How to build a successful go-to-market team

Building a successful go-to-market (GTM) team is critical for organizations looking to launch products successfully, expand into new markets, and otherwise accelerate revenue growth.

At a high level, GTM teams bring marketing, sales, customer success, and product functions together to ensure a seamless execution of strategies that resonate with customers and prospects and deliver strong business impact. 

With so much on the line, assembling an effective team is no easy task. It requires hiring the right mix of talent, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and ensuring everyone is aligned around shared goals.

Despite the fact that organizations with effective GTM processes experience a 50% higher success rate with product launches, 68% of companies don’t have plans for every GTM launch, and 69% don’t even have a defined launch process. Unfortunately, without a well-structured GTM team and plan, even the most innovative products can fail to gain traction.

If you’re looking to build a GTM team that delivers the results you’re hoping for, you’re in the right place. Keep reading to learn more about how to build an effective go-to-market team, including which specific roles to hire and the responsibilities of each department in bringing products to market successfully. 

Building your go-to-market team

A GTM team typically includes marketing, sales, and customer success. While marketing drives awareness and demand, sales converts leads into customers and customer success ensures retention and loyalty post-purchase. 

GTM teams are common in B2B companies with mid-to-enterprise sales models, where complex buying processes and higher price points require high-touch engagement. In contrast, self-serve SaaS startups often rely on product-led growth instead of having dedicated GTM teams.

While product teams aren’t traditionally part of the GTM structure, they play a vital role in its success. Keeping them aligned with GTM ensures customer needs shape the product roadmap — and that value is effectively communicated to the market. Ultimately, this collaboration bridges the gap between product development and sales strategy — which leads to favorable results.

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s drill down a bit deeper to see what each team is responsible for in GTM launches.

Marketing responsibilities in a GTM team

Marketing teams play a central role in GTM strategies by creating awareness, driving demand, and positioning products effectively in the marketplace. These teams ensure that the right audience is targeted with the right message at the right time — laying the foundation for successful sales and long-term engagement.

Key responsibilities

• Market research and positioning. Marketing teams analyze customer needs, competitors, and industry trends to define the product’s unique value proposition and create messaging that resonates with the target audience.
• Demand generation. To attract potential customers, marketers create and execute campaigns, leveraging digital ads, content marketing, and events to build interest and generate qualified leads.
• Content creation. Marketing also develops assets — including blogs, case studies, and videos — to educate prospects, nurture leads, and communicate product benefits at every stage of the buyer’s journey.
• Brand development. These teams establish and maintain the company’s brand identity, ensuring it’s consistent, recognizable, and aligned with the product’s value in the marketplace.

• Collaboration with sales. Marketing works closely with sales to align messaging, provide sales enablement materials, and ensure successful lead handoffs. 

Sales responsibilities in a GTM team

Sales teams play a critical role in GTM strategies, taking leads generated by marketing and converting them into paying customers. To do this, they focus on building relationships, understanding customer needs, and delivering tailored solutions that drive revenue and long-term growth for the business.

Key responsibilities

• Lead qualification. Sales teams evaluate leads to determine their fit and readiness to buy, focusing efforts on high-potential prospects to maximize efficiency.
  
  
• Relationship building. Reps establish trust with prospects by understanding their challenges, offering personalized solutions, and serving as reliable partners throughout the buying process.
• Negotiation and closing. When the time comes, reps manage pricing discussions, handle objections, and finalize deals to ensure mutual value for both sides.
• Pipeline management. Sales teams also track opportunities through the sales funnel, forecasting revenue and ensuring steady progress toward targets.
• Collaborating with marketing and customer success. Additionally, sales aligns with marketing to ensure smooth lead handoffs and customer success to ensure seamless transitions post-sale. Altogether, this improves the customer experience end-to-end.

Customer success responsibilities in a GTM team

Customer success teams play a crucial role in go-to-market strategies by ensuring customers achieve desired outcomes after buying a product or service. They focus on building strong relationships, driving adoption, and cultivating loyalty to maximize customer satisfaction and increase long-term retention.

