GTM questions asked and how we answered - Nov ‘25

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‍Q1 – Increasing inbound demand

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“How do we increase inbounds?” – answered by Laurie

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Context - Early stage company, limited budget, wants more inbound leads but doesn’t have a functioning marketing engine yet.

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Key points

• Think in terms of ecosystem, not just ‘leads’.
  
  • Map three groups: potential customers, potential partners, and potential influencers.
  • Ask: “Who already has the trust and attention of my ideal buyers?”
    
    
• Define your early ‘glass ceilings’.
  
  • Typical B2B SaaS milestones: first few customers → £1m ARR → £10m, £20m, etc.
  • 0–£1m is often the hardest stage for inbound; you will still rely heavily on outbound and network.
    
    
• Use thought leadership with a clear point of view.
  
  • Publish simple, strong opinions about the problem and what people are getting wrong.
  • Slightly provocative content can work; people enjoy telling you you’re wrong, which creates engagement.
    
    
• Use small, simple formats you can run now.
  
  • Open “expert panel” or round‑table style calls (like this session) for your ecosystem.
  • Short webinars and clinics on specific problems, not generic product demos.
    
    
• Leverage industry bodies and communities.
  
  • Identify relevant trade bodies or associations and join 1–2 that your buyers actually care about.
  • Sponsor or speak at their events where possible.
    
    
• Mine and expand existing “nurture” accounts.
  
  • Go back to accounts that said “not now” and look for additional contacts in the same company.
  • Reach new stakeholders with a refreshed point of view.
    
    
• Website still matters, even with low spend.
  
  • Focus on clear messaging, simple conversion paths, and basic SEO (no need for big ad budgets at first).
  • Make it very easy to contact you or book time.
    
    
• Partners can multiply reach quickly.
  
  • Find partners with a customer base that overlaps your ICP and give them a clear reason to introduce you.

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Action - Draft a one page ecosystem map (customers, partners, influencers), pick 2–3 simple tactics (e.g. one panel, one trade body, one nurture campaign), and run them for 60 days before adding anything else.

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Q2 – Hiring a sales team for a new SME lending brand

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“I’m launching an SME lending brand in the UK – what’s the right approach to hiring a sales team?” – answered by Douglas

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Key points

• Channel first: direct vs partner‑led.
  
  • In SME lending, a large share of business typically flows via intermediaries (e.g. accountants, brokers).
  • If you lean on that model, you may need a partner sales team before a classic outbound SDR/AE team.
    
    
• In this space, domain knowledge helps.
  
  • Usually we say “hire for talent, not industry”, but lending can be more specialised.
  • Prior experience in UK lending or selling to accountants/SMEs is useful.
    
    
• Use a hiring rubric, not gut feel.
  
  • Build a simple scorecard that covers:
    
    • Sales craft (prospecting, discovery, qualification).
    • Behaviours (ownership, discipline, follow‑through).
    • Relevant experience (building pipeline from zero, working without inbound).
  • Ask for concrete examples: account names, how they built pipeline, what worked.
    
    
• The rubric is also a growth tool.
  
  • Use it in 3–6‑monthly reviews to talk about performance and development.
  • If it isn’t working out, it gives you objective ground to act.
    
    
• Link behaviours → competencies → outcomes.
  
  • Example:
    
    • Behaviour: consistent, structured discovery.
    • Competency: strong discovery skills.
    • Outcome: better qualification and higher win rate.

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Action - Decide if you are building a direct sales team, a partner‑led motion, or both. Draft a one‑page hiring rubric and use it for every interview and performance review for the first sales hires.

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Q3 – Measuring GTM progress pre‑revenue

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“How can we measure GTM progress pre‑revenue? Which leading indicators matter before we have consistent sales?” – answered by Charles, with input from Laurie

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Key points

• Two big jobs: create pipeline and advance pipeline.
  
  • You care about:
    
    • Number and value of sales‑qualified opportunities.
    • How well qualified they are.
    • How they move through stages over time.
      
