Framing a meeting around "alignment" invites defensiveness and departmental finger-pointing. Calling it a "Go-to-Market Meeting" re-centers the conversation on shared business problems like pipeline and retention, fostering collaborative problem-solving instead of blame.
Even a company with significant revenue can be stuck in the "problem-market fit" stage if it introduces too much complexity. Pursuing multiple products, ICPs, or go-to-market motions dilutes focus and exponentially increases difficulty, hindering the ability to scale effectively.
To get a CEO to champion a unified go-to-market strategy, don't pitch its importance. Ask them to answer core strategic questions, then ask if they believe their leadership team would provide the same answers. This highlights potential misalignment and positions the CEO as the leader to solve it.
A CMO was fired despite creating a $50M pipeline because it targeted the wrong customers who wouldn't renew or expand. Marketers can secure their roles and prove business impact by demonstrating how their efforts contribute to NRR, the company's true health metric.
When facing uncertainty across your entire GTM strategy, prioritize the foundational elements. Begin with the customer experience: decreasing time-to-value and increasing expansion (NRR). If you cannot retain and grow existing customers, acquiring new ones is a futile effort that only masks a deeper problem.
Chick-fil-A spent millions trying to replace its long-running cow campaign, but research always confirmed "the market likes it." Effective marketing sticks with what demonstrably works, even if it feels repetitive or uncreative to the internal team. Don't change for the sake of change.
When faced with endless requests, marketing leaders shouldn't just say "no." Instead, present the current list of projects and their expected outcomes, then ask the executive team which initiative they would like you to drop to accommodate the new one. This frames it as a strategic trade-off, not obstruction.
Focus on retaining and expanding existing customer revenue (NRR) over acquiring new logos. An NRR above 120% creates compounding growth, while below 75% signals the business is dying. This metric is a truer indicator of company health than top-line growth alone.