A one-page go-to-market plan

A go-to-market plan explains how a product will reach the people who will buy it. It can run to fifty slides, but the useful part almost always fits on one page. Writing it on one page forces the decisions that long plans tend to avoid: who first, which channel, what message.

1. Who: the first customer group

Pick a group narrow enough that you could list many of them by name and reach them directly. “Small businesses” is too broad. “Independent physiotherapy clinics in Pune with two to five practitioners” is a group you can find, call and serve.

Everett Rogers’ diffusion of innovations model, first published in 1962, helps explain why. Rogers divided adopters of a new idea into innovators (about 2.5%), early adopters (13.5%), early majority (34%), late majority (34%) and laggards (16%). The early groups are small but open to new things; the early majority wants proof and references from people like them. A new product usually needs to win a clear early group before the majority will listen.

2. Problem: what hurts today

Describe the problem in the customer’s own words, ideally from interviews. Include what they do about it now, because that is your real competitor. Often it is a spreadsheet, a part-time assistant or simply putting up with it.

3. Offer and price

State in plain terms what you sell, what it replaces and what it costs. Give a reason for the price, whether that is the value of the outcome, the price of alternatives, or both. If you plan an introductory offer, set an end date.

4. Channels

A channel is how customers hear about you and buy. Common options include:

• direct outreach by email, phone or LinkedIn;
• content and search, such as useful guides that rank for what buyers search for;
• partners who already serve your customers, such as accountants, agencies or suppliers;
• marketplaces and app stores;
• paid advertising;
• events, communities and referrals.

Choose one or two for the first ninety days. Pick the ones where your first customer group already spends attention, and that you can afford to do properly.

5. Message

Write one sentence that says who it is for, the problem it solves and why it is better than what they do today. Test it on five real buyers. If they repeat it back in their own words, it is working. If they look puzzled, rewrite it.

6. The first ninety days

End the page with actions, owners and measures. A simple format:

An example page (illustration only)

This is an invented example to show the format.

• Who: independent physiotherapy clinics with two to five practitioners in one city.
• Problem: missed appointments and gaps in the diary, handled today by staff phoning patients the day before.
• Offer: automatic WhatsApp reminders and a simple rebooking link, as a monthly subscription per clinic.
• Channels: visits and calls to clinics; a partnership with a local physiotherapy association.
• Message: “Fewer empty slots in your diary, without your receptionist spending the afternoon on the phone.”
• Ninety days: forty clinic conversations, ten paying clinics, weekly review of no-show rates.

Common mistakes

• Describing the market instead of choosing a first group.
• Spreading a small budget across many channels.
• Writing the message in the company’s language rather than the customer’s.
• Leaving out the price because it feels uncomfortable to decide.
• No measures, so nobody knows after ninety days whether the plan worked.

How to test the page before you commit

Show the draft to three people: someone from your target group, someone who sells to that group already, and a colleague who will be honest. Ask each one which line they doubt most. If two of them point at the same row, that is the assumption to test first, usually through a handful of real sales conversations rather than more planning.

Keep it live

Review the page every month. Strike out what turned out wrong and write what you learned beneath it. After a few months, the page becomes a short record of how you found your first customers, which is useful when you move to the next group.