Do you know which go-to-market channels will grow your company the fastest? I couldn't answer that question when we were building my last $100M+ exit company. And it almost cost me when it mattered most.
Let's dig in.
The Question That Stumped Me
At Terminus we grew from $1M to $5M to $15M in three years, then a private equity firm bought us. During that process I sat across from a lot of PE leaders, and one of them asked a question I couldn't answer.
"How fast are you growing?" Okay, I could handle that. Then the follow-up: "How fast can you grow?"
I froze. I didn't know. And that terrified me. Because if I couldn't answer it, how was I going to sell the company? How was I going to tell my own team where to focus and how to grow?
That question still rings in my ears 5 years later. And it comes down to one thing: knowing which motion drives your revenue the fastest.
At GTM Partners, we define six primary go-to-market motions: Inbound-Led, Outbound-Led, Product-Led, Partner-Led, Event-Led, and Community-Led.
The 6 Go-to-Market Motions
Companies grow through go-to-market motions. There are six of them. Here they are, with a company that nails each one.
1. Inbound. HubSpot (an investor in Terminus) built an engine where people come to them. They wrote a mountain of content so they wouldn't have to chase anyone. If you can pull traffic and conversations through content, inbound is your motion.
2. Outbound. At Salesforce, after they acquired Pardot, I watched entire floors of reps making calls every single day. If your business needs a lot of people talking to a lot of buyers, that's outbound. It's one of the hardest motions and margins can be thin, but if that's your game, be the best at it.
3. Events. This is how we built GTM Partners. Face to face, two things happen. People become loyal fans because they know you as a person, and you can charge far more than any form-fill transaction. We did 20 road shows in 20 cities in one year, 100+ people each, closing 10 to 20 deals every time. Do the math, that's how we went from nothing to over $10M.
4. Community. Without a community, you're simply a commodity. Say it again: without a community, you're a commodity. Every other kind of loyalty can be bought. The one kind that can't is belonging to a tribe. The best companies in the world have one. Think Disney superfans who travel with tagged suitcases for perks only the tribe knows about. Build a community, online or in person, and you build loyalty money can't buy.
5. Product-led. Your product sells itself. People sign up online, use it, and upgrade on their own. My 15-year-old son built a full website for a friend's trucking business using a tool like Base44. No sales rep, no inbound, no outbound. Want to connect a domain? Pay more. Want more features? Pay more. That's product-led growth.
6. Partner-led. The one most likely to scale you the fastest. 60% of HubSpot's revenue still comes from partners who resell their software, which means they need far fewer reps than the partnerships they've built. Some companies white-label entirely, selling under someone else's brand. Great for businesses like data providers who don't need to be the logo on the building, just the value underneath a bigger interface.
Watch: How to Choose a GTM Motion That Will Actually Make You Profitable: A Deep Dive
BUT… You Can't Win at All Six. Stop Trying.
Here's the big idea. Most companies are good at maybe one or two motions, and that's by design. You cannot be great at all six. The moment you try, you dilute your messaging, blur your positioning, and leave your team with no idea where to focus.
So if you're doing a little inbound, a little outbound, a little partner, a little product, a little events, that spread is exactly why your business is stalling. The best companies pick one, maybe two, go all in, win, and only then experiment with the others.
Pick your motion. Go all in. Then earn the right to add a second.
Our blunt advice to CEOs and GTM leaders:
You can only win at one thing, only if you can say no to everything else.
That question the PE exec asked me, where can you grow and what's the fastest path to revenue, is one every CEO has to answer. So we built an assessment around it. Go to runongtmos.com/move, and in 15 minutes you'll see which of the six motions can grow your business the fastest. Over 3,000 businesses already run on GTM OS.
Now, let's get moving.
love,
sangram
p.s. 100,000+ GTM leaders read our content every day. If you want more frameworks like this, follow along at runongtmos.com and let's get moving.