The GTM Leak Finder Checklist
20 questions to help you uncover why your growth is stalling
No one sweats more than a executive, or founder, who is seeing the growth of their business stall.
Look at Zynga. It had experienced hypergrowth fueled by hits like FarmVille and Mafia Wars. That growth came, largely, from leveraging viral distribution on Facebook. Then Facebook changed their algorithms and growth plummeted.
Have you heard of Crumb’s Bake Shop? In 2003, it was one of Inc. magazines fastest-growing companies. Their growth came on the back of one product: the cupcake. But, the cupcake phase was more of a fad and when it died off they had no secondary products to sustain traffic. Their stock fell from $13 to $0.15 in three years. By 2016, they had shuttered every store.
Concentrated distribution channels and singular product lines aren’t the only reasons that a companies go-to-market strategies start to leak. The challenge is uncovering where the problem lies.
I’ve identified 20 points of potential GTM growth failure and I’ve documented them for you.
The GTM Leak Finder Checklist
There are five phases of my GTM Leak Finder Checklist to step through. Each phase covers a different area of GTM strategies.
Phase 1 = Strategy & Alignment; this is your foundation
Phase 2 = Lead Gen & Marketing; this is the top of your funnel (ToF)
Phase 3 = Sales & Conversion; this is the middle of your funnel (MoF)
Phase 4 = Retention & Expansion; the bottom of your funnel (BoF)
Phase 5 = Growth Mindset; think of it as leadership focused questions
Sample GTM Leak Finder Questions
To give you a failure of the questions, below are some of my favorites. Don’t worry, you can get the entire checklist below.
Single-Target Clarity: Can every member of the sales and marketing team name the same Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) for this quarter? My company is running into this right now. But, challenges like this aren’t just for larger enterprises.
Sales Playbook: Is there a documented process for handling objections, or is every rep “freestyling” the pitch? I’ll bet there isn’t. Or, if you have documented these things you probably aren’t updating them enough.
Proof of Life: Do you have at least three case studies from the last six months that show ROI for your specific ICP? Yes, ROI. If you are a commercial enterprise you should be able to document the ROI of your products/services for your customers.
How to Use the GTM Leak Finder Checklist
The checklist is designed to provide you with a score, so you know how your GTM strategies stack up.
For every question that you can answer affirmatively to, i.e. you can say yes, we do that, put a ✅ beside the question. Or, you can simply count how many you answer yes to.
Each yes is a point and the number of points determines you score.
0-8 = means your GTM strategy is ready for a complete and utter overhaul, or that you don’t have one in the first place.
9-13 = you have a leaky GTM bucket and it’s time to start bailing water.
14-17 = I’d call you a “Growth Contender,” but does your actual growth measure up to how you answered?
18-20 = you are a “GTM Rockstar.” Billy Idol can get over me calling you that.
One key note, be ruthlessly honest with yourself when you are answering these questions. Otherwise you are just wasting your time.
Ready to take the next step?
This checklist can be super helpful, but there’s a difference between uncovering where your go-to-market strategies are going wrong and fixing them.