MarTech Podcast ™ // Marketing + Technology = Business Growth
Episode: The Right GTM for Your Company's Size & Audience
Release Date: March 19, 2025
Host: Benjamin Shapiro
Guest: David Chase, CMO of Workboard

Introduction

In this insightful episode of the MarTech Podcast ™, host Benjamin Shapiro engages in a compelling conversation with David Chase, the Chief Marketing Officer of Workboard. Workboard specializes in providing an enterprise-standard strategy execution and OKR (Objectives and Key Results) platform enhanced with generative AI, aimed at assisting some of the world's largest and most complex organizations in executing their strategies more predictably and profitably. The focal point of their discussion revolves around determining the optimal Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy tailored to a company's size and target audience.

Understanding the Target Buyer

David Chase begins by emphasizing the importance of accurately identifying the buyer persona, especially within large enterprises.

• Key Points:

  • Enterprise Complexity: Workboard primarily targets massive organizations like Intel, Ford, and 3M, which often have tens of thousands of employees and multifaceted strategies requiring extensive alignment across various levels.
  • Decision-Makers: The primary buyers are typically P&L owners, such as CEOs or business unit leaders, making access to these executives a significant challenge.
  • Broad Engagement: Besides engaging top executives, Workboard must demonstrate value to VPs, managers, and frontline teams to ensure widespread adoption within the organization.

• Notable Quote:

  "We're reaching out to the right person with the right message and a clear call to action. Then it's just a matter of timing."
  — Benjamin Shapiro [00:25]

The Value Journey: Transparency, Alignment, and Velocity

David outlines a three-step Value Journey that Workboard employs to help organizations effectively execute their strategies:

1. Transparency:

   • Implementation: Consolidate all existing strategies and goals into a unified platform to provide visibility, especially to senior leadership.

   • Example: At VMware, this approach revealed overlapping initiatives and wasted capacity due to a lack of visibility, enabling the company to reallocate resources more effectively.

   • Notable Quote:

     "They recognized hundreds of teams that were working on the same thing. They had zero idea that was happening."
     — David Chase [08:04]

2. Alignment:

   • Objective: Ensure that all teams across the organization are aligned with the overarching strategy, crucial for maintaining coherence in both in-office and remote work environments.

   • Outcome: VMware successfully redirected teams to work on initiatives directly aligned with their transformation strategy, ensuring strategic coherence.

   • Notable Quote:

     "It's about whatever time frame you're working on, making sure that those scarce resources... are actually being the most effective or as effective as they can be."
     — David Chase [17:20]

3. Velocity:

   • Goal: Increase the speed of testing and iterating strategies to adapt to continuous market changes.

   • Method: Utilize frameworks like OKRs to create a common language for hypothesis testing and strategic alignment, fostering week-over-week improvements.

   • Notable Quote:

     "Organizations, when they don't have a common framework... people both feel like they're sort of out cold a little bit."
     — David Chase [11:32]

GTM Strategies for Different Organizational Sizes

David contrasts the GTM approaches for large enterprises versus smaller or growing organizations:

1. Large Enterprises:

   • Challenges: Communicating and distributing high-level strategy across vast and complex structures.

   • Strategies:

     • Referrals: Leveraging existing relationships to access high-level executives.
     • Partner Networks: Collaborating with both large consulting firms and specialized partners to penetrate different segments of the organization.
     • In-Person Experiences: Shifting focus from digital advertising to more personalized, content-driven, and referral-based marketing tactics.

   • Notable Quote:

     "Being able to show how we provide value to these organizations and then give them a mechanism to be able to tell somebody else... is something that's been really effective."
     — David Chase [12:14]

2. Smaller Organizations:

   • Focus: Understanding the market deeply to differentiate and capture attention amidst limited resources.

   • Strategies:

     • Flexibility in Frameworks: Adapting OKR cycles (e.g., quarterly instead of annual) to allow for faster learning and iteration.
     • Partner Relationships: Utilizing resale partners to maintain client relationships and generate ongoing revenue while delivering tangible value.

   • Notable Quote:

     "We're a couple hundred person organization, we're market leaders, we're innovating all the time, we're moving at 1,000 miles an hour..."
     — David Chase [14:20]

Executing and Communicating Strategy

Both Shapiro and Chase highlight the critical nature of not just formulating a strategy but ensuring its effective execution and communication across the organization.

• Execution Challenges:

  • Alignment: Ensuring every team member understands and contributes to the strategy.
  • Visibility: Making certain that the strategic initiatives are transparent and that there's no duplication of efforts.
  • Adaptability: Being prepared to iterate and evolve strategies in response to fast-paced market changes.

• Tools and Frameworks:
  Platforms like Workboard serve as essential tools in managing OKRs, fostering alignment, and enhancing the velocity of strategic execution.

• Notable Quote:

  "It's about leveraging or giving everybody a common language and a way to be able to translate that strategy, understand what they're working on and making sure it is connected back to the strategy."
  — David Chase [17:20]

Conclusion

This episode of the MarTech Podcast ™ offers a deep dive into the complexities of crafting and executing effective GTM strategies tailored to an organization's size and audience. David Chase of Workboard elucidates the necessity of transparency, alignment, and velocity in strategic execution, emphasizing the importance of customizable frameworks like OKRs to cater to both large enterprises and smaller organizations. The discussion underscores that regardless of size, the core principles of understanding the target audience, aligning teams with strategic goals, and maintaining adaptability are paramount for sustained business growth.

Key Takeaways

• Buyer Identification: Clearly define and understand the target buyer, especially in large enterprises where decision-makers are few and highly influential.

• Value Journey Framework: Implement transparency, alignment, and velocity to streamline strategic execution and ensure organizational coherence.

• GTM Adaptability: Tailor GTM strategies to fit the organizational size and market dynamics, leveraging referrals and partner networks for larger organizations while maintaining flexibility for smaller ones.

• Strategic Communication: Utilize common frameworks and platforms to ensure every team member is aligned with the company's strategic direction and objectives.

Additional Resources

• Workboard Website: workboard.com
• David Chase's LinkedIn Profile: LinkedIn
• MarTech Podcast Summaries and Show Notes: martechpod.com

Stay Tuned:
Join us in the next episode where Benjamin and David continue their exploration of effective leadership in marketing organizations. Subscribe to the MarTech Podcast ™ for daily insights into marketing and technology.