Go-to-Market Plans — The Power Tool for 2026 and Beyond

Written By Meg Pritchard

A version of this article was originally published in Legal intelligencer here on December 10th, 2025

As is typical in the last months of the calendar year, most law firms are in the process of planning for 2026: mapping out business development objectives, developing marketing strategies and plans, and evaluating budgets. 

In recent years, forward-looking firms have added a powerful tool to their strategic planning: the go-to-market plan. 

GTM plans have long been used in business-to-consumer sectors as well as in business-to-business sectors where companies regularly introduce new products, services or market innovations, such as in manufacturing; technology; consulting; and professional services including information technology, financial services, advertising and engineering. Increasingly, law firms are using GTM plans to introduce new practices, industry teams, cross-practice initiatives — artificial intelligence; environmental, social and governance; and sustainability, privacy, and cybersecurity and regulatory advisory groups, for example — and value-add client service programs, as well as to refine, redefine and reposition existing teams and services to take advantage of new market opportunities and hedge against downside economic and business risks. 

More targeted than a firm or practice group marketing or business development plan and more strategic and comprehensive than a proposal or a pitch deck, a GTM plan is an action plan for positioning service offerings and initiatives to target specific client segments, reaching them through the right channels and with the right message. A well-researched GTM plan details a service offering’s value proposition, identifies specific target clients and market influencers, and outlines marketing and business development actions to reach and engage with those intended audiences. For law firms, a GTM plan helps align lawyers, marketing and business development professionals, and firm leaders around clear objectives, research-informed opportunities and measurable outcomes. 

GTM plans differ from — and work with — marketing and business development plans

Most law firms engage in regular marketing and business planning, usually on an annual basis, but GTM planning is markedly different. 

At its core, marketing addresses big-picture questions related to brand awareness: How do we present the firm to the market and maintain visibility? Marketing strategy centers on promoting the firm, its services and lawyers broadly — what the firm is or wants to be known for — and on messaging builds and enhances the firm’s reputation and creates interest, engagement and visibility through branding, digital presence, content, press and media relations, events, and other communications. 

Business development focuses on growing and expanding revenue streams through either existing or new client relationships — usually at the broader firm level, but sometimes at the practice or industry group level. Business development strategy includes using client, competitor and market intelligence to identify potential new growth areas and revenue streams or targeted client service, retention and outreach initiatives; surfacing cross-selling opportunities; and generating client referrals. 

GTM strategy involves aspects of both marketing and business development but applies them with a much narrower focus. GTM planning answers the question: How to successfully position a specific legal service offering in the market to win work from the clients or in the industries it aims to serve in order to generate revenue. 

To answer that question, GTM plans need to: 

  • Clearly define the offering in terms of the specific target client and/or industry segment, the services provided, and the value those services deliver from the perspective of those clients. 

  • Clarify competitive positioning and identify the key differentiators between the offering and other firms’ services, which could include pricing and packaging, comprehensiveness — or, in the alternative, targeted focus— reputation, and experience in the market sector.

  • Map out the marketing, business development and operational initiatives to bring the offering to market: competitive and client intelligence, messaging, marketing collateral, content targeted for distribution across multiple specific channels, events, and public and media relations, among others.

  • Identify specific, measurable objectives and outcomes as well as the criteria that will be used to determine whether those objectives and outcomes have been missed or met. 

Do you need a GTM plan?

Not every practice group, industry team or client initiative needs a full GTM plan, although most could benefit from at least some of the research and planning involved in creating one. Initiatives that could benefit from a full GTM plan include: 

  • Launching a new practice or industry group, or integrating a group of lateral hires to reposition or expand an existing practice.

  • Standing up a cross-functional team, task force, or rapid-response or crisis-management program around specific legal, economic, business, regulatory, or domestic/international developments or disruptions that create new client needs and concerns. For example, these could include AI or other technology, international trade tariffs, changes in immigration law, or the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Entering a new market or industry segment or looking to deepen market penetration into an existing one. Attracting clients and offering services in a high-opportunity, competitive or highly regulated sector — for example, pharmaceutical and health care, financial services, energy, or AI and emerging technologies — requires research to understand important factors such as sectors and subsectors with the strongest demand for legal services, firms already serving clients in the space, existing groups and associations, and potential client value drivers and messaging around them, among other key issues. 

  • Opening a new office or expanding into a new region, especially if it also involves expanding internationally or introducing new practice areas, industry-focused services or lateral groups.

  • Offering client-facing initiatives such as client service and value, technology-based or alternative fee programs. A GTM plan can help align lawyers with objectives, messaging, rollout, participation, roles and responsibilities.

GTM plan fundamentals

Any effective GTM plan should address in detail a number of fundamental elements, including a clearly defined initiative or service offering; its target clients and market influencers; fee and delivery models such as hourly rate, alternative fee arrangement, defined service packages, etc.; competitive positioning, messaging and communications; required marketing and business development tools and infrastructure; timelines and implementation plans; and assessment, evaluation and revision criteria. 

