Candidate-Driven Factors Tighten Go-to-Market Talent Market
Authored By Eric Walczykowski
Go-to-Market (GTM) programs tend to be one of the linchpins of any value creation strategy. Looking back at the last 18-24 months, it’s been an extremely tight market for proven GTM executives, exacerbated by the lack of natural acquisition turnovers and flow. From changing candidate availability to evolving skill set demands, the GTM function has seen significant shifts in the last couple of years.
I recently sat down with Bespoke Partners’ Andrew Reynolds, Vice President at Bespoke, and Tess Fischer, Partner in Bespoke’s GTM practice, to discuss the state of the GTM executive market, the factors driving the market, the changing compensation dynamics, and the importance of a data-driven, collaborative hiring process to secure the best GTM talent.
Be sure to catch the full interview here. Below is a summarized Q and A of my conversation with Andrew and Tess.
Eric: What are you seeing in the market for GTM executives?
Andrew: Many of our recent top placements came after sell processes, but today’s market is different. Some candidates are available due to company underperformance or delayed exits, creating opportunities for leadership changes. Others are preparing for future processes. This shift shows we need to actively attract candidates with a 1 to 3 year horizon, rather than relying on immediate availability.
Eric: That notion of pulling away from something gets even more exacerbated given the time of year, no?
Tell me about the ability to start early and what that does for me as the executive trying to achieve the investment thesis.
Andrew:
It’s the balance of budget versus impact. If you want an executive to make an impact in early 2025, you need to start your search now. You need 2-3 months for the search process, 1-2 months for onboarding and 2025 planning. If you kick a search off too late … it’s going to be H2 of 2025 before they’re in seat making an impact.
Eric: What are you seeing in terms of the market and the demand of skills across the GTM function? Whether it be Sales leaders, Marketing leaders, or Customer Success Officers?
Tess:
In GTM, we saw a push to place executives by fall, especially in sales. Twelve to 18 months ago, companies leaned toward broad roles like a President or CRO covering sales, marketing, and customer success. Today’s tighter market demands sales-focused executives who can balance hands-on deal management with strategic planning. It’s still a candidate-driven market, and we expect continued momentum into H1 of next year as macro trends stabilize.
Eric: You talk about a candidate–driven market as it relates to sales leaders. Of course, we’re using the relationships with the PE firms we know intimately, and the opportunity and the growth rates, but the other lever is compensation. How is this tight market getting those proven leaders affecting compensation?
Tess:
Sales leader compensation remains stable. We’re seeing clients want to get someone to make that extra push, getting creative with incentives like guaranteed 2024 bonuses rather than increasing base pay.
On the equity side, candidates are more diligent about investigating timeline to value and cap tables. Twelve to -18 months ago, candidates jumped at the appeal of offers with promises of big numbers and returns. Now, candidates are in companies where those promises don’t materialize. While a candidate’s increased due diligence extends the offer process, it’s a healthy trend that requires us to be stronger partners to both candidates and clients.
Eric:
Absolutely. I think it really lends to the fact that we focus on GTM all day, every day. Which gives you a different perspective level of expertise and trust factor, not only with our PE firm and portfolio companies, but also with the candidate.
Eric: The other trend we reported on over the summer was the return of CMO hiring. I’ve always seen that as a leading indicator to future growth. Tell me about the spike we saw in Marketing Officer roles over the summer?
Andrew:
In 2023, marketing took a downturn. Our searches were primarily CRO and GTM. Now that the market is starting to pick back up, people are strategizing for the next 1-3 years. They’re looking to add marketing and focus on demand generation, ABM and sales correlated marketing functions that bring value.
Tess:
I had a top client say, “I feel so strongly about separating marketing and sales because marketing has gotten so complex.” To Andrew’s point, it’s focused on data and metrics and how you’re partnering with sales. He says, “I won’t work with a business that doesn’t have a CSO or CRO, but I won’t have a sales leader and a marketing leader that are peers.” I think that’s caused the spike, too, having large CRO roles that encompass marketing. Now, marketing’s taken more of a forefront. You need to pull it out and create that healthy tension with the executives.
Eric: One of the things we talked about earlier was our focus on software, GTM, and that expertise. I recently heard our candidate response rate is 83%, where the industry is 50%. How does that show up in client and day-to-day search work?
Andrew:
It correlates to the talent we’re able to convert. The brand of Bespoke and PE-backed software is so strong. They know us, Tess or me, or our team. Candidates know we know what we’re talking about when helping our clients scope a role, what they need to focus on, and hiring a GTM leader based on what value creation leverage they’re focused on for the business.
Tess:
GTM had an amazing Q2 and Q3. We’re averaging 80 days to close, and that’s across several dozens of placements. Andrew and I recently closed a CRO search in 37 days. We’ve seen a 45-day close in GTM.
Internally we’re thinking, “What are the key signs in a search process that makes our days to close so efficient?”
Our network.
We hear about searches, and we are immediately thinking of candidates in our network that would be a great fit.
