The 5 Eras of GTM (And Which One We're In Now)
An executive analysis of the 25-year evolution of B2B go-to-market across five distinct eras, explaining why modern GTM execution breaks down and how the operating system era addresses it.
About This Video
Executive Takeaways
- Traces 25 years of B2B go-to-market evolution across five distinct eras: the sales-led Rolodex era, the marketing automation and inbound boom, the ABM revolution, the recent fragmentation era, and today's operating system era.
- Examines how major industry shifts occurred, starting with Salesforce disrupting the sales-led era and culminating in the quiet churn caused by the last five years of fragmented tech and processes.
- Argues that go-to-market failures are not driven by bad ideas, but by organizations continually stacking new paradigms on top of prior ones without fixing the foundational execution underneath.
- Defines the current 'operating system era' as the necessary transition to unify fragmented GTM functions into a cohesive, systematic operational model.
Key Questions Answered in This Deep Dive
What are the 5 eras of go-to-market over the last 25 years?
The five eras are: 1) the sales-led Rolodex era ended by Salesforce, 2) the marketing automation boom and rise of inbound, 3) the account-based marketing (ABM) revolution, 4) the fragmentation era marked by quiet churn, and 5) the modern operating system era.
Why does go-to-market strategy continually fail in modern B2B organizations?
GTM does not fail due to flawed strategic concepts or bad ideas. It fails because each successive era has stacked new tactics and technologies on top of the previous ones without resolving the underlying execution breakdown.
What characterizes the fragmentation era of GTM?
Spanning roughly the last five years, the fragmentation era was characterized by disconnected tools, siloed motions, and pervasive quiet churn that companies failed to anticipate.
What is the operating system era of GTM?
The operating system era represents the current phase of B2B go-to-market, where companies move away from fragmented point solutions to align their entire organization under a unified GTM operating system.
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