Hey everyone. I’m exploring US GTM for Publive (CMS/DXP for Media Publishers + Content Heavy brands). We’ve grown across Asia in the last 2yrs (with over 100 mid to large paying customers incl. Elle.in, Indian Express, NewsNation) and are now focused on entering the US market. I’d love to tap into the community’s wisdom around GTM: • For US SaaS founders → what’s working better early on: outbound-led or inbound-led GTM? • For higher-ACV but traditional industries (like media publishers - news, magazines, communities etc) → what approaches have helped shorten sales cycles? • How do you structure partner/agency programs in early GTM stages without overcomplicating? • Any proven ways to get initial reference customers or lighthouse accounts in the US? • What channels/tactics have you found best to warm up US prospects before direct outreach (events, Slack groups, paid, ABM, etc.)? • If you were starting GTM again, what mistakes would you avoid in the first 6–12 months?
Sorry, could you add more context to this message?
Sure thing Pat. I have added more details.
Hey Harmeet, a few thoughts:
outbound v inbound are so contextually dependent, it depends on your market/product/icp etc. if you've not come across the Four Fits framework, it's a great place to start in thinking about the strategic best approach for your business
All of that said, if you need asap results versus longer-term compounding growth, you might want to trial outbound v inbound
For high ACV the best way to shorten sales cycles are: really deep disco, super tight process and putting a MAP in place, really strong & relatable reference clients/case studies, excellent business case, direct access to the true buying committee
To warm up accounts, definitely events. ABM is a whole campaign strategy (which can include events) versus a discrete tactic like the other ones you've mentioned
Happy to chat through if useful
There’s so much here, could write a book on just one question (no pun intended). It might benefit you just to book an hour with a US GTM Consultant and have a session on this so they can recommend a specific approach. Ideally they’d have experience in publishing. I’d start with an outbound approach though to test messaging before spending tons of money on inbound.
Hey Harmeet! This is a question. At Tapistro, we are trying to solve for and have given excellent results to a lot of clients already. 1. It always is a mix of inbound+ outbound. Your outbound has to be timely and relevant. 2. We partner with agencies to work for their clients. There is a different sales approach but not too far away from the usual one. ( inbound has worked as well in this ) 3. Early stage warm signals are absolutely necessary than just spraying and praying. :) We can definitely speak more indepth on the call if you are interested. Worth a chat?
Super exciting journey, thanks for sharing this 🙌 One thing that really helped us when figuring out GTM for the US was focusing on relevance in outbound. Instead of broad lists, we started reaching out to people who were already talking about the exact problems our product solves (via LinkedIn posts, hidden tech stack signals, etc). That shift cut our sales cycles down and made outbound feel much warmer. That’s actually what led us to build our own social media signals application— it helps companies find people engaging with posts that mention the problems their product solves, while also layering in job changes and hidden stack signals. Happy to share more if useful, and also super curious to see what’s working for others here!
Harmeet, I've helped build out several hypergrowth GTM teams at SaaS startups. A lot has changed over the past 5-10 years. What I have seen to be most successful is highly personalized/targeted outbound--via sales personnel and tooling--account for 55%-75% of pipeline and Marketing providing the rest. While somewhat industry/buyer dependent, there is definitely this pattern. Marketing has been more demand gen oriented in the past 5-10 years in my experience. That does dictate what channels you build out 1st, 2nd and so on.
Thanks for the suggestions everyone! We will do our retrospect and come back on this.
