How is GTM different before product market fit versus after?

Before PMF, GTM is a learning function and after PMF it is a manufacturing function, and confusing the two burns most of the money startups lose. Before PMF the founder sells, the pitch changes every week, you take meetings with people who will never buy just to learn why, and success is measured in insight and in a handful of customers who would be genuinely upset if you shut down. After PMF the job flips to repeatability: same buyer, same pain, same pitch, same close rate, now hire people and give them the script. The classic mistake is hiring a VP of Sales to find PMF for you, which never works because the thing that is broken is the product or the market, not the selling. A useful test: can you predict, within reason, how many of the next ten similar prospects will buy? If not, you are still pre PMF no matter what your revenue says.