Go To Market Planning

Demand Capture 101. This is actual data from a $60MM ARR SaaS company. Let’s break it down 👇   How a lead/account enters your pipeline is the biggest predictor of sales velocity metrics - win rates, sales cycle lengths, even ACVs.    Because how they enter your pipeline is a surrogate for buying intent & indicator of how far they are complete in the buying process.    Here’s how to measure it & use it to drive your revenue strategy:   1. Measure the Opportunity Source in Salesforce on the opportunity record.    Campaign Source = What campaign type did they convert on to move this opportunity into pipeline? (e.g. demo request, e-book download, cold call, trade show, etc.)   Source / Channel = What source or channel did they come from in order to convert? (e.g. LinkedIn ad, organic search, account intent data, ZoomInfo, etc.)    Using both of these data points combined will literally guide your strategy.    This shows you the optimal paths to *capture demand* and is easily measurable using software-based attribution.   2. Separate conversion sources between *Declared Intent* and *Low Intent*.    Declared Intent = The buyer declares intent to buy from you (e.g. Demo Request, Contact Sales) Low Intent = You assume the buyer has intent based on their digital behavior (e.g. ebook download, webinar attendee, trade show badge scan, intent data, etc.)    3. Calculate core sales analytics between the two sources.    Calculate conversion rates, lead-to-win rate, net new ARR, sales velocity, and more.    4. Visualize how much conversion intent matters to sales velocity and sales productivity.    149X higher lead-to-win rates for declared intent conversions   Declared intent = 26 “leads” to win 1 deal for $54k ARR Low Intent = 3,868 “leads” to win 1 deal for $130k ARR   18X greater sales velocity for declared intent conversions   Declared intent = $14.2MM annual sales velocity Low intent = $781k annual sales velocity 5. Recognize not all MQLs are created equal Measuring on MQLs incentivizes teams to get the most volume of MQLs for the lowest cost (low intent conversions), which is entirely misaligned with sales productivity and sales goals. Separate these into two Pipeline Sources (Declared Intent, Low Intent). Plan and build your goals for these two sources separately.   __   Now you know exactly HOW you want buyers to enter pipeline (capture demand) for maximum sales velocity & sales team efficiency. You also know exactly WHY buyers choose to take those paths to enter pipeline & WHAT triggers / channels / tactics move them to conversion. And with all of these insights, you can re-architect your strategy that optimizes for REVENUE. #revenue #sales #marketing #b2b #gtm p.s. Every SaaS company’s data looks like this, because it’s universal to how buyers buy. Most just don’t take the 3 hours of time to analyze their own data and see it for themselves.

TAM SAM SOM is bad for B2B go-to-market. Why? 💢 Because B2B markets are VERY fragmented. This fragmentation usually goes unaccounted for when using TAM/SAM/SOM approaches... ...and when used to build go-to-market campaigns, you often end up with: ❌ Generic positioning. ❌ Broad Messaging. ❌ And content assets even an AI bot wouldn't read. Instead, GTM teams should lean into the fragmentation by using multi-dimensional criteria to view your markets. At minimum, consider using these 3 elements as a starting point: 🟨 Company Type (firmographics, business model, industry) 🟩 Department (the role or team of the champion) 🟫 Use Case (the activity they're trying to carry out) Once you have these basics in place, you can start to layer in additional elements. ⬛️ Competitive Alternatives (what they do today to carry out the use case) 🟥 Perceived Problem (how the champion views the limitations of the alternatives) ——— Check out the example of what Loom's markets look like. (the real cube is much larger and is actually not a cube — it has many more dimensions) And consider the difference between positioning and messaging at the different levels. Message 1: TAM/SAM/SOM “Communicate information often? Use Loom to share short videos instead.” Message 2: Multi-dimensional segment “Spend a lot of time wrangling your team into the same room to do code reviews? Use Loom to do code reviews asynchronously using short video recordings.” It should be clear which message has the best chance of resonating with part of the market. —— The takeaway? Don’t oversimplify your market segments when building your go-to-market motions. Or you’ll likely waste a lot of time and money with broad campaigns. Instead, be willing to get specific. It's where the gold is. #marketing #gotomarket #marketsegmentation #saas

