Go-to-market case interview, who, how, at what price, in what order

Ledgerly, an invented software company, has built invoicing software for US small businesses. The board has agreed to launch. Who should it sell to first, through which channel, at what price, and in what order? This case and every number in it are invented by Soreno for practice.

1. Size the segments

   $1.32 billion a year across three

   Micro businesses (1 to 9 staff): 2,000,000 firms × $30 a month × 12 = $720 million. Small businesses (10 to 49 staff): 400,000 firms × $80 a month × 12 = $384 million. Mid-sized firms (50 to 249 staff): 60,000 firms × $300 a month × 12 = $216 million. Micro businesses are the largest pool, but each one pays the least, so how cheaply you can win them decides whether they come first.

2. Cost each route

   6 routes, gross margin 80%

   Gross profit is 80% of price, or 60% when an accounting firm resells and keeps 20%. Self-serve online for micro firms: $300 to win a customer who brings $24 of gross profit a month, so 12.5 months to pay back. Accounting firm partners for micro firms: $400 to win a customer who brings $18 of gross profit a month, so 22.2 months to pay back. Inside sales team for small firms: $2,000 to win a customer who brings $64 of gross profit a month, so 31.3 months to pay back. Accounting firm partners for small firms: $400 to win a customer who brings $48 of gross profit a month, so 8.3 months to pay back. Inside sales team for mid-sized firms: $5,000 to win a customer who brings $240 of gross profit a month, so 20.8 months to pay back. Field sales team for mid-sized firms: $12,000 to win a customer who brings $240 of gross profit a month, so 50 months to pay back.

3. Match channel to segment

   The fastest payback in each segment

   For small firms, accounting firm partners (8.3 months). For micro firms, self-serve online (12.5 months). For mid-sized firms, inside sales team (20.8 months). Partners win on small firms because they already advise them, so the cost to win one is low and the partner's 20% share still leaves a fast payback. Field sales takes 50 months to pay back even at $300 a month.

4. Check the price

   $80 a month sits in the gap

   For a small firm, Ledgerly saves about 5 hours a month of invoicing at $40 an hour, $200 of value. Serving one costs about $16 a month, and rivals charge $60 to $100. So $80 is above cost, well below value and inside the rivals' range: no reason to discount at launch.

5. Sequence the launch

   Partners first, then self-serve, then mid-sized

   Year one: sign 300 accounting firms that each bring 10 clients, 3,000 small customers worth $2.88 million a year for $1.2 million of acquisition cost. Open self-serve sign-up for micro firms once onboarding needs no human help. Hold mid-sized firms until the product handles their approval workflows, then sell through the inside sales team.

6. Recommend

   Lead with accountants, measure payback monthly

   Launch through accounting firm partners to small businesses at $80 a month, add self-serve for micro firms next, and leave field sales out. The main risk: partners push a rival that pays them more. Track payback by channel each month, and move budget toward self-serve if its payback drops below the partners' 8.3 months.

Yale's Office of Career Strategy lists STP (segmenting, targeting, positioning) as the framework for finding the right market for a product: split customers by how they differ, pick the target group, then decide how to appeal to it.

1. Split

   By what changes the buying

   Size of business, industry, region, price sensitivity or how they buy today. A split that doesn't change the channel or the price is not worth making.

2. Size

   Pool per segment

   Customers × price × purchases a year. Our market sizing page shows the methods.

   Market sizing, worked

3. Target

   Pool × how cheaply you can reach it

   The biggest segment is not always first. Pick the one where you win customers fastest for the money.

4. Adapt

   Different segments, different plans

   BCG's 2025 article on emerging markets says companies can't apply a one-size-fits-all approach and need to adapt product lineup, pricing and distribution to each segment.

Bain's route-to-market page says companies sell with their own salesforce or through channel partners, and offers to help them decide where in-person selling, a virtual approach such as e-commerce or a channel play makes more sense.

1. Field sales

   Reps who visit

   Highest cost per customer. Fits large, complex purchases.

2. Inside sales

   Reps on phone and video

   A fraction of field cost. Fits mid-sized deals.

3. Self-serve

   Online sign-up or e-commerce

   Cheapest per customer once built. Needs a simple product and a short decision.

4. Partners

   Distributors, resellers, advisers

   Reach without a salesforce, for a share of revenue and less control over the customer.

5. Retail

   Stores and marketplaces

   For consumer products. Shelf space, retailer margin and pack size become the questions.

6. Choosing

   Attractive and accessible

   Simon-Kucher suggests two tests for a long list of channels: how attractive each is (size, growth, competition) and how accessible (can you get into it and reach customers through it).

1. Price

   Cost, value, competitors

   BCG's pricing page says a price needs to be above the production cost, below the value customers receive and in range of competitors' prices. Our pricing case page works through it in depth.

   Free pricing case

2. Sequence

   A roadmap, not a big bang

   Simon-Kucher's article closes on a roadmap that names the partners for the first launch and outlines later expansion to other partners or channels, with KPIs for every product and channel pair. In a case, say what launches first, what it proves, and what waits.