GTM fundamentals for founders · Episode 01

GTM, decoded: go-to-market in plain words

GTM isn’t a plan. It’s four bets, each with a line that says when it’s wrong.

Jamie Sullivan · Arc 1: Who you sell to ·

Prefer YouTube? Watch it there

GTM, in plain words

GTM, or go-to-market, gets used a lot and explained very little. Plainly, it’s how your product finds the people who’ll buy it, and keeps them. That’s it.

You’ll also hear “motion”. A motion is the repeatable way you do that: who does the selling, and how.

Why it matters now

Early on, most of the go-to-market lives in your head. You know who to call, what to say, and when a deal isn’t real and it’s time to walk away. That’s fine while you’re on every call. It gets harder when your first seller starts, because they can’t copy what isn’t written down.

There are roughly three ways the selling gets done:

  • Founder-led: you do the selling.
  • Sales-led: sellers run the deals.
  • Product-led: people sign up, and the product does most of the selling.

If you’ve just raised and you’re hiring your first seller, you’re probably moving from the first to the second. That move is what this series is for.

Going deeper

Go-to-market isn’t a plan. It’s four bets.

The way I’ve started thinking about it: go-to-market isn’t a plan, it’s four bets, and each one sits somewhere on a loop of find, win, keep and grow.

  1. Who you sell to (find). That’s your ICP, your ideal customer profile. Episode 2 goes into it.
  2. What you say to them (find through to win). That’s your positioning and messaging, in episode 5.
  3. How you reach them (find). That’s your channel: outbound, inbound, referrals or partners.
  4. How you keep them (keep and grow). That’s retention and expansion, in episode 10.

Find

Win

Keep

Grow

1

Who you sell to

2

What you say

3

How you reach them

4

How you keep them

Four bets, placed on the loop they belong to.

Each bet needs a line that tells you when it’s wrong. Otherwise it’s a belief, not a bet.

A plan, or four bets?

Here’s the difference on paper. A plan that says “we sell to SMBs through content and outbound” can’t ever be wrong, so it never teaches you anything.

The version that works is the same four bets, each with one line underneath: “we’ll know this is wrong if…”. For example: if the companies we think fit best don’t reply or turn into deals more often than the rest, either our “who” or what we say is off.

Bad looks like“We sell to SMBs through content and outbound.” A plan with no way to be wrong.

Good works likeFour bets, one sentence each, with a “we’ll know this is wrong if…” line under each.

Why it mattersA line that can come back false is the only kind that teaches you anything.

Bad looks like“Our ICP is SMBs.”

Good works like“If the companies we think fit best don’t reply or turn into deals more often than the rest, either our ‘who’ or what we say is off.”

Why it mattersIt turns a description into something you can check against your own leads (episode 4).

Bad looks likeThe plan lives in the founder’s head.

Good works likeThe four bets are written down, and your first hire can explain each one back.

Why it mattersYour first seller can’t copy what isn’t written down.

Bad looks likeThe plan stops at “won”.

Good works likeThe fourth bet covers keeping and growing customers, and grow feeds find.

Why it mattersCustomers you keep are where expansion and referrals come from.

Bad looks likeOne motion, picked because other companies use it.

Good works likeThe motion follows the deal size: can one deal’s value pay for the time it takes to win it?

Why it mattersA small deal can’t carry a seller per deal; a deal with several sign-offs usually needs one.

There’s no benchmark for a good go-to-market plan, and I haven’t quoted one on purpose. The useful test is internal: can each of your four bets come back false, and do you know what you’d look at to find out? Later episodes add sourced numbers where they exist, as reference points rather than targets.

The motion follows the deal size

ACV, average contract value, is roughly what one customer pays you in a year. The question to ask of your motion is whether one deal’s value can pay for the time it takes to win it.

A seller can only work so many deals at once. So smaller deals can’t carry a seller per deal, and the product has to do more of the work. A deal with several people signing off usually needs a seller to run the process.

