I don’t think I’ve ever come across a GTM project, where checking on the fundamentals didn’t uncover at least one big win.
Here are three fundamental things I look at whenever getting into an optimization or GTM architecture project. They’re designed to raise high-level red-flags and give you a framework to dive deeper where needed.
Great for both CEOs and sales/marketing leaders who want a new angle on assessing their GTM.
I’ll cover them here briefly and dissect in more detail below:
1️⃣ The GTM Delta
What it is: the core building blocks of one ICP’s go-to market
Why it matters: if this pyramid is out of ballance, the whole engine is shaky.
It’s what the video in this post talks about.
2️⃣ Buyer Journey Mapping
What it is: an impossible thing » you can’t have a single, accurate map for your B2B buyers’ journey, but you can uncover typical research and buying patterns
Why it matters: duh :) If you don’t know how your buyers research, buy - how are you going to sell to them?
3️⃣ How Your Buyer Journeys Break
What it is: using the above patterns, uncover where and why the process breaks
Why it matters: you need to understand how hard you’re actually making life for your buyers, so that you can fix it and make it easier for them to give you money.
+a surprise bonus on how to best troubleshoot your situation.
The GTM Delta
Marketing in most B2B companies = a pile of expensive guesses.
Rather than calculated bets, it’s mostly chaos burning your runway.
Here is my attempt to help you see through the weeds and uncover the gaps. At least from a 10K foot view:
We use a simple 4-part pyramid to find the real leak.
The order is not optional. If the foundation is cracked, the whole thing tumbles.
Here’s the breakdown:
1. MARKET (The Foundation)
If this is weak, nothing else matters. Don’t guess - research and validate these!
• Do you have a razor-sharp ICP? (Not “B2B co above 1000 employees”)
• Do you actually know their Job-to-be-Done?
• Have you mapped the full buying committee? (Who actually says yes? Who tries to break your deal?)
• Do you know their top 3-5 pain points, in their words? As in the top-of-mind, keeping-me-up-at-night items?
• Do you have actual market insights, or just assumptions?
• Is your TAM/segmentation clear?
2. MESSAGE (The “So What?”)
Once you know who, you figure out what to say.
• Is your positioning clear? Or just buzzwords?
• Do you have a core narrative that pulls people in?
• Have you defined your unique Point of View (POV)?
• Is your value prop stupidly simple to understand in 5 seconds?
• Do you have answers for the top 3 sales objections?
• Is your competitive differentiation obvious?
3. ASSETS (The Tools to Move Buyers)
Now you build the “stuff” that delivers the message.
• Do you have case studies that actually build trust?
• Your sales deck: is it a sales tool, or a sleep aid?
• Are your landing pages converting?
• Do you have calculators or tools that provide real value?
• Do you have high-value “pillar” content?
• Is your website optimized to be discovered (SEO and GEO) and convert your ICP?
4. ACTION (The Plays)
Only after the first 3 are solid... do you move.*
• Do you have defined campaign “plays”? (Warmup, Activation, Nurture)
• Is your sales team actively running these plays?
• Do you have dialed-in demand capture plays?
• Is your nurturing process an actual process, or just... sporadic?
• Do you have clear metrics for each step?
It’s unsmart to waste time and money on Step 4 (Action) if your Step 1 (Market) is an educated guess.
Fix the foundation first.
Da. Buyer. Journey.
What’s the worst piece of GTM advice you hear these days?
I’ll go first… There’s a loud camp in GTM that says:
“Just make everything accessible. Put it all out there with signposts. Let the buyer pick their own adventure.”
I’m taking the opposite stance because all I’ve seen improve for companies in that camp is website vanity metrics (pageviews and stuff).
Dumping content, even interlinked, leads to one thing: Analysis paralysis.
OK, to overwhelm as well. That’s two, but it gets everyone further from their goals.
Think about it. When you’re shopping for something complex (and frankly, boring), what do you appreciate most?
It’s not a data dump. It’s a wizard. 🧙♂️
Someone who:
• Taps into exactly what you need
• Verbalizes your problem better than you can
• Points you to the right solution
That is the job of a modern GTM leader.
Your goal isn’t to shrink a 9-month cycle into 3 days. You can’t force that.
Your goal at the top of funnel (early in the buyer journey) is to help the buyer decide: “Is this for me?” Fast. Efficient. Without the fluff.
We tend to pride ourselves when we hear
“I binged 235 pieces of your content, so I really know what you’re about.”
Not gonna lie, makes my ego shine. But this can’t be the goal - the average buyer needs stuff fast and efficiently.
