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 doing the work

1. 1
   What GTM actually is

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

   How do I tell whether our GTM is genuinely working or we just got lucky with a few deals? 4 → What is the real difference between product-led, sales-led and everything in between, and which one are we? 4 → How is GTM different before product market fit versus after? 3 → We sell to developers. Why does the normal B2B playbook keep failing on them? 3 →
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.

   I have been an SDR for about 18 months. How do I actually make the jump to AE? 5 → I am the first GTM hire at a startup. What is my job really, and how do I not get fired in 12 months? 4 → How do I judge a startup's GTM before I join it, so I am not walking into an unhittable number? 3 → What does a GTM career actually pay in India over ten years? 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.

   My cold calls die in the first ten seconds. What do I actually say when they pick up? 4 → How do I build a target list that is worth working instead of scraping ten thousand random companies? 4 → One email is not a sequence. How many follow-ups, how far apart, and what should go in each one? 3 → My champion went quiet and the deal stalled. How do I multithread an account without going over their head? 4 →
4. 4
   Running a sales process and closing

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

   How do I know if a deal is real or if I am being strung along? 4 → My demos go well and then the deal stalls. How do I stop that? 5 → They want a pilot before they commit. How do I run one that ends in a contract instead of a shrug? 4 → Procurement has entered the conversation and wants thirty percent off. How do I negotiate without gutting the deal? 4 →