GTM Confessions
Welcome to GTM Confessions. The show where we share what it takes to be a go-to-market (GTM) professional today…because it’s freaking hard and it’s far from the glamorous picture that social media often paints.
Each week, we’ll have a go-to-market professional on the show to share real examples of what’s worked and what’s failed spectacularly…the extreme highs of this career, the lowest of lows, and everything in between. Think of it as your weekly go-to-market therapy session…where you realize you’re not alone in trying to figure it all out.
GTM Confessions
GTM Advice with Lindsay Tjepkema
In this GTM Advice episode, Lindsay Tjepkema, Founder at Human Brands Win, answers a fast round of questions and shares her go-to-market advice with you.
Check out how Lindsay answered the following questions:
- What is the biggest go-to-market challenge today? How would you tackle this challenge?
- Where would you focus your efforts if you had limited resources and had to drive immediate results?
- How do you ensure there is alignment across all go-to-market functional teams? (i.e. sales, marketing, product, and customer success)
- What’s the one “dirty little secret” in go-to-market that nobody talks about, but everyone needs to know?
- What do you think is the biggest misconception about having a career in go-to-market?
- What is one skill that all GTM professionals need to have mastered to be successful?
- What is one thing you wish you knew sooner?
- What is one piece of advice you would give to someone looking to grow their career in go-to-market?
Stephanie Cox: Welcome to our GTM Advice episode where each guest answers a fast round of questions and shares their go-to-market advice with you. Let's hear from Lindsay.
Stephanie Cox: What is your biggest go-to-market challenge that exists today, and how would you tackle it?
Lindsay Tjepkema: I don't think that everybody that talks about go-to-market knows what go-to-market is, and so I think more education from people like you.
Stephanie Cox: Where would you focus your efforts if you had limited resources and had to drive immediate results?
Lindsay Tjepkema: Build a strong brand that people know, like, and trust.
Stephanie Cox: How do you ensure there is alignment across all go-to-market functional areas (i.e. sales, marketing, product, and CX)?
Lindsay Tjepkema: Put a woman in charge. I mean, kidding, not kidding. put somebody who actually cares about the customers and their experience more than they care about the dashboard that they look at every week.
Stephanie Cox: What is the one dirty little secret in go-to-market that nobody talks about, but everyone needs to know?
Lindsay Tjepkema: It's not like a broken record, but I think a lot of people don't know what it means. I think that people are using it because it's a buzzword, but people like you who have done every single role really know it, really understand it, and I think a lot of other people are just trying to get attention and don't actually understand what it means.
Stephanie Cox: What do you think is the biggest misconception about having a career in go-to-market?
Lindsay Tjepkema: That anyone can just say that they do it and do it, that the misconception is that it actually takes a pretty unique individual who has seen a lot of things from a lot of different perspectives to truly be able to embrace the full go-to-market perspective of a company
Stephanie Cox: What is the one skill that go-to-market professionals need to have mastered to be successful?
Lindsay Tjepkema: The humanness of what they're doing. They've got to know and fully embrace what their business is there to do and how it serves the people. Otherwise, they will become way too obsessed with the dashboards and the numbers and it will fall apart.
Stephanie Cox: What is the one thing you wish you knew sooner?
Lindsay Tjepkema: As a marketer, I wish that I knew much more about the money-making model of a business than I did until I was a senior leader. As marketers are getting started, they should understand revenue models, financial models, P &Ls, and like, fun tip, if you are a new marketer and you go ask your boss, finance, whoever you have access to, for more information about how the business runs.
One, it's gonna be great advice for you, like great learning for you, and it's gonna make you look really good because nobody does that. So do that.
Stephanie Cox: What is the one piece of advice you would give someone looking to grow their career in go-to-market?
Lindsay Tjepkema: I'll piggyback off of what I just said. Get to know the money making model of the business of businesses in general. It's about so much more, whatever your role is, sales, marketing, customer success, whatever it is, you will be so much stronger if you understand how it fits into the big picture of how businesses actually make money and grow.