A go to market strategy template: how to use it

A go to market strategy fits on one page with eight parts: the customer, the problem, the offer, the price, the channels, the first message, the numbers and the review date. Fill each in one or two lines, run it against a list of 200 people for a month, then change one thing at a time. A plan you cannot run in a month is too big.

Most templates for this are long. They ask for market sizing, positioning statements and competitor grids before anyone has spoken to a buyer. That has its place later. At the start you need a plan that you can test fast. This is the version we use, with a worked example and notes on filling each line.

What is the template?

Copy these eight lines.

1. Customer. Role, company type, size, region. One sentence.
2. Problem. What hurts, in their words.
3. Offer. What they get for a small step, such as 15 minutes.
4. Price. What it costs and how it is packaged.
5. Channels. Where you will reach them, in order.
6. First message. One line you would send.
7. Numbers. What you will count and the target for month one.
8. Review. The date you decide what to change.

What does a filled in example look like?

The example is made up, to show the level of detail.

How do you fill each part?

Customer

Be narrow. "B2B companies" is not a customer. Add three filters: role, company size, region. Then add a reason they might care now, such as a signal: they hired, raised money, changed job or engaged with a post on your topic. On our own account the best audiences were people who had just engaged with a relevant post. Read how to build an ICP if you need a longer definition.

Problem

Use the words buyers use. If you do not have them, talk to five customers or read the replies to your first messages. A problem you cannot state in one sentence is not yet a problem you can sell against.

Offer

The smallest useful thing you can give. A call is the usual one. A short audit, a checklist or a benchmark also works. The offer matters at least as much as the copy: across our public case studies, reply rates were easy and conversion varied tenfold by offer and audience (replies are easy, conversion is audience and offer).

Price

You do not need a final price to start, but you need to know what you will say when asked. A pilot with a clear price is easier to sell than a custom quote. If an agent will answer replies, decide whether it may state a price, and what happens if it cannot, as in should an AI agent give a price quote or stall.

Channels

Order them. Which goes first, and what moves a person to the second after silence? The rule of thumb: LinkedIn if you have profiles, email if you have verified addresses, and test 100 people on each if you hold both (which channel first).

First message

Write one line you would be happy to receive. Make it an observation about their work, not a question and not a pitch. On our account observation openers beat questions by 10 to 15 points (observation openers). Then write the follow ups: each should add something new.

Numbers

Pick five and write a target for each:

• Connection requests accepted or emails delivered.
• Reply rate, defined as replies divided by people messaged.
• Positive replies.
• Meetings booked and meetings held.
• Meetings per 100 people messaged.

A reference point for acceptance on LinkedIn: about 4 in 10 across 42 customer teams in the 90 days to 19 September 2026. Do not copy a target from a benchmark. Use it as a sanity check.

Review

Pick the date now. On that day change one thing, the audience first, then the offer, then the opener. Never three at once, because you cannot tell which one worked.

How do you turn it into a campaign?

The template maps to the settings of an outreach agent:

• Customer and signal become the list or the intent signal.
• Offer and first message become the goal and the opener.
• Channels and sequence become the follow up rules.
• Numbers and review become your weekly check.

In Sellinger you can start from a goal in the goal library, which holds nine book meetings goals among its categories, such as the book meetings goal templates. The free tool reads your website and proposes buyers, channels and a first message, which is a faster way to a first draft than a blank page.

What does the first month look like, week by week?

A suggested schedule, using the made up example above. Adjust the dates to your calendar.

Hold the review on the date you set in part eight. Do not review earlier because of one good or bad day; 200 people is a small sample, and a single reply moves the rate by half a point.

How do you read the results after month one?

Use a simple decision table. It tells you what to change first, in the order we recommend.

This order follows what we found on our own account: the audience moved results tenfold between signal sources, and the opener by 10 to 15 points.

What if you do not know your customer yet?

Then the first month is research. Write the customer line as a guess, send to 100 people from two different segments, and compare the replies. A segment that replies with questions about the problem is one worth narrowing. A segment that replies with "not relevant" tells you what to remove. This is a cheaper way to learn than a long positioning exercise, and it uses the same template.

What are the usual mistakes?

• A customer that is too wide. The fix is to cut to one segment.
• An offer that is a pitch. The fix is a smaller first step.
• No numbers. You cannot review what you did not count.
• Changing everything at once. One change per review.
• Skipping the held meeting. Count meetings that took place, not booked slots. See count meetings honestly.

Where does this fit in the larger strategy?

This page is the starting plan. The larger picture, with channels, sequencing and scale, is in outbound sales strategy. Run the one page version first. Most of what you learn in the first month will change the plan, which is the reason to keep it short.