How breaking silos and gaining market perspective lead to faster wins and stronger alignment
Most Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies don’t fail because of poor execution. They fail because the foundation is flawed. Teams move fast, but not together. Strategies are developed in silos. Sales, marketing, and product functions operate with different definitions of the customer and different views of the market.
The result? Misdirected campaigns, wasted resources, and missed revenue targets.
What these companies lack is not ambition, but perspective. This blog explores the concept of building a helicopter view of your market: a unified, big-picture perspective that aligns all commercial functions and unlocks smarter, faster GTM decisions.
The Problem: GTM in Silos
When GTM strategies are built in silos, misalignment is inevitable:
- Marketing defines a broad audience, focusing on reach and awareness.
- Sales targets a completely different group, based on their latest conversations.
- Product teams prioritize features for users that don’t match the actual buyer.
Each team might be doing a great job within their silo, but the business as a whole is moving sideways, not forward.
The bigger the organization or the more complex the market, the more dangerous these disconnects become.
What Is a Helicopter View?
A helicopter view is exactly what it sounds like: a strategic zoom-out. It’s the ability to rise above the noise and see your market from a higher vantage point. But this isn’t just about seeing more. It’s about connecting the dots between key GTM elements:
- Market Segmentation: Understanding the landscape and where real opportunity lies.
- Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs): Defining who your highest-value customers are.
- Value Propositions: Articulating why those customers should choose you.
- Channels & Touchpoints: Knowing where and how to engage them.
- Data & Insights: Using evidence, not assumptions, to drive decisions.
The helicopter view is not static. It’s dynamic, evidence-based, and cross-functional. It allows leadership teams to make informed trade-offs, commercial teams to execute with confidence, and organizations to adapt with speed.
Why It Works: Benefits of the Helicopter View
1. Smarter Prioritization
One of the biggest killers of GTM performance is trying to do everything, everywhere, for everyone. With a helicopter view, you can:
- Focus on high-potential segments.
- Allocate resources to the most promising plays.
- De-prioritize distractions, even if they seem “nice to have.”
Example:
Instead of spreading a marketing budget across five industries, a company identifies that 70% of its revenue potential lies within two core verticals. By focusing messaging, campaigns, and sales enablement on those segments, results improve fast.
2. Cross-Team Alignment
Alignment doesn’t happen through meetings or presentations. It happens when everyone — from product to marketing to sales — operates from a shared understanding of:
- Who the target customer is.
- What problems they’re trying to solve.
- How your solution creates value.
- What message resonates.
When this alignment exists, handovers become smoother, campaigns become sharper, and feedback loops become faster.
Pro tip:
Use a central GTM blueprint or visual framework to document and share your helicopter view across the organization. Make it accessible and easy to update.
3. Faster Time-to-Impact
By focusing on the right segments with the right messaging in the right channels, GTM teams see results sooner. Instead of guessing, they’re guided by a clear commercial strategy.
- Shorter sales cycles.
- Higher conversion rates.
- Faster product-market fit validation.
In practice:
Rather than testing campaigns across random personas, a marketing team aligned around one ICP launches three tailored plays across specific channels. Within weeks, they see which playbook scales, saving months of iteration.
How to Build Your Helicopter View
At OnTarget, we help B2B companies build a helicopter view through a structured, collaborative process. It typically includes the following steps:
1. Market Segmentation
We begin by analyzing the total addressable market (TAM) and dividing it into meaningful segments. This can be based on firmographics, buying behavior, industry maturity, and more.
Goal: Understand where to play.
2. ICP Definition
From your segments, we define Ideal Customer Profiles. These are detailed portraits of the accounts most likely to convert, stay, and grow.
Goal: Align the whole team on who to target and why.
3. Value Proposition Design
Next, we map your solution’s key benefits to the specific needs and drivers of your ICPs. We distill this into clear, differentiated value propositions.
Goal: Craft messaging that connects, not just communicates.
4. Channel & Journey Mapping
We determine how, where, and when to reach your ICPs. We also define which channels are most effective at each stage of their journey.
Goal: Build smart, scalable GTM plays, not random campaigns.
5. Insight-Driven Validation
We bring in external data, customer interviews, and feedback loops to validate assumptions, refine positioning, and adapt the strategy over time.
Goal: Replace opinions with evidence.
Let’s Be Honest: This Isn’t Easy to Do Alone
Many companies try to build GTM strategies on their own, and that’s fine to a point. But without external perspective and proven structure, they risk spinning in circles.
OnTarget exists to change that.
We act as a strategic partner. We bring clarity, challenge, and GTM expertise to help your teams build a helicopter view that doesn’t just look good on paper but drives real business results.
Ready to Elevate Your Perspective?
If you’re tired of fragmented efforts and want to unify your commercial strategy, start by zooming out. Let’s build your helicopter view and transform how your business goes to market.
👉 Book a free 30-minute GTM check-in
Let's explore how we can help you align faster, prioritize smarter and grow stronger.
