch software company, sells to owner-run heating, cooling and plumbing companies with 10 to 30 technicians. Its enemy is the whiteboard and the phone. Its label is “a live dispatch board.” Its main angle is “Never lose a job to a busy phone line again.”

Who should fill in a go-to-market strategy template?

The people who will sell the plan should fill it in together: the founder or CEO, and the leaders of sales, marketing and product. Anyone can draft the research files, but the 4 decisions need the whole team. When sales, marketing and product agree on the target market, the enemy, the label and the main angle, that agreement is half the value.

Download the GTM Strategy Playbook.

16 pages, 10 steps, 4 decisions and one full worked example. Free: enter your email and mobile number in the form at the top, and the download starts right away. Read the example first, then fill in your own with your team.

GTM Strategy Playbook, by Jose M Bermejo. A 16-page PDF.

Get the free playbook (PDF)

Not quite what you need?

Prefer to read it as a guide? Read how to build a go-to-market strategy, or the 11-step go-to-market strategy framework.

Guides: Sales playbook template Product positioning All guides