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What is a SaaS go-to-market (GTM) strategy?


A SaaS (Software as a Service) go-to-market (GTM) strategy is a plan for attracting and reaching a target audience. It outlines the tactics and channels that a company will use to reach potential customers and drive revenue. A SaaS GTM strategy includes key metrics and goals for measuring success such as leads generated, signups, daily average users, and so on. Creating a GTM strategy involves several steps, including developing messaging, deciding on prices, selecting a sales model, and identifying target companies.

The channel plays a crucial role in a SaaS or cloud GTM strategy. It enables companies to reach their target customers through various indirect channels, such as distributors, resellers, and system integrators. Selling SaaS through the channel can help you expand your reach and scale your business faster. 




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What is a B2B SaaS product strategy?


A B2B SaaS product strategy is a plan to help ensure a product will meet the needs of its target market. Developing a B2B SaaS product strategy requires a thorough understanding of the market, customers, competition, and the product itself.

Creating the strategy involves conducting market research to identify the needs and pain points of potential customers, analyzing the competitive landscape to understand what other solutions are available, and defining the unique value proposition of the product.

Here are some key elements of a B2B SaaS product strategy:

  • Identify the target market: Research and define the ideal customer profile for the product, including company size, industry, demographics, and pain points that the product can solve.
  • Develop a product roadmap: Create a plan for the product’s development and release, including features, timelines, and milestones. The roadmap should align with the target market’s needs and the company’s overall business objectives.
  • Determine the pricing model: Decide how to charge customers for the product, which may follow a subscription-based model, a usage-based model, a one-time purchase model, or a combination. The pricing model should consider the value the product provides to customers and the competitive landscape.
  • Analyze the competition: Research the competitors in the market and understand their strengths, weaknesses, and positioning. This information can help inform the product’s differentiation and marketing strategies.
  • Build a go-to-market strategy: Create a plan for how to bring the product to market, including the channels for sales and marketing, messaging, and positioning, and the customer acquisition process. The go-to-market strategy should align with the target market and the product roadmap.
  • Measure and optimize: Regularly track and analyze key metrics related to the product’s performance, such as customer acquisition cost, retention rate, and revenue. Based on this data, the company should adjust and optimize the product strategy for better results. 

SaaS Go-To-Market (GTM) Strategy




Why is a go-to-market approach important in SaaS?

A GTM approach is crucial for SaaS companies as it provides a structured plan for reaching and acquiring customers. SaaS companies often operate in highly competitive markets with a multitude of options available to potential customers. A well-defined GTM approach can help a company stand out from the competition and reach its target audience effectively.

One telco that successfully launched a SaaS solution is Telefonica Tech. The company decided to form a partnership with Sherpa.ai and offer the “SaaS Privacy-Preserving” platform to customers, with an initial focus on building use cases in the Spanish market. This means the GTM focus was alliance building along with evaluating and serving a designated target audience before embarking on a larger rollout.







What are some examples of SaaS go-to-market strategies?


When it comes to launching and scaling a SaaS product, having a well-crafted GTM strategy is essential. There are numerous GTM strategies that a SaaS company can use to reach potential customers and drive growth. Let’s explore some examples:

  • Partner Channel: Use partnerships with other companies to sell SaaS products. This approach helps SaaS companies tap into their partner’s existing customer base and expand their reach. Salesforce, a leading CRM SaaS provider, partners with a variety of companies to offer integrations with other software applications, making their platform more versatile and appealing to potential customers.
  • Freemium: Offering a free, limited version of software to users is one way SaaS companies entice users to try their product and later upgrade to a paid version with more features. Dropbox is a file hosting service that offers a free version with limited storage and features. This allows users to test the service before upgrading to paid plans.
  • Self-Service: Enable customers to sign up and use a SaaS solution without requiring assistance. HubSpot, a marketing automation SaaS company, offers a self-service model where customers can sign up for a free trial and use their software right away.
  • Sales-Assisted: For larger and more complex software solutions, sales teams can actively guide potential customers throughout the sales process. Adobe Creative Cloud, a software package of creative applications, uses a sales-assisted approach to offer its product to enterprise customers who require more guidance and support in implementing its software.
  • Account-Based Marketing (ABM): Focus on a small group of important prospects and create personalized marketing campaigns for them. Zuora, a subscription management SaaS company, uses ABM to target and personalize content for its key accounts and to build stronger relationships with those customers.
  • Online Advertising: Use online advertising platforms like Google Ads, Facebook Ads, and LinkedIn Ads to target potential customers and drive traffic to your website. Slack, a team communication and collaboration platform uses online advertising to reach and target potential customers with relevant ads on social media and search engines.
  • Content Marketing: Create blog posts, webinars, white papers, and other content to educate potential customers about your product. HubSpot does this by creating a wealth of educational content to help businesses with marketing and sales.
  • Referral Programs: Offer incentives for existing customers to refer their friends and colleagues to purchase the product. Dropbox uses referral marketing to incentivize users to invite others to use the platform in exchange for additional free storage space. 

