- Start early and make it clear how you work. Set the end-state, today’s state, the blockers, and how you will help.
- Use a MAP early and build it together. Steps, owners, dates and signatories should be agreed jointly; this keeps momentum and reduces awkwardness later.
- Design for speed. Run a short proof plan (about 45 days), map the approval path early (legal/InfoSec), and secure an executive sponsor.
- Measure progress, not activity. Track stage-to-stage conversion and use a simple pipeline-velocity view: number of qualified opportunities × win rate × average deal size ÷ median sales cycle.
- Focus beats volume. Improving conversions at each stage usually outperforms “add more leads”.
- Keep ownership and governance simple. Founder-led early; a revenue leader (e.g., CRO/VP) as you mature; use a single dashboard and clear hand-offs between Marketing, Sales and Customer Success.
- Message in the customer’s language. Talk about their problem and the value of solving it; avoid feature-first intros.
- After first wins, check the track. Confirm the win fits your original problem and ICP; run a win review, capture why they bought, refine message/ICP, then scale.
- Multi-thread enterprise accounts. Reduce single-champion risk by adding finance, IT and operations to your contact base.
We covered a set of practical go-to-market questions from founders and sales leaders. The focus was on what to do next, not theory. Below is a short summary of the topics and the main points that came out of the discussion.
Topics we covered
- Keeping momentum after the first call and opening better channels.
- Who owns go-to-market and what good strategy/governance looks like.
- When and how to use a Mutual Action Plan (MAP).
- How to shorten long sales cycles.
- How to measure progress with leading indicators (beyond MQL/SQL).
- How strict to be with the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) when new verticals appear.
- How to “get in the room” with target accounts.
- How to scale after the first enterprise wins.
Q 1. Making early enterprise wins repeatable - Douglas Mancini, Russell Palmer
“We’ve won our first enterprise client; how do we know we’re on the right track to scale?”
- Check your track. Compare your original plan/ICP/problem to what you actually sold. Sometimes the first win is for a different problem-that can be a pivot opportunity, or a trap if it isn’t your real ICP.
- Confirm fit. Ask: Does this customer fit the problem we set out to solve? If not, decide whether to pivot (and redefine ICP/message) or return to the track you planned.
- Get the voice of the customer. Do a win review with the first client: Why did you buy? What problem did we really solve? What was the impact? Use their words to refine the problem statement and scale your messaging.
- Protect the win inside the enterprise. Early buyers are often pioneers. If your champion moves, you can lose support. Spread your contact surface quickly (add finance, IT, ops, and the economic buyer) so the decision isn’t tied to one person.
Action: Write a one-page Track Check (original ICP/problem vs what you sold), run a win review with the first client to capture why they bought and the outcome, update your problem statement + ICP/message from that, and multi-thread the account (add FC/CFO and IT/ops contacts) to reduce champion risk.
Q2 - Late-stage comms & opening channels - Laurie Mascott
“How best to maintain comms through the later stage of the funnel. Email is so easy to ignore, feel like after first call we get stuck. How best to turn expressed interest into open comms channels so that we can shorten the cycle. I've wondered if we should try get a free demo on their data running asap, and use a shared slack channel to coordinate, and that way we've opened up comms to be more fluid.”
- Start early. Don’t wait until the end of the cycle to fix comms. From the first conversation, explain “this is how we sell” so the process feels normal, not pushy.
- Use a simple 3-step frame in the first call:
- End state - where they’re trying to get to.
- Today - where they are now (this naturally opens discovery).
- Blockers - what will stop them reaching that end state, and how we can help.
- Remove friction as quickly as possible.
- On channels: a shared Slack can work, but only alongside a clear process. A customer portal / B2B sales engagement space is often better: it holds all materials in one place, lets you ask, “Who else needs access and why?” (great discovery), and gives analytics (who looked, how long, what mattered). It also carries forward into onboarding.
