GTM Live | Passetto

Episode: The 5 Stages of Revenue Transformation – Stage 1: Escaping the Panic Response
Host: Carolyn Dilks
Date: November 11, 2025

Episode Overview

In this kickoff to a five-part series, Carolyn Dilks, Co-Founder of Passetto, addresses B2B SaaS CEOs, CFOs, and Revenue Leaders stuck in reactive, panic-fueled go-to-market (GTM) rhythms. She dissects "Stage 1: The Panic Response"—the most common starting point on the path to true revenue transformation. Carolyn insists that transformation begins when uncomfortable truths and data limitations are faced head-on, urging leaders to stop chasing shiny tactics and start fundamentally challenging their operating models.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Prevalence of Pipeline Panic

• Rising Targets, Falling Confidence: Most revenue leaders are confronting higher targets for 2026 without true confidence in their ability to hit them. Their "strategy" defaults to simply doing more—more tools, more experiments, more campaigns.
  • “Are you really ever confident?... The solution to a pipeline problem is to do more.” (01:04)
• The Experimentation Trap: With the explosive hype around AI and peer pressure from LinkedIn and competitors, companies rush into experiments instead of strategic thinking.
  • “People are just grasping at straws to understand what experiments are going to work for them. But that’s not just wrong, it’s actually making the problem worse.” (03:30)

2. Personal Journey: From Panic to Awakening

• Carolyn's Story: Recounts her time as a VP Marketing pressured by a high-growth board, chasing tactics, feeling the same insecurity as many listeners. Her pivotal moment was realizing the model and questions were broken, not her skills or hustle.
  • “We weren’t asking the wrong questions because we weren’t smart enough. We were asking the wrong questions because we were looking at the wrong data.” (05:08)
• Listener Resonance: Emphasizes community support and the universality of the experience.
  • “If you’re listening to this and thinking, wow, sounds like me, this is me, please know you’re not alone.” (09:17)

3. What Stage 1: The Panic Response Looks Like

• Common Symptoms
  • Scrambling for Plans: Meetings pile up, but all feel reactionary.
    • “Monday, you’re reviewing the marketing dashboard... Thursday, you’re defending your budget with the CFO and CEO. Friday, you’re wondering why none of the things you launched last month are showing the results yet.” (15:18)
  • Dashboard Blindness: Leaders stare at legacy metrics—MQLs, conversion rates, CPL—without clarity on true revenue drivers.
    • “You can see your cost per lead. But can you see which marketing activities are actually contributing to pipeline and closed won revenue?... Probably not.” (17:10)
  • Hope > Conviction: Lots of activity, little confidence.
    • “You’re hoping, you’re being optimistic… but you don’t have conviction, you don’t have clarity.” (19:47)

4. Root Causes of the Panic Response

• Obsolete Data Models: Most orgs still operate off decade-old frameworks built for a different era (lead handoffs, last-touch attribution), unable to answer today’s nuanced questions.
  • “You’re asking 2025 questions with a decade old data model and it’s making you panic.” (24:24)

5. Carolyn’s Moment of Reckoning

• Real-World Case Study: During a high-stakes fundraising phase, Carolyn was forced, by both external pressure and internal discomfort, to acknowledge her reporting was fundamentally flawed and marketing’s impact was invisible.

  • “We were only showing last touch attribution, like many companies. And 90% of the time, that was being overwritten by our AEs to say ‘AE sourced.’” (32:55)
  • The Honest Admission: “I could not successfully measure the impact of my investments full stop.” (36:17)
  • Change Required Ownership: She had to lead, educate, and challenge—not delegate the change.
    • “I needed to quarterback the work, right? I was the change maker in the organization... It was hard. You are fighting inertia.” (38:08)

• Transformation Outcomes:

  • True Attribution: Marketing was shown to influence over 90% of closed-won revenue.
    • “The impact my team had on revenue was way higher than what I ever thought.” (41:10)
  • Sales-Marketing Alignment: Common language and metrics bred genuine collaboration.
  • A New Strategy Muscle: This uncomfortable work became Carolyn’s professional differentiator and led to founding Passetto.

6. When Do Leaders Move Past Stage 1?

• Two Scenarios:
  1. Missed Targets/Pressure: Anxiety about not knowing how they’ll reach the next level spurs introspection.
  2. Status Quo Fatigue: Hitting numbers ‘in spite of’ systems, sensing inefficiency but unsure what to fix.
  • “The best revenue leaders in the world are not afraid to be uncomfortable or challenge the status quo because they know that this level of discomfort is better than staying in a place that leaves them feeling stuck.” (51:00)

7. The Comfort Zone vs. Real Transformation

• Uncomfortable Questions as Triggers:
  • “Transformation doesn’t happen in your comfort zone. It doesn’t happen in the status quo. It happens when you’re willing to challenge everything you thought you knew about how revenue growth actually works.” (12:45)
• Call to Action:
  • Stop seeking the next tactic/tool.
  • Ask:
    • What question am I not asking because I lack the data?
    • What do I need to know for great strategic decisions?
    • What keeps me in panic—and what will move me beyond it?
  • “Those uncomfortable questions, that’s your stepping stone out of stage one.” (57:14)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Mindset Shift:

  • “You weren’t hired to run experiments… You were hired to drive revenue and to hit targets and to grow the business. And you cannot do that from inside the panic response.” (54:12)

• On the Industry-wide Challenge:

  • “You are fighting the 90% of the industry who thinks the status quo is the right way, even though you know it’s wrong. Okay. It was uncomfortable having conversations with colleagues telling them they were wrong about how we were measuring things.” (39:11)

• On Transformation:

  • “Everything you want to achieve right now in your role… is likely outside of your comfort zone. Staying in the panic response, that’s comfortable, it’s familiar… But transformation, that requires you to stop, to question, to challenge.” (53:04)

Important Timestamps for Reference

• Introduction & Current State of GTM Leadership: 00:00 – 04:00
• Personal Story & Stage 1 Framework: 05:08 – 24:24
• Symptoms of the Panic Response: 15:18 – 19:47
• Why The Panic Response Happens: 24:24 – 32:55
• Carolyn’s Awakening & Organizational Change: 32:55 – 41:10
• Transformation Outcomes: 41:10 – 46:00
• When Do Leaders Move On?: 46:00 – 51:00
• The Role of Discomfort and Uncomfortable Questions: 51:00 – 57:14
• Closing Challenge & Preview of Stage 2: 57:14 – End

Final Takeaways & Challenge

• Stop asking “what’s the next tactic?” Start asking fundamental, often uncomfortable, diagnostic questions about your data, your decisions, and your underlying operating model.
• Carolyn encourages listeners to connect on LinkedIn, reflect on the challenging questions posed, and prepare for the next episode tackling Stage 2: Emerging from Panic and beginning to see a new way forward.

Tone & Style:
Direct, empathetic, and urgent—Carolyn balances tough love with encouragement and a sense of community, aiming to embolden stuck revenue leaders to take their first uncomfortable but critical step towards lasting transformation.