What are some examples of SaaS go-to-market strategies in the telecoms industry?


One way for telcos to efficiently bring SaaS solutions to market is to partner with a platform or marketplace provider to build and deliver a digital catalog of solutions. As the next step to working with a platform provider to build a digital catalog, telcos can also launch marketplaces and create solution bundles.

Because of a cloud platform’s automation capabilities, telcos can save time with SaaS solution procurement and delivery. By taking this approach, telcos can streamline catalog management, including contracts and product lists, automate billing, and better manage their SaaS cloud practice overall by removing complexity.

Some GTM strategies that are used in combination with or independently from a cloud platform (built in-house or adopted from a partner) include the implementation of a partner channel strategy, direct sales strategy, freemium strategy, digital marketing strategy, self-service, and more.

The strategies can include:

  • Partner Channel Strategy: Partner with SaaS providers to offer products and services to a partner’s existing customer base. For example, AT&T partnered with IBM to provide cloud services to their customers.
  • Direct Sales Strategy: Sell SaaS solutions directly to customers through a sales team. For instance, Verizon sells cloud storage to its customers.
  • Freemium Strategy: Offering a free, limited version of a SaaS solution can help drive user adoption and eventually, paid subscriptions. For example, T-Mobile’s SyncUP DRIVE service offers a free, basic version of its connected car service to its customers.
  • Digital Marketing Strategy: Use digital marketing to reach potential customers and promote SaaS offerings. For example, Comcast Business uses social media advertising to promote its cloud-based voice and unified communication services to small and medium-sized businesses.
  • Self-Service: Offer self-service options for SaaS solutions, allowing customers to easily purchase and use the software without requiring assistance. For example, Comcast Business offers various cloud-based solutions such as web hosting, cybersecurity protection, and Microsoft Office 365, all available for purchase and set up directly by the customer through the Comcast Business website.




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Mike Jennett, Director of CloudBlue Platform Strategy, is an accomplished business and technology executive. With a deep focus on product development and go-to-market strategy, he plays a pivotal role driving strategic growth and market expansion. Mike’s career is characterized by his adeptness in driving technological advancements and his commitment to leading digital transformations with experience including IDC where he was VP of the Mobility and Digital Transformation IEP practices, and HP where he held numerous leadership roles. Mike’s expertise is also reflected in his published works and contributions to multiple tech publications. Mike holds a B.A. from California Polytechnic University.
Having previously to strategic product management, agile transformations, and user experience in CloudBlue, Taylor Giddens heads the Services & Solutions team where he ensures smooth delivery, operations and solution growth for our partners and customers.

The team includes technical account management, managed services, support, custom solution development, and customer enablement.

Prior to CloudBlue, his resume boasts leadership of some of the world’s largest companies during their digital transformations and marketplace launches. Taylor is a practitioner of servitude leadership when it comes to enabling his team to drive positive outcomes on the road to operational excellence.
Laurens van Alphen, a visionary entrepreneur with over 29 years of internet technology expertise, serves as Director of Technical Managed Services at CloudBlue, responsible for Operations and Delivery of CloudBlue SaaS.

As a Dutch racing champion and car enthusiast, he brings the same drive to the tech realm, steering Keenondots from a managed hosting firm to a global cloud enablement leader. Laurens is celebrated for his outcome-driven leadership, deep industry insight, and passion for balancing business innovation with client engagement.
Lincoln Lincoln is CloudBlue’s Head of Global Sales; having been with the company since November 2017. Leading CloudBlue’s global go-to-market organization, he’s responsible for driving accelerated and sustained mutual growth with CloudBlue’s customers and partners, as well as forming new customer partnerships across the Vendor and Provider ecosystem. As part of CloudBlue’s leadership team he is responsible the organisation’s revenue and continued market leadership by delivering and supporting products, services and solutions to organizations in established and new markets around the world.

Before joining CloudBlue, Lincoln was AppDirect’s Regional Director, Asia Pacific & Japan, responsible for forming, building and leading AppDirect’s business and operations across the APJ geography. He built and led AppDirect’s fastest growing and highest performing region globally within 3yrs.

