Does Your GTM Feel Like the DMV? Let's Fix That

Long waits. Bureaucracy. Inconsistency. Non-existent customer service.

👋 Welcome to your local DMV. 

You line up at 9:00 am, and you’re lucky to get out before lunch.

Why does it have to be this way? They’ve got tremendous resources, plenty of tech, and a ton of personnel.

But, they have no urgency, no accountability. At least not until 4:30pm – 30 minutes before closing. That’s when they know they’ve gotta clear the queue, and they switch into high-gear to close the doors at 5:00pm sharp.

Sadly, this pattern isn’t limited to the DMV.

These same characteristics can be seen and felt across your company’s go-to-market engine. 

How long does it take to:

• Get internal approval on a quote?
• Get an RFP response done?
• Publish a new customer story or blog?
• Update messaging on your website?
• Get competitive battlecards in the hands of sellers?

These small tasks can take forever to get done… until there’s an actual deadline. 

Sales floors at quarter-end are high energy, high urgency. Campaign launches are a forcing function for marketing teams to ship. The right things are prioritized, and the wrong things are back-burnered.

Imagine the results you could get if your team operated this way the entire quarter, the entire year. Imagine if you could remove the bureaucracy, the inefficiencies, the endless hand-offs, the disjointed technology.

A bloated GTM delivers the same underwhelming results as the bloated DMV. It’s the biggest problem GTM teams face in 2024, and it’s not impossible to solve.

What Exactly Is GTM Bloat?

GTM Bloat is the accumulation of technology, resources, and processes across your go-to-market. 

Often with the best intentions, people, teams, or departments brought on new tech, introduced new processes, and hired specialized employees and contractors.

But instead of driving positive, sustainable outcomes for the business… the opposite happens.

GTM Bloat turns into increased costs, slower/delayed time to market, lack of transparency into projections, missed growth opportunities, and diluted focus on core product value propositions.

Where Does GTM Bloat Show up in Your Organization?

Everywhere. 

GTM Bloat manifests in many ways:

‍a) Too many tech tools (aka, a bloated tech stack): Your company has more tools, technologies, platforms, frameworks (etc., etc.) than necessary. 

You are task-switching like crazy. Efficiency is out the door. When every team adopts its own point solutions, you end up with a fragmented tech stack full of redundancies.

‍b) Convoluted workflows: There are many examples here. Some that are top of mind include:

• Content takes forever to get approved and published — the opposite of a streamlined, straightforward process. 
• Lead processing where SDRs get a list of 1000 leads to call down, yet only book 2 meetings as a result — time, energy, and resources wasted for a very marginal result.
• Reps move from call to call bogged down in “note-taking” mode without having time to update the CRM — as a result, they can’t focus on the unique human on the other end of the call. 

Overly complex. Inefficient. Difficult to follow. Unnecessary steps. Too much bureaucracy. Unclear direction. 

This all leads to confusion, errors, delays, and frustration. 

c) Lack of forecast transparency: Insufficient visibility or clarity into forecast projections can be the death of a GTM team. With so many disjointed systems, it's impossible to get an accurate view of projections. 

‍d) Misalignment across teams: When you’re not “rowing in unison,” the ship goes off course. With GTM bloat, no alignment exists between sales, marketing, support, and customer success.

This all translates to delayed time-to-market + poor output quality + lack of role clarity + duplicate work.

‍Left unchecked, GTM Bloat will continue dragging down the effectiveness and alignment of your revenue engine.

‍The opportunity cost is lower revenue, missed growth targets, and dissatisfied employees.

Just as the DMV could benefit from de-bloating and streamlining its processes, implementing go-to-market de-bloating best practices can accelerate your team's velocity, boost productivity, and unlock new performance levels.

How to Debloat Your GTM Strategy

The team here at Copy.ai is hopelessly optimistic. And we believe that for every inefficient problem, there’s got to be a hyper-efficient solution. 

In this case, GTM AI is the answer to your bloated processes. 

GTM AI is a systematic, strategic approach to infusing AI across your GTM engine. Companies that thrive in 2024 will prioritize debloating their GTM; the ones that don’t will fall behind.  

That’s because go-to-market debloating promises too many tangible benefits to ignore, including:

• Increased GTM Velocity. Removing friction accelerates marketing and sales execution.
• Improved alignment. Streamlined workflows pull teams together.
• Enhanced forecasting. A unified tech stack provides accurate visibility into projections.
• Boosted productivity. Eliminating redundancies lets teams focus on value-add.
• Better business outcomes. Faster, aligned go-to-market leads to higher revenue and lower CAC.

Okay. Sold. Let the debloating commence. 

Here’s how.

Step #1: Do the necessary pre-work (Audit)

Like prepping for a trip to the DMV, you must have all your papers organized and ready.

Conducting a thorough audit of your current go-to-market technology and workflows will uncover redundancies, bottlenecks, and misalignments across these areas:

• Tech stack. Take inventory of every software tool used by sales, marketing, and services. Identify overlapping capabilities and bloat.
• Workflows. Map out cross-functional processes like campaign development, deal reviews, and content approvals. Call out friction points.
• Forecasting. Evaluate current visibility into projections. Are revenue forecasts accurate and accessible?
• Roles and responsibilities. Document responsibilities across teams. Look for duplication and lack of clarity.

Step #2: Do the debloat work

You are now “at the DMV.” You have your paperwork in hand. You are in line. I's are dotted, and t’s have been crossed. You are ready to go. 

With audit findings in hand, you can now deBloat your go-to-market strategy:

• Consolidate technologies. Eliminate redundant tools and consolidate solutions.
• Streamline workflows. Remove unnecessary steps and handoffs. Automate where possible.
• Clarify roles. Clean up responsibilities across teams to minimize duplication.
• Increase transparency. Implement unified systems for forecasting, reporting, and analytics.
• Foster alignment. Break down silos through training, collaboration incentives, and team-building.

Now you’re ready for the final step — the huge benefit of a debloated GTM: An accelerated revenue engine.

Step #3: Accelerate your revenue engine

Like the DMV, years of accumulating tools, processes, and teams without diligent oversight results in go-to-market bloat. The symptoms —delayed execution, poor alignment, and lack of forecast visibility — all drag down revenue.

By taking steps to consolidate technologies, streamline workflows, clarify roles, and improve transparency, you can debloat go-to-market and accelerate outcomes. 

Your more nimble, aligned team will drive higher revenue, lower acquisition costs, and fuel faster growth. 

Don't leave potential revenue sitting in the waiting room.

Debloat your go-to-market machine and speed up results.