GTM Live Podcast Summary

Episode: Q&A: Your Biggest GTM Questions Answered (Attribution, Executive Buy-In, Change Management & More)
Hosts: Carolyn Dilks & Amber (Passetto)
Date: January 26, 2026

Overview

This episode of GTM Live takes an informal, in-depth approach to answering listener questions around modern Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy. The hosts address persistent challenges for GTM leaders: measurement models beyond first and last touch attribution, building executive buy-in, shifting from legacy volume metrics, bridging the causality gap, and managing organizational change. Expect candid insights, real anecdotes, and actionable advice for those seeking to overhaul outdated GTM playbooks.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Pain and Reality of Leading GTM Change

• Entrepreneurship & Mindset: Both hosts reflect on the emotional challenges of entrepreneurship and GTM leadership, emphasizing that driving genuine change means accepting you're often in the minority (top 3-5% change agents).
• On Losing Clients Due to Misalignment: Carolyn shares the importance of letting go of misaligned clients to make room for ideal partnerships.

  “When you are okay with letting go of the shit that’s just not working out, it creates space for stuff that's so much better.”
  (Carolyn, 06:25)

2. Workshop Insights: Becoming an Elite GTM Leader

[08:03]

• Recent GTM Intensive Workshop: The hosts recap a recent two-day workshop focused on self-assessment and business case development for elite GTM leadership.
  • Day 1: What sets apart top 3-5% of GTM leaders, establishing vision, and self-evaluating current GTM data/tools.
  • Day 2: Translating assessments into practical business cases using cohorted analysis.

3. Listener Q&A Segment

Q1: Early Warning Signs Metrics Are Eroding Trust

[11:11]

• Amber: Trust erodes when you lose repeatability—when past successes can’t be explained or replicated.

  “That is where the credibility is lost. And that is the first key signal for you that you don’t know what’s going on.”
  (Amber, 11:18)

• Carolyn: Watch for leadership debate turning towards poking holes in data rather than action-oriented decisions. Growing skepticism and lack of a cohesive story is a key flag.

  “Trust erosion with your data often precedes declines in other really important metrics...”
  (Carolyn, 12:30)

Q2: Convincing the C-Suite to Move Beyond Volume Metrics (MQLs, SQLs)

[16:06]

• Amber: Strong environments recognize demand isn’t instant; leaders must focus on underlying business levers.
• Carolyn: Leadership clings to volume for predictability and comfort; winning over execs means speaking to revenue risk and upside, not just methodology.

  “If you’re championing something different...lead with the business risk or revenue upside—something that a CEO cares about...”
  (Carolyn, 18:19)

• Amber: Tying GTM conversations to cost of growth and EBITDA resonates at the board level.

  “Cost of growth and EBITDA...that’s where you want to start.”
  (Amber, 19:20)

Q3: Leaders Demanding Activity Metrics That Don’t Work

[22:11]

• Carolyn: Don’t attack the metric itself; instead, surface the business objective behind it. Introduce better metrics incrementally and allow outdated ones to become obsolete.

  “It’s not about winning the debate...Layer in incremental, better metrics...and they’ll eventually outgrow that one.”
  (Carolyn, 23:30)

• Amber: Activity metrics should be smarter (focused on ICP, in-market accounts), not just about raw volume. Highlights Kyle Coleman (ClickUp) as a model for sophisticated, person-level activity tracking.

Q4: Proving Marketing’s Value to Execs Who Trust Sales Output Only

[27:57]

• Carolyn: Sales data’s “black and white” quality makes it trustworthy; marketing needs a similar clarity of impact in reporting, which is often missing.

• Amber: Tech and comp structure reinforce sales-centric systems; marketing isn’t compensated the same, leading to underappreciated or ambiguous value.

  “We shape our tools...and therefore our tools shape us.”
  (Amber quoting Jordan Crawford, 28:05)

• Cadence Gap: Sales has a defined reporting cadence; marketing lacks a standardized, transparent methodological framework—creating further credibility gaps.