While much of the information that informs these fundamental GTM elements can be gathered within the firm and a thorough internal assessment of the proposed new offering or initiative is key, external research and information gathering are essential to a strong GTM plan. Market and industry intelligence, competitive analysis, and client feedback provide critical information about market demand; client needs and expectations; the competitive landscape, service saturation and potential service gaps; pricing models and trends and revenue opportunities; messaging and marketing channels; and timeline and speed-to-market considerations. 

Without this external research, GTM plans risk being off the mark and wasting time and resources. 

GTM planning is for all sizes of firm

Go-to-market planning is not a tool reserved for only the largest firms. Indeed, smaller firms with tighter budgets arguably have more need for solid GTM plans for their service offerings and initiatives. While both internal and external research require time and effort to complete, there are many affordable research resources — as my kids say, “Google is free!”— including legal, industry, and trade association publications and databases; legal marketing and business development service provider blogs, newsletters, and reports; and templates for gathering client feedback. 

For any firm or practice seeking clarity, alignment and action steps built on clear objectives, research-informed opportunities and measurable outcomes, a GTM plan is a powerful tool and well worth the time and effort to develop it. 

Featured Articles

Featured
How to Start Building a Successful Criminal Defense Practice
How to Start Building a Successful Criminal Defense Practice

Marketing and business development can feel daunting at first, but they don’t have to. Small steps can build success in the future.

In law school we learn the fundamentals you need to be a criminal defense lawyer: Constitutional law, criminal law, evidence, trial advocacy, issue spotting, writing and persuasion skills. You might learn the rest in public service as a state or federal defender or prosecutor, or as an associate in a law firm. But one thing you didn’t learn in law school, the defender’s office or (unfortunately) in most law firms is how to build a successful, profitable legal business. 

However you came to your current practice as a criminal defense lawyer, it’s likely that, for a time, your work came to you. Clients and cases landed on your desk because you were next on the rotation, assigned to a courtroom or part of a larger team.

 But what happens once you leave public service and open your own solo practice, join a small firm, or take on the role of a more senior associate in a larger firm where you are now expected to start bringing in clients?

For many lawyers, no matter what their practice, the realization that you need to function not only as a lawyer—the doer of the client’s work—but also as a marketer -- the seller of your services (and perhaps those of your firm) -- can as anxiety-provoking as it is exhilarating.

The good news is that you don’t need to have a big marketing budget, devote endless hours of time or make major changes to your daily work routines to see measurable client development success. You likely have the foundation for developing a successful criminal defense practice already, and with clarity, consistency and a willingness to make small, intentional marketing and business development efforts, you can build on that foundation over time.

Go-to-Market Plans — The Power Tool for 2026 and Beyond
Go-to-Market Plans — The Power Tool for 2026 and Beyond

Go-to-Market Plans — The Power Tool for 2026 and Beyond  

As is typical in the last months of the calendar year, most law firms are in the process of planning for 2026: mapping out business development objectives, developing marketing strategies and plans, and evaluating budgets. 

In recent years, forward-looking firms have added a powerful tool to their strategic planning: the go-to-market plan. 

GTM plans have long been used in business-to-consumer sectors as well as in business-to-business sectors where companies regularly introduce new products, services or market innovations, such as in manufacturing; technology; consulting; and professional services including information technology, financial services, advertising and engineering. Increasingly, law firms are using GTM plans to introduce new practices, industry teams, cross-practice initiatives — artificial intelligence; environmental, social and governance; and sustainability, privacy, and cybersecurity and regulatory advisory groups, for example — and value-add client service programs, as well as to refine, redefine and reposition existing teams and services to take advantage of new market opportunities and hedge against downside economic and business risks.

From Invisible to In-Demand: Jumpstarting Your Marketing
From Invisible to In-Demand: Jumpstarting Your Marketing

Business development can feel daunting for young lawyers — but it doesn’t have to. Start now for success in the future.

This month’s column is for my young associates out there. I see you putting in your daily billable hours (and then some). You’re building your legal knowledge, honing your skills in your practice area and earning the trust of partners, who are giving you more responsibility on more-complex matters all the time. 

Then, one day, you hear a phrase that makes your stomach churn: “You should be thinking about bringing in clients.”

Maybe it’s a comment in passing while you’re working on a matter together. Or maybe it’s during your annual review or a conversation about the partnership track. 

Either way, it can feel as if the rules somehow changed while you had your head down, focused on your client work. 

The skills that earned you praise — and better assignments — up until now suddenly aren’t enough to ensure your future at your firm. 

You’re expected to develop business. But no one has ever really explained how. And when are you supposed to find time for business development on top of all the client work? 

Panic sets in. Is this one of those “tree planting” situations? Was the best time to start business development years ago, and now you’re stuck with the second-best time? 

Well, yes. The earlier you adopt the mindset and habits you need for business development, the more natural — and less intimidating — it eventually becomes. But the good news is that you’re not as far behind as you think. You likely have some of the foundation for successful business development in place already. And you don’t need to devote huge amounts of time or make major changes to see measurable success. 

Meg Pritchard
Previous

How to Start Building a Successful Criminal Defense Practice
Next

From Invisible to In-Demand: Jumpstarting Your Marketing