Before joining AppDirect, Lincoln was EMC’s Practice Manager, Cloud Service Providers, APJ, working with the leading Service Providers to maximise their Cloud Business presence & market success. Lincoln joined EMC in 2007, and has over 20 years’ experience in the IT industry, having been based out of Singapore, Australia and the UK. Prior to EMC, he was in range of sales and channel positions at Symantec and VERITAS.

Lincoln has an Honours degree in Business Administration from Kingston University in the United Kingdom.
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Brent is a Canadian based corporate lawyer with more than 20 years of experience as a strategic legal advisor both in private practice and as in-house counsel to large multi-national companies. Prior to joining Ingram Micro in 2008, he worked at a well-respected corporate law firm in Toronto, Canada and later served as general counsel for Toshiba Canada. During his 15-year tenure at Ingram Micro, he has held positions of increasing complexity and responsibility, and since being promoted to his current role in 2022, Brent is the legal lead for both Ingram Micro’s Canadian and global cloud businesses, as well as CloudBlue.

Brent holds a law degree (LL.B.) from Queen’s University, a Psychology degree (B.A. Honours) from Lakehead University, and has been admitted to the bar in Ontario, Canada since 2002.
Anurag serves as the Head of Product Management for CloudBlue and is responsible for product direction and driving innovation. His leadership has been marked by a keen focus on customer needs, growing the ISV ecosystem, and ensuring the continual evolution of CloudBlue’s product portfolio.

Anurag joined Ingram Micro in 2017 and has been instrumental in, positioning CloudBlue as an industry leading monetization platform for MSP’s, Telco’s and Distributors. Previously Anurag worked at Oracle and Microsoft where he managed many technology projects and programs.
As VP of Engineering of CloudBlue, Rony oversees the development and engineering efforts of the company. He is a recognized leader with more than 25 years of experience in Technology and Product.

Prior to joining CloudBlue Rony lead the R&D efforts at Tripwire acquired by Thoma Bravo, and Cedexis acquired by Citrix. Rony is a leader with extensive experience in transforming both complex technology problems into products that customers love and disjointed organizations into agile high performing teams.
Coen is a distinguished leader and entrepreneur in the realm of cloud technology. Currently serving as CEO of Keenondots and the Global Director of CloudBlue SaaS. He is passionate about driving innovation, fostering collaboration, and leading high-performing teams to achieve transformative results.

With a background as Managing Director of INTO Cloud and a pivotal role as Director of Products of KPN, he brings a wealth of experience in steering organizations through the complexities of the digital landscape.

Beyond the boardroom, Coen is a marathon enthusiast, demonstrating endurance and discipline in pursuit of both professional and personal goals.
Alyson has over twenty years of experience in demand generation, marketing automation and data management. She is responsible for leading the strategy and direction of the company’s brand, performance, and digital marketing.

Prior to CloudBlue, Alyson served as Ingram Micro’s Director of Global Business Intelligence Marketing Automation driving channel partner campaigns. Her tenure in marketing leadership at prestigious companies such as Western Digital, Ocean Institute celebrates redefining marketing campaigns and building top performing teams based on trust, experimentation, and results.

Alyson resides with her husband and three children in Orange County and is an active volunteer and donor within her children’s sports and education programs.

Darek Tasak is leading Customer Success & Value Creation for CloudBlue. In his role, he looks after CloudBlue customers globally during the entire lifecycle of our relationship: from the initial on-boarding, through in-life account management, always ensuring they build successful businesses leveraging our technology. Additionally, he is also in charge of Partnership & Alliances, as well as Pricing Management for everything we commercialize.


Before CloudBlue, Darek managed Ingram Micro’s Services division for hi-tech customers in Europe & APAC. His prior experiences include also launching and leading pan-European services business for TDSynnex, as well as strategy consulting with Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

As President of CloudBlue, Uddhav is a distinguished leader and visionary with nearly two decades of platform-building experience. He is an industry leader in digital commerce, the subscription economy, and monetization platforms.


Notably, at SAP, he spearheaded the transformation of their platform business into a multi-cloud platform-as-a-service, offering enterprise and developer-friendly subscription models. At Pure Storage, he championed the efforts to successfully disrupt the storage industry by creating revolutionary Storage-as-a-service, AIOps-as-a-service, and Disaster Recovery-as-a-service offerings with cutting-edge features and establishing a sophisticated subscription commerce infrastructure that is channel-friendly.


At CloudBlue, Uddhav guides and empowers businesses to rethink their monetization strategies by unlocking the power of digital ecosystems and marketplaces. CloudBlue provides enterprises with a mature multi-tier, multi-channel marketplace and monetization platform that enables usage-based subscription models and global delivery of Anything-as-a-Service solutions. Uddhav has played a pivotal role in shaping the future of the subscription economy through his innovative thinking and impactful contributions.

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