30 Days
GTM or GTFO
The 30-Day Window
I get 30 days to prove my value and so do you. Value delivered in those 30 days is the difference between me feeding my family or getting fired.
Most of my engagements as a fractional CRO run 3 months. That is the first contract I propose always as it’s best for both parties. It is also the entire job. Inside the first 30 day window the value I deliver has to be significant and visible. It has to be, for two reasons. First, if I want any chance of renewing for another three months I have to crush it. Second, if the job is over and I want any chance of a strong referral I have to crush it.
There is no slow build, and no strong finish that makes up for a soft start. If the value is not undeniable by the end of that time (and likely earlier), there is no second chance. Most of my fCRO engagements have a planned finish line. Done right, it ends with me handing over a full build and plan for a full-time CRO who can come in and run it and add value right away. Either way the math is the same. My engagements are short, and there is no version where I get to spend it on the wrong thing.
So I am deliberate about what I do in that window, and the first two things I do have nothing to do with strategy decks or pipeline reviews.
The first is easy. It is all about communication. More specifically, over communication. So many people miss this. There’s not a lot to say here other than making sure your founder or your boss is laser focused and aware of exactly what you’ve agreed to, what you’re working on, what you’re accomplishing, and when it will be done. There is no version of this where they should not know what you’re working on and what value it will bring to the organization. Whether you accomplish this over communication via daily phone calls, emails, Slack messages, whatever works is fine, but make sure it’s done.
The second is data. I tackle this in week one. I look at the data. Specifically, I look at the contact data sitting behind the pipeline and I run four quick tests, and almost every time I find the same thing.
The first test is bounce rate. Open whatever they are using for cold outbound sequencing and pull bounce rate by month for the last six months. Anything north of 5% is a yellow flag and anything >10% and it’s literally hurting the company more than helping. In some ways the trend matters more than the number itself because if it’s been creeping up for two quarters, the data is decaying fast and there is clearly no process in place to improve.
The second test is the connection rate. I pull the connection rate by month for the last six. Healthy B2B cold dialing connect rates can vary greatly based on ICP, buyer persona, and even how people are defining it. So I focus mostly on seeing improvements in connection rate over the six months to understand if this team is using intelligence and good quality data to improve. This is critical because a simple 2x on connect rate, with all other things being equal, grows pipeline by 2x.
Third, I pull twenty contacts at random off the tier-one ICP list. Random matters. Sit with a rep for an hour and dial all twenty. Track outcomes - Pick-up, voicemail, wrong number, disconnected, “they don’t work here anymore.” If fewer than three pick up, you have a problem. If more than five are flat wrong, the data has crossed from hygiene issues into liability.
Fourth test, the closed-lost autopsy. Search the last four quarters of losses and read the reasons why they are lost (hopefully they have been coded and are reportable). Also check notes. Look for “champion left,” “no longer with,” “went dark,” “couldn’t multi-thread,” “key contact moved on.” What percentage of losses tie back to a person who wasn’t there or wasn’t reachable? If it’s running above 10 percent, you’re losing deals to ghosts. People your team built relationships with stopped existing in your CRM.
It usually nets out where there is a lot of bad data, and bad data equals lost money. Often half the records are stale. Mobiles disconnect on the first ring, emails bounce, and a real chunk of contacts are six months out of date. I have found times where the buying committee on the biggest accounts has rotated and the rep is still emailing the champion who left two months ago.
This is true at a lot of companies older than eighteen months. The CRM looks healthy on the dashboard, and underneath the dashboard a real chunk of it is rotted.
After I run my four tests in week one, I clean the data in week two. If I don’t do that, the rest of my engagement will be wasted. The rep can’t get a meeting if the number is wrong, the marketer can’t run a campaign if the list is dead, and the CEO can’t trust the numbers if half the records are ghosts.
Week two is the audit: pull the named accounts, run them against current sources, and see what is verified, what is stale, and what is gone. The third week is the cleanup. I re-enrich the accounts that actually matter, running the stale records through a contact database that is easy to use. I like FullEnrich because waterfall enrichment rebuilds a contact record fast and accurately. The rebuilt records go into your CRM and the dead ones get retired. By week four the team is working a fresh list, and I have seen the energy change when reps can actually dial and talk to people. Confidence is contagious, and so is the opposite.
For those of you who are full-time CROs or VPs of sales or other revenue leaders. Everything you just read applies to you as well. It’s not just for fractionals. Many new revenue leaders come in and start to make changes. New tech, new people, new processes everywhere. Talking to their team about what is working and what isn’t, taking calls from old vendors and new ones, and forming opinions and seeing who is in their corner. They do this because the early days is when a new leader gets to make changes without having to defend last year’s decisions.
If you are the CEO, don’t let a new hire spend their first month rebuilding the org chart before checking the data. If you are the revenue leader, running these tests is the highest-leverage thing you will do all quarter. Everyone reaches for the exciting new playbook. The prize goes to the people boring enough to look at the data first.
GTM is your only moat. Get it right. Or GTFO.
P.S. If you want an intro to my friends at Full Enrich - DM me.
Why GTM or GTFO Exists: The GTM is bar is low - big talkers, best practices and bullshit. Being elite is your moat. Do the work that matters and get sh!t done.
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