A startup founder I spoke to recently said something I agreed with 100% but slightly surprised me. It was good to see that someone with no commercial background but great tech skills, who has built a promising ΑΙ tool and is growing a business is able to make this distinction. He said “Hiring a salesperson isn’t a commercial strategy”. I thought wow, I don’t need to talk much here.
Having sat on both sides of the table, I know this deeply. I also know this from outcomes achieved and market feedback I’ve received over the years.
I remember my days as a salesperson. Commercial leader sat across from me, asking about activity and outcomes. When I was hitting KPIs my tone was confident. When I wasn't, I questioned myself - what I was doing wrong, what I could have tried differently. It took years of building experience and a strong track record to realise that when things weren't working, it was rarely me. It was a tough market, the wrong tools, or a business that wasn't willing to invest in the right opportunities. The strategy was weak. Built from a comfort zone where completing tasks felt like enough and meaningful outcomes were an afterthought, as long as everyone was getting their payslips.
Then I became the commercial leader sitting across from my own team asking the same questions. Which was fine most of the time because at that level I had the opportunity to choose my team, coach and mentor them and invest in their potential. There were times though when I felt powerless - having spent real time and energy building a commercial strategy grounded in market evidence and genuine opportunity, watching sales activity fall short. Not because of the market. Because of performance. Not every salesperson is successful, people have different talents and that’s fine.
But both experiences taught me the same thing.
A complete strategy isn't just commercial or just GTM. It's commercial and GTM working together. All measured properly with GTM activity linked to revenue. Who you're selling to, how you’re selling, why they should care, how you reach them, through which channels, in which sequence, with which message. Without that clarity, even the most talented salesperson is operating blind. They'll generate activity. They won't generate revenue.
And weak salespeople won't deliver on even the sharpest strategy no matter how good the deck looks.
Strategy and execution are interdependent. And they are sequential. One without the other or one being weak leaves a gap in your commercial operation that costs money. Because it frames how your market perceives you and it can burn bridges, for a long time. It takes months to recover from this cost, once you decide to invest in the opportunity.
Get strategy and execution right. In that order. The rest will follow.