It’s your job to design self-serve motions that do that.
In fact, we recently launched such a motion (you may or may not have seen.)
The above GTM campaign is pretty darn effective at downloading what buyers need, vetting them and getting them on a call. The video actually teaches the process too, so it’s ‘meta’ in that sense.
That’s how you fix pipeline problems. That’s how you stop spreading your small team thin.
Building content libraries is so 2015. Yes, they have their place but likely not where you think.
Instead: start building paths with strong intentions.
Be the wizard.
How The Buyer Journey Breaks
Most B2B pipelines are leaking revenue long before a sales rep ever says hello.
Above, you just saw the building blocks of GTM and the messy buyer journey (and how to un-mess it).
This part is about: the silent killers. 🔪
The breakage points in the early-stage buyer journey:
I’m talking about the moments where a qualified buyer with budget clicks “back” and vanishes forever.
Some reasons are out of your hands. Budgets get cut. Internal politics explode. Then there’s macro stuff that’s out of your hands.
Let those go. You can’t fix them.
But you MUST fix the self-inflicted wounds.
The friction YOU create that actively drives buyers away.
Most founders are so focused on “more leads” that they don’t see the holes in the bucket.
The Silent Killers
Here are your silent killers that do a great job at scaring buyers away.
1. 𝗩𝗮𝗴𝘂𝗲 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴. If they can’t explain what you do to their boss after 3 seconds on your site, you’ve lost. Clarity beats cleverness every time.
2. 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴. Marketing says “Innovation”. Sales says “Cost Savings”. The buyer smells the disconnect and runs.
3. 𝗚𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗰𝘀. Asking for an email to view a pricing page or a simple case study? That’s not lead gen. That’s holding information hostage.
4. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 “𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗼 𝗗𝘂𝗺𝗽”. Throwing a library of 50 PDFs at a prospect with zero guidance. Analysis paralysis is real. You need to curate the path, not just dump data.
5. 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗲𝘁𝘀. Great blog post... but no link to the product? Dead ends on your site equal dead ends in your pipeline.
6. 𝗕𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁. If your articles read like a technical manual or a press release, you’re invisible. No point of view? No engagement.
7. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗿𝗮𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗝𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘆. Forcing them to visit 7 different pages just to answer “can it do X?” Ain’t nobody got time for that. Buyer waiting 3 days to get a demo booked? That’s a joke in 2025.
8. 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴. Pushing “Book a Demo” when they are still in “What is this?” mode. It’s like proposing marriage on the first date. Chill.
9. 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗚𝗶𝗯𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗵. “Synergizing cross-functional paradigms.” Stop. Speak human. If you sound like everyone else, you sound like no one.
10. 𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀. High-traffic pages with no clear Call to Action or next step. Never leave them hanging. Always guide the next click.
The goal isn’t just to fill a CRM with emails. It’s to 𝗣𝗥𝗜𝗠𝗘 buyers.
Educate them. Excite them. So when they finally do reach out, the selling is already done.
Stop trying to hack growth with 10 different channels. Focus on 𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝗚𝗧𝗠 play that actually works.
If you get a moment, check your content against this list.
Rate yourself on every question 1-2-3 as in “bad-ok-good”.
Quick test, but pretty revealing...
Again, if you want to see a buyer journey like this in action, you can feel into
So, What Are You Gonna Do About It?
That concludes this review of “fundamental GTM fixes that move pipeline”. To be fair, some are easier than others. But the key equation you need to solve is one of prioritization.
“Where is THE bottleneck in my pipeline?”
There is always just ONE bottleneck that’s the biggest constraint in your system. Lucky you, you’re getting a simple framework to spot and heal it as well:
Yup, it’s the famous “Five Whys” - a concept so simple and brilliant, that you end up never using it.
That’s it for this week’s jam with the Electric B2B Newsletter - hope you can use it to make your GTM 1% better this week and every week thereafter.
Dan Renyi - founder at Klear B2B (and the guy in this video)
Ps.: Three ways I can help you for free:
1. If you’re a tech founder who ain’t got time for “1% better every week”, nor can you afford to experiment forever » reply and let’s see if it makes sense to talk.
2. There is a free custom GPT I’ve built that helps you see how fragmented your top-of-funnel buyer journey is.
3. If you don’t trust AI to do it, I will roast your top-of-funnel GTM in a private 2-minute loom. Reply/DM me your website + optionally your best top-of-funnel content or asset. I’ll rip it apart and send you a video.
(But ChatGPT is nicer, so choose step 2 if you get offended easily :) )
