Welcome to Revenue Boost: A Marketing Podcast! In this episode, titled Modern Go-to-Market Tactics: Insights for Scalable B2B Growth, host Kerry Curran is joined by Heidi Hattendorf, founder of Transformation Insights and an accomplished marketing strategist with extensive experience in guiding B2B brands to success.

Heidi unpacks the essentials of building scalable growth through modern go-to-market strategies. From refining your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) to crafting targeted, multi-channel approaches, she provides expert insights on aligning your tactics with your business objectives. Learn how to leverage the right channels, measure success with actionable dashboards, and balance new customer acquisition with strategies to drive retention and expansion among existing clients.

If you’re ready to elevate your B2B marketing and take your business growth to the next level, this episode is your guide to success. Tune in now for actionable advice and insights from one of the best in the business!

Podcast transcript

Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:01.116)

So welcome, Heidi. Please introduce yourself and share a bit of your background and expertise.

Heidi Hattendorf (00:06.552)

Thanks so much, Kerry, and thanks for having me on. Yeah, Heidi Hattendorf, I lead Transformation Insights, and we're a marketing strategy and business consulting company. And my background is in corporate. I have held a number of roles leading marketing teams, ex-CMO, ex-vice president of marketing for companies like Motorola, Automation Anywhere, and then Ares Global, who is a large platform company for the pharma sector. So really what I do now is I help companies of all sizes. Refining their ideal customer profile, their strategy, their positioning, their messaging, and at the end of the day, converting that into sales. So looking at the right go-to-market motions, looking at the best way to reach their clients. So it's been really fulfilling and very rewarding, especially as this whole market space changes.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (00:54.428)

I agree. And so the go-to-market strategy tends to be a real foundational core approach to, as you said, customer acquisition and business growth. But it's important to get it right and set it up with the right ICP. So talk a bit about your approach and kind of framework for building out that go-to-market strategy and making sure you have the right ICP.

Heidi Hattendorf (01:22.988)

Yeah, great, great question. So most companies, of course, have the strategy. They've got it in their mind. They know who it is they want to target, but have they written that down? Have they thought that through? Sometimes it's organic growth where different customers have come along and all of a sudden they've got this whole range of different customer types. So it's really important then as companies are moving from that initial, let's say, problem market fit to product market or service market fit.

into really refining what that looks like. So, I always start with positioning now, really getting clear on what differentiates. Then, that leads into the right messaging, the right go-to-market motions, and the right metrics that then give the best return and help them reach those key customer points.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (02:09.052)

So you talked about the ICP, the ideal customer profile. And I think this is an area where it's often a challenge for businesses because you want to market to everyone. Anyone can be a customer, but it's what takes discipline to really define that specific ICP and then build that strategy to connect with them. So talk a bit about when you're identifying the ICP, How do you really refine and make sure you've identified the right targets?

Heidi Hattendorf (02:41.952)

Yeah, it's a great point. I think too, it doesn't always have to be the same type of customer. Let's say it doesn't have to be vertically focused. There are a lot of successful companies with a horizontal focus. You see that now with AI. I certainly have an AI component to my business as well. But it's really about whether there is a common connector point. What you're looking for is, are you reaching, let's say, the same title, the same persona within each company?

Or is it a vertical, but there's gotta be some common connector. And really what you're looking for is to have your offerings become so splintered or so customized because you're just trying to cast such a wide net. That's where the opportunity is to kind of rein some of that in and look for some commonality. And then maybe you do have different offerings, let's say for different markets, but it's, was this done by design or just, did this evolve based on opportunity? So that's the way I would start.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (03:38.202)

Excellent. So are there, are you looking at specific, you said, I love the concept of horizontal. So do you include multiple titles within kind of a target business type and build out the strategy from there?

Heidi Hattendorf (03:52.822)

Yeah. So let's say if it is horizontal, it's not one specific industry, but let's say there's a common connector of reaching the CFO or reaching, let's say a marketing team or, you know, it could be an R and D team, whatever that pocket is or whatever that function is, identifying the title, what are the needs of that particular group? Because that's another way to split out who you're trying to reach, are there different problems they're trying to solve?

Kerry Curran, RBMA (04:09.159)

Mm-mm.

Heidi Hattendorf (04:20.514)

For example, one part of the business might be trying to create innovation around R &D and create a new offering. Another part of the business might be looking for efficiency. Let's accelerate our time to value or let's reduce costs. So you're looking at, let's say, common titles, common functions, if you're horizontally focused, and then common problems to solve. Doesn't mean you just have to have one, but it's really having that purposeful strategy that's targeting those. So that your messaging then aligns depending on what problem or aspiration you're reaching.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (04:56.048)

Yeah, no, that's definitely, that makes so much sense. You want to build out that communication that resonates with the target audience. So a lot of that connection and communication come through kind of the go-to-market approach. So, I know we talked a bit about how brand companies typically build that out kind of on an annual basis, but then, you know, continue to monitor. So talk a bit about the …

Heidi Hattendorf (05:03.649)

Yeah.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (05:25.84)

… macro strategy, how you're setting that up, but then how you need to kind of keep an eye on it as well.