- Low-friction “start” helps momentum: a small credit-card purchase (e.g., two seats) on a two-page contract written in plain English with cancel for convenience reduced buying friction in practice. Then lean in with Customer Success so the customer lands well and expands.
Action: Open the next call by setting the frame (end state → today → blockers → our help), agree a shared workspace (Slack or a simple portal) to house everything, and offer a low-friction first step (small purchase on a plain-English, two-page contract) to keep progress moving.
Q3 - GTM Strategy - Russell Palmer
“Who owns GTM and what does good strategy and governance look like?”
Who owns GTM (by stage):
Early stage: the founder-CEO owns GTM because everyone does everything.
As you mature: a revenue leader (e.g., CRO, VP Marketing/CMO, VP Sales-someone who owns revenue and customer-facing functions) owns GTM.
What a good GTM strategy looks like (simple template):
- Problem: be clear on the customer problem your product/service solves; if this isn’t clear, the strategy will be vague.
- Who has that problem (ICP): define the types of companies that truly have it; a broad horizontal (e.g., “expenses management for everyone”) must be narrowed (e.g., firms with large field workforces).
- Personas: identify who owns or feels the problem most inside those companies; start outreach with one or two key personas, but expect multiple decision makers-the number grows with ACV.
- Messaging: speak in the customer’s language (their company/industry/problem), not your internal feature/AI language; message must resonate with those personas.
- Channels: decide where they go for information and show up there; then get more precise-brand vs demand gen, and whether you run ABM for enterprise or go broader.
- Connect across GTM: keep the same message and hand-offs through the whole value chain-Marketing → Sales → Onboarding/Delivery → Customer Success.
Q 4 - Introducing a MAP naturally - Douglas Mancini
“When and how should we introduce a Mutual Action Plan? It can feel awkward.”
- What it really is: not a “close plan”, but a mutual execution plan - a shared way of working that makes the buying process as frictionless as possible.
- When to introduce it: very early in the cycle, so it becomes the roadmap for the deal and helps build rapport between both teams.
- What senior leaders care about: the activities the customer must complete to secure budget, get approvals/SLA signed, and move to contract. The MAP should make those steps explicit.
- What to include (make value visible): put the problem statement and the size of the problem/opportunity at the top (what it’s costing today, or the upside if solved). Done well, the MAP can double as the board-approval document.
- What makes it awkward (and how to avoid it): it feels awkward when it’s a generic template with dates swapped in and no genuine collaboration. Keep the “mutual” in Mutual Action Plan real - co-create it and keep it specific to the deal.
- Why it helps: introduced early and built together, a MAP reduces surprises, keeps both sides aligned on steps/owners/dates, and keeps momentum.
Action: On your next qualified deal, open a one-page MAP early and fill it together: put the problem + magnitude at the top, then list the budget/approval steps, owners, and dates.
Q5 - Getting into the room - Douglas Mancini
“How to get in the room to sell a b2b product, how do you even get on their radar”
- First decide the motion (transactional vs enterprise) - If the offer is transactional (submit info → get an outcome), lean into digital discovery: SEO/AEO so you appear when buyers search (Google and answer engines like ChatGPT). If you’re going enterprise/target-account, switch to account-specific outreach.
- If transactional - Optimise for the questions buyers ask when they look for grants/benefits or similar-ensure your pages and answers surface at the moment of search.
- If enterprise (target accounts A/B/C): Lead with a bespoke message that states the problem/opportunity, how you remove the paperwork/complexity, and where you’ve done it before; ask for a short call.
- Make the message about them (not you). “You’re the expert in your land/operation; we’re experts in unlocking benefits fast. Here’s X/Y/Z we’ve delivered; here’s how.” Keep it simple, specific, and tied to a provable outcome.
- Frame it as opportunity, not admin - Don’t sell “paperwork help”; sell “quickly unlock value; we’ve done it before-here’s the proof.”
- Research → personalise - For each account: capture their goals, the challenges blocking those goals, and how your solution removes those blocks; then write the outreach in their language.
