For Business Development Managers ·
What you'll accomplish
Leadership just told you to figure out how the company enters a new vertical, healthcare tech, manufacturing, whatever it is this quarter, and you're staring at a blank document. A first-pass GTM plan normally takes a day or more of synthesis: market sizing, entry sequencing, target partner types, success metrics, all built from scratch. With a Claude Project loaded with your company's positioning and past plans, that first draft takes a few hours of review and refinement instead.
What you'll need
Go to claude.ai and create an account. The free tier works for short conversations, but a paid plan gives you the file storage and context length needed to hold multiple reference documents in one Project.
What you should see: The Claude chat interface with a message box at the bottom.
In claude.ai, click New Project in the left sidebar. Give it a name like "GTM Planning" so you can reuse it for every future vertical, not just this one.
What you should see: A project workspace with its own separate chat history, distinct from your regular conversations.
Inside the Project, add instructions covering who you are (a BD manager evaluating new verticals), what the Project is for (drafting GTM plans), your company's typical plan structure, and any constraints (tone, format, things to avoid, like overpromising on timelines).
Example instructions:
You're helping me draft go-to-market plans for entering new verticals as a Business Development Manager. Our standard plan structure covers: market sizing, entry sequencing, target partner types, and success metrics. Write in a direct, analytical tone. Never invent market size figures. Flag any number you're unsure of instead of stating it as fact.
Under the Knowledge section of the Project, upload two or three past GTM plans and your company's positioning materials. Keep each document to a reasonable length (a page or two of the most relevant content works better than a 40-page deck).
What you should see: Uploaded files listed under Knowledge, available to every conversation inside this Project.
Troubleshooting: If a file is too large or in an unsupported format, convert it to PDF or plain text first.
Start a new chat inside the Project and describe the new vertical. Ask Claude to draft a GTM outline following the same structure as your uploaded past plans, adapted for this vertical's specifics (compliance requirements, buying process, typical partner types).
What you should see: A structured outline in 15-30 seconds, organized by section, referencing patterns from your uploaded plans where relevant.
Rather than accepting the full draft at once, work through it one section at a time. Ask Claude to expand the entry-sequencing section with more detail, or to suggest three specific partner types for this vertical based on what worked in a prior vertical you've entered.
Expand the target partner types section:
Based on how we entered [prior vertical], suggest three specific partner types for [new vertical] and explain why each type makes sense for this market's buying process.
Sanity-check market sizing language:
Review this market sizing paragraph: [paste]. Flag any statement that reads as a confident figure but isn't backed by a source I gave you. Suggest a hedged version instead (a range, or "based on [source]").
Turn the outline into an executive summary:
Here's my full GTM outline: [paste]. Write a 3-paragraph executive summary a VP could read in two minutes and understand our entry approach, the biggest risk, and the first 90-day milestone.