Heidi Hattendorf (05:31.82)

Yeah, sure. And I feel like so much has changed now. There are more dashboards and there's more data, which can also be overwhelming the companies, right? They're just trying to chase everything. You know, they heard about, we've got to have a better social media campaign, but then they're going to every event. And that's usually where companies get saturated, right? We've all done it. And it's just overwhelming, not only for them but also for their budgets, for their prospects ...

Kerry Curran, RBMA (05:47.41)

Yeah.

Heidi Hattendorf (05:57.036)

… so it's having that purpose and like, what are some of your anchor go-to-market strategies? And that's going to depend again on who you're trying to reach. Where are those prospects most likely to be both for influencers as well as decision-makers. Then you can align the budget, the cadence, and the review tied back to that strategy. But it all starts with the strategy. Who are you trying to reach? Where are some places that they would show up and then make sure that you've got your message aligned.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (06:02.577)

Yeah. Mm.

Heidi Hattendorf (06:26.498)

So for example, is it an outbound strategy where it's going to be, say an email campaign that shows up or a direct message? Is it event-led, which could be going to conferences or it could be a webinar? Could be inbound where you're counting on people via the website, SEO search. Then there are other strategies too, like partner-led, like a partner-led go-to-market motion, which could be through other companies. Maybe somebody's got that …

Kerry Curran, RBMA (06:26.78)

Mm-mm.

Heidi Hattendorf (06:56.312)

… stronger alliance with the market, but you've got a really great service or solution that tucks in. Community-led could be certain groups that you're part of or being able to get the message out through the community. There are multiple ways, but what I always recommend is to pick two that resonate. If you want more than one, pick two to start, and then the others can be smaller investments. But rather than trying to do everything, be clear on

Kerry Curran, RBMA (07:02.268)

Mm-mm.

Heidi Hattendorf (07:25.302)

How are customers reaching you?

Kerry Curran, RBMA (07:28.039)

No, that's so smart to have, as you said, you don't want to be everything for everyone. need to, with your defined ICP and then that very targeted go-to-market strategy. You mentioned a bit about some of the channel strategies. What are some of the priorities or most recommended channels that should be part of that testing?

Heidi Hattendorf (07:56.064)

Yeah. And this is a great place to also look at, are you in B2B, which, you know, then channels like LinkedIn, industry events, you know, are phenomenal for that email works well versus the consumer side. It's going to be completely different, right? And there's not a one-size-fits-all for all of B2B or all consumers, but there are considerations. Reviews, for example, are really big on the consumer side. It's going to be a lot more on that mass market. And so

Kerry Curran, RBMA (08:00.55)

Mm-mm.

Heidi Hattendorf (08:24.8)

you know, it's considering that. But if we're talking about within B2B, you know, then looking at a social strategy such as LinkedIn or ads within that space resonates. And I know you mentioned how that ties to the strategy. What's the best cadence? I mean, a lot of companies right now are getting ready for the new fiscal year. So even if they're on a different financial calendar, a lot of times their customers too would be on a fiscal year aligned to the calendar.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (08:40.85)

Mm-mm.

Heidi Hattendorf (08:54.476)

So it's looking at setting up those new budgets. So that again, starts with the strategy, what's worked, what hasn't over the past year, where do they need to adjust course? And with the data and metrics today, I mean, you could literally be looking at a daily update, right? But to step back, I think the quarterly is still a great way to refine, what does that strategy look like? What's changed on the competitive side and getting the team together to evaluate?

Kerry Curran, RBMA (09:09.618)

Mm-hmm.

Heidi Hattendorf (09:23.146)

Again, it can happen certainly more often, the data is there, but if you want to just give a little distance between what you've measured, let's say following a campaign versus having a bigger picture that aligns with the stakeholder and the board calendar, that could be another way to think about it is that you need a little bit of time for reflection and to adjust course to put some new motions into play for the following quarter.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (09:48.934)

Yeah, no, it's, I think that's spot on too. It can't just plan it at the beginning of the year and set it and hope that it just continues to perform. I, the timing of a quarterly review, where you're diving in and seeing who, what's resonating, who it's resonating with also aligns with, allows you to kind of bring seasonality into that as well and kind of think about, okay, next quarter, these are.

