What’s Broken With GTM – Part 1
The other week I was on the podcast What’s Broken With GTM & How to Fix It.
Right at the end, I was asked this question: If you are a founder and you're selling into bigger enterprises for the first time, what's the biggest blind spot you see that they don't?
I gave a fluffy answer. So, to correct that, here’s my answer - in two parts - and with minimal fluff.
The biggest blind spots are:
The founder doesn’t understand how procurement departments work, or how Procurement and their internal champion will interrelate.
The founder doesn’t realise that it’s not a level playing field.
The founder doesn’t have a plan.
How procurement works
Most large companies make a clear separation between Procurement and your internal champion.
The internal champion believes in you and believes in your product, and can clearly see the benefit that you and your product will bring to their business. He or she is emotionally committed to you.
Procurement is not emotionally committed to you.
Procurement will not see the benefit that you and your product will bring to their business: that’s not their brief.
Procurement’s brief is to put as much pressure on you as they can to get the best deal they can for their company.
To that effect, Procurement will operate independently of the internal champion. In fact, in a number of large companies, the internal champion is left out of the contract discussion precisely so that he or she does not contaminate Procurement with their vision or emotional commitment.
It’s not a level playing field
It’s not a level playing field for a number of reasons.
You are in a hurry, you want the cash. They are not in a hurry: they can afford to wait. That gives them a strong negotiation position.
If you are working off their contract, that contract is their favour, not yours. Do nothing, and you are stuck with a one-sided contract. Balancing out the one-sided contract is an uphill battle that requires skill and patience.
They’ve done this a thousand times. You are new to this.
Next week: the Plan.
2nd December 2025