Sales & commercial management
The GTM Machine
A full B2B go-to-market machine in one table: every source, its owner, its KPIs and its cost. AI does the work between the conversations. The conversations still belong to people.
01
The machine
Every B2B sales machine is the same table.
Sources run down the side and the funnel runs across the top. Each row has one owner, soft KPIs, hard KPIs, a cost pool and financial KPIs.
The last column says who does the work now: a model or a person.
| Channel and source | Top of funnel | CRM stages: Prospecting, Contacted, Meeting, Proposal, Closed Won, Onboarded, Active, Renewal | Money | AI and people | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Source | Owner | Soft KPIs | Hard KPIs: enquiry | Hard KPIs: meeting | Proposal to renewal | Cost pool | Financial KPIs | Who does the work |
| How to read it | ||||||||
| One row per source | One name. No source without one | Is the source alive? The owner reads these weekly. Nobody is paid on them | Volume into Contacted, and cost per enquiry: source cost divided by enquiries | Cost per meeting: fully loaded source cost divided by meetings held. Monthly, against a ceiling per source | What happens after the meeting, and the conversion to read. AE and team lead to Closed Won, then CS | Where the source's cost is booked: media, tools and the share of salaries that worked on it | CAC by first-touch cohort, payback in months of gross margin, ROI at 6, 12 and 24 months. Quarterly, with finance | AIWhat the model doesPersonWhat stays with a person |
| Inbound | Owner | Soft KPIs | Hard KPIs: enquiry | Hard KPIs: meeting | Proposal to renewal | Cost pool | Financial KPIs | Who does the work |
| Organic search (SEO) | Head of Marketing | Rankings on target terms per market; organic sessions; referring domains | Organic enquiries per market; cost per enquiry on the pool | Cost per meeting on the Organic and Direct pool | Form, task to the account owner, meeting. Meeting-to-won read per market | Organic and Direct: content, SEO and GEO tools, site, AE share by meeting origin | CAC and payback on the pool, per market. ROI at 12 and 24 months | AIKeyword research, briefs, drafts, internal links, rank trackingPersonPicks the topics and signs off the page |
| AI assistants (GEO) | Head of Marketing | Citation share on tracked prompts per language; AI-referred sessions; prompts where the brand is named | AI-referred enquiries; cost per enquiry on the pool | Cost per meeting on the pool | Same path as organic. The referrer is kept, so the cohort can be read on its own | Organic and Direct | CAC on the AI-referred cohort, read on its own | AIRuns the tracked prompts, finds the cited pages, drafts the answersPersonDecides which questions to win |
| Direct and brand | Head of Marketing | Brand search volume per market; direct sessions; returning visitors | Direct enquiries; cost per enquiry on the pool | Cost per meeting on the pool | Same path as organic | Organic and Direct. PR agency, press and awards are charged here | CAC and payback on the pool, PR cost included | AIRoutes the enquiry to the account owner the same hourPersonEarns the reputation |
| PR and press | Head of Marketing | Pieces per market; share of voice; mentions; backlinks earned | No KPI of its own. Read through direct and brand | Read through the pool | Read through the pool | Charged to Organic and Direct. Never its own channel | None of its own. Its cost sits inside the pool's CAC | AIMedia lists, monitoring, first draftsPersonKnows the journalist |
| Google Ads (search) | Head of Marketing | Impression share; CTR; CPC; quality score; landing page conversion | Enquiries by campaign; cost per enquiry | Cost per meeting against its ceiling; cost per won deal | A demo form goes straight to a meeting. Meeting-to-won read by campaign | Google Ads: media, landing pages, AE share | CAC and payback by campaign. Cost per won deal. ROI at 6 and 12 months | AISearch terms, negatives, ad copy, bid and budget checksPersonSets the budget and the ceiling |
| Meta Ads | Head of Marketing | Reach; CPM; CTR; downloads | Enquiries; cost per enquiry | Cost per meeting | The longest path: content first, enquiry later. Used mostly for retargeting, and read as an assist when it warms an owned account | Meta Ads: media and creative | CAC by campaign. ROI at 12 months, because the path is long | AICreative variants and audience testsPersonDecides the offer |
| LinkedIn Ads | Head of Marketing | Reach inside the named-account list; engagement; list coverage | Enquiries from the target list, expected low | Cost per meeting, high by design. A support source | Credited as an assist when a named account meets. Read next to the outbound sequences | LinkedIn Ads: media | CAC on its own enquiries. Assist cost shown next to outbound CAC | AIList matching and creative variantsPersonChooses the account list |
| Organic social and founder posts | Head of Marketing with the founders | Followers inside the ICP; post reach; profile visits; inbound messages | Enquiries and direct messages | Meetings from messages; cost per meeting on the pool | A message, then a meeting with the AE who owns the account | Organic and Direct | CAC on the pool | AIDrafts from calls and notes, cuts long pieces into postsPersonHas the opinion and posts it |