Heidi Hattendorf (09:55.852)

Yeah.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (10:18.118)

Like as you pointed out, it's Q4, it's, you what is, what are our customers thinking and doing, or is it June and your, are your customers, you know, going to be less active during the summer? Or if you're looking at now and you're thinking, how does the election impact our customers? So I love that kind of setting the annual goal and plan and go-to-market strategy, but then that quarterly review to really see how it's working.

Heidi Hattendorf (10:20.928)

Mm-hmm.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (10:47.13)

One of the tools you mentioned for seeing how it's working and what's resonating is building that dashboard of success. So talk a bit about what kind of what you recommend everyone has in that dashboard.

Heidi Hattendorf (10:54.668)

Okay.

Heidi Hattendorf (11:01.204)

Yeah. And I think it's funny because now that there's so much data and with AI that much more and everything's automated, which is on one hand great, but all the more opportunity really for the leadership team to define what metrics really matter for that given company. For example, on the go -to -market side, it's really looking at the whole pipeline through. So you want to look at what kind of leads are coming in, measuring the health of the pipeline.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (11:05.678)

Thank you.

Heidi Hattendorf (11:28.47)

What's coming in and then conversion at each step? So what's converting, getting through to opportunity, what's becoming closed one business, as well as closed loss business, and the why behind each of those? So some of those core metrics and then looking and double-clicking on which channels are most effective. So what resonates, with our referrals helping, what about new logos compared to …

Kerry Curran, RBMA (11:42.396)

Mm.

Heidi Hattendorf (11:56.888)

… current business and that expansion opportunity, but then also, you know, looking at costs too. Where, you know, where's the company spending and then which of those investments might be for influence versus, you know, actually closing business, which you need both. You know, you've got to have really both because we know that buyers are smarter than ever. They're looking multi-channel. spend 80 to 90 % of their time researching and talking to others before they even talk to someone in sales.

So that's why this multi-channel is so important, but also why you wanna pick the ones that are gonna really work and resonate, and then tie that right back to the dashboard to be able to monitor constantly how it's going, but then reflect, let's say, quarterly and then reset for the annual aligned to the budget.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (12:45.648)

Yeah, and it's important to, as you said, to kind of classify what are your inbound strategies for drawing traffic and customers to you, like the website or other content, but then what are your outbound strategies and measuring kind of both to make sure they're all working together to connect with that ICP.

Heidi Hattendorf (13:08.416)

Yeah, absolutely. And that really ties back to why it's not an effective strategy that someone contacts you and says, I can redo your website or let me help you with your email campaign. But how do they even know that's one of your central go-to-market motions where you want to focus and you want to dial up? So that's where you want to start again with refining the strategy, aligning to the personas and the ideal customer profile, and then going deeper.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (13:18.119)

Yeah. All right.

Heidi Hattendorf (13:35.498)

In the go-to-market motion that's going to be most effective to reach that particular base.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (13:38.82)

Yeah, know one thing that's so important as, you know, a lot of what we've been talking about is the new customer acquisition, right? And getting new, new logos and new leads. But so many of these strategies are important for your existing customers to drive retention and growth with those existing contracts. And, you know, when you and I first met, we talked a lot about how

Heidi Hattendorf (13:48.778)

I'm sorry.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (14:08.538)

marketing is so focused on new business and sales that it's not always brought into the strategy for retention and growth. so, you know, talk a bit about from your perspective, how a lot of these same initiatives can be applied to your own current customer group.

Heidi Hattendorf (14:27.254)

Yeah, absolutely. I think it's an underrated area that, you know, companies are so focused on looking at those new logos, measuring that. And we know it's that much harder to get a new logo or to get a new customer because they're probably already using a solution. So sometimes it's unseating a competitor, but also they don't know you. You've got to start from scratch. And I get the other side is you don't want all your eggs in one basket. You want to diversify, have multiple customers. But the idea is that if you're …

Kerry Curran, RBMA (14:37.87)

Mm-mm.

Heidi Hattendorf (14:56.724)

… if you're providing good service or good product experience to a given customer, they're going to be more likely to refer you not only to someone else but also within. So for, let's say, even a medium-sized company to somebody else, another department, another area solution that's needed. So some of these go-to-market motions are the same where, you know, it's an email campaign, it could be a newsletter, it's keeping that customer informed but also sharing different areas that your company is responsible for. I think it's a shame if you hear the story too often where it turns out a customer went and bought a different solution or service from another provider because they didn't even realize that the given company offered that because it was just never discussed. So this idea of being able to just share, puts the company in a better light as being more holistic, answering so many different areas …

Kerry Curran, RBMA (15:39.078)

Yeah.

