Break into a GTM career

Work out which seat you want, then get good enough at the craft to be hired into it.

4 steps, 16 questions underneath, read for leading a gtm team

1. 1
   What GTM actually is

   The job behind the acronym: how a product finds, wins and keeps customers, and who does what.

   When do I stop selling myself and hire the first person, and what kind of person should that be? 6 → How do I turn the thing that worked when I did it into an engine someone else can run? 4 → We are a marketplace, not a software product. What actually changes about GTM? 5 → How is AI actually changing what a GTM team does day to day? 4 →
2. 2
   GTM roles and career paths

   SDR, AE, AM, growth, product marketing, RevOps, sales leadership: what each one really does and how people move between them.

   How do I decide which GTM roles to hire, and in what order? 5 → How do I set quota, comp and ramp for my first sales team in India without copying a US template that does not fit? 4 → Should I bring in a fractional or contract GTM leader instead of a full time one? 4 → Which GTM roles is AI actually eliminating, and which are becoming more valuable? 4 →
3. 3
   Outbound that works

   Cold email, cold calls, LinkedIn, sequences and lists. How to start conversations with people who have never heard of you.

   When do I hire SDRs, and how many AEs can one SDR feed? 4 → Should my outbound team sit in India while my buyers are in the US? 5 → We handed outbound to AI and reply rates fell. Where does AI actually help, and where does it backfire? 4 → We are going from two reps to ten. How do I scale outbound without it turning into spam? 3 →
4. 4
   Running a sales process and closing

   Discovery, demos, qualification, champions, procurement and the last mile to a signature.

   How do I turn random wins into a sales process someone else can run? 4 → When do I hire a VP of Sales, and what happens to me after I do? 3 → Security reviews keep stalling my deals. What do I actually need, and when should I get it? 4 → How do I put a deal desk and discount approvals in place without slowing everything down? 3 →