Key responsibilities

• Onboarding and training. Customer success teams guide new customers through the onboarding process, ensuring they understand how to use the product effectively out of the gate.
• Customer support and advocacy. At the same time, they help customers resolve issues, address their concerns, and champion their needs within the organization.
• Proactive engagement. By monitoring product usage and reaching out regularly, customer success identifies opportunities to improve adoption and prevent churn.
• Renewals and upsells. Customer success also identifies growth opportunities, helping customers see additional value in the product and driving expansion through upselling and cross-selling.
• Feedback loop to product and GTM teams. CS teams provide insights from customer interactions to their colleagues, helping inform product improvements and aligning with marketing and sales strategies to optimize the customer journey.

Who to hire: Specific roles in a go-to-market team

When building a go-to-market team, your approach will depend on your budget, the channels you plan to use, and your overall revenue goals. 

While some organizations may prioritize hiring specialists with deep expertise in specific channels — like paid media or content marketing — others might opt for generalists who can manage multiple responsibilities and supplement their efforts with freelancers and agencies, providing flexibility and cost-effectiveness.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the specific roles you’ll need to fill on your GTM team.

Leadership for go-to-market teams

Hiring leadership for a GTM team requires careful consideration of your company’s stage, goals, and resources. Most organizations look to onboard GTM leaders who oversee marketing, sales, and customer success — just with a primary focus on sales, since revenue generation is a central focus of GTM efforts.

Since every company is different, the ideal GTM leader’s skills and seniority level will depend on your organization’s size and maturity level. That said, in early-stage GTM teams, hiring someone who can actively roll up their sleeves and contribute directly to day-to-day execution is often far more valuable than someone purely focused on strategy. 

For this reason, startups might benefit most from hiring a GTM director or manager instead of pursuing a candidate with a VP of GTM or similar title. A more hands-on leader can manage cross-functional efforts, adapt rapidly to changing priorities, and ensure alignment across departments. This approach is not only cost-effective but also ensures that leadership is deeply involved in driving successful GTM outcomes.

Marketing roles on GTM teams

Marketing teams play a vital role in go-to-market strategies by driving awareness, creating demand, and positioning products to resonate with target audiences. They ensure the right messaging reaches the right people through coordinated campaigns and strategic efforts that align with overall GTM goals.

Within marketing, GTM teams include:

• Product marketers, who are responsible for positioning, messaging, and launching products. They bridge the gap between product and market by understanding customer needs and creating value props that align with sales and customer success efforts.
  
  
• Content marketers, who focus on creating educational and engaging materials — like blogs, case studies, and thought leadership articles — to nurture leads, build trust, and support the buyer’s journey.
  
  
• Demand generation specialists, who develop and execute campaigns to attract and convert prospects into qualified leads using a variety of tactics — including paid advertising, email marketing, and events — to drive revenue growth.

Sales roles on GTM teams

Sales teams are foundational to GTM strategies. They focus on building relationships with prospects, closing deals, and driving revenue. By working closely with their marketing and customer success colleagues, sales helps ensure a seamless customer journey, thereby maximizing business growth.

Sales roles related to GTM include:

• Sales enablement, which provides tools, resources, and training to ensure sales teams can effectively communicate value and close deals.
  
  
• Sales development reps (SDRs), who focus on prospecting and qualifying leads, serving as the first point of contact for potential customers and passing on high-quality opportunities to account executives.
  
  
• Account executives (AEs), who manage the sales process from initial engagement to closing the deal, customizing solutions to customer needs and negotiating contracts to ensure both sides win.

Customer success roles on GTM teams

Customer success teams are essential in GTM strategies, ensuring customers achieve their desired outcomes and remain loyal to the product or service. These folks focus on creating a positive customer experience, driving adoption, and reducing churn to maximize long-term customer value.

Within customer success teams, you’ll find:

• Customer success managers, who build relationships with customers, ensuring they meet their goals by providing ongoing support, monitoring product usage, and identifying opportunities for cross-selling and upselling.
  
  
• Onboarding specialists, who guide new customers through the initial setup and training process, helping them quickly understand and adopt the product while addressing any early challenges to ensure a positive experience out of the gate.

How to build a successful go-to-market team

The goal of GTM is to ensure a cohesive experience for prospects and customers through the entire sales and onboarding processes. This means that every team member needs to check their egos at the door; everyone involved in the process has a critical role to play. 

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s turn our attention to some tips you can use to help your GTM team crush your business goals.

