John Wooden’s business was basketball, not technology, but these words of wisdom from the “Wizard of Westwood” are relevant for tech marketers today. To paraphrase loosely, Wooden was instructing his UCLA squads to move with intention and due speed—making the right moves at the right times with the right pace—and not allowing the competition to rush them.
In sports, the difference between winning and losing is frequently a matter of inches. Likewise in the tech world, the difference between market leadership and runner-up status is often a matter of timing.
Speed to market requires the right mix of quality and execution velocity. To strike the right balance, you need careful planning and agile teamwork. Let’s look at the common speed bumps and roadblocks facing marketing teams, as well as best practices for overcoming them.
Running Too Fast or Too Slow
The relentless pace of innovation puts a premium on first-mover advantage, which ratchets up the pressure to deliver results quickly. It constantly tests the agility of marketing teams as competitors jockey for market share and position. As new trends and innovations emerge, marketers must continuously evolve their messaging, campaigns, and go-to-market (GTM) tactics to keep pace and maintain an advantage.
Failing to hit the mark can also come at a premium. Delays in GTM execution can mean ceding ground to competitors, allowing them to define the prevailing storylines in market. This can position your company as reactive by default. It can also result in lost market relevance and revenue opportunities. However, rushing to market at the cost of quality can also present significant risks. Inadequate marketing execution can damage brand perceptions for years, failing to connect with customers or target audiences.
Slowing Down to Speed Up
Tech marketing is a team sport. Achieving and sustaining an optimal blend of quality and execution velocity requires a culture that balances discipline, agility, and creativity. Successful teams see these qualities as elements of a cohesive culture, not as trade-offs to be made. Here are a few best practices that marketing leaders can adopt to accelerate GTM motions, without compromising quality.
- Plan for velocity and necessary friction: Creating a workback plan with critical milestones establishes clear expectations and paves the way to execute marketing activities. Streamlined approval processes can also empower teams to make informed decisions when quick action is non-negotiable.
- Embrace agility and alignment: As industry and business priorities rapidly shift, staying aligned with internal stakeholders remains essential. Relationships with cross-departmental teams can empower marketing teams to stay informed on emerging trends, changing market conditions, and customer preferences. Agile marketing frameworks can also enable rapid iterations and responsive feedback loops, which help decision-makers stay engaged.
- Prioritize messaging: Messaging and positioning are bedrock components of marketing activities and largely determine how your company shows up in market. Reaching consensus on messaging early establishes proper footing for marketing tactics, campaigns, and deliverables while helping to prevent rework and costly delays downstream.
- Invest in scalability: To avoid overtaxing team bandwidth, making the appropriate investments in talent can ensure you have the right mix of skills and expertise to execute high-quality GTM strategies on time. Where applicable, automation can also be leveraged within workflows to alleviate the burden on internal teams and accelerate outputs.
Striking the Right Balance
To win customers’ trust and market share, tech marketers must strike the balance between rapid execution and attention to detail. By building an adaptive and agile culture, you can deliver high-impact tactics and campaigns that elevate your brand while keeping pace with fast-changing market dynamics.
Ready to enhance and accelerate your GTM motion? Learn how Exact Market can help.