      
• Qualify beyond “interest”.
  
  • Are you solving a real problem for this prospect?
  • How big is the problem (time, money, risk)?
  • How urgent is it to fix?
  • Who owns the problem and who feels the pain?
    
    
• Track simple funnel metrics.
  
  • % of qualified opportunities created per period.
  • Conversion from first meeting → qualified → proposal → verbal yes.
  • Median time between stages.
    
    
• Use conversations as data.
  
  • Be explicit with prospects: “We’re early; we’d really value your feedback.”
  • Ask what is missing, what would block adoption, and how they see ROI.
    
    
• Third‑party due diligence can be useful.
  
  • For example, app‑store listings (e.g. Salesforce/HubSpot marketplaces) or grant processes often require structured reviews of your product and GTM.
  • Their feedback gives another view on fit.
    
    
• Call recordings are a rich source of insight.
  
  
  
  • Tag themes (problems, objections, competitors mentioned).
  • Feed insights back to product and use them as early lead indicators of message and problem fit.

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Action - Define 3–5 simple leading indicators (e.g. #SQOs/month, stage‑to‑stage conversion, median days to next step, key themes from call tags) and review them weekly, even before you close your first deal.

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Q4 – Closing deals better and faster

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“We’re okay at starting deals but struggle with closing. How do we close better and faster?” – answered by Laurie and Charles

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Key points

• Closing is an outcome of the whole process.
  
  • There is no magic “closer” who can rescue weak deals at the end.
  • If you are not closing, look first at demand gen, qualification, and value creation earlier in the cycle.
    
    
• Build and maintain value from the first call.
  
  • Start with problem identification and quantification.
  • Keep linking every step back to impact on the business.
  • Where possible, express value in financial terms (savings, revenue, risk avoided).
    
    
• CFOs increasingly ask for in‑year ROI.
  
  • If you can show payback within the current year, it is much easier to get budget.
  • That requires a clear, shared ROI story.
    
    
• Codify your discovery and value conversations.
  
  • List the core business problems you solve.
  • For each, define: how you create need and urgency; how you quantify impact; what good evidence looks like.
    
    
• Run regular deal reviews / “deal huddles”.
  
  • Bring in founder, marketing, pre‑sales or anyone relevant.
  • Use a simple structure: where are we, what’s blocking us, what’s the next move?
  • Always ask: “How do we make this deal bigger while increasing value for the customer?”
    
    
• Example: making a small company credible vs a large vendor.
  
  • One team co‑opted a big vendor (Oracle) into their deal by offering them a clear role in the solution.
  • That turned a risky head‑to‑head into a joint win and increased deal size.

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Action - Introduce a weekly 45‑minute deal huddle on your top 5–10 opportunities. For each, confirm the problem and value, map stakeholders, agree next steps, and ask “how do we increase value and scope?” before talking about closing dates.

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Q5 – Aligning GTM with a revised product‑market fit

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“We’ve refined our product and have multiple products now. How do we align GTM and measure product‑market fit again?” – answered by Charles

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Key points

• Product‑market fit is more than “people buy it”.
  
  • You care about:
    
    • Are customers using it?
    • Do they get value quickly?
    • Do they stay and expand?
      
      
• If you already have customers on the new proposition:
  
  • Define a simple “success metric” that proves value (e.g. time saved, revenue added, risk reduced).
  • Track how quickly customers hit that metric.
  • Watch retention and net revenue retention (are they renewing and buying more?).
    
    
• If you have not sold the new proposition yet:
  
  • Focus on message‑market fit and problem‑market fit.
  • Can you create qualified pipeline with the new message?
  • Does the problem and outcome resonate with the ICP you’ve chosen?
    
    
• Use pre‑revenue conversion points.
  
  • Pilot → paid conversion rate.
  • Time from pilot start to paid agreement.
  • Engagement during pilots (usage, number of stakeholders involved).
    
    
• Separate proposition issues from execution issues.
  
  • A weak seller can make a good proposition look bad.
  • Listen to calls and look for patterns: is the message landing but the execution is poor, or is the offer itself unclear?

