This playbook draws from our experience helping founders build repeatable pipelines, tighten positioning, and win trust in regulated markets. It merges practical sequencing with the broader GTM architecture we deploy on live client projects.

Phase 0: Pre-Market Operational Readiness (Pre-Day 1)

Before you launch your GTM plan, there are foundational elements that need to be in place. Without this groundwork, even the best GTM strategy will fail under pressure.

This phase is about operational readiness and organisational clarity. Your product, people, and internal systems must be aligned to support scale before you step into the market.

1. Finalise Your Product Foundations

• Lock in the core workflow you are solving
• Ensure the MVP works across the full buyer journey from demo to onboarding
• Validate edge cases and compliance red flags in product behaviour

2. Build Security and Trust Infrastructure

• Complete security briefings and data privacy documentation
• Set up basic policies (ISO readiness, data handling, breach protocols)
• Create a security one-pager your sales team can use confidently

3. Structure Internal Communication and Collaboration

• Align product, commercial, and compliance teams around the same problem statement
• Create one internal playbook for sales, onboarding and support
• Define escalation paths for technical issues, compliance questions, and commercial blockers

4. Assign Commercial Ownership

• Clarify who owns pricing, who handles proposals, who manages partnerships
• Avoid bottlenecks by decentralising micro-decisions within a clear approval structure
• Assign GTM operations lead to keep the campaign coordinated

5. Prepare a Measurement Stack

• Define what success looks like: leads, demo rate, conversion rate, MQL sources
• Set up dashboards in HubSpot or equivalent tools
• Build shared visibility across marketing, sales, and ops

6. Legal and Procurement Assets

• Ready-to-sign MSA templates with clear data terms
• Compliance checklists for regulated clients
• Internal FAQ on pricing, onboarding, data security, and contracting

Deliverables Before Day 1

• Fully functioning MVP that supports one end-to-end use case
• Security documentation and one-pager ready for buyer due diligence
• Internal team aligned on problem, messaging, and GTM priorities
• One owner for each commercial pillar: pricing, sales, content, partnerships
• Live analytics and lead tracking environment set up
• Legal pack complete: MSAs, procurement checklists, objection handling assets

This is the groundwork. Without it, every sales call turns into a fire drill, every buyer question becomes a blocker, and every win takes longer than it should.

Phase 1: Market Clarity, Problem Precision, and Internal Readiness (Days 1–30)

This is the most misunderstood stage of a RegTech company’s go-to-market process.

Most founders launch with assumptions, not evidence. They chase a “compliance problem” without defining what workflow they are improving, who owns it, what tools they use now, and what pain is worth paying to remove. They also overlook how to equip their own teams internally to commercialise properly.

This phase is not about activity, it’s about clarity. The goal is to know exactly who you are solving for, what specific pain you are removing, and how you will sell it.

1. Problem Deconstruction

Start by asking: “What workflow are we improving?” Not what industry, not what vertical, but what repeated, broken workflow we are replacing or improving, and for whom.

Break the problem down into:

• Who feels the pain: e.g. MLROs, Compliance Officers, Risk teams
• What action is painful: e.g. doing firm-wide risk assessments across multiple tools
• Why now: e.g. new AML directives, recent fines, growing audit scrutiny

If your team cannot articulate this clearly, you do not have product–market fit.

2. Competitor and Positioning Audit

List every player adjacent to your space, even if you “don’t see them as competitors.” That includes:

• Workflow tools that people patch together (e.g. PDFs + email + SharePoint)
• Larger vendors with overlapping features
• Niche tools solving parts of the journey (e.g. screening-only platforms)

Now answer: why would someone choose you instead of them?

Your positioning must answer that question before you speak to a single buyer.

3. ICP Profiling and Real Conversations

Pick one core segment. For example:

UK-based law firms with 20–200 heads who manage risk in-house and are currently using non-integrated tools for AML or KYC.

Now speak to 10 people in that exact persona. Not just friendly chats, real interviews with structure:

• What tools are you using?
• Where does friction happen?
• What do you wish existed?
• What’s your budget or threshold for change?

These are gold. Not just for messaging but also for go or no-go decisions on features, pricing and sequencing.

4. Internal Systems Setup

Before you try and grow anything, build the base:

• Proposal template
• Pricing model
• Security one-pager
• Procurement checklist
• Sales deck
• CRM and analytics stack (HubSpot, Apollo, etc)

This is not “later stage” work. It’s required if you want a prospect to take you seriously.

5. Account Mapping and Segmentation

Build your first account list now, not later. Map at least 300–500 relevant organisations and tag them by:

• Firm size
• Geography
• Use case fit
• Procurement complexity

Then find the actual people in those firms responsible for compliance, operations, onboarding or risk, not generic contacts like “associate” or “Partner” – that’s not good enough.

Deliverables by Day 30

• Clear, specific problem statement tied to real workflow pain
• Competitor landscape mapped and positioning defined
• 10+ ICP interviews logged and documented
• All internal assets built: pricing, sales deck, proposal, onboarding docs
• CRM live with 300–500 target accounts and mapped decision-makers
• Messaging tested and reviewed by industry advisors or trusted clients

Phase 2: Authority, Visibility and Trust Building (Days 31–60)

At this stage, you’ve clarified the problem, mapped your accounts, and built internal foundations. But trust in regulated markets isn’t won through cold emails or one-pagers. You now need to earn the right to sell by building visibility and credibility across your audience.

