I’ve been working with more GTM teams again, and I’m seeing consistent self-sabotage that kills their messaging from the start. They’re “moving fast” and skipping basic research and positioning strategy. This guarantees mediocre results.
Here’s a common scenario. You want to build an outbound campaign targeting their “IT Buyer” ICP. You hand off an ICP profile with Name, Title and Company and a couple use cases to mention.
Pretty standard, right?
But when you start to build, the gaps start to show:
- What use cases are we prioritizing to this vertical?
- How are we positioning to this specific company size and maturity profile?
- What’s their current tech stack?
- How are we positioning against the incumbent or other named competitors?
- Are they genuinely ready to buy, or just browsing?
- Which channels will actually cut through the noise?
If you can’t answer these questions, you have major blank spaces in your go to market strategy.
These are the four strategy gaps kill your GTM strategy and performance:
- Product Clarity: Most teams struggle with answering the fundamental question: “How does our solution solve X problem for Y person?” They can list a ton of features but can’t explain why any of it matters to the specific human who needs it most. And then they fumble explaining why their approach beats competitors.
- Competitive Intelligence: Surface-level competitive knowledge is dangerous. They check the big brands box and skip the niche competitors that even a simple web search would uncover. That’s the “knows enough to be dangerous” zone. It’s false confidence and buyers smell that from a mile away. Deep competitive knowledge builds confidence that comes through in the content and conversations.
- Contextual Content: Shallow ICPs limit your content and guarantee you get ignored. Rich behavioral and contextual signals transform your ICPs and make the rest of your messaging and content stand out. A robust ICP should tell you:
- Core customer pain points
- Specific use cases that resonate
- Compelling reasons to choose you
- Actual market readiness
- Priority engagement channels
- Behavioral ICPs: Most ICP builds stop at basic metrics: Geography. Revenue. Headcount. Title. This targeting is table stakes and commoditized. That’s not good enough. The real competitive advantage lives in behavioral signals that show true buying intent. Behavioral signals are the real GTM strategy gold that screams “ready to buy”:
- Recent leadership hires
- Active social engagement
- Competitor product follows
- Detailed product reviews
- Engagement with industry content
This is what a high value actionable ICP looks like:
US IT Lead
- VC-Backed, $100MM Revenue
- Raised funding in last 90 days
- Currently using specific competitor technologies
- Showing hiring signals (job listings, social posts)
- Active social engagement across LinkedIn, Reddit, industry forums
- Following key industry competitors and thought leaders
- Confirmed (4) contact pathways
- Demonstrable site or social engagement in last 30-90 days
Paints a different picture, right?
The best part? This level of insight is available without slowing you down.
With the right AI-assisted workflow you can get:
- Deep Marketing and Competitor Research
- Precise Market and ICP Data
- Build Actionable Insights
- Tailor your GTM Assets to the ICP + Use Case + Individual LevelWanting to “move fast” isn’t a valid excuse when anyone can do it right the first time now.
Sean Wilkins 