Action (easy sequence):
- Classify each target as Transactional or Enterprise.
If Transactional: update SEO/AEO pages to answer the exact search questions buyers use (Google + ChatGPT). - If Enterprise: for each A/B account, build a 1-page linkage brief (Goal → Blocker → Your fix → Proof) and send a short, account-specific note requesting a 15-minute call.
Q6 - Measurement - Russell Palmer
“I’m still using demand metrics like coverage and MQL→SQL, but I want forward‑looking indicators and predictive models that link demand to revenue. What are others using?”
- Anchor on revenue, not activity. Traditional demand KPIs (coverage, MQL→SQL) tend to measure activity; the only KPI that truly matters is revenue, then work backwards from it.
- Use a simple predictive view (pipeline velocity).
Pipeline velocity = (# Sales-Qualified Opportunities × Win rate × Average Contract Value) ÷ Median Sales Cycle - this gives you money per time period (e.g., £10k/month). You can look back a quarter and calculate it directly from your CRM, even if data isn’t perfect. - Track velocity forward, tweak the right lever. If velocity isn’t on track, examine which of the four variables (SQOs, win rate, ACV, cycle) is pulling it down.
- Remember the variables are connected. For example, increasing ACV can lengthen cycle, leaving velocity unchanged; consider trade-offs, not single knobs.
- Prioritise stage-to-stage conversion over “more TOFU”. Pushing more into the top burns data and headcount for minimal lift (even with AI personalisation). Improving conversion at each stage (e.g., across seven stages) can double revenue without adding more leads.
- How to apply weekly: track #SQOs, win rate, ACV, median cycle, and stage conversion rates; use velocity as your north star and decide where to focus (e.g., raise proposal→close, not “more MQLs”).
Q7 - Reducing very long cycles - Russell Palmer
“Our sales cycles are very long-how do we magically reduce them?”
- Context matters. Cycles change by segment: SMB is usually shorter (fewer decision-makers, simpler value), while mid-market/enterprise is longer (more people, more complexity, higher ACV). You can shorten cycles within those constraints, but you can’t skip necessary steps entirely.
- Create pull, not push. Go back to basics: what problem do we solve, who has it, who cares most, and how valuable is it to fix now? When your message speaks directly to that problem in the customer’s language, urgency rises, decision-makers engage sooner, and progress is easier.
- Use a Mutual Action Plan (MAP) to keep momentum. Make it collaborative and concrete: name the people, steps and dates you and the buyer both agree to (e.g., “next meeting with the financial controller/CFO + IT lead by next week”). You’re not “pushing”; you’re following a plan you both set, which adds gentle accountability and prevents stalling.
Action: Reframe current deals around the customer’s problem → value now, then co-write a MAP that includes the next approval meeting (FC/CFO + IT) with a firm date; use the plan to guide each follow-up and maintain cadence.
Q8 - ICP discipline - Russell Palmer
“How important is strict ICP discipline when different verticals show up?”
- Start with the problem. Be clear on the customer problem your product/service solves; without this, GTM is blurry.
- Who has the problem (ICP). Define the types of companies that truly have it; if it’s a broad horizontal (e.g., expenses management), narrow it to the subset where the problem is acute (e.g., firms with road-heavy field workforces).
- Who cares most (personas). Identify the people who own/feel the problem; start outreach with one or two personas, but expect multiple decision-makers, and note that ACV↑ = more decision-makers.
- Message in the customer’s language. Talk about their company, their industry, their problems; avoid “we’re a SaaS/AI platform…” intros-they don’t care. Aim for language that resonates with those personas.
Action: Write a one-sentence problem statement, define a narrow ICP that clearly has that problem, pick 1–2 personas to target first, and rewrite your messaging in the customer’s language (their problem and value), not product features.
Conclusion
This month’s questions all pointed to the same basics: start with the customer’s problem, make the buying journey visible (proof plan and a shared plan of steps), and measure progress stage by stage, not just activity. Keep ownership simple and message in the customer’s language.
