Why Your GTM Isn't Working — It's Not the Tools, It's the Thinking

I spoke to a founder recently who'd just spent £47,000 on a new sales automation platform. His exact words: "This will fix everything."

I asked him one question: "What's your actual go-to-market strategy?"

Silence.

Then: "Well, we need to generate more leads, so..."

This is the conversation I have every week without fail. Founders treating symptoms with expensive plasters while the disease spreads. Your GTM isn't failing because you lack the right tools. It's failing because you're solving the wrong problem.

The Tool Addiction That's Killing Your Growth

Here's how it usually goes:

Growth stalls. Panic sets in. Someone suggests a new tool—maybe marketing automation, maybe intent data, maybe AI-powered something. You buy it. There's initial excitement. Implementation takes longer than expected. Results disappoint. Blame shifts to execution. The cycle repeats.

I've watched companies with 15 different tools in their stack still struggling to generate consistent pipeline. Meanwhile, I know founders crushing it with just Google Sheets and genuine customer understanding.

The tools aren't the variable. The thinking is.

The Three Thinking Errors I See Every Day

1. The Activity Fallacy "We're sending 1,000 emails a day!" Great. To whom? Saying what? Based on what insight?

Most GTM strategies are just activity plans in disguise. More calls, more emails, more content, more everything. But volume without vector is just noise. You're not thinking about market dynamics; you're thinking about activity metrics.

One client was proud of their 10,000 monthly marketing qualified leads. Their sales team was closing 0.3% of them. That's not a tools problem. That's a fundamental misunderstanding of what a qualified lead actually is.

2. The Copy-Paste Strategy "Competitor X is doing webinars, so we should do webinars."

I call this cargo cult GTM. You're copying the visible tactics without understanding the invisible strategy. Your competitor might be doing webinars because they've identified a specific education gap in their market. You're doing them because... they are.

Every market is different. Every buyer journey is unique. Every value proposition requires its own approach. But instead of thinking deeply about your specific context, you're playing follow-the-leader with companies that might be solving entirely different problems.

3. The Channel-First Thinking "We need to be on LinkedIn." Why? "Because our buyers are there."

Are they? Are they there in buying mode? Are they responding to cold outreach? Are they engaging with content? Or are you just assuming because everyone says B2B happens on LinkedIn?

Channel-first thinking is backwards. Start with behaviour, then find channels. Where do your buyers go when they realise they have the problem you solve? What do they search for? Who do they trust? Build your GTM around actual behaviour, not channel assumptions.

What Good GTM Thinking Actually Looks Like

Let me paint you a picture of GTM thinking that works:

Start with the Problem, Not the Product A founder came to me selling "workflow automation software." Nobody wakes up wanting that. But they do wake up frustrated that their team keeps dropping balls. The shift from "we sell automation" to "we fix dropped balls" transformed everything. Same product, different thinking.

Map the Real Buying Journey Not the one in your sales deck. The messy, non-linear way people actually buy.

I worked with a company targeting CFOs. They assumed CFOs made software decisions top-down. Turns out, their deals always started with frustrated finance managers googling solutions at 9pm. The entire GTM strategy was aimed at the wrong altitude.

Spend time understanding:

• What triggers the search for a solution?
• Who's involved at each stage?
• What are they worried about?
• Where do they go for information?
• How do they build confidence?

Design for Trust, Not Tricks Every GTM tactic that feels manipulative probably is. And buyers can smell it immediately. Good thinking asks: "How do we earn the right to this person's attention?" Not: "How do we trick them into a meeting?"

One client shifted from "booking meetings" to "solving one problem in every interaction." Their cold email response rates went from 2% to 12%. Same tool, different thinking.

The Questions That Fix Everything

When GTM isn't working, stop looking at tools. Start asking better questions:

Who exactly are we helping? Not "B2B SaaS companies" or "SMEs." Specific people with specific problems. The founder who can't sleep because customer churn is climbing. The sales leader whose team keeps missing quota. The deeper your understanding, the sharper your approach.

What do they believe that we need to change? Every sale is about belief change. What false belief is keeping them stuck? What true belief would move them forward? Your GTM should architect this belief change, not assault them with features.

Why should they believe us? Not your case studies or logos. Why should they trust that you understand their world? What proof can you offer that you've solved this exact problem before? How do you demonstrate competence before claiming it?

Where are they when they're ready? Forget where your buyers work or what their title is. Where are they mentally when they're ready for your solution? What's happened that makes today different from yesterday? Build your GTM around readiness signals, not demographic data.

The GTM Architecture That Actually Works

Here's the framework I use with every client:

Layer 1: Problem Education Before people buy solutions, they need to understand problems. Most GTM strategies skip this, jumping straight to solution selling. But if prospects don't viscerally feel the problem, they'll never value the solution. Create content that makes them think: "Bloody hell, that's exactly what we're dealing with."

Layer 2: Trust Building Once they recognise the problem, they need to trust you to solve it. This isn't about testimonials. It's about demonstrating deep understanding. Share the non-obvious insights. Reveal the hidden causes. Show them something about their business they didn't know.

Layer 3: Solution Mapping Only now do you talk solution. But not features—outcomes. Map your solution to their specific context. Show them the path from where they are to where they want to be. Make it feel achievable, not overwhelming.

Layer 4: Risk Mitigation Every B2B purchase is a career risk. Acknowledge this. Address the unspoken fears. What if it doesn't work? What if implementation fails? What if the team rejects it? Good GTM thinking anticipates and addresses these fears before they're voiced.

Why This Is So Bloody Hard

Thinking is harder than buying. It requires:

• Admitting your assumptions might be wrong
• Talking to customers without selling
• Patience to build understanding before tactics
• Courage to do things differently
• Discipline to say no to shiny new tools

It's easier to blame tools and keep buying new ones. But that's exactly why most GTM strategies fail.

The Litmus Test for Your GTM

Here's how to know if your GTM thinking is sound:

Can you explain your strategy without mentioning a single tool or channel?

If not, you're not thinking strategically. You're just listing tactics.

Try it: "We help [specific person] overcome [specific problem] by changing their belief from [false belief] to [true belief] through [value creation method]."

If you can't fill in those blanks with confidence, no tool will save you.

Your GTM Transformation Starts Now

I get it. Thinking is uncomfortable. It's easier to buy Salesforce and hope for the best. But every pound spent on tools without strategy is a pound wasted. Every day executing tactics without thinking is a day lost.

The good news? Fixing your thinking is free. It just requires honesty and effort.

Start here:

1. Stop all new tool evaluations immediately
2. Talk to 10 customers about their buying journey
3. Map what you learn to your current GTM
4. Identify the thinking errors
5. Fix the thinking before touching the tools

Because here's the truth: Companies with clear thinking and basic tools outperform those with sophisticated tools and muddy thinking. Every. Single. Time.

Your GTM isn't broken because you lack AI-powered intent data or marketing automation or whatever silver bullet someone's selling. It's broken because you're solving the wrong problem.

Fix the thinking. The growth will follow.

You can hire me on a Fractional basis to get under the skin of your Ideal Customer Profile, Go-To-Market Strategy and Sales Process to exponentially improve your revenue growth>>>