Working with our deep-tech clients, we have lived through crafting as well as executing different GTM playbooks. We’ve come to appreciate the effectiveness in having a playbook and refining it over time. With the right playbook a startup, and for that matter any organization, avoids the pitfalls of selling – targeting the wrong customers, positioning the incorrect offering, hiring the wrong people, having an ineffective GTM process or worse having no process, and many more.
Playbook is a term used in sports (mainly football) to indicate all the possible plays / strategies to be studied at the start of season by the players to make their game most effective (ref: Dictionary). In business, the term has been adopted to help the team devise and execute a GTM strategy with which it’ll reach its customers and generate revenue.
Equipped with a playbook, deep-tech startups can scale from zero to one in a much shorter amount of time, with confidence and at a much lower risk. A playbook leads to a much faster path to revenue – something that can make or break a startup. The earlier the revenue arrives, the faster it can be re-invested and reduces the burn. More importantly, with an effective playbook, you get early feedback from early adopters that goes a long way in developing your product roadmap.
Going from zero to one is so critical for a startup. This gap was covered extensively in one of the most popular books – Crossing the Chasm – by Geoffrey Moore. 021 Playbook is the practical execution layer of Crossing the Chasm – it helps startups build a repeatable GTM engine that works beyond early traction. Each chapter within the playbook maps to each of the chasm concept and provides one piece of the puzzle in helping cross the chasm.
For us, 021 Playbook is an ongoing endeavor – learning and sharpening the framework, while helping out the startups craft and execute their playbooks.
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