The right path to market can unlock growth, while the wrong one can stall even the best solutions.
In today’s dynamic B2B landscape, having a strong product or service is no longer a guarantee for success. Many companies offer excellent solutions but still struggle to scale, not because of quality issues but due to a misaligned Go-To-Market (GTM) approach.
If your commercial results aren’t meeting expectations, the root cause likely isn’t your product, team or budget. It’s often a matter of choosing the wrong Sales Motion, a single decision that can either accelerate your growth or hold it back entirely.
What Is a Sales Motion, and Why Does It Matter?
A Sales Motion refers to the way your company approaches the market to acquire, convert, and grow customers. Common examples include:
- Inbound: Attracting customers through content, SEO, and thought leadership
- Outbound: Actively reaching out via sales development reps, email, phone, or LinkedIn
- Product-Led Growth (PLG): Letting the product sell itself through self-service or freemium models
- Channel Sales: Partnering with resellers, agents, or distributors
- Enterprise Sales: Focused on long, complex sales cycles with large decision-making units
Each motion has unique strengths, costs, and requirements. Choosing the right one is a strategic decision that affects your team structure, tools, content strategy, budget allocation, and more.
Why So Many GTM Strategies Fall Short
Many companies apply a generic GTM playbook that worked for another company, in another context, at another time. That’s a mistake.
For example:
- A deep-tech B2B solution with long deal cycles likely won’t succeed with a PLG motion
- An early-stage SaaS startup with no brand awareness probably can’t rely solely on inbound
- A maritime hardware supplier trying to scale internationally may waste time and money using only outbound if the buying process depends on channel relationships
Instead of starting with "what's trendy," companies should ask: Which motion matches our market, buyers, and business model?
Yet this doesn’t happen enough. In our work at OnTarget, we often see:
- Founders copying motions from their previous startup despite being in a completely different market
- Sales leaders pushing outbound while marketing pushes inbound, resulting in misalignment
- Product teams investing heavily in self-serve flows for a buyer who expects white-glove service
The result is a broken funnel, low conversion, high customer acquisition costs, burnt-out teams, and missed targets.
Factors That Should Shape Your Sales Motion
No two GTM strategies are the same. Your optimal sales motion depends on several key factors:
1. Market Maturity
Are you in a mature industry with known demand and competition? Or are you in a new or emerging category where you need to educate the market?
2. Deal Complexity
How many stakeholders are involved in the buying process? How long is the sales cycle? Is your pricing simple or custom?
3. Buyer Behavior
Do your buyers prefer to explore solutions online, or do they expect a personal consultative approach? Are they hands-on users or executive decision-makers?
4. Growth Stage
Startups, scaleups, and established enterprises all have different resource levels, risk tolerance, and time horizons. Your motion must match your stage.
5. Team and Talent
Do you have the team to support outbound prospecting? Is your marketing team skilled in inbound content? Does your product support self-service?
When these elements are clearly mapped, the path forward becomes more visible and more viable.
Choosing a Motion Is Only Step One
Even after you identify the right Sales Motion, the real work begins. You need to:
- Align your team structure around the motion
- Adapt your KPIs and dashboards to match new funnel dynamics
- Equip your team with the right tools, content, and training
- Continually optimize based on data and feedback
GTM success doesn’t happen through documentation or strategy slides. It happens through day-to-day operational excellence. That’s where many strategies fall apart.
How OnTarget Helps You Execute with Confidence
At OnTarget, we help ambitious maritime companies and B2B innovators identify and operationalize the GTM motion that truly fits their market and mission.
Our approach is pragmatic and sharp. Together, we:
- Analyze your market context and buyer journey
- Evaluate internal talent, tools, and processes
- Identify the motion that unlocks traction instead of friction
- Build a scalable foundation for revenue growth
From inbound and PLG to complex enterprise motions, we bring the experience to know when and how to deploy each. And we don’t stop at strategy. We help you execute and scale it with confidence.
Whether you're launching into a new market, scaling an existing GTM engine, or repositioning after a pivot, we bring precision to your GTM process. No guesswork. No copy-paste playbooks. Focused, tailored execution.
GTM Is a Marathon and a Deeply Unique Strategy. Not a Template.
Going to market is never as simple as following a set plan. It requires continuous learning, testing, and adaptation. But choosing the right Sales Motion gives you the foundation to build momentum with clarity and consistency.
Instead of asking, “What’s everyone else doing?”, ask:
“What does my market need, and how can I show up with impact?”
We’re here to help you answer that.
OnTarget: Experienced. GTM Precision. Sales Momentum. Market Results.