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Action - Write a one‑page PMF scorecard for the new proposition: customer success metric, target time‑to‑value, pilot→paid conversion, and retention/expansion targets. Review it monthly and adjust either the offer or the GTM motion based on what you see.

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Q6 – Moving from small deals to bigger leads

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“We’re struggling to get bigger leads – we still attract only smaller ones.” – answered by Charles and Douglas

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Key points

• Check your message first.
  
  • Are you talking about problems and outcomes that matter to mid‑market / enterprise buyers, or only to smaller customers?
  • Bigger organisations care about risk, compliance, cross‑team impact and scale.
    
    
• Look at where deals are stalling.
  
  • Are you failing to open doors in larger accounts, or are you opening them but not progressing?
  • If you can start conversations but not advance them, it may be a sales execution issue, not demand gen.
    
    
• A balanced pipeline is healthier than “whales only”.
  
  • Smaller and mid‑sized deals can close faster and keep revenue coming in.
  • Big game hunting only (large deals) is risky and time‑consuming.
    
    
• Use smaller customers as proof for bigger ones.
  
  • Early, smaller clients provide reference stories and proof points.
  • Use these to build credibility with larger targets.
    
    
• Re‑segment your target list.
  
  • Think in terms of “sprats, sharks and whales” (small, medium, large).
  • Set simple targets for each band so you don’t skew too heavily to one end.

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Action - Review your current pipeline and classify each opportunity as small, medium or large. Check your messaging and outbound for large accounts and adjust it so it speaks directly to big‑company problems; aim for a deliberate mix of deal sizes over the next quarter.

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Q7 – Prospecting for an enterprise dev tool (SaaS)

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‍“We sell an enterprise dev tool in a crowded SaaS market – how should we prospect?” – answered by Charles and Laurie

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Key points

• Start with the specific problem and use cases.
  
  • Dev tools can solve many things; choose one or two clear, important problems to lead with.
  • Example mentioned: AI‑driven code review / ratification – which teams feel that pain most?
    
    
• Map who owns and feels the problem.
  
  • Which roles: CTO, VP Engineering, DevOps lead, security lead?
  • Which sectors: e.g. regulated industries, high‑scale platforms, etc.
    
    
• Choose your primary sales motion.
  
  • Product‑led (PLG), SMB/mid‑market seller‑led, or classic enterprise.
  • The motion drives how you prospect, structure contracts, and design onboarding.
    
    
• Make it easy to start small.
  
  • Short contracts, simple pricing, low‑friction initial buy (e.g. a small number of seats on a company card).
  • Strong Customer Success support to ensure quick wins and internal advocacy.
    
    
• Be easy to do business with.
  
  • A plain‑English, short contract with flexible exit (“cancel for convenience”) was highlighted as a real accelerator in practice.
  • Reduce perceived risk so prospects are more willing to try you.
    
    
• Articulate clear differentiated value.
  
  • Write down what you do that is meaningfully different for the customer (not just features).
  • Link that difference to concrete impact in your target use cases.
    
    
• Use tools like straw‑man ROI to start conversations.
  
  • Before the first meeting, build a rough ROI estimate for the prospect based on public info and your assumptions.
  • Send it ahead as a “working hypothesis” and invite them to correct it; this often secures a meeting and creates a joint value case.

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Action - Pick one high value problem and 1–2 core use cases for your dev tool, define the ICP and key personas, then design a simple outreach + “easy start” offer (small initial deployment, short contract) backed by a straw‑man ROI you refine jointly with the customer.

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Closing note

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Across all questions, the same themes appeared:

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• Start from the customer’s problem and the value of solving it.
• Make the sales process visible and collaborative (clear stages, plans, and next steps).
• Use simple leading indicators to track progress before revenue is consistent.
• Aim for repeatability, not one off hero wins.

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Next Step - Pick the one question above that matches your current GTM gap, copy the “Action” section into a one pager, and turn it into a 30 day experiment.