One company writes 100 blog articles with 0 traffic.
 Another publishes 10 and fills a pipeline. Why? At first glance, both are investments in content.
 So why does one system fail while the other works? The problem isn’t volume. Or format. Or distribution. The problem is starting in the wrong place. What SPECIFIC kind of marketing steers the ship? → If you start from growth marketing, you’re f*cked. → If you start from content marketing, you’re f*cked. Where do you need to start? (I know this should be obvious, but so often isn’t). PRODUCT MARKETING. → Start with product marketing and you’re rock solid. Without a strong product marketing foundation… → Content becomes fast food quality.  → Messaging is watered down. → AI makes the noise louder. The only way to build a GTM system that compounds is to Start with Product Marketing at the core: That means: → ICP — Know your customers, intimately → Positioning — How you’re better than alternatives → Messaging — Articulate, not sell, your value prop That solid core gives you the clarity to create content that resonates, because you know EXACTLY whose taste you’re designing for. Here’s how I think about the three layers of GTM: Core: Product Marketing What you do (better) and who’s it for → ICP model → Comparison pages → Competitor analysis → Messaging and positioning → Case studies and proof points  → Sales calls and win/loss analysis → Home, persona, use cases, solution pages 
 Middle: Content Marketing How you articulate your Product Marketing → Thought leadership, ebooks → Blog content and newsletter → Video explainers, webinars  → Email nurture sequences → Podcasts & whitepapers Outer: Growth Marketing / Distribution

 Where you inject your messaging and content → Community seeding — Slack, Discord, Reddit → Affiliates, influencers, and strategic referrals → Technical and programmatic SEO → Partnerships and co-marketing → Paid search and paid social → Cold and warm outbound → Event sponsorships, PR When the core is ultra clear, the middle layer can perform Because it’s targeted and differentiated. And once content is working, the outer layer has something worth scaling. TLDR: → Invest in the foundations of product marketing.
 → Build all content within product marketing.
 → Distribution will work itself out. This is where I help clients: getting the core right so the second layer can actually work.

I am tired of hearing about sales and marketing alignment. It's an outdated narrative. Here's why: Consider this: Buyers are typically 57% to 80% of the way through their buying process (depending on which study you consult) before they even raise their hands to engage with sales. This statistic alone underscores a critical reality: The Silent Killer in Sales: Overestimating Salesperson Influence Many executive teams believe their sales heroes can close any deal, but here's the reality: Salespeople are closers, not magicians. 🪄 The concept of "alignment" implies separate entities that need to be brought together. In today's complex buying environment, this siloed approach is obsolete. Modern businesses require a seamlessly integrated revenue generation system where sales and marketing function as one cohesive unit. Strong marketing, clear value propositions, and a frictionless buying journey are crucial for success. Think of it like football - Sales is your star running back, but they need a solid offensive line (Marketing) to create opportunities long before the final play. Here's the shift we need: From siloed functions to a collaborative team environment: • Break down walls between Sales & Marketing • Work together on buyer personas, messaging, and content throughout the entire buying journey • Invest in both sides: Equip teams with necessary tools and shared metrics From "closing the deal" to "creating a winning customer experience": 👉🏽 Optimize the entire customer journey: Every touchpoint matters, especially early-stage interactions ️ 👉🏽 Focus on providing value from initial marketing outreach through to ongoing support The benefits of this integrated approach: 👉🏽 Shorter sales cycles: Well-nurtured leads convert faster 👉🏽Higher customer lifetime value: A seamless experience fosters loyalty 👉🏽 Boosted employee morale: When everyone's on the same team, magic happens Let's move beyond "alignment" and embrace true integration. Sales and Marketing are different positions on the same field, working in unison to drive revenue and achieve championship-level results in today's buyer-driven landscape. #sales #b2b #marketing #culture #customerexperience #leadership

I recently spoke with an early-stage AI app founder who was desperate to hire sales reps because he dreaded founder-led sales. This is one of the most common failure modes I see with technical founders—and it significantly impedes the path to product-market fit. Here's how to think about the right order of operations in early sales motions: Phase 1: Prototype & Validation In the earliest stage, the feedback loop between customer conversations and product roadmap must be extraordinarily tight—making founder-led sales absolutely non-negotiable. This phase is critical because you're identifying your true ideal customer profile (ICP) and learning how to effectively communicate your product story and address common objections. As you accumulate hundreds of demo repetitions (while refining your product based on feedback), you gradually assemble a winning process. Phase 2: Founder-led Sales Scale-Up Your mission here is to create the sales playbook that will guide future reps. You need sufficient pattern recognition to understand which messages resonate with which personas. I recall meeting Desmond Lim, CEO of Workstream, several years ago (not an Emergence portfolio company, but I deeply admire what they've built). He showed me the remarkable 60-page playbook he crafted documenting their entire sales process—before hiring a single AE. Every nuance. Every objection. Everything a new rep would need to succeed. While perhaps extreme, this perfectly illustrates the principle: scaling go-to-market requires mastering your ideal sales motion before delegating it. Phase 3: Hiring Initial Sales Reps Most founders default to sequential hiring—start with one rep, evaluate results, then proceed. However, we recommend hiring 2-3 sales reps with diverse backgrounds simultaneously, enabling you to effectively A/B test different profiles. Regardless of approach, ensure these early hires are "renaissance reps" with rapid iteration capabilities rather than purely "coin-operated" sellers. Mark Leslie has a great foundational article on the Sales Learning Curve provides excellent guidance. I'll link it below. So embrace the early sales work, even when it feels uncomfortable. It's fundamental to building a foundation for lasting success.