Heidi Hattendorf (15:50.272)

… and doing it in a way that's not this hard sell, but more informative, and educational. A lot of times this helps the workflow too, especially in software and services where you have different departments. Maybe it's a solution that ties in together because they each have a component or part of a suite, let's say, or in the case of a service that now they've got one vendor that's already approved. So there are so many different advantages.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (15:54.171)

Yeah.

Heidi Hattendorf (16:17.29)

But to your point, a lot of the same go-to-market motions, whether it's an event or whether it's outbound, even the website for inbound, sometimes it's just pointing out what's available or it could even just be asking for that referral. Do you know someone in this other department? Do you have this problem? Or at least to ask for the intro and see where that goes.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (16:35.548)

Right. Yeah, no, I agree. you know, in my many, many years on the business development side within agencies, it was always my dream that the account leads would invite us in on a quarterly basis and just say, you know, I wouldn't be doing my due diligence if I didn't let you know of these other capabilities we have for when you're ready. I think in my experience, the account teams were so worried we would come in and give a hard sell and kind of muddy the relationship there. But if we're coming in, if you're bringing in your marketing or sales, or just even the collateral narrative for the account manager to share, again, to your point, it's like, listen, we do these other things, we have these other capabilities, let us just tell you about them.

Heidi Hattendorf (17:24.898)

No.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (17:28.262)

You know, it might not be the right timing. It might be, but more as a, as I said, we're doing our due diligence to make sure you're aware of every tool in our portfolio that could be of value to you. And they, and you know, the other aspect as well, as you said, the website has, if you, if you're building up all this valuable content for your new customers, excuse me, show, show your existing customers, like what other you know, examples, include them in your newsletter so they know where are you going to be for conferences. Are you speaking at events? Are you publishing bylines? And I think that's, that's an area where if you're, if you're providing, showing them like you, like you said that we have all of this great other solutions, all these other great solutions that can help you, you know, come, let's talk about that as well. So I hope that …

Heidi Hattendorf (18:25.398)

Mm -hmm. Yeah.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (18:26.598)

We'll see more marketing brought into that kind of strategic growth that go-to-market strategy initiatives brought into existing clients.

Heidi Hattendorf (18:36.556)

That's so true. And I love what you said that is strategic because it's not just, okay, now sales are off to the next customer. then this is left to one, you know, one group to maintain, but it's more of that continuity. You know, I love that saying of, people don't want to be sold to, but they love to buy. so as long as it's done in the right way, you know, and you, you've just given a great example where it's just really to inform, inform, and educate.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (18:42.022)

Right. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Heidi Hattendorf (19:02.966)

And then it's part of this bigger story. I think it makes the company look better too, because they've got this more holistic offering. They're continuing to innovate and develop and just really try to make the current customer aware. So yeah, it's a win-win.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (19:16.144)

Right. Yeah. It goes as well, reinforcing the company's overarching brand identity and differentiator and just reinforcing why you've chosen them in the first place. There are so many opportunities there.

Heidi Hattendorf (19:33.078)

Yeah, I think the incentives too. If this is a priority to continue to develop and there's still opportunity for current clients, then really that incentive needs to be there for sales too. And to your point, not in a way that's going to chase them off, but one that is again, is to inform, but that there's some type of incentive. So it's not just only about getting new clients, new logos, so to speak.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (19:59.13)

Right, right. Yeah. No, this is definitely valuable information, Heidi. So thank you so much. So I definitely learned more about having a strong go-to-market strategy and ICP. Before you go, what is your number one recommendation for a brand that maybe needs to revisit their go -to -market strategy?

Heidi Hattendorf (20:22.702)

sure. I think a good place to start is mapping out where you are today in terms of that ICP and where you want to be in the next couple of years. And maybe it's the same, you know, maybe it's going deeper within a given ICP, but really that current state, future state is really important because then you can build out what are the right ways to reach them? How much do we have to invest? Where should we scale back? But, it really kind of starts with where we are today… 

Kerry Curran, RBMA (20:29.394)

Mm-mm.

Heidi Hattendorf (20:51.454)

… and just having that look and then where do we want to get to as a basis? And then I would do that also in light of what's changed within them, within, let's say competitive landscape, as well as, you know, other opportunities that customers have. But that's exactly where I would recommend starting the current state, the future state.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (21:12.742)

That's very valuable. And as we've talked about a lot of these things, I'm trying to remind myself of my own go-to-market strategy. So thank you. This has been wonderful, Heidi, and I look forward to having you on again in the future.

Heidi Hattendorf (21:26.508)

That sounds great. Thanks so much, Kerry. You've been there, you've experienced this as well. Much appreciated.

Kerry Curran, RBMA (21:32.464)

Yeah, thank you.