You’ve built a strategy. You’ve briefed your teams. You’ve put it in motion.
But the results are poor.
Every go-to-market (GTM) leader has faced this challenge, but it’s not because their strategy was wrong. It’s because there’s a widening gap between strategy and execution, a gap we explore in-depth in our recent report polling 463 senior GTM leaders from around the world.
I’ve always been drawn to disciplines where performance depends on more than just power, where success is defined by precision, coordination, and marginal gains.
Motorsport is one of them. It’s not about how fast you go; it’s about how every system and every person performs together, under pressure.
Go-to-market is no different.
Organisations today have unprecedented access to tools, data, and playbooks.
But what separates top performers is execution, how well strategy turns into action, and whether the operating model holds up at speed.
So here’s the point: There’s a widespread illusion of execution across regions and industries.
It’s not due to a lack of intent. Leaders believe their strategy is in motion. Messaging has been distributed. Teams briefed. But beneath the surface, execution signals like consistency, alignment, and clarity are often missing or misread.
This is the GTM Performance Gap: the persistent disconnect between strategic ambition and daily delivery. It’s operational, not theoretical. And when left unaddressed, it becomes a structural failure that undermines performance, delays impact, and erodes confidence.
The symptoms are well-known. Reps improvise. Managers coach without insight. Leaders operate with dashboards but little clarity on what’s driving results.
In international go-to-market organisations, regional nuance, fragmented systems, and inconsistent accountability magnify this challenge.
The consequences? Misalignment, inefficiency, and buyer experiences that deviate sharply from intent and, ultimately, threaten companies’ long-term viability.
Technology alone often amplifies the problem.
Adding tools to a broken system creates complexity without control. Teams launch features, but workflows don’t change. Metrics increase, but insight remains elusive.
Artificial intelligence is no exception.
While AI has transformational potential, its success depends entirely on the readiness of the system it supports. When embedded into a coherent, well-governed GTM model supported by clean data, clear ownership, and consistent reinforcement, AI scales coaching, personalises engagement, and surfaces risk before it becomes a loss.
But when applied to a fragmented foundation, AI simply exposes the disconnect faster.
The organisations closing this gap operate differently:
- They govern execution as a business discipline, not a reactive function.
- They define success in outcome-led terms.
- They align early, assign shared ownership, and reinforce strategy through a consistent operating rhythm across content, coaching, analytics, and frontline action.
What some still call “enablement” has evolved
In high-performing teams, it’s not a department; it’s the infrastructure through which strategy becomes execution. Execution, not access, is what separates the best.
Just like motorsport, execution isn’t about effort. It’s about alignment.
Sustained, cross-functional, accountable, and fast-moving alignment isn’t a soft skill.
It’s a leadership test.
The leaders who treat execution as a discipline, not a side task, are the ones pulling ahead.
Our Go-To-Market Performance Gap Report shows how the best teams are making it happen.