This is not about content for content’s sake. It’s about publishing proof.

1. Publish Authority-Led Content

Your first priority is to create content that helps your audience make better decisions. This content should speak directly to the pain you solve and the trust barriers your buyers face.

Start with:

• Explainers on workflows you improve, written in clear, non-technical language
• Joint content with domain experts (compliance consultants, risk specialists)
• Case studies or pilots, even if anonymised
• A security and procurement readiness pack

This isn’t thought leadership for vanity, it’s decision support material for cautious buyers.

2. SEO and Search Intent

You don’t need to become a media company. But you do need to understand what your ICPs are searching for and be present when they do.

Do this:

• Map 10–20 low-difficulty, high-relevance keywords (e.g. “client risk assessment law firm”, “AML compliance checklist 2025”)
• Produce content that directly answers those search terms
• Link this content to your product without selling too hard

SEO isn’t just for traffic, it helps validate demand and shows you’re part of the real conversation.

3. Activate Your ICP Network

Identify warm paths into your target accounts:

• Reach out to the 10 people you interviewed earlier and ask them to review or share your article
• Run a private webinar or founder roundtable with 4–5 of them
• Send early access materials and ask for feedback

People buy what they help shape. Make them part of the build, not just the audience.

4. Launch Soft Signals, Not Campaign Blasts

Instead of big “we’re live” announcements, start small and specific.

• Post short insight-driven LinkedIn posts showing your thinking
• Share early data points, pilot learnings, or common buyer mistakes
• Tag collaborators and domain experts not for engagement, but for credibility

This is the slow build. Not all attention is good attention. You want the right eyes, not the most.

5. Begin Relationship Development

Start building relationships with:

• Compliance consultants who advise your buyers
• LegalTech and RegTech alliance groups
• PMS vendors or infrastructure providers you might integrate with

No formal partnerships needed yet. But lay the groundwork.

6. Founder’s Voice Activation

Buyers don’t trust brands. They trust people.

As a founder, publish:

• One story-driven LinkedIn post or short video on why you’re building the product
• One real insight from your interviews in Phase 1

Start small but be consistent.

Deliverables by Day 60

• 3–5 high-value content assets live (articles, guides, videos, interviews)
• Security, legal and procurement pack published or ready to send
• 10–20 keyword opportunities mapped and content aligned
• ICP network engaged through calls, comments or collaboration
• 10 to 15 Partnership meetings booked
• LinkedIn or social content plan running 2–3x weekly posts

Phase 3: Demand Capture, Outreach and Sales Enablement (Days 61–90)

Now that trust has been built and attention is warming up, the next move is to start converting visibility into pipeline. This is where most RegTechs fumble, they jump straight into outbound without a cohesive system, then blame the market for low conversions.

This phase is about structured commercial execution.

1. Align Outreach With Visibility

No cold emails without context. Every outbound touchpoint must tie back to something they’ve seen or could have seen.

For example:

• Reference a webinar or article in your opener
• Mention a pain point they’re likely to face based on your ICP mapping
• Send short, clear, valuable emails that get to the point quickly

Don’t ask for time, offer relevance.

2. Enable the Sales Journey

Many founders land first meetings only to lose the deal mid-funnel. Why?

Because they don’t have what the buyer needs to move forward.

You need:

• One clear and focused demo narrative (not a product tour)
• Proposal templates that frame value, not just pricing
• Objection handling one-pagers on data security, onboarding time, integrations
• A simple procurement and onboarding plan you can share at the end of a call

Your job isn’t to “sell the product”. It’s to remove every reason to say no.

3. Execute Outreach in Waves, Not Blasts

Work in weekly sprints:

• Week 1: 50 targeted emails tied to content or pain point X
• Week 2: 50 more targeting pain point Y or role type Z

Track:

• Open rate
• Response rate
• Demo conversion
• Deal progression

Adjust weekly based on what’s converting, not what sounds clever.

4. Measure Funnel Health Weekly

Set up a dashboard that shows:

• Leads added this week
• Meetings booked
• Qualified opportunities
• Demo-to-deal conversion

This isn’t just for tracking progress. It tells you where your system is leaking.

Deliverables by Day 90

• Full cold and warm outreach system live (email copy, cadences, targeting rules)
• Sales deck, demo flow, proposals and objection handling material ready
• Weekly outreach reports reviewed for refinement
• At least 10 qualified pipeline opportunities in motion
• Outreach-to-demo conversion rate benchmarked and improving

What Success Looks Like After 100 Days

• Identified and validated your most pressing buyer problem
• Built content and proof points that earn trust
• Posted high quality and valuable content on website and socials
• Booked a minimum of 50 partner/prospect meetings
• Set up marketing with a content strategy, processes and analytics
• Set up RevOps systems Hubspot, Notetaker, Slack, Notion, Zapier for automations, Apollo for ICP mapping and sequences
• Create a knowledge hub on Notion or Confluence for your company, containing everything each department needs in knowledge or documentation to ensure speedy, streamlined and tidy internal processes
• Created a GTM motion with multiple lead generation sources; i,e where are your leads coming from? A strategy based lead gen; combination of partnerships, marketing activity and direct targeting to create x amount of leads per month that closes at x% close rate.

If you need advise or help with your GTM strategy then feel free to book an initial call with me (Arsalan), more than happy to provide some free guidance!