  “If marketing did have [a specific cadence and methodology], that would go a long way.”
  (Amber, 32:15)

Q5: Implementing Full Funnel Measurement Without Data Ownership

[36:33]

• Amber: Having a ‘RevOps buddy’ is critical—CMOs/VPs who try to change reporting without operational allies struggle.

• Carolyn: Start with curiosity, not answers; run diagnostic ‘sprints’ instead of launching big IT-style projects.

  “Let’s just use this sprint to figure out where we are now, serve up quick insights, and have something to quantify the problem...”
  (Carolyn, 39:38)

• Amber: Execs have more leverage to drive these initiatives than operations staff.

Q6: The Causality Gap vs. Attribution

[43:11]

• Amber: “Attribution” is weaponized for credit assignment, not for truly understanding GTM influence.

  “Attribution is weaponized...to assign credit to a department or an initiative, a dollar amount. And that is not how B2B buying works.”
  (Amber, 43:41)

• Carolyn: Attribution models (single or multi-touch) aren’t designed to answer growth or velocity questions; core data foundation comes first.

  “Attribution becomes the enemy when you’re looking to it to ask a question that it’s not meant to answer.”
  (Carolyn, 45:25)

• Multi-touch models don’t reflect the interplay of sales and marketing.

Q7: Avoiding the First Touch / Last Touch Trap

[51:55]

• Carolyn: First and last touch are overly simplistic, driven by familiarity, not impact; reverting to them is organizational regression.

  “First touch, last touch...are singular things that happened. When we use that model, we’re isolating an opportunity and making it about one thing—which is so far from reality.”
  (Carolyn, 51:55)

• Amber: Instead, zoom out to analyze all influential factors, look past singular conversions to engagement and velocity metrics.

  “Let’s look at all the other influences that happened...What was the prospecting trigger? What did they do in engagement?”
  (Amber, 52:47)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Loss Aversion and Strategic Patience:

  “The good news is...when you’re okay letting go of the shit that’s just not working out, it creates space for stuff that’s so much better.”
  Carolyn (06:25)

• On CEO Metrics Mindset:

  “If you don’t measure [legacy metrics], then what the hell are you measuring?”
  Carolyn (17:55)

• On the Familiarity of Metrics:

  “I think [legacy] metrics survive not because they’re useful, but because they are familiar and commonly understood.”
  Carolyn (22:45)

• On Attribution Debate:

  “Attribution is weaponized...to assign credit to a department...and that is not how B2B buying works.”
  Amber (43:41)

• On the False Comfort of First/Last Touch:

  “If we revert back to first touch, last touch, we are basically regressing as an organization.”
  Carolyn (51:55)

• On Building Data Allies:

  “If you don’t have a RevOps buddy, then this is going to be really hard.”
  Amber (37:08)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|---------| | 00:00 | Episode intro, show context | | 06:25 | Letting go of misaligned clients; founder reflections | | 08:03 | Workshop recap on elite GTM leadership | | 11:11 | Q1: Early warning signs metrics erode trust | | 16:06 | Q2: Convincing C-suite to shift GTM metrics | | 22:11 | Q3: What to do with leadership stuck on activity metrics | | 27:57 | Q4: Demonstrating marketing’s value vs. sales | | 36:33 | Q5: Building full-funnel measurement without control | | 43:11 | Q6: The causality gap vs. attribution debate | | 51:55 | Q7: The trap of first touch / last touch | | 56:01 | Closing remarks and encouragement for more listener Q&A |

Tone and Language

• Direct, no-nonsense, and actionable.
• Confidently critical of legacy GTM reporting, with humor and empathy for GTM leaders “in the trenches.”
• Professional and insightful, yet informal and pragmatic.

In Summary

This episode is a master class in modern GTM leadership: moving past tired metrics and attribution battles, building the right internal alliances, and implementing robust data models that drive credibility and real business outcomes. GTM Live demonstrates that real change isn’t about the loudest argument, but about methodically building frameworks and buy-in—even if that means letting go of what’s familiar and facing a few hard truths along the way.