GTM Survivor Island | Part 2: How to Forge the GTM Alliance That Wins

Welcome to GTM Survivor Island—the place solely the certified survive.

This 3-part weblog collection is tailored from our webinar, “GTM Survivor Island: 3 Lead Gen Plays to Win the Pipeline Game for Good.” Over the course of 39 days and three key performs, we’ll present you the best way to:

• Outplay the chaos by separating actual purchaser indicators from noise.
• Outqualify the noise by forging an unshakable Gross sales–Advertising and marketing alliance.
• Outconvert the competitors by constructing a GTM system that scales like a loop, not a lottery.

“Wanna Know What You’re Enjoying For?”

Every a part of this collection builds on the final—strolling you thru the identical methods that lots of of demand gen leaders are utilizing to show clicks into credibility, and credibility into pipeline that wins.

In Half 1, we explored how to light the signal fire by qualifying leads with timeline, ache, and urgency, so Gross sales will get fireplace, not smoke.

Now, it’s time to leap ahead within the recreation to Day 20, the place we discover ways to Forge the GTM Alliance.

“In This Sport, Hearth Represents Your Life”

Picture by Aleksandr Khomenko on Unsplash

Identical to within the recreation of Survivor, fireplace alone received’t hold you alive.

To win, Gross sales and Advertising and marketing should merge into one tribe, aligning on what “certified” actually means, and constructing a system of belief that turns indicators into motion. By Day 20 on GTM Island, fireplace alone received’t hold you alive.

You’ve sparked a sign, however now comes the true check: are you able to align with Gross sales and transfer as one?

Within the recreation, Day 20 usually marks the merge—when previous tribes collide, alliances are examined, and belief decides who lasts. In B2B, it’s no totally different. Your leads are flowing, but when Gross sales doesn’t belief what you’re handing over, your fireplace burns out quick.

That is the place most advertising and marketing groups stumble.

They generate leads however ship them with out readability or urgency. Sales looks at the handoff, shrugs, and strikes on. Now, as an alternative of an ally you may depend on, you’ve doubtlessly created an apathetic (or worse) collaborator who isn’t inquisitive about working with you transferring ahead.

The query isn’t: Did you generate sufficient leads?
It’s, “Can Gross sales and Advertising and marketing win this recreation collectively?”

Why Most Alliances Collapse

For all of the vitality which will encompass it, the unlucky actuality is that almost all GTM alliances break down earlier than they even begin.

The tribes that develop aside are likely to:

• Outline “certified” in a vacuum, with out Gross sales enter.
  
• Toss uncooked leads over the fence with zero indicators.
  
• Blame the rep when conversion stalls, as an alternative of fixing the system.
  

However the tribes that develop as one?  They work in live performance. They don’t merely hand issues off and neglect about it. They’ve belief as a result of it’s been established, nurture, and paid off earlier than.

Successful tribes:

• Co-build qualification guidelines.
  
• Route leads with full purchaser context, mapped instantly into the CRM.
  
• Align on SLAs, so everybody is aware of what occurs subsequent.
  

Once more, it’s not about extra leads. It’s about shared belief and execution.

The Alliance Framework: Rising Collectively

So how do you flip finger-pointing into partnership?

Consider your GTM system like an epiphytic plant. These crops thrive not by competing for soil, however by rising with their setting—sharing gentle, sharing construction, scaling by way of help.

That’s what an actual Gross sales–Advertising and marketing alliance seems to be like.

Right here’s the framework that retains the alliance alive:

1. Shared Language: Outline “sales-ready” collectively. Not simply job titles, however declared ache, shopping for stage, and urgency.
   
2. Sign-Based mostly Routing: Let purchaser habits—not division possession—determine who strikes subsequent.
   
3. SLAs That Stick: Set the rhythm for follow-up. When will we reply? How? Monitor it.
   
4. CRM Activation: Make indicators seen within the CRM. Push ache, urgency, and timeline instantly into the rep’s workflow.
   
5. Coordinated Execution: Joint performs, joint visibility, seamless purchaser expertise. You don’t simply cross the torch—you run the relay collectively.
   

That is how Gross sales stops asking “Are these leads any good?”—and begins saying, “Ship me ten extra similar to that.”

Three Traps That Break Alliances

Even with the suitable framework, dangerous habits can destroy all the pieces. Be careful for:

1. Scoring in a silo. If Gross sales wasn’t within the room when scoring guidelines have been constructed, your rating doesn’t matter.
   
2. Burying purchaser indicators. If Gross sales can’t see timeline or ache, they’re flying blind.
   
3. Blaming Gross sales for damaged movement. If leads stall, the issue is normally the system—not the rep.
   

Most blindsides aren’t betrayal. They’re miscommunication.

Day 20 Guidelines: What Actual Alignment Appears to be like Like

Right here’s how you understand your alliance is definitely working:

• ✅ You’ve agreed on sales-ready standards collectively.
  
• ✅ Leads are routed based mostly on urgency, not job title.
  
• ✅ CRM reveals the complete purchaser image—timeline, ache, urgency.
  
• ✅ SLAs are outlined, enforced, and on the clock.
  

This isn’t a handoff. It’s a handshake.

The Day 20 Readiness Scorecard

Earlier than you progress into endgame mode, pressure-test your alliance:

• Have you ever outlined sales-ready standards collectively?
  
• Are you routing based mostly on sign power?
  
• Are SLAs lively, tracked, and visual?
  

For those who can’t reply “sure” throughout the board, your alliance is fragile. And fragile alliances don’t survive Day 39.

The Merge Is Your Turning Level

Picture by Aidan Smith on Unsplash

On Survivor, the merge adjustments all the pieces—alliances are examined, and solely essentially the most strategic survive. In GTM, Day 20 is your merge.

You’ve constructed the hearth. Now you must construct belief. With out it, pipeline slows. With it, you speed up towards the win.

Day 20 is about alignment, not lead quantity. And alignment is the one option to make it to the Remaining Tribal.

You may view the complete GTM Survivor Island: 3 Lead Gen Plays to Win the Pipeline Game for Good on-demand webinar above.