The global ISV market size is estimated to grow by USD 2.05 trillion between 2024 and 2028. An upsurge in the volume of enterprise data acts as a predominant force driving market growth, with a trend towards increasing end-user adoption of cloud-based products. ISVs play a significant role in expanding technological capabilities across numerous sectors, offering tailored solutions that address specific business needs and potential challenges.ย ย
As a business, they significantly contribute towards the diversification and specialization of software products, enhancing functionality and user experience for partners and consumers. However, the market demands practical demos backed by a seamless user experience before they finally make up their mind to say โYes.โ This is where CloudLabs plays a transformative role, helping develop hands-on GTM strategies to showcase exclusive product capabilities that drive measurable impact. By integrating hands-on experiences with automated labs, interactive cloud platforms, and deep data insights, CloudLabs empowers ISVs to accelerate their GTM motion effectively.ย
What is GTM?ย
A go-to-market (GTM) strategy is a comprehensive plan for how a company strategizes to reach out to potential customers, convince them to buy a product or service, and gain an advantage over market competitors.ย
A well-thought-out GTM strategy must identify a market problem and position the service or product as a potential solution. This will enable a comprehensive understanding of the target groups, marketplace, and promotional channels capable of driving the highest ROI, along with possible issues.ย
Traditional sales and marketing approaches often fail to do justice to demonstrating a productโs full potential. On the contrary, a hands-on GTM strategy does enable potential users, partners, and stakeholders to experience the same solution in real time, fostering quick decision-making and deeper engagement.ย
Why Hands-on GTM Works?ย
Regarding cloud marketplaces, some might be bringing an established solution to a new market. Referring to such situations, a well-defined go-to-market strategy, including practical demos, well-managed training workshops, independent self-paced learning curriculum, and monitored growth metrics, makes it all look seamless.ย ย
- Hands-on POCs: A well-defined GTM strategy eliminates guesswork, enabling customers to test, explore, and validate product capabilities in real-world scenarios. Modern customers demand tangible proof of concepts before making final purchase decisions. An interactive approach builds confidence, reducing the friction of long sales cycles.ย
- Accelerated Decision-Making: Providing direct access to a product through hands-on labs and guided experiences accelerates the self-paced evaluation process. Potential buyers now engage directly with the product, making real-time informed decisions – instead of relying on lengthy presentations or documents.ย
- Deeper Engagement: Hands-on GTM fosters active learning, ensuring users understand the value proposition and eliminating passive information consumption. When users interact with a product firsthand, they gain a stronger emotional and intellectual connection with the solution.ย
- Improved Adoption & Retention: By allowing users to experience the software before committing, hands-on GTM improves long-term adoption and retention rates. This approach ensures that customers are well-versed in using the product, leading to greater satisfaction and reduced churn.ย
Outcomes with Hands-on GTMย
A well-planned and systematically executed hands-on GTM strategy helps drive impactful business outcomes for ISVs, leading to:ย
Increased Revenueย
Upskilling customers and partners are a crucial factor in driving revenue growth. ISVs get to develop a more profound user-centric experience over hands-on training and interactive POCs. Increased familiarity leads to more confident purchasing decisions, higher product adoption, and improved customer retention rates. Additionally, well-trained partners can effectively position and sell solutions, expanding market reach and accelerating revenue growth.ย
Empowered Teamsย
A well-informed team ensures better articulation of value proposition, leading to increased customer trust and engagement. Empowering sales, marketing, and technical teams with hands-on POCs ensures efficient product positioning and enhanced sales.ย
Stronger Partner Ecosystemย
Hands-on GTM strategies enable ISVs to empower partners with real-time product experiences. This ensures that channel partners, resellers, and system integrators have a deeper understanding of the software, leading to stronger collaborations and increased sales opportunities.ย
Enhanced Pipeline Velocityย
When customers and partners get hands-on experience with the product, they move through the sales funnel faster and with greater confidence. A hands-on GTM approach helps reduce sales cycle length and accelerate pipeline velocity.ย
