Alignment sounds nice—until each team is marching to its own goalpost. In this episode of GTM NewsDesk, CRO Josh Allen (Quickbase), Mark Kilens, and Rachel Elts Downey unpack what it really takes to unite your go-to-market engine: one narrative, one outcome, shared urgency. No fluff—just real talk on why fractured goals and “lead horses” stall growth.
Your GTM Bible Isn’t Optional: High-performing teams speak the same language—literally. From definitions to KPIs to handoffs, Josh advocates for a centralized GTM handbook that keeps every function philosophically aligned and tactically consistent. It’s not cute—it’s necessary.
Disjointed Goals = Broken Trust: When sales, marketing, and product optimize for different KPIs, one team celebrates while the other flops. Josh shares how this disconnect kills morale and clouds decision-making. The fix? One roll-up KPI that every function rallies around.
Beware the Lead Horse Trap: Being “sales-led” or “product-led” often becomes an excuse for other teams to underperform. But in a truly united GTM, no leg of the stool is taller than the rest. Each team shares urgency, accountability, and a bar for excellence.
Kill the Buzzwords. Keep the Story: Buzzwords like “synergy” and “pivot” don’t unite—they confuse. But a powerful corporate narrative, championed by the CEO, aligns culture and compass. When everyone—from SDRs to the CFO—knows the why and the what, execution follows.
Alignment is tactical. Unity is cultural. If your GTM feels disjointed, stop chasing better coordination—and start building shared context, shared incentives, and shared language.
“You can’t have one team celebrating while another’s falling on their face. That’s not unity.” — Josh Allen
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