Is GTM the new ABM? Or is it just the latest B2B land grab?

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Over the last 18 months, I’ve been noticing an increase in discussions about go-to-market strategy in B2B circles, just as ABM rose in popularity over 10 years ago. In particular I have observed:

  • Platform vendors that previously badged ABM platforms are now repositioning as GTM platforms. Type GTM into Google search and all the top sponsors are prior ABM vendors. You can also witness this on many of their websites, social posts, advertising and event presence.
  • Google trends shows GTM on the rise as a search term. As a search term it has risen 3-4 fold in the last 10 years, with a particular hike around 2 years ago (although with the disclaimer that Google improved its search around the same time which explains some of the jump).
  • Service providers are also getting in on the action. Since 2022 we’ve seen several moves in this direction from established service providers previously associated with ABM. This includes the launch of GTM Partners by Terminus founder and ABM maven, Sangram Vajre, and in 2023 ABM agency stalwart Momentum acquired OneGTM in 2023 to bolster its offering here. More recently, former Triblio founder, Andre Yee, announced a new GTM platform enabled by AI, called Tiga.ai

What could possibly go wrong?

It’s understandable in a way that we are seeing this pivot. After all, Forrester predicted ABM’s demise 5 years ago. As ABM became increasingly indistinguishable from Demand and its buzz  plateaued, B2B marketers (and the ecosystems that support them) are looking for the Next Big Thing. Also, the term GTM has an elegant versatility for platform vendors seeking to appeal to wider audiences, including sales.

However, there are potential challenges on the horizon. As someone with expertise in both ABM and GTM strategy throughout my 20+ year B2B career, I believe there are several areas where this trend could unravel:

  1. Portfolio marketers who typically lead GTM strategy tend not to have overwhelming technology budgets. They also tend not to be quite as heavy users of marketing technology as their counterparts in RevOps and the frontline marketing teams (e.g. Demand, ABM, field and customer marketing). Once the platform vendors realize this, one of two things is likely to happen – either the vendors will pivot and reposition again (which will turn down the volume on GTM). Or, more likely – they will attempt to redefine the term GTM to focus on the execution elements that the platforms support, rather than the strategic elements.
  2. GTM is almost as poorly defined as ABM was. 2023 Forrester revealed that over 1 in 4 ABM initiatives were ABM in name only, and didn’t follow any best practices. Forrester has also seen the same apply to GTM, wherein if you ask several leaders how they define GTM strategy you will get multiple different answers back. This means that just as non-ABM initiatives gave ABM a bad name, we’ll start seeing poorly defined GTM efforts that emphasize execution over strategy giving GTM a bad name.
  3. ABM is not always compatible with GTM strategy. The fundamental difference between the two disciplines is one of altitude. Portfolio marketers have to operate at a 10,000 foot level when conducting GTM strategy discussions, making tough choices on what the company should do, but almost more importantly what they shouldn’t do. Sometimes a company’s largest and most strategic accounts may even be excluded from the GTM strategy, depending on what the company’s growth strategy is (e.g. new markets and buyers – see Forrester’s Growth Discovery Model – login required)

This is not to say that GTM is just another shiny object in the B2B world. On the contrary, when executed effectively, GTM aligns sales, marketing, and product teams in the direction of the customer which is how to make magic happen in B2B. But if we don’t learn lessons from ABM over the last 10 years, we run the risk of repeating mistakes.

I’ll be touching on this topic in a little more detail in my upcoming keynote at Forrester’s B2B Summit EMEA, taking place in London on 7th – 9th October. To view the agenda and register, please visit Forrester’s B2B Summit EMEA — Marketing & Sales Event.