The Truth About GTM: Myths vs. Reality for SaaS Founders
Busting the 10 biggest SaaS GTM myths and giving founders a practical audit to hit $1M ARR.
Today I have a special guest with me - Alexander Estner. He's a GTM advisor for early-stage founders, helping them to build a strong GTM foundation to grow to €1 million ARR.
Over the last 3+ years, I worked with 20+ founders, been a part of 3 B2B startups myself, and spoken to 150+ founders and GTM leaders, so let’s just say, I've heard a lot about GTM.
Including a lot of myths about GTM for early-stage SaaS.
Today, my goal is to bust these myths so I can help early-stage founders in their GTM. Along with that, I will also share my GTM audit framework, so you can quickly assess your status quo and take relevant steps to identify and fix what is not working in your 0-1mil ARR journey.
10 Common GTM Myths of Early-Stage Founders
Here are 10 GTM myths I hear a lot from founders on their way to 1€ million ARR.
❌ Myth #1: Our ICP are ‘companies with 1-100€ million revenue’ - so everyone
Skip the FOMO. Start with early customers.
In the early days, you usually don’t have the resources to serve everyone.
Start with initial customers (beachhead segment) and then scale from there.
💡Action step: Analyze your initial customers and map their Ideal Personas (User + Buyer) and Ideal Company. Use this framework to build your ICP.
❌ Myth #2: Our product is all-in-one
Founders face this dilemma in the early days.
"Should I build everything for everyone from the start, or take it one use-case at a time and scale it at the next stage?"
Investors specifically love an all-in-one vision for a product, and it is appealing too!
They want to become this mega tool where their customers can:
Have all their data,
Manage all workflows
Have multiple use-cases
❌ But it's not the best way to enter a market.
Instead,
✅ Identify a subsegment of the market that you want to cater to.
✅ Find 1-2 most appealing use-cases for them.
✅ Build just those use-cases to start with.
So instead of being the ‘all-in-one’ from day 1, focus on 1-2 essential features that your customers need, and then diversify as you scale.
💡Action step: Figure out what is most needed for your ICP. Focus on solving and scaling that first, before you move on to add other products/use-cases.
❌ Myth #3: We just hired a sales agency to fix sales
Founder sales BEFORE outsourced sales.
It’s the founders’ job to win your first clients, find patterns, iterate, and build the first version of GTM.
Don’t hire a sales agency or sales consultant to do this early for you. YOU need to build a GTM playbook first.
They can ‘scale’ what works, but they don’t build a message-market fit for you.
Once you have found something that works, you can add more resources.
💡Action step: Step into the trenches and do your first few sales. Only when you need more capacity can you hire someone who helps you sell (but not replaces you).
❌ Myth #4: My prospects want to see all features, that’s why I demo all features
I’m shadowing a lot of sales demos. And it happens a lot that instead of a demo, I see more of a product training.
Demo is NOT a product training.
As a founder, it’s tempting to show everything your product can do. But you need to keep the engagement high and get a 2-way conversation.
So focus on your top 3-4 features, the ones that matter to them.
💡Action step: Focus on the most important pain points of your prospect and show them only the features that can solve these. Read Ultimate SaaS Product Demo Guide.
❌ Myth #5: We do all channels at the same time - Outbound, Content, PPC, SEO, Events, Affiliates…
Each channel works differently, takes time to master, and takes up resources. And resources are limited at an early stage.
So instead, focus on 2-3 channels max - better only 1-2 channels. Do more of what works.
💡Action step: Do smaller tests to figure out which channels work and go all in on just those.
❌ Myth #6: We don’t have any competition
I’m 100% sure that this is NOT true. Every company has competition.
You just need to identify your competition from a customer perspective.
Your competition does not always have to be direct. It can be indirect (alternative solutions) or status quo, too. In fact, a lot of the time it’s the status quo.
💡Action step: Talk to potential customers and identify your competitors - you always have competition.
❌ Myth #7: We only lose deals because we are too expensive
This is hardly ever the case. Most startups undercharge.
But if you track your ‘lost reasons’ and this still comes up as a top reason, chances are that the prospect did not experience full value from the product.
So when I hear this from founders, I try to understand 2 things:
1️⃣ Do you track your lost reasons properly?
2️⃣ Are you sure it’s a pricing issue or rather that you’re not delivering enough value?
💡Action step: Track lost reasons properly, make sure to always ask for the ‘real’ reasons, and work on your value proposition.
❌ Myth #8: My product sells itself, I don’t need marketing/sales
To be honest, I hear this one less and less, but it’s still something I hear more than once a month.
It’s especially true for technical founders building a PLG product. If they don’t know you exist, they won’t be able to buy.
You need to use marketing and sales to tell your ICP how your product will enable them to do things that they could not do before.
So every SaaS company needs marketing & sales. The only things they change are the ‘how’ - like what channels, what messaging, etc.
💡Action step: I’m sorry to tell you, but you will have to learn how to market and sell your product. 🤠
❌ Myth #9: Our GTM strategy is Google Ads & Influencer campaigns
GTM strategy first. THEN growth tactics. These are all growth tactics - ways to execute your GTM strategy.
It might be true that this channel could work for you.
But they only work if you know your:
✅ Ideal Customer Profile
✅ Positioning
✅ Messaging & Value Proposition
✅ Pricing
✅ Sales Process
And this is: Your GTM strategy.
For your GTM motion to work, you need to build your strategy first, then focus on tactics.