| Content, video and newsletter | Head of Marketing | Views; watch time; subscribers; open and click rate | Enquiries from tagged links; cost per enquiry | Cost per meeting on the pool | Nurture. It warms accounts the AEs already own, and is read as assisted meetings | Organic and Direct | CAC on the pool. Assisted revenue per piece | AITurns transcripts into articles and clips, tests subject linesPersonHas the point of view |
| Webinars | Head of Marketing; the market AE presents | Registrations; attendance rate; replay views; questions asked | Enquiries per session; cost per enquiry | Cost per meeting per session | Attendees sit mostly in owned accounts. The meeting is booked at the end of the session. Registrations-to-meetings read per session | Webinars: tool, preparation, AE time | CAC and cost per won deal per session. ROI at 6 and 12 months | AIInvitations, reminders, a follow-up per attendee, the recapPersonPresents and answers |
| Events and conferences | Head of Marketing with the market team lead | Badge scans; pre-booked meetings; booth conversations | Enquiries per event; cost per enquiry | Cost per meeting and cost per won deal per event | Proposals follow in the weeks after. Won deals per event is the read | Events: stand, travel, AE and marketer days | CAC and cost per won deal per event. ROI at 12 months | AIAttendee research, pre-booking outreach, follow-up the same nightPersonWorks the booth and the dinner |
| Partners and resellers | Partner lead | Registered partners; active partners; deals reported | Deal registrations; cost per registration | Cost per meeting: partner margin plus partner management | The partner runs the stages. Read registered-to-won and time in stage | Partners: margin on registered deals, partner team time | CAC per partner. Margin given away against revenue won | AIAnswers partner questions from the knowledge base, checks registrations for conflictsPersonKeeps the relationship |
| Marketplaces and integrations | Partner lead | Listing views; installs; reviews | Installs and enquiries from the listing | Cost per meeting: listing fees and revenue share | Install, trial, then a meeting above a size threshold. Read per marketplace | Partners: listing fees, revenue share | CAC per marketplace. Revenue share against revenue won | AIListing copy and review repliesPersonKeeps the relationship with the platform |
| Referrals: customers and allies | Central function with CS | Referring organisations active; referral forms; NPS | Referral forms submitted; cost per referral, close to zero | Cost per meeting: programme materials only | Usually the best meeting-to-won. The referrer is kept in the loop | Referrals: programme materials | CAC per referring organisation, close to zero. Payback | AIFinds who to ask and when, drafts the askPersonAsks |
| Review sites, directories and site chat | Head of Marketing | Listings live per market; rating; chats started; response time | Enquiries; qualified share | Read on the pool | Chat enquiries reach the account owner the same hour | Organic and Direct: listing fees, chat tool | CAC on the pool. Listing fee against deals won, per directory | AIAnswers the chat, qualifies, booksPersonTakes over when the buyer asks for one |
| Free trial and product signups | Head of Marketing with Product | Signups; activation rate; active accounts | Product-qualified accounts; cost per signup | Cost per meeting on qualified accounts | Self-serve purchase, or a handover to an AE above a size threshold. Trial-to-paid read by cohort | Product: trial costs, onboarding, AE share | CAC per signup cohort. Trial-to-paid. Payback | AIScores accounts on usage, sends onboarding nudgesPersonCalls the accounts worth a call |
| Outbound | Owner | Soft KPIs | Hard KPIs: enquiry | Hard KPIs: meeting | Proposal to renewal | Cost pool | Financial KPIs | Who does the work |
| Mass cold email | Central function | Deliverability: bounce, spam, domain health. Open and reply rate per market and sequence | Positive replies; cost per positive reply. Only where the law allows cold email | Meetings booked per AE per month; cost per meeting | Sent in the AE's name, so the meeting lands in their calendar with a three-line brief. Meeting-to-proposal is the gate: low means the list or the copy is wrong | Outbound: tools, central function salary, AE share by meeting origin | CAC and payback per market and sequence. ROI at 6, 12 and 24 months | AIBuilds the list, writes the variants, sorts the replies, books the meetingPersonChooses the target and the offer |
| AI 1:1 email | Central function | Research hit rate; reply rate against the mass sequence | Positive replies; cost per positive reply, AI cost included | Cost per meeting against mass email | Same path. Kept only while it beats mass email on cost per meeting | Outbound, AI cost included | CAC against the mass sequence | AIResearches each account and writes one email for itPersonChecks a sample before it sends |
| LinkedIn messages | Central function, per AE | Acceptance rate; reply rate | Positive replies | Cost per meeting | Same path. The first choice where cold email needs consent | Outbound | CAC per AE | AIDrafts the note from the profilePersonSends it from their own account |
