Honeywell’s GTM Transformation: What We Learned At B2B Summit

· Source: Featured Blogs - Forrester · Field: Business & Management — Marketing, Branding & Advertising, Corporate Strategy & Leadership, Operations & Process Management · Depth: Intermediate, quick

Summary

Honeywell's industrial automation division underwent a significant go-to-market (GTM) transformation, shifting from a product-centric to an audience-focused approach. This change was necessitated by an overwhelmed marketing team managing hundreds of product-specific campaigns with limited resources, resulting in fragmented customer messaging. Meredith Winczewski, CMO, recognized the need to prioritize customer problems and desired outcomes over internal product categories, a challenge echoed by 22% of B2B marketing decision-makers. The transformation involved three key steps: anchoring the GTM strategy in audience needs like safety and operational efficiency, conducting a structured GTM mapping exercise to align stakeholders and identify synergies, and making structural changes to prioritize segments, group products into portfolios, and consolidate campaigns into fewer, intentional vertical efforts. This approach aims to reduce complexity and deliver clearer value.

Key takeaway

For B2B leaders struggling with fragmented, product-centric go-to-market efforts and resource constraints, you should pivot to an audience-focused strategy. This transformation, exemplified by Honeywell, will enable you to consolidate campaigns, clarify messaging, and deliver greater value by addressing specific customer problems. Evaluate your current GTM strategy maturity and consider a dedicated workshop to accelerate this essential shift.

Key insights

Shifting from a product-centric to an audience-focused go-to-market strategy reduces complexity and improves customer value.

Principles

Method

Refocus GTM by first identifying customer needs, then conducting a structured mapping exercise across verticals and portfolios, and finally prioritizing segments, grouping products into portfolios, and consolidating campaigns.

In practice

Topics

Best for: Product Manager, Entrepreneur, Marketing Professional, Consultant, Executive

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Editorial summary, takeaway, and curation by AIssential. Original article published by Featured Blogs - Forrester.