❌ GTM Alignment’s Greatest Weakness: A Poor Communication Strategy

Having a strong internal communication strategy is undoubtably one of the most critical factors playing a role in the success of your Account-Based GTM strategy.


It’s FAR more than sending “email reminders to sales”…


You should be striving to:

  • Drive Internal Alignment
  • Set Clear Expectations
  • Define Cross-functional Team Roles

🗣️ The 3 Types of Internal Communication

Source: ForgeX Research Library

The 3 main types of communication that should be leveraged include:

  1. Informative: Used to inform specific team members or the entire team about essential information, updates, or changes. This type of communication is primarily for enablement and knowledge sharing.
  2. Strategic & Tactical Progression: Used to communicate the development and implementation progress of either a strategy or specific tactics within a campaign. This ensures that everyone is aware of the current status and future steps.
  3. Performance Assessment & Calibration: Used to review the performance of strategies and tactics, followed by strategic or tactical adjustments based on the outcomes.

Just because there are 3 main types of communication, doesn’t mean you should go out of your way to create individual updates for each. Some updates can cover more than one type.

For example:

  • FAQ Document = Informative (just 1)
  • Quarterly Business Review (QBR) = Informative, Strategic & Tactical Progression, Performance Assessment & Calibration (all 3)

💡 Audience Relevancy is a Make or Break

Source: ForgeX Research Library

Audience relevancy is especially critical in maintaining internal alignment, as you’ll be able to garner further buy-in when each stakeholder receives comms that are pertinent to their roles and responsibilities.

The 3 main audiences types include:

  1. Executive Leadership (C-suite, Board, VC & PE Firms): These stakeholders are interested in understanding how the ABM efforts impact overall business and revenue goals. Communication should articulate the ROI, strategic direction, and milestones achieved towards the “north star” state.
  • Example Titles: CEO, CMO, CFO
  1. Cross-functional Partners: These teams require in-depth information on the progress and performance of various account-based tactics to ensure seamless execution and alignment with the overall strategy.
  • Example Titles: Head of Digital, Director of Content Marketing, RevOps Manager
  1. Sales & Customer Success: Similar to executive leadership, these teams benefit from a broader overview rather than intricate details. Focus on how ABM efforts translate into revenue opportunities and customer success.
  • Example Titles: Account Executive, Sales Development Rep (SDR), Customer Success Manager (CSM)

Large Organizations (>$1B ARR): Tend to have more sophisticated communication strategies, with distinct updates tailored to various roles and departments. Communication may occur less frequently across all 3 audiences but is more structured and formal.

Smaller Organizations: Communication tends to be more frequent and informal across all 3 audiences, often involving broader discussions with multiple stakeholders present.

ForgeX Research


🤔 Considerations While Building Your Internal Communication Strategy

What channels should you leverage for distribution of your communications?

Based on the organizational culture and general preferences of your stakeholders, you will want to tailor the distribution channels accordingly.

For example… your sales team might prefer a biweekly status update on Slack as opposed to email.


Distribution Channel Examples:

  • Email
  • Slack
  • Google Doc
  • Loom video

Where should you house communication documents for stakeholders to reference?

When considering where to store all relevant updates and communications for internal stakeholders to access on-demand, it’s imperative to consider their “Watering Holes”.

These include the various places that they are already accessing on a regular basis.

The overall objective behind this, is so that you are not reinventing ANOTHER place that your already overwhelmed stakeholders have to remember to bookmark and view.


Watering Hole Examples:

  • Center of Excellence
  • Dedicated Slack channel for the full sales team
  • Sales hub
  • Internal GTM folder in Google Drive

Examples of internal communication types you can adopt:

Internal Communication Type

Frequency

Distribution Channel Examples

Biweekly Updates

Biweekly

Email, Slack

Internal Roadshow

Quarterly

Virtual / In-person Meetings

FAQ Documents

Always-on

Google Document

Internal Promotional Collateral and Signage

Refreshed biannually

Canvas Banners, Paper Signs

and more…

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🛠️ Your Internal Communication Strategy Should Be Unique

Just like every part of your Account-Based GTM strategy, your internal communication strategy should be custom to your organization.


There is no “one-size fits all” framework or repeatable template that can be blindly passed from company to company.


It should be continuously optimized in order to ensure that your internal cross-functional alignment is continuously achieving peak operation excellence.