| Phone | SDR if hired, otherwise the AEs | Dials; conversations; conversation rate | Conversations that end with a next step | Meetings booked per week; cost per meeting, SDR salary in full | The primary path where email isn't allowed: call, meeting, proposal | Outbound. SDR salary in full if hired | CAC with the SDR salary in full. Payback on the SDR hire | AIOrders the call list, writes a brief per call, logs the notesPersonMakes the call |
| Letters | Central function | Letters sent; QR scans | Replies and form fills from the QR; cost per reply | Cost per meeting | Letter, scan, booking link. The consent-safe path | Outbound: print and postage | CAC per campaign | AIPersonalises each letterPersonTakes the reply |
| Signal follow-up | Central function alerts, then the account owner | Signals found per market; alert precision | First touch inside the alert deadline | Meetings from signals | A tender can go straight to a proposal. Signals-to-proposals is the read | Outbound: signal tooling | CAC per signal type. Revenue from signal deals | AIWatches funding, hires, job posts, tenders and tech changes; writes the briefPersonMakes the first touch |
| WhatsApp, official number | AEs | Conversations on the official number | Replies | Meetings | A continuation inside owned accounts. Personal numbers don't count | Outbound: AE share | None of its own. The deal keeps its first-touch source | AIPuts the thread on the deal, suggests the replyPersonHas the conversation |
| AE prospecting on named accounts | Each AE | Named accounts touched per month; contacts per account | First conversations in owned accounts | Meetings from own prospecting | The named accounts: meeting, proposal, contract, by hand | Outbound: AE share | CAC per AE. Payback on the AE's cost | AIAccount research, the org chart, the next contact to tryPersonEverything the buyer sees |
| Intros from investors, advisors and the board | CCO | Intros asked; intros made | Intros that reply | Meetings from intros | Straight to a senior meeting. Read intro-to-won | Outbound: AE share | CAC close to zero. Intro-to-won | AIMaps who knows whom, drafts the forwardable notePersonAsks the favour |
| Customer base | Owner | Soft KPIs | Hard KPIs: enquiry | Hard KPIs: meeting | Proposal to renewal | Cost pool | Financial KPIs | Who does the work |
| Renewal and expansion | Customer success | Active usage per account; idle accounts; days to contract end | Renewal or save deals opened ahead of the end date; expansion deals opened | Renewal and expansion conversations held | Renewal rate; expansion revenue; churn reason mandatory | Customer success cost. Out of CAC | Net revenue retention, quarterly. Cost to retain against revenue retained | AIUsage and end-date alerts, the account summaryPersonHas the conversation |
| Across every source | Owner | Soft KPIs | Hard KPIs: enquiry | Hard KPIs: meeting | Proposal to renewal | Cost pool | Financial KPIs | Who does the work |
| Tracking and data | Central function (RevOps) | A tag on every link the company controls. Lists from registers and databases. Suppression lists and consent flags | Routing by account match. First touch stored on the contact and copied to the deal. A reply with no click gets its values from the sending tool | A booking link per AE. The three-line brief. The no-show chase. Meetings per AE per month, published | A deal cannot move without Channel, Source and a next step with a date. Loss reason mandatory | Orders matched to Closed Won. Cost pools booked to the attribution rules. AE cost split by meeting origin | CAC, payback and ROI curves per cohort, produced for every source | AIAll of this rowPersonWrites the rules once |
| Listening | Central function | Every reply read and sorted: interested, later, referral, no | The owner gets a task the same day | Calls recorded and transcribed, announced to all parties. WhatsApp and email on the official number and inbox | The transcript fills the next step and the stage. A weekly objection digest per market. Coaching clips. A risk flag when budget or procurement never came up | Recorder and transcription tools. A deeper conversation suite is optional | No financial KPI. Judged on next-step rate and conversion | AIReads, sorts, transcribes, summarisesPersonConfirms the next step and coaches from the clips |
| Alerts | Central function. Each alert goes to an owner | Buying signal in an account: a task with a deadline and a brief | Enquiry in an owned account: a task the same day | A meeting with nothing logged: fixed before the deal moves or counts for commission | Deal quiet past the stage limit: a suggested next play. Idle account or contract near its end: a renewal or save deal opened | Source over its cost ceiling: spend paused or moved | Monday digest to the CCO and team leads: the number by market, new signals, quiet deals, renewal risk, cost per meeting by source, one decision | AIRaises the alert and writes the briefPersonActs on it |
scroll the table sideways →
The red lines are lists, drafts, sorting, booking, logging and reporting. That work used to need a floor of people.