💡Action step: Get clarity on your GTM foundations like ICP, positioning, messaging & value proposition, pricing, and sales process.
❌ Myth #10: We have first beta customers, now we want to ‘scale’.
When founders tell me they have a handful of clients and now want to scale, I tell them this is the wrong approach.
Scaling comes after you have found repeatable and predictable growth.
So instead of looking for scale from day 1, take it step by step.
If you believed in any of these myths, I hope I was able to bust them for you.
Now that we know what not to believe in, let’s look at how to audit your GTM so you can get a clear idea about your status quo and how you can fix it.
First,
What is a GTM Audit?
It is a process of analyzing all your relevant GTM assets to get a clear understanding of
✅ what's working
and
❌ what's not
I recommend you audit your GTM on 2 levels. (reinforcing Myth 9)
1️⃣ GTM Strategy
2️⃣ GTM Execution
GTM Strategy
The GTM strategy sets the foundation for your GTM execution.
Without the right GTM strategy, your GTM activities will show 0 or very low success.
Most founders jump right into growth tactics/execution.
🔥They want to spread the word.
🔥They want to be present on all different growth channels.
🔥They want to reach everyone.
But...
❌ Running google ads is execution, not a strategy.
❌ Writing blog posts is execution, not a strategy.
❌ Doing cold emails is execution, not a strategy.
But without a clear strategy, you will attract 0 clients.
Your conversion rates will be very low and you'll burn your money. 🔥
👉 GTM Strategy first, then growth tactics.
Here are the 6 GTM strategy elements
1️⃣ Ideal Customer Profile
Ask yourself:
Do you have a clear ICP? Written down?
What are the criteria to qualify/disqualify
How is this applied in lead gen & CRM?
Do you know how to source/find your ICP?
If you don’t have a proper ICP for your SaaS business, work on it.
Here are some actionable resources to get started:
👉 The Ultimate SaaS ICP Framework
2️⃣ Positioning
Ask yourself:
Who is your direct & indirect competition?
What is your primary competitor (aka. status Quo)?
What sets you apart from the status quo?
How are you different from your direct competitors?
Here are some actionable resources to get started:
3️⃣ Messaging
Ask yourself:
How do you communicate what you do and for whom you are doing it?
How is the messaging applied on homepage, sales deck and emails?
Here are some actionable resources to get started:
👉 Ultimate SaaS Messaging Framework
4️⃣ Pricing
Pricing for early-stage startups is NOT about optimizing growth.
It is primarily about:
✅ Aligning your pricing model with growth motion (sales-led vs. product-led)
✅ Finding the right value metric (for a value-based pricing)
✅ Getting clarity on packaging
So you need to analyze:
Packaging & Value Metrics
POC, Free Trials or Freemium
Pricing terms (contract length, payment schedule, cancellation policy)
Here are some actionable resources to get started:
👉 The Ultimate SaaS Pricing Guide
👉 Optimize conversion rates with logos on pricing page
5️⃣ GTM Motion
Your GTM motion needs to align with your ICP, product category, and pricing strategy.
If you’re early stage, don’t do both motions in parallel.
Here are some actionable resources to get started:
6️⃣ Sales Funnel & Forecast
You need to measure your performance to see what’s working and what’s not.
Review the last 12 months of performance
Understanding high level the progress over time
Focus on Leads, MQL, Deals, Customers, €
and especially conversion rates
do you have a Top or Bottom of the Funnel issue
Here are some actionable resources to get started:
👉 Reverse engineer your sales goals
👉 Financial plan for B2B SaaS (Senovo VC Template)
Once you analyzed the strategy part, you can move on to your GTM execution.
1️⃣ Sales Process
Ask yourself:
Do you have a well-defined & executed sales process
What needs to happen to open a new deal?
What needs to happen to move deals through the pipeline
Do you follow a sales methodology? SPIN, MEDDIC etc.
Here are some actionable resources to get started:
👉 Sales Methodologies for SaaS
2️⃣ Sales Activities
The best way is to watch your call recordings.
Reviewing recordings of discovery calls and demos
How do you qualify prospects
How do you demo your tool?
Here are some actionable resources to get started:
👉 Sales Qualification (incl. 24 questions)
👉 Ultimate Guide for SaaS Sales Product Demos
3️⃣ Channels
Analyze all the activities you are doing on the different channels.
See what is working and what not. Really deep dive into each channel.
What channels do you use to get new leads?
How are they performing? (# of leads, cost per channel)
4️⃣ GTM Assets
Last but not least, review your most important GTM assets.
This includes 👇
Website (👉 Ultimate SaaS Homepage Template)
Sales Deck (👉 Ultimate SaaS Sales Deck Template)
Lead Magnet(s)
Content (Social, Blog) (👉 Content Marketing Guide + Repurposing Content)
Case Studies (👉 Ultimate Guide on Case Studies & Testimonials
On top of these 10 areas, I recommend also auditing your GTM team & tech stack.
Next Steps
By now, you should have a clear idea of how to audit your GTM.
It can be a lot, especially if you are an early stage founder. If you need help auditing your GTM,
✅ I provide a detailed 360° GTM audit of your status quo + custom 6-month action plan for founders in their 0-1mil ARR journey.
✅ If you need help building your entire GTM foundation, you can work 1-on-1 with me - GTM Advisory for SaaS founders from 0€ to €1 million ARR.
 | A guest post by
|