I recently redesigned the marketing operating model for a $350 Millon B2B software company — and it reminded me just how context-specific org design really is. One of the most strategic (and overlooked) decisions a CMO makes is how to design the marketing organization. It’s tempting to replicate what worked in your last company. But in B2B software, there’s no one-size-fits-all. What worked for a $20M PLG business may not suit a $100M enterprise SaaS platform. 1. Design for business outcomes, not headcount. Start with goals: new segments, enterprise expansion, category leadership. Org design should mirror business intent — not legacy structures. 2. Build capabilities before filling roles. Ask: Do we have strong demand gen, lifecycle, product marketing, content, partner marketing, ops, and analytics? Capabilities come first — roles come second. 3. Structure around your go-to-market motion. If your growth lever is partners, embed partner marketing early. If it’s PLG, prioritize lifecycle and in-product activation. For enterprise, double down on ABM, field marketing, and enablement. 4. Where should Product Marketing sit? There’s no single right answer: In product-led orgs, it makes sense to sit within product to shape narrative from the roadmap. In sales-led orgs, it’s more effective aligned to revenue to sharpen messaging and enablement- drive pipeline velocity. What matters more is the evolution toward GTM solution marketing — cross-functional teams that bridge product, sales, and marketing to tell customer-centric value stories. 5. Build for agility, not bureaucracy. Your org should flex across geos, customer types, and growth motions — without needing to reorganize every time strategy shifts. 6. Invest early in Marketing Ops, Data & Analytics. This is your engine room. From attribution modeling and lead routing to campaign performance, experimentation, and forecasting — high-performing orgs are built on strong ops and data infrastructure. Ops is not a support function. It's a strategic growth capability. 7. Culture, collaboration, and clarity are non-negotiables. No structure works without trust across sales, product, and marketing. Shared KPIs, aligned planning, and a performance mindset are critical. Bottom line: Design for outcomes. Build capabilities. Leverage data. Stay context-aware. Your next marketing org shouldn't look like your last one — it should reflect the business you're building. #B2BMarketing #MarketingLeadership #CMOInsights #MarketingOps #MarketingAnalytics #ProductMarketing #GTMStrategy #MarketingOrgDesign #SaaSGrowth #B2BSoftware #GrowthLeadership #ModernMarketing

'Go-to-market' is a commonly misunderstood term in the B2B SaaS lexicon. It's not about literally 'going to market' with your product. Because the market is already there, you aren't going to it - you're already in it. This confusion happens because GTM has become popular in the nomenclature of SaaS B2B - so folk outside this niche get confused. GTM as used today is about the strategic framework to win market share. You can sum it up by saying, GTM is figuring out which of the below routes to take + how to nail these routes: • Sales outreach, email, phone & social • Paid ads e.g. Google & LinkedIn • Partnerships & affiliates • Events • Direct mail, billboards, PR • Product led growth • Community • Ecosystem plays like chrome store Here's where most businesses get it wrong. Many SaaS founders jump straight to channel selection: • "Let's run LinkedIn ads!" • "We need to nail SEO" • "What about a podcast?" This tactical frenzy is like building a house on quicksand. Channels don't create demand. They amplify it. You can't create need where none exists. You can't (successfully) sell meat burgers to vegetarians. You can't convince people to buy something they fundamentally don't want. What you 𝗰𝗮𝗻 do is align your offering with existing market needs through proper strategic foundations: • 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴: Differentiate in your competitive landscape • 𝗦𝗲𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Nail the specific market segments you'll target • 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻𝗮: Nail the exact profile of the user you are targeting • 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗽: Nail the pain point you're solving • 𝗠𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴: Nail how you communicate your solution's fit Only after these foundations are rock solid should you think about channel strategy. It's tempting to skip ahead. It feels more actionable. More immediate. But without the foundations, you're just making noise in an already crowded market. Your channel mix - whether it's SEO, paid social, channel partnerships, affiliates is merely the vehicle for your message. Not the message itself. --- p.s. Want to know why your marketing isn't working? Get my free 6-part email diagnostic series: https://lnkd.in/e-ux6Cjf