1. Ensure everyone is on the same page of the GTM strategy

A successful GTM strategy starts with a thorough go-to-market analysis, including target market research, competitive positioning, and customer pain points. By building a solid foundation with these elements, you can ensure efforts are aligned across marketing, sales, and customer success.

Even if team members weren’t involved in the planning phases, it’s important to ensure they fully understand the what and the why behind the strategy. Clearly communicating goals, key metrics, and the reasoning behind decisions helps align teams and ensure everyone has the tools they need to execute effectively. By scheduling regular check-ins and updating GTM stakeholders regularly, you get the confidence that comes with knowing everyone is on the same page throughout the process.

2. Set goals and monitor key performance indicators from the start

“Go-to-market” is a hot new buzzword gaining traction — to the point many leadership teams often are prompted to push teams to execute quickly. However, jumping into action without defining what success looks like can lead to wasted efforts and unclear results.

By establishing clear quarterly goals and specific key performance indicators (KPIs), you can easily track progress and evaluate your strategy. While KPIs might differ from team to team, key GTM metrics include:

• Customer acquisition cost (CAC), which tracks the cost of acquiring new customers (surprise!), helping teams optimize marketing and sales spend.
• Lead conversion rate, which measures the percentage of leads that convert into paying customers, indicating the effectiveness of your marketing and sales alignment.
• Time to revenue, which evaluates how long it takes to move prospects from first contact to closed deals, identifying opportunities to streamline the sales process.
• Customer retention rate, which monitors the percentage of customers retained over a given period, reflecting the success of customer success initiatives. 
• Pipeline velocity, which measures the speed at which deals move through the sales funnel, helping teams identify areas where processes may need improvement.
• Marketing qualified leads (MQLs), which tracks the volume of high-quality leads generated by marketing that meet predefined criteria for sales engagement.

3. Ensure you have the right tools

Every team under your broader GTM umbrella should be equipped with specific tools that enable them to meet their goals. For sales, that might be a CRM platform and prospecting software. For marketing, that might mean an analytics platform and automation tools.

To ensure cohesion across teams, you’ll also need to deploy shared tools — like a project management platform where everyone can track progress and stay aligned (e.g., Asana and Monday.com). Additionally, a dedicated Slack channel with automations that celebrate wins, like closed deals or successful onboardings, can keep morale high and teams informed.

Since we’re living in the future, don’t forget to explore new AI sales tools and collaboration platforms that can streamline workflows and improve efficiency across the board.

4. Make sure you have the best data

While having the right tools is important, you also need the right data. At a high level, there are three types of data GTM teams can use to power their efforts, including:

• Intent data, or behavioral signals collected from potential customers that indicates their interest or readiness to purchase a product or services;
• Enrichment data, or additional information that enhances existing customer or lead data, like industry, company size, or job title; and 
• Contact data, or essential details like names, email addresses, phone numbers, and job roles.

Check out each of those links to learn more about these three data types. Of course we’re a little biased, but here at LeadIQ we pride ourselves on delivering contact data that’s more accurate and actionable than anyone else on the market. To learn more about how we source and verify data at LeadIQ, read this.

5. Move fast & change things

In our opinion, the old adage move fast and break things should never have existed. Even so, there’s something to be said about moving fast and changing things that aren’t working. 

When it comes to running a new GTM campaign or trying a new sales playbook, don’t set it and forget it. If something clearly isn’t working, you should make small adjustments to see whether certain tweaks can move the needle.

Pro tip: Don’t be afraid to scrap something entirely if it really isn’t working. The sunk cost fallacy is real; you might have wasted time on a tactic that’s not effective, continuing to do something that isn’t delivering results just to protect somebody’s ego is even more wasteful.

Remember: GTM teams should all be working together in harmony. Egos should be left in the past.

Every GTM team member can use LeadIQ’s data & tools

Every member of your GTM team stands to benefit from LeadIQ’s best-in-class data and purpose-built GTM tools.

While sales teams can leverage accurate contact data to connect with prospects faster, marketers can use enrichment and intent data to refine targeting and craft personalized campaigns. At the same time, customer success teams can access insights to proactively address customer needs and identify upselling opportunities.

To learn more about how LeadIQ’s powerful platform can help your GTM zip past your goals, request a demo today. Even better, take LeadIQ for a test drive and see what all the fuss is about.