The black lines are a person in front of a buyer. They read the same as when I started.
02
Reading the numbers
The charts show how the columns are read.
Column · Source and tag
№ 170 Attribution waterfall
Which channels touched the conversion path?
Share of conversions each source touched. It shows which sources get credit they don't deserve under last click.
Column · Hard KPIs: meeting
№ 152 Meetings per rep per week
Are reps having enough conversations?
Meetings per rep per week, against a floor. The number only means something next to outcomes.
Column · Financial KPIs
№ 164 CAC by channel trend
How is acquisition cost moving per channel?
Cost per acquisition per source, over time. Every line rising means saturation. One line rising means that source.
Column · Financial KPIs
№ 161 CAC by motion
How does customer acquisition cost differ between self-serve and sales-assisted, and does ACV justify the gap?
Sales-assisted CAC runs 5 to 10 times self-serve. Deal size decides which rows you keep.
Column · Who does the work: person
№ 148 Quota attainment distribution
What's the shape of rep performance against quota?
Percent-to-quota across the team. A healthy plan is a bell around 100%.
Row · Customer base
№ 179 Renewal rate by cohort
Are newer cohorts renewing better than older ones?
Renewal rate per cohort. Newer cohorts should renew better than older ones.
Column · Who does the work: AI
№ 206 Automation ROAS curve
When does each automation investment pay back its build cost, and how do cost savings compound over time?
Compounds
A high-volume job. It breaks even early and keeps climbing.
Slow burn
A low-volume job. It breaks even deep into the year.
Never crosses
The saving never covers the build. Stop it.
03
Owners and checks
| Role | Owns | Checked |
|---|---|---|
| CCO | The whole machine: plan by market, source budgets, team leads, CS | Monday digest. Monthly and quarterly reviews |
| Central function (RevOps) | Outbound engine, tracking, data, alerts, reporting | Weekly with marketing and the team leads |
| Head of Marketing | Every inbound source | Weekly. Budget monthly, ROI quarterly |
| SDR, if hired | Phone, LinkedIn and letters where cold email needs consent | Weekly. Scorecard monthly |
| Account executive | Their accounts, from meeting to signature | Weekly with the team lead. Quota quarterly |
| Team lead | The market number and the team | Runs the weekly sales meeting |
| Customer success | Onboarded, Active, Renewal, expansion | Weekly. Renewals monthly |
Soft KPIs are read weekly, cost per meeting monthly, CAC and ROI quarterly.
Every number has one owner, and every owner has a fixed check.
Eisenhower ran national security that way in the 1950s. One board wrote the papers, the council decided every week, and a second board checked that the owning agency had carried it out. [1]
Rumelt goes back to Eisenhower in The Crux, where his 1942 BOLERO plan stands for coherent action. [2] The rule held before software, and it holds with a model doing the work.
04
The human half
As information transfer, a sales meeting is pointless.
The information is in the CRM. The meeting carries energy.
Reps work for money, for praise and for rank, and I haven't seen a model change that. The pay meets the machine in one place: the Channel on the deal decides the commission rate.
More in The Commission Plan Builder and The Sales Organization.
05
Where this breaks
| Where | What I do |
|---|---|
| AI in the seller's seat | AI around the seller. A person owns the offer and takes the meeting |
| A record written by a model | The AE confirms it. No dated next step, no stage move and no commission |
| Volume outbound | Targeting before copy. AI 1:1 email stays only while it beats mass email on cost per meeting |
Notes & sources
- Encyclopedia of the New American Nation. National Security Council: The Truman and Eisenhower years.
- Richard P. Rumelt. The Crux: How Leaders Become Strategists. PublicAffairs, 2022.