$6M in forecasted revenue. 11 months of chasing “maybe.” Two founders. 11 buying influencers. No decision. If your go-to-market process includes enterprise selling, you know this pain. You meet a “champion.” They’re smart. Interested, and they love your solution. You spend weeks demoing, customizing decks, and answering follow-up questions. They say there’s interest in moving forward. “We’ll loop in leadership,” they say. Then more meetings. Then, silence Over the past year, I’ve worked with multiple founders who are selling software, services, and products into enterprise healthcare. When onboarding new clients, I see a pattern. Drag and lack of clarity kill deals. We don’t have a marketing or sales problem. We have a stall problem. The stall happens between “this looks promising” and “let me see if I get you on my VP’s calendar.” The deal begins to drag, and this is the start of the death cycle. It's not that drag kills deals; drag is only a sign of a bigger problem. Deals die because customers have become tolerant to pain and don't have a nagging need to address a problem. What are the early signs of a deal stall? ➡️ Your champion is the only point of contact. ➡️ The champion does not have a mandate. ➡️ There is no urgency at the account. ➡️ There is no problem identified. ➡️ There is no budget. Here's the advice I share with my clients: ➡️ Define the problem you're trying to solve: Where do deals stall? ➡️ Analyze the root cause: What's causing the stall? How do you know? ➡️ Validate your hypothesis: Talk with customers and stakeholders. ➡️ Fix problems in the customer buying journey: Test...measure...improve. I'm focusing on accelerating buying velocity and reducing customer time to value this week. Each day, I'll share something I've learned, and I invite you to share your insights as well. What's something you've learned from enterprise selling that's changed how you go-to-market? Comment below. ⤵️ #complexselling #enterpriseselling #GTM #businessgrowth

One of the biggest blessing about being in my role is that I get to chat with other GTM leaders every day (it’s one of the reason’s I wanted to get into GTM tech). Here's something that a lot of GTM leaders aren't thinking about too deeply: As a vendor, you usually have a 2-4 week period before you miss an evaluation at an account (excluding enterprise). Which account do you want your team focused on? - The one showing 5 buying signals this week… - Or the one with 50 signals spread out over 6 months One’s heating up, the other is simmering down. **Buying signal velocity is a signal in and of itself** We all talk about “Right buyer, write message, write time”. Getting the timing right from an orchestration stand point across a lot of data is very hard. The challenge with ABM is that most motions - nurture campaigns, sales outreach, CS expansion plays etc. are based on static account snapshots, not real-time momentum. Here are a few ways we are using this internally: 1. Momentum-based scoring Complement signal-based lead and account scores with a visualization highlighting directional trends. See which scores are climbing, declining, or sitting still at a glance. Prioritize the prospects who are most engaged right now. 2. Precision-level ABM If 3+ people in the target accounts buying committee are showing signals, that’s a red hot lead that needs to be worked NOW. We are tracking signal growth alongside signal volume for target accounts. 3. Outbound workflow automation Use signal trend fields as filters for automated outreach. New KEY hire role + signal trend is sky-rocketing? Shooting an automated outbound automation that is going BTL to get key info so we have 1st party data that we can go to the buyer with. Give it a go: https://lnkd.in/gwceUJNq

Go-to-market is not lead spam. But these days, it's hard to convince people. It’s not about having 17 tools in your stack. Or an AI that writes 1,000 emails a day. More tools. More emails. More noise. More content. More ads. It’s not a GTM strategy. 𝗚𝗧𝗠 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁. Your product. Your message. Your channel. Your ICP. No stack of AI tools can fix it. IF:  - Your ICP isn’t clear  - Your messaging doesn’t hit the real pain  - You’re chasing scale before proving what works  - Your team isn’t aligned on who you serve and why Precision first. Then optimize. Then automate. Because when the foundation is right, everything compounds. Don’t scale what’s broken. Don’t automate what’s misaligned. Get the GTM strategy right first. Then move fast. What’s the biggest GTM challenge for you?