CloudLabs: Assuring Impactful Outcome with Hands-on GTMย
CloudLabs provides an end-to-end, hands-on GTM solution tailored for global ISVs of all sizes. Our customer-first white glove support ensures impactful outcomes across employee, customer, and partner enablement strategies. Additionally, seamless integration with major cloud providers, backed by advanced automation, helps streamline GTM delivery correctly. Here is a list of all that one can expect:ย ย ย
Content Development
Leverage pre-curated content resources โ lab guides or registration pages. You can also add custom lab content, including exercises that reflect your teaching approach. Other services includeย
- Development of automation for lab environment provisioningย
- Curation of Step-by-Step Lab Guidesย
- Lab validation provisioning to verify completion.ย
- Onboarding of the lab environment to the CloudLabs platformย
- QA curationย
- Content review calls with the ISV team followed by feedback accommodation.ย
- Curation of multiple versions of content (2-hour / 4-hour event or Self-Paced Labs/Trials)ย
End-to-End Event Management
Whether you are planning a one-day hackathon or any technical event that lasts multiple days, our dedicated team at CloudLabs ensures complete success.ย
- Branded Registration Pages: Enhance brand visibility and engagement with personalized landing pages for customer registration. Share your own content or choose from our pre-built lab catalogs.ย
- Attendee Management: Team CloudLabs supports last-minute changes with attendee registration and management. Raise a request and get the attendee strength updated for a certain event.ย ย ย
- Reminders and Event Readiness: Attendees with an active registration for a scheduled event receive event-specific notifications at regular intervals over email.ย ย ย
Managed Lab Environmentsย
Choose from our pre-configured lab catalog compatible with various use cases โ AI, Machine Learning, Cybersecurity, SEED Labs, Check Point, Databricks, and more.ย ย
- Ready to Use Labs: Participants can access dedicated lab environments, including pre-installed VM instances.ย ย
- Dedicated Technical Support: Experienced professionals from team CloudLabs offer real-time technical support with lab provisioning and performance during live events.ย ย
Trainers on Requestย
Request CloudLabs certified trainers, or bring your own and get assistance with everything relevant.ย ย
- Trainers and Proctors from CloudLabs: Certified trainers and experienced proctors ensure a smooth training experience. Ensuring end-to-end assistance throughout the event.ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย
- Bring your own Trainer: With CloudLabs, you can bring your own trainers and start the process.ย ย ย ย ย
In-depth Reporting and Insights
A dedicated dashboard comprising event execution details, total registrations, attendee numbers, and active participants helps deliver deep insights into user engagement and behavior. Here is a list of everything that you can expect:ย ย
- Deep Insights into Lab Usage & Tracking: Measure how users interact with hands-on labs over Power BI-backed downloadable reports, measuring valuable metrics on engagement.ย
- Track Userโs Activity: Understand user intent and behavior, enabling better decision-making.ย
- CRM Import-Ready Reports: Leverage seamless integration with customer relationship management (CRM) platforms for streamlined lead management.ย
- Customizable Stakeholder Dashboards: Personalized analytics dashboards provide actionable insights for sales, marketing, and product teams.ย
- Survey/Feedback Mechanism: Collect direct user feedback to refine and optimize GTM strategies continuously.ย
Self-Paced Trial Hosting
Develop customized course content and let participants continue using labs at their own pace:ย ย
- Choose Your Own Cloud (AWS/GCP/Azure): Flexible support for multi-cloud environments, enabling ISVs to reach a broader audience.ย
- Bring Your Own Software: Allows ISVs to seamlessly integrate their solutions into hands-on lab experiences.ย
- Advanced Admin Controls: Centralized dashboards to manage user access, track engagement, and control lab environments.ย
Wrapping Upย
A hands-on GTM strategy is no longer optionalโitโs necessary for ISVs looking to differentiate themselves in a competitive market. By leveraging CloudLabsโ automated hands-on labs, integrated cloud platforms, and in-depth data insights, ISVs can empower their teams, strengthen partnerships, and accelerate pipeline velocity. As a result, businesses can create high-impact GTM strategies that drive adoption, engagement, and long-term success.ย
Amit Malik is the COO at Spektra Systems, known for his expertise in Microsoft Cloud and digital transformation. He drives strategic planning and operational initiatives, reshaping the cloud landscape to deliver superior business outcomes. He is a recognized thought leader and speaker on Cloud, AI, and IoT, and holds a position among the Leaders Excellence at Harvard Square.
