---
title: 12 Key Questions Your Go-to-Market Model Needs to Address
description: Are you involved in lengthy complex high-value B2B sales environments? Here are 12 key questions your go-to-market model needs to address...
---

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# 12 Key Questions Your Go-to-Market Model Needs to Address

![Bob Apollo](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/78fa41976d534cacbb0e22e151bc6816)

Post by [Bob Apollo](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/author/bob-apollo)   
 May 31, 2011

What does "go-to-market" mean to you? Many companies react to new challenges in their business environment by declaring that they need to change the way they go to market, but as **Scott Santucci** of **Forrester **pointed out recently, this frequently used term has a variety of interpretations...

![Compass](https://www.inflexion-point.com/hs-fs/file-14058001-jpg/images/compass_surveyor.jpg?width=165&height=158&name=compass_surveyor.jpg "Compass")I prefer a broad definition, and believe that an organisation's **go to market model** ought to embrace all the elements that enable them to identify, engage with, persuade, and profitably satisfy a growing customer base.

From this perspective, a successful go-to-market model needs to go far beyond defining sales channels and establishing pricing policies - it has to capture the essence of how a company chooses to do business, and help to align the entire organisation behind this.

## 12 Key Questions

With that in mind, I'd like to share 12 key questions that I have found very useful in encouraging clients to think though some of the most important elements of their go-to-market model. I hope that you might find them similarly helpful:

1. *What are the common characteristics of your most valuable customers and prospects?*
2. *What are the most significant issues you enable your prospects to address?*
3. *What are the common trends and trigger events that might cause your prospects to start searching for solutions?*
4. *How and why do your prospects choose to buy, and what are the key stages in their decision making process?*
5. *What terms would your prospects use to describe what they are looking for when they search for solutions?*
6. *What are your prospect’s most significant alternative options for solving their identified issues?*
7. *What key business benefits will your prospects enjoy as a result of implementing a solution to the issue they have identified?*
8. *What unique advantage does your solution offer over other options available to your prospect?*
9. *What are the most effective ways of connecting with your most valuable prospects and generating qualified sales opportunities?*
10. *How do you intend to systematically convert qualified sales opportunities into customers?*
11. *Which people, and which organisations, are most influential in shaping your prospect's thinking - and influencing their buying behaviour? *
12. *What are the key measures, metrics and goals you are going to use to measure the success of your go-to-market model?*

There's a logical sequence to these questions: without a shared understanding of what an ideal customer looks like, and without anticipating the issues that will cause them to act, it's hard to establish a repeatable, scalable and predictable sales and marketing machine.

## [![Proactive Pipeline Management](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/41408/d7bde0cc-371b-43df-a3ca-aa09405f2a49.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/41408/d7bde0cc-371b-43df-a3ca-aa09405f2a49)

###### Tags:

[B2B Marketing, ](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/b2b-marketing) [Forrester, ](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/forrester) [Scalable Systems, ](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/scalable-systems) [Complex Sales](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/topic/complex-sales)

![Bob Apollo](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/78fa41976d534cacbb0e22e151bc6816)

Post by [Bob Apollo](https://www.inflexion-point.com/blog/author/bob-apollo)   
 May 31, 2011

 Bob Apollo is a Fellow of the Institute of Sales Professionals, a regular contributor to the International Journal of Sales Transformation and Top Sales World Magazine, and the driving force behind Inflexion-Point Strategy Partners, the leading proponents of outcome-centric selling. Following a successful corporate career spanning start-ups, scale-ups and market leaders, Bob now works as a strategic advisor, mentor, trainer and coach to ambitious B2B sales organisations - teaching them how to differentiate themselves through their provably superior approach to achieving their customer's desired outcomes.

[Follow me on my website](https://www.inflexion-point.com) [Follow me on LinkedIn ](https://uk.linkedin.com/in/bobapollo) [Follow me on Twitter ](https://twitter.com/bobapollo)

### Comments

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 I recently recorded an on-demand webinar with BrightTALK on the increasingly important need to connect your marketing ...

<https://www.inflexion-point.com/Blog/bid/75255/B2B-Marketing-Why-the-Number-of-Leads-You-Generate-is-Irrelevant>

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 I come across many marketing organisations that seem to believe that the more leads they generate, the better they are ...

[![Outcome-Centric Selling Academy offer](https://www.inflexion-point.com/hubfs/OCSA%20CTA%20300x300.png) ](https://inflexion-point.thinkific.com/)

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