The 100 ways
your GTM breaks.

The root cause category. Everything else cascades from here.

1. 01Teams rewarded for activity, not outcomes
2. 02Marketing measured on volume, sales on conversion. No one owns revenue quality
3. 03Individual KPIs conflict with company-level goals
4. 04Short-term targets override long-term system health
5. 05Leaders unknowingly incentivize metric gaming
6. 06"Good numbers" are safer than uncomfortable truth
7. 07People optimize what they're paid for, even when it harms the business
8. 08Systems reward speed over understanding
9. 09Success is defined differently across teams
10. 10No one is accountable for downstream consequences

When the dashboard lies.

1. 11North star metrics are proxies, not outcomes
2. 12Metrics chosen because they were easy to measure
3. 13Teams confuse correlation with causation
4. 14Volume metrics mask declining quality
5. 15Conversion rates look fine because inputs are noisy
6. 16Metrics reward motion, not momentum
7. 17Lagging indicators treated as leading signals
8. 18Leadership trusts dashboards more than intuition
9. 19Metrics are defended instead of questioned
10. 20Measurement exists to justify decisions, not inform them

Where systems quietly become liabilities.

1. 21CRM reflects how tools work, not how buying works
2. 22Data fields exist without decision ownership
3. 23Relationship context is flattened or ignored
4. 24Lifecycle stages mean different things to different people
5. 25CRM becomes a reporting tool instead of a decision engine
6. 26Fields are added reactively, never pruned
7. 27Data completeness valued over data usefulness
8. 28CRM hygiene treated as admin work, not strategy
9. 29Systems require manual heroics to stay accurate
10. 30No one trusts the CRM, so no one uses it well

Doing the right things in the wrong order.

1. 31Automation before understanding
2. 32Scale before signal
3. 33Outreach before ICP clarity
4. 34Tool selection before process definition
5. 35Campaigns launched without feedback loops
6. 36AI layered onto broken workflows
7. 37Optimization before stability
8. 38Playbooks created before patterns exist
9. 39Complexity added to compensate for confusion
10. 40Growth pursued before trust is established

When teams sell to abstractions.

1. 41ICPs defined by firmographics alone
2. 42Personas based on titles, not behavior
3. 43Buying committees treated as single buyers
4. 44Internal champions mistaken for decision-makers
5. 45Messaging assumes rational buying paths
6. 46Sales learns who the real buyer is too late
7. 47ICPs never updated after real sales cycles
8. 48Everyone claims the ICP is "broad"
9. 49Fit is determined after pipeline creation
10. 50Disqualification is treated as failure

Flying blind while pretending not to.

1. 51Outreach happens without situational context
2. 52Signals exist but are ignored or diluted
3. 53Intent data is consumed, not interpreted
4. 54Teams mistake noise for opportunity
5. 55Research is manual, inconsistent, or skipped
6. 56AI outputs aren't trusted because inputs are weak
7. 57Context lives in people's heads, not systems
8. 58Signals don't trigger action automatically
9. 59No distinction between curiosity and readiness
10. 60GTM decisions are reactive, not event-driven

Where trust is burned.

1. 61Outreach is list-driven instead of event-driven
2. 62Messaging is disconnected from timing
3. 63Cadences prioritize persistence over relevance
4. 64Personalization is cosmetic
5. 65Automation removes judgment instead of augmenting it
6. 66Sales and marketing overlap awkwardly
7. 67Prospects receive mixed signals from the same company
8. 68Follow-up happens too late or too early
9. 69Outreach volume masks declining reply quality
10. 70Teams blame "the market" instead of their approach

Where learning dies.

1. 71Closed-lost data is ignored or shallow
2. 72Wins are celebrated without analysis
3. 73Messaging never evolves based on outcomes
4. 74Scoring models never update
5. 75Attribution is debated instead of used
6. 76No one owns system learning
7. 77Teams repeat mistakes confidently
8. 78GTM doesn't improve quarter over quarter
9. 79Retrospectives focus on numbers, not causes
10. 80Systems stagnate while markets change

The invisible constraints.

1. 81Truth is punished when it contradicts narrative
2. 82GTM leaders shield teams from reality
3. 83Political safety overrides system health
4. 84Decisions are made to avoid conflict
5. 85Complexity is used to hide uncertainty
6. 86Senior leaders override systems emotionally
7. 87Teams fear removing things that "used to work"
8. 88Process changes stall due to consensus culture
9. 89People protect turf instead of outcomes
10. 90GTM becomes theater for stakeholders

The long, quiet decay.

1. 91Systems optimized for last year's market
2. 92GTM motions don't evolve with buyer behavior
3. 93Trust erosion goes unnoticed until revenue drops
4. 94Complexity accumulates without justification
5. 95Temporary fixes become permanent architecture
6. 96Strategy is revised, systems are not
7. 97GTM becomes fragile under pressure
8. 98Growth depends on heroics
9. 99Teams forget why systems were built
10. 100The company confuses momentum with health