Do you need to be a large corporation to access a real Go-To-Market strategy?

Opposite editorial page by Olivier Forlini

March 10, 2026

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For a long time, Go-To-Market strategy was reserved for large corporations. Yet it is becoming increasingly critical for SMEs and mid-sized companies, which are facing decisions that are more and more complex and risky. The emergence of new hybrid approaches could reshape the landscape.

For many years, structured Go-To-Market strategy was the domain of large organizations. Access to top consulting firms, heavy strategic programs, significant budgets, and long timelines meant that sophisticated strategy seemed reserved for those who could afford it.

Yet the paradox today is striking. SMEs and mid-sized companies must make increasingly structuring decisions in an unstable environment, but without having access to the methodological frameworks that help reduce risk. Markets are more fragmented, sales cycles more complex, competition more intense, and margins under pressure:

strategic decision-making has become more critical precisely when the available tools are often inadequate.

This reality is well known to business leaders. On one side, major consulting firms deliver high-quality analyses, but at costs and timelines that are difficult to reconcile with the operational realities of SMEs. On the other side, specialized experts intervene in silos (marketing, sales, brand, communication) without an integrated perspective.

The result: decisions taken within partial scopes, rarely compared, and sometimes driven by intuition.

Yet Go-To-Market is no longer a peripheral issue. It directly determines economic performance: pricing power, conversion speed, commercial efficiency, and attractiveness for both clients and talent. When poorly addressed, it generates higher acquisition costs, loss of differentiation, and unclear investment trade-offs.

It is no longer merely a marketing issue — it is a governance issue.

Contrary to common belief, SMEs and mid-sized companies do not operate in simpler environments. On the contrary, they face fewer margins for error, tighter resources, and direct exposure to weak signals from the market. For them, making decisions without a rational framework is not just uncomfortable — it is a strategic risk.

The question is therefore not whether SMEs should “behave like large corporations,” but whether they can access an equivalent level of strategic rigor in a format compatible with their reality. On this point, the traditional model is increasingly showing its limits.

Technological developments, particularly artificial intelligence, are changing the equation. They enable faster analysis, scenario comparison, reduction of certain biases, and the processing of volumes of information that were previously inaccessible.

But AI alone does not make decisions.

The real value lies in the combination of analytical power and human strategic judgment — the ability to contextualize, arbitrate, and assume responsibility for choices.

This hybridization opens the path toward a democratization of strategy without diluting its rigor. 

A strategy that is faster, more measurable, and more oriented toward decision-making rather than report production. A strategy that aligns market positioning, brand image, and reputation to clarify the concrete trade-offs faced by business leaders.

So, do you need to be a large corporation to access a real Go-To-Market strategy?

Increasingly, the answer is no.

The true differentiator is no longer the size of the company, but the quality of the method, the ability to objectify decisions, and the capacity to turn analysis into action.

In an uncertain environment, strategy is no longer a luxury reserved for a few. It becomes a tool for survival and sustainable growth for all.

Olivier Forlini

Founder — GTM NEXUS 360®

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Olivier Forlini

Founder — GTM NEXUS 360®

I have spent 25 years in research and strategic consulting firms, including 15 years at Gartner working on Go-To-Market topics, followed by 10 years in firms specialized in brand image and reputation management.

Over the course of this career, I have worked with large corporations, mid-sized companies, SMEs and startups. I have also, on several occasions, been directly involved in entrepreneurial initiatives.

This dual exposure — strategic advisory and entrepreneurial reality — has led me to a conviction: in an increasingly uncertain and competitive economic environment, growth no longer depends solely on execution. It depends on a company’s ability to structure its attractiveness.

Market positioning, brand perception and reputation — long considered intangible dimensions — are becoming strategic assets that directly shape trust, differentiation and economic performance.

It is to address this challenge that I created GTM NEXUS 360 in 2025, with the ambition of making structured strategic frameworks accessible to SMEs and mid-sized companies, enabling them to turn these intangible assets into concrete levers for decision-making and growth.