GTM motions

A GTM motion is the primary mechanism through which a company acquires customers. It defines how prospects discover your product, how you guide them through the decision-making process, and how you convert them into paying customers. While a go-to-market strategy encompasses target market, positioning, pricing, and channels, the motion specifically addresses how you will move customers from awareness to adoption.

Every company operates through some motion, whether intentional or accidental. Successful companies align their motion to their product characteristics, market conditions, and available resources. Wrong motion choice wastes resources and stunts growth regardless of product quality.

Overview of four GTM motions

While there are infinite variations, four primary motions describe how most companies acquire customers. Each has distinct characteristics, economics, and team requirements.

Product-led growth (PLG)

Product-led growth relies on the product itself as the primary acquisition lever. Users experience core value immediately through free access or trials. The product is optimized for self-service discovery, activation, and conversion. PLG minimizes friction and gatekeeping, allowing users to adopt without sales involvement.

Sales-led growth (SLG)

Sales-led growth emphasizes direct sales engagement. Sales development representatives and account executives proactively reach out to prospects, guide them through complex decision processes, and close deals. SLG works on complex solutions that require significant buyer investment and organizational change.

Community-led growth (CLG)

Community-led growth builds demand by engaging users, developers, and professionals. Community members become advocates, creating content, sharing best practices, and recommending your product within their networks. CLG creates sustainable competitive advantages through network effects and trusted peer recommendations.

Hybrid approaches

Hybrid motions combine multiple primary mechanics. A company might use PLG for initial user adoption, SLG for enterprise expansion, and CLG for brand building and retention. Most mature companies use hybrid approaches because different customer segments and use cases require distinct acquisition mechanics.

GTM motion comparison

Decision criteria for each motion

Choosing the right motion requires an honest assessment of your product, market, and resources. No single motion works for all situations.

Choose PLG if

Your product has a fast time-to-value of under 5 minutes to experience value. Self-service usability is high, and the learning curve is minimal. Implementation complexity is low. You have viral potential through network effects or natural sharing mechanisms. Target market values self-service discovery. The addressable market is large and high-volume. You can sustain with lower deal sizes.

Choose sales-led if

Your product requires customization or complex integration. The buying process involves multiple stakeholders and a long decision-making process. Deal sizes are large, above $50,000 per year. Regulatory or compliance requirements exist. Customer switching costs are high. The buyer research phase is lengthy. You can sustain sales team economics with target deal sizes.

Choose community-led if

Your product serves practitioners with strong professional identities. Extensibility potential exists through APIs, plugins, or integrations. The target audience actively seeks peer connection and learning. Strong network effects exist within your market. You can invest in a community for 12-24 months before expecting ROI. Your product creates high engagement and advocacy potential. The addressable market is large enough to sustain an active community.

Hybrid motion approaches

Most mature companies combine multiple motions because different customer segments require different acquisition approaches. Understanding how to blend motions effectively accelerates growth.

PLG for self-serve, SLG for enterprise

Many SaaS companies use freemium PLG to acquire and convert SMB and mid-market customers, then add enterprise sales teams to close high-value deals. This approach captures the efficiency of self-serve adoption while capturing larger deal sizes. Companies like Slack, Figma, and Notion operate this model.

PLG with CLG for community building

Some companies use PLG for core user acquisition while simultaneously building developer or user communities. Community members contribute extensions, best practices, and advocacy. This combination creates sticky products and long-term competitive advantages. This works well for platforms with ecosystem potential.

Sales-led with community for enterprise

Enterprise companies might use community to build brand awareness and reduce sales friction, while using direct sales to close deals. Communities create champions and educate buying committees, accelerating sales cycles. This hybrid captures the efficiency of community while maintaining sales control for large deals.

When to switch motions

Market conditions and company growth stages often demand changes in motion. Recognizing when to switch prevents costly strategic misalignment.

Signals you should change motions

PLG customers show low expansion revenue and high churn. The sales team cannot close consistently at target prices. Competition increases, and you lose market share. You enter new market segments with different buyer types. Customer complexity increases, requiring more implementation support. Your addressable market size changes significantly. Capital availability changes, enabling different motion investments.

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