The conviction by the clients.
There’s a world where clients used to have the luxury of having options ready to go whenever. And that’s not the fact anymore.
It's a candidate- driven market.
It’s competitive. Aligning on the scorecard early, really being in lockstep with our clients and knowing exactly what they want. We have candidates at our fingertips helping us drive rapid closes.
Eric: Tell me about aligning on the scorecard early and why scorecarding makes a difference.
Andrew:
It’s what we’re really focused on finding. Sometimes that’s not immediately evident based on someone’s LinkedIn profile or bio on a company website. It’s based off of our historical knowledge of their background.
It starts with team management, what functions you want them to have, what the ELT and SLT makeup is, what strengths you’re trying to complement, what weaknesses you’re trying to make up for. When you bring this person on board, who you’re going to keep.
What levers do you really need this person to hire?
- Are you SMB mid-market looking to go enterprise?
- Are you channel heavy looking to build out direct?
- Do you want to break into international markets?
- Are you looking to drive revenue post M&A or in a multi-product platform play?
- What do you really need this person to bring a playbook for into your business?
Tess:
(Jokingly): Can’t you tell Andrew just lives and breathes scorecards? I think he dreams about them, too.
One important differentiator, and this is a recent shift, is in the past 8 months or so within GTM and Sales, we’ve rewritten our scorecards to be very quantitative. We’re asking and identifying ASP and deal cycles. How many people have they managed? How many managers have they managed?
In our kickoffs, we’re asking what do you actually want to know before you get on the call with this person? We’re going to vet their background. But we’re getting very specific from a functional perspective.
Eric:
As an operator, those are the things that I care about. I’ll know that I have a strategic partner that thinks how I’m thinking versus telling me what I want to hear.Eric: Let’s delve into the nuance around the process. Tell me about your passion for the importance of the hiring committee, identifying it, setting a process and a cadence with them.
Andrew:
It’s always best to start with the CEO or whoever the GTM leader is most likely going to report to. The conviction around their leader, excitement to follow and take the hill with them is huge. Following that is who are the other critical decision makers? Get the decision makers up at the front of your process so you can quickly align on who we want to pursue. Then have other stakeholders meet them. That way you can quickly determine how strong of a fit they are. Then go after them quickly.
At the end of the day, the market for GTM leaders is growing tighter, making it challenging to hire the best leaders in time to make an impact in 2025. The ability to quickly identify, engage, and secure top-tier talent will be a key differentiator in this tightening market. Bespoke’s deep expertise in this space, combined with its data-driven approach and extensive network, positions them as a trusted partner in helping clients build world-class GTM leadership teams.
Learn More About the GTM Leadership Practice
Bespoke Partners has been a leader in GTM executive placements for PE-backed Software and SaaS firms for over 10 years.
The quality of our placed candidates stands out, with $43 billion in enterprise value created and our placed candidates’ leadership in more than 23 successful company exits.
Learn More About Bespoke’s Go-to-Market Strategy
Bespoke Partners is the largest recruiting firm solely focused on software and SaaS companies, and we specialize in firms backed by private equity sponsors. Bespoke Partners can help companies seize emerging opportunities by staying ahead in the software and SaaS leadership market.
Connect with Bespoke Partners to learn more:
Bespoke Partners Named in Top 10 of the “Top 49 Retained Executive Search” 2-Years Running by C-Suite CV Secure.
Author:
Eric Walczykowski
Chief Executive Officer
Eric is passionate about building high-performing teams that value doing their best, working together, overcoming adversity and learning.
As a proven growth executive, Eric has served as CEO, President, Board Member, Investor and Advisor for technology companies that achieved over $4.5B in successful exits.
Eric brings to Bespoke Partners significant professional services experience from Deloitte and Andersen, as well as the high-growth client executive perspective for private equity-backed technology companies.
Eric earned an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a BS in Business from Fresno State University.
Outside of work, Eric enjoys spending time with family, coaching baseball, travel, attending live events and sipping good wine.
Featuring:
Tess Fischer
Partner,
Head of Go-to-Market Practice
Tess brings over 19 years of experience building and managing networks, clients and teams in private equity executive recruiting and human capital management. She has worked in and around private equity her entire career and is driven by an interest in people, organizations and the desire to build relationships that deliver results.
In her prior role as a Partner at Morgan Samuels, Tess led the firm’s Software and Tech-enabled Services practice. She worked closely with private equity funds and their portfolio companies to hire executive talent with a focus on CEO, COO, CFO, Chief Revenue Officer and Chief People Officer.
Featuring:
Andrew Reynolds
Vice President,
GTM Practice Expert
Before joining the Bespoke Partners team, Andrew worked as an Executive Recruiter for two boutique retained executive search firms where he focused on placing individuals in private equity, software, technology, financial services, industrials, and consumer industries across multiple functions.
Andrew graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a B.S. in Marketing. While earning his degree at UNCG, he served for two years as the president of the university’s Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity chapter.
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