Modern GTM is not a campaign. It is the company's commercial architecture.

In the first two articles, I discussed changing buying behaviour and the importance of human involvement. This article shifts the perspective from the salesperson and the customer to the company's overall Go-to-Market model. Because even the best salespeople will struggle to create systematic growth if the company has not made clear commercial choices.

The company has an ambitious growth strategy. Marketing invests in new campaigns. The sales department hires more people. New AI tools are meant to speed up prospecting, and management asks for more pipeline. Yet the expected growth does not materialise.

More leads are generated, but quality varies. The sales team spends time on customers who do not match the company's strengths. Existing customers are developed at random, and new initiatives are constantly launched without a clear connection.

It is tempting to conclude that the sales organisation needs to execute better. But I would start somewhere else. Does the company even have a coherent Go-to-Market strategy?

GTM is more than marketing and sales

Go-to-Market is often treated as an activity plan. Which campaigns should we run? How many leads should we create? Which channels should we use? How should we organise our outbound effort?

These are relevant questions. But they come too late if the company has not first decided where it wants to compete, which customers it wants to win, which problems it should solve and why the market should choose it in particular.

A modern GTM model must connect the company's commercial ambition with the way it actually creates, wins, develops and retains customers. That requires coherence between strategy, people and execution.

The modern market consists of buying networks

In 2025, Forrester introduced its research on Buying Networks, pointing out that B2B companies must relate to far more than the traditional members of a buying group. Customers are also influenced by external advisers, professional networks, existing relationships, digital information sources and AI.

This means a modern GTM strategy cannot just be about identifying the right decision-maker and sending them the right message. The company must be relevant across a broader network of people and information sources that influence the customer's decision.

This creates a greater need for professional credibility, consistent communication, concrete customer examples and insight that helps the customer understand their problem. GTM is therefore also about being chosen before anyone fills in a contact form.

Five commercial choices

I would build modern GTM around five connected decisions.

1. Where do we want to win?

A clear Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) should define the customer groups where the company's solution is most relevant and where there is also attractive commercial potential. A market is not necessarily attractive just because it is large.

2. Why should the customer choose us?

Positioning should start from the customer's problems and decision criteria rather than an internal description of the company's products and capabilities. If all competitors sound the same, it becomes difficult to build preference.

3. When is the customer relevant to engage?

It is not enough to identify companies that fit the ICP. We must also understand which changes, problems or events make a potential customer ready to consider something new. Digital buying signals can help, but they are not in themselves evidence of real purchase intent.

4. Which sales model does the customer require?

A smaller, standardised purchase may be handled digitally with limited human involvement. A complex strategic purchase may require an account owner, specialists, management involvement and a longer decision process. The resources invested should reflect customer value, complexity and expected profitability.

5. How do we develop the customer after the first deal?

GTM does not stop at contract signature. It must connect new-customer sales with onboarding, value realisation, retention and the development of existing customers.

Benchmarkit's 2025 study of B2B SaaS showed, for example, that growth from existing customers accounted for 40% of total new ARR in the population studied. That figure cannot simply be transferred to other industries. But it illustrates why the growth model should not be designed around new-customer sales alone.

From isolated activities to coordinated sales plays

Bain's 2025 research on Commercial Excellence highlights the importance of targeted, repeatable sales plays coordinated across commercial functions.

In my view, a sales play should not just be a campaign or a pre-written sales script. It should connect a specific customer group and buying situation with a relevant problem, the company's value proposition, the right channel and a clear commercial action. Marketing, sales and the relevant specialists must work from the same understanding.

It also means GTM must be developed through learning. Which segments convert? Which customer needs create real demand? Where does our sales model become too expensive? Which customers develop positively after the purchase?

In its 2025 analysis Seven Tests for B2B Growth, McKinsey emphasises, among other things, the importance of measuring growth relative to the market, quantifying share of wallet and prioritising concrete growth initiatives. It is precisely the link between market choices and actual commercial performance that I find important.

GTM is a shared leadership responsibility

A GTM strategy should not be owned by marketing alone. Nor by the sales director in isolation. It requires decisions about markets, products, priorities, resources and customer promises. It is executive management's responsibility to create that coherence.

Modern GTM is not about finding more people we can contact. It is about systematically becoming relevant to the right customers, at the right time and with the right commercial effort. Only when those choices are clear does it make sense to discuss how much of the work should be done by people, technology or AI.

Next article: AI should not just make the salesperson faster. It should make the sales organisation better. We have now established the commercial architecture. But how do we use AI without simply automating the mistakes and inefficient workflows that already exist in the organisation?

These sources support the discussion of buying networks, coordinated GTM, growth from existing customers and commercial prioritisation. The five-part GTM structure is an editorial synthesis adapted to the Bridge Framework.