Rules of thumb exist. Your own numbers matter more.

The last arrow

The bit that took me longest to see is the last arrow. Drawn as a line, find, win, keep and grow is a funnel, and it stops at grow. Drawn as a loop, the customers you keep are where expansion and referrals come from.

Drawn as a line

Find → Win → Keep → Grow

It’s a funnel. It stops at Grow.

Drawn as a loop

Find → Win → Keep → Grow

Expansion and referrals come from the customers you keep. Grow feeds Find.

The same four stages drawn as a funnel that stops at Grow, and as a loop where Grow feeds back into Find.

That’s why I draw it as a loop. Teams that stop at “won” leave the cheapest pipeline on the table.

Try it this week · Workbook

Try this week

One sentence per bet, and the line that says when it’s wrong.

  1. 01Write one sentence for each of the four bets: who you sell to, what you say, how you reach them, how you keep them.
  2. 02Under each, write “We’ll know this is wrong if…” and finish it with something you can count, such as replies, meetings or renewals.
  3. 03Note today’s value for each line, even if it’s rough or “not enough yet”. That’s your starting point.
  4. 04Put a date on the page to look again, a month or a quarter out, so the lines get checked rather than admired.
  5. 05Give the page to your first hire (or the person you’d hire next) and ask them to explain each line back.

The four bets

Your answers stay in this browser. Nothing is sent anywhere.

Who we sell to
What we say
How we reach them
How we keep them

Then give it to your first hire and ask them to explain it back. The line they can’t explain is the one still only in your head.

Download the workbook (PDF)

Worked example

Tallybird, filled in

Tallybird is a made-up company: a 12-person startup, four months past its Series A, selling month-end close software to small in-house finance teams. Its buyer is the head of finance or controller; ACV is about $24K a year; won deals take about 60 days; the founder sells today and the first seller starts next month. Every detail and number here is made up.

  • Who we sell to

    B2B software companies with 50–300 staff and a 1–4 person finance team, that raised a Series A or B in the last 9 months.

    Wrong if strong-fit leads don’t reply or turn into deals at least twice as often as the rest.

  • What we say

    “Your month-end close shouldn’t take 12 days and a spreadsheet nobody trusts.”

    Wrong if fewer than 1 in 3 replies mention the close taking too long.

  • How we reach them

    Founder outbound to heads of finance, plus referrals from their accountants.

    Wrong if 200 people contacted gives us fewer than 8 first meetings.

  • How we keep them

    Customers close the month a third faster within 90 days.

    Wrong if fewer than half of customers are closing faster by day 90.

Every “wrong if” line names something you can count (replies, meetings, days to close), so each bet can come back false. The “who” line checks deals as well as replies, because a low reply rate can also mean the message is off. Each line can fail. That’s what makes it a bet.

Watch out for

  • Lines that can’t fail. “We’ll know it’s wrong if it doesn’t work” isn’t a line. Name the number you’d look at.
  • Borrowed motions. Copying another company’s motion without checking your own deal size and sign-off process.
  • Small samples. With a handful of leads or deals, a “wrong if” line can’t tell you much yet. Say “not enough yet” rather than calling it either way (episode 3).
  • Stopping at won. A plan with no keep-and-grow bet leaves the cheapest pipeline on the table.

Decoded this episode

The glossary

GTM (go-to-market)
How your product finds the people who’ll buy it, and keeps them.
Motion
The repeatable way you sell: who does it, and how.
Founder-led
The founder runs the deals.
Sales-led
Sellers run the deals.
Product-led
People sign up and the product does most of the selling.
ACV (average contract value)
Roughly what one customer pays you in a year.
Channel
How buyers first hear from you: outbound, inbound, referrals or partners.
Retention
Keeping the customers you’ve won.

Your turn

Which of the four would be hardest for your first seller to explain today?

Answer in the YouTube comments

Further reading