One Thursday in late May, I found myself deep in a conversation about GTM alignment underneath a sparkling chandelier, in the drawing room of the Finnish Ambassador’s residence in London. Not your typical Thursday afternoon.
The event was hosted by N.Rich, who build an intent-driven ABM platform. While the day leaned toward their GTM methodology, I have to give them credit for holding back on any product pitch - the emphasis was firmly on having a 2-way dialogue with the cross-industry mix of GTM leaders in the room. Marketers made up the bulk of the attendees, but sales, RevOps, and CS had a strong showing too.
At The Hive Group, that’s music to our ears. Most agencies stop at the marketing team. We don’t. Because buyers don’t care which department “owns” which stage of their journey and neither should your GTM strategy. We work across the entire customer journey, aligning with revenue teams from lead to loyalist. So naturally, we showed up ready to listen, challenge, and share.
Why GTM Alignment Still Feels So Hard
The event opened with a red flag / green flag exercise—an icebreaker that turned into a therapy session. Around the room, familiar pain points echoed:
- “Everyone says we’re aligned… but we’re not.”
- Marketing chases MQLs, sales chases revenue.
- Meetings happen. Ownership doesn’t.
And here’s a brutal truth we see all the time: When revenue is the only metric that matters at board level, alignment will always be fragile. Because if only sales gets credit for hitting the number, why should marketing or CS feel genuine accountability?
There was also a strong reminder that’s easy to overlook: as marketing investment increases, Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) should go down. There’s probably scope for another article on this topic alone, but two key points here are 1: that if GTMs aren’t aligned, this is unlikely to happen and 2: that rather than see marketing as a “cost center” if we look at this investment/CAC relationship we can demonstrate how the right marketing activity can provide real savings and, crucially, scalability.
That Painful Handoff
There’s a moment that almost everyone in the room could relate to—whether they admitted it or not.
In a typical GTM setup, especially where sales and marketing are siloed, the unspoken rule is this: marketing generates leads; sales turns them into revenue. The tech stack is often built to reinforce that baton pass. But here’s the thing…
If you’re in sales, do you really give equal attention to the leads you uncovered yourself, vs. the MQLs sent over by marketing? And if you’re in marketing, how often do you find yourself chasing sales teams to follow up on those carefully nurtured leads only to watch them gather dust in the CRM?
This isn’t a tech issue. It’s a trust and ownership issue. And unless it’s addressed, your GTM engine will always misfire.
Cold Outreach is Broken. Here’s a Better Way.
One key message that landed well came from N.Rich’s “Mixedbound” model. At Hive, we call it common sense.
Rather than pushing sales or SDRs toward cold outreach, the most effective GTM teams are building campaigns that warm up their audience—long before the first sales email lands. Then, and only then, do sales start the conversation.
This approach not only increases conversion and velocity, it protects your brand reputation in the process. It’s also exactly how we help clients prepare for major events like IBC or NAB NY. If you wait until September to start booking meetings, you’re too late. You should be building awareness and engagement now so that the people you meet already know your value.
What works?
So if we’re agreed on the problem, how do we fix it? While the success stories were outnumbered by tales of woe, there were some strong common themes that came up when discussing what had worked:
- Shared metrics and comp plans that tie sales, marketing, and CS together.
- Campaigns with real audience insight, not spray-and-pray tactics.
- An integrated approach to pipeline—where activity is coordinated across every stage of the journey, not just until hand-off.
Happily, these are also the foundation of the Hive approach. We help clients build the bridge from demand gen to deal close—and then stay with them as customers become advocates.
Final Thought:
While there was actually very little chat during the afternoon about ABM - being “account based” rather than “lifecycle” or “stage” based is clearly part of the solution. The idea that one team “owns” the lead and another “owns” the sale is what got us into this mess. If your GTM team is still operating like a relay race, passing the baton and hoping someone doesn’t drop it, perhaps it’s time for a rethink.
At The Hive Group, we help companies design GTM strategies that reflect how people actually buy. That means messaging that resonates, campaigns that educate, and revenue teams that operate like, well, a team.
Heading into the second half of the year, this kind of alignment isn’t just nice to have, it’s your competitive edge.
If that’s what you’re looking for, let’s talk.
