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The difference between Go-to-Market and marketing
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Here’s our format:
GTM Research: the difference between GTM and marketing
GTM Problem of the Week: who owns GTM?
GTM News
GTM news, nuggets, announcements, and articles you should read
How to Fix Sales Comp in 2024: read an article by our own Sangram and Lindsay in HBR with 5 steps to structuring sales comp in a modern way that is conscious of overall GTM strategy.
New Report: What’s Working in Demand Gen in 2024. 57% of respondents plan to allocate more budget to ABM initiatives, 54% will invest more in content marketing. Both those numbers are up significantly since last year.
Pavilion released its B2B Salary Benchmark. Make sure you read the report and also play with the interactive tool that will allow you to filter by department, seniority, region, funding stage, and company revenue. It’s an amazing data set and a really cool presentation!
GTM Research: GTM is More Than Marketing
A weekly deep-dive into new GTM research and insights
The M in GTM Stands for Market, not Marketing
At least once a week, we talk to leaders that use the terms “go to market” and “marketing” interchangeably.
Go to market and marketing are not the same thing.
Go-to-market is a transformational process for accelerating your path to market.
Marketing is one of the disciplines that is essential to getting GTM right.
If GTM is the cake, marketing is the flour.
If GTM is the puzzle, marketing is the puzzle piece.
If GTM is the revenue engine, marketing is the fuel.
Why Does It Matter?
It matters because if you think marketing and GTM are the same thing, you will be missing key strategic inputs.
If marketing has sole ownership over GTM, they can’t make sure product, sales, and CS are involved because they don’t have the authority to set priorities for those teams.
We’ve all been in companies where marketing created an ICP and just handed it down from the mountaintop to the rest of the organization, without input from product about who they’re building for, CS about who is renewing, and sales about who is buying.
Another example is ABM. Long thought of as a marketing discipline, ABM is not possible without buy in from sales.
Sales can’t do outbound without marketing.
Product can’t do new features without feedback from CS.
CS can’t solicit the right customer stories without insight from marketing.
Sales can’t do upsell and expansion without CS.
The list goes on.
GTM is a soccer game, not a relay race
GTM used to be an endless relay race.
Marketing couldn’t do it alone, but at least they could run their leg of the race as well as they could when they got tapped on the shoulder. And they had no role to play in the legs of the race that other teams were running.
Product starts with the baton.
Once the product is working, they hand the baton off to marketing who runs a lap to generate some demand.
Marketing hands off to sales who closes the deal.
Sales hands off to Customer Success, who onboards and services the account.
Advanced organizations would then have a feedback loop to product to make improvements and start the relay race all over again.
Think about GTM more like a soccer game.
Okay, okay, A FOOTBALL GAME for our readers who are anywhere in the world besides the U.S.
There are constant passes. Nobody takes the ball from one end of the field to the other alone. Everyone is touching the ball constantly; there is no linear, predictable process where only one player has the ball at a time.
GTM is not an individual sport. It’s a team sport.
Which brings us to our highly relevant question of the week.
GTM Problem of the Week
Send us your most pressing GTM problem, and we’ll get an analyst to answer in brief.
Dear GTM Partners,
Who should own GTM?
Ok, I know you’re going to say the CEO because I’ve read your stuff, but what if your CEO can’t or won’t do it?
My CEO is uninterested in the concept of a holistic GTM strategy (he’s a product/engineer founder), and my head of marketing is too junior to take the reins. I’m a VP of Sales who wants to step up and into the vacuum of GTM leadership, but I suspect only the CEO will have the authority needed to drive real change.
~Aspirational in Austin
Dear Aspirational in Austin
You’re right, we do think the CEO should own GTM. And there is some small evidence that the world is starting to agree with us.
Two years ago, when we asked who owns GTM, 77% of respondents said “Marketing.”
Last week, when we asked again, only 24% said Marketing and 43% said the CEO.
So we’re making progress.
The reason it should be the CEO is that in most companies, the only person in a company who can align the compensation strategies of Marketing, Sales, Customer Success and Product around a common GTM strategy is the CEO.
The CEO has the right authority and the right perspective on the business to successfully run GTM, but it is also likely that they lack the time to do it consistently.
And some are simply uninterested.
So if you want to step into that void, we have two answers for you.
Answer #1: Step into the role gradually and with team buy-in
Create a GTM steering committee. Talk to your CEO about more formally getting a GTM group together on a weekly basis. Any cross-functional GTM team will need to start with collaboration and unity. Approach leaders in sales, marketing, customer success, and product. Ideally the CEO should be involved too, but ask for their blessing to assemble the group. (Here is some research on high-level roles in the GTM team).
Set up a meeting cadence. Whether it’s weekly, biweekly, or monthly, get your core team together to work through GTM problems as a team.
Take the assessment. Have your executive team/steering committee take the MOVE assessment. It will show you where you’re aligned, where you aren’t, and give you lots to talk about. We can come in and facilitate a discussion, but you can also DIY.
Create an agenda. Make sure your team always has something to work on. You can use our GTM Operating System as a guide, the MOVE book, or you can dive right into campaigns. Just remember that establishing some basics (like a deep dive on your Total Relevant Market) will inform everything you do afterward.
Lead from the side. As the person calling everyone together and setting the agenda, you will start to be seen as the de facto leader of the group. But of course you don’t have the authority over others that the CEO has. That means you need to be very collaborative, get buy in for major changes or decisions, and make sure your colleagues feel heard. And make sure the CEO knows you’re just trying to take GTM forward, not audition for their job!
Pitch a new role. Decide if you want to sell your CEO on the idea of a Chief Go-to-Market Officer and put your hat in the ring for the job.
Answer #2: Look for a new job
We don’t mean to be discouraging, but if you have a CEO who truly does not care or prioritize GTM, your company will not be successful.
A sales leader like you needs to be backed by an entire strategy to support revenue goals. Sales cannot exist in isolation with a GTM team (unless you are selling steak to a dog, which, let’s face it, is a pretty easy sell). Sales, marketing, customer success, and product ALL need to be rowing in the same direction with the same information.
A CEO that is only focused on product and engineering is appropriate for an early stage company, but much beyond Series A, it’s a red flag. The CEO either needs to evolve to care more about GTM or they will be replaced by one with a broader vision.
It’s up to you and your relationship with your CEO to decide how blunt you want to be about that.
Hope that helps, but we are always here to pitch in if you need us!
Send in your GTM Problem of the Week.
We solve GTM problems like this every single day!
Book a call to learn more about how we can help.
GTM Events
A list of upcoming events of interest to GTM professionals
March 20, 1 p.m. ET, Virtual: GTM + AI
March 22, Austin, TX: GTM Made Simple Roadshow
March 28, Austin, TX: SaaS Open
April 4, 1 p.m. Virtual: Rev Ops Leadership Summit (details coming soon)
April 11, Salt Lake City, UT: GTM Made Simple Roadshow
April 18, NYC, Pavilion CMO Summit
Hope to see you later this week at our road show in Austin!
Love,
The GTM Partners Team
