The Go-to-Market Strategy Behind Insider's European Growth | Kubilay Sengun, VP of Revenue at Insider

Sustainable growth means building a business that lasts through favorable and difficult economic conditions. It requires winning customers, expanding relationships, and progressing toward profitability instead of relying on growth alone. Founder-led businesses need product-market fit, early go-to-market fit, and their first sales and marketing leaders.

Larger organizations need different resources, processes, and expertise to keep growing. Teams should meet each business where it stands, not impose a mature operating model on an early-stage company.

Lean go-to-market practice removes waste across marketing, sales, and post-sales. It improves the customer journey from lead through quote to cash. Teams address slow implementation, cumbersome sales processes, delayed quotations, and excessive handoffs involving legal or finance.

Removing friction helps representatives work productively, improves revenue efficiency, and creates a better customer experience. The framework combines strategy, testing, customer value, lean operations, culture, and leadership. Revenue Operations teams should treat systems and workflows as ways to deliver value, not structures customers endure before using a purchased solution.

Start by mapping the customer journey instead of assuming efficient internal processes match the customer experience. Teams need to understand customers’ jobs, purchase triggers, and motivations. Economic pressure can change priorities, favoring savings over features or solutions that address several problems.

Companies can then test whether positioning, objection handling, and demonstrations address customer concerns. They should assess whether representatives have current competitive guidance and timely talking points. Target-market changes can require retraining, reskilling, or new talent, since a lower-market sales team lacks some skills needed upmarket.

No universal revenue threshold determines when companies should adopt enterprise sales or ABM. Some businesses can grow through product-led or transactional motions. Before moving upmarket, a company needs strong product-market fit, plus the security and credibility large organizations expect.

The first enterprise customer matters because it can provide a reference, though winning it can require significant accommodation. Adoption often starts within one department, spreads to another, and becomes a broader agreement. ABM addresses a complex buying group’s interests, with marketing and sales coordinating through sales cycles lasting six months to two years.

ABM focuses mainly on outbound activity, but enterprise buyers still arrive through inbound channels. Businesses should maintain websites, demonstrations, pricing information, and other discoverable content. AI tools can use this material when answering buyers’ questions, while weak content can leave needed information unavailable.

Outbound ABM requires skills beyond conventional SEO, paid search, or website work. Marketing must identify target organizations and personas, then adapt the proposition to each stakeholder. Enablement must help sales distinguish between CFO, CIO, CMO, or CEO messaging. Teams built for inbound or mid-market selling do not automatically suit complex global accounts.

Early enterprise goals should include winning several referenceable customers, since credible logos make later acquisition easier. Logos alone do not prove success. Marketing, sales, and post-sales should share goals covering revenue, profitability, or agreed customer targets. Success within one function means little when the business misses its objectives.

Teams should track conversion from leads to opportunities and closed business, then compare persona results. Investment and sales effort should follow evidence from CFO, CIO, CTO, or CMO engagement. Companies should also test whether adoption progresses from users to departments or through direct business-unit sales. This data should guide ABM spending and representative focus.

Go-to-market teams should follow product teams by releasing, learning, and iterating. A Series A or Series B company exploring enterprise sales can start with one representative and focused marketing support. It can then assess traction without waiting for a perfect plan or committing the entire organization.

If the approach fails, the company can revise targeting, proposition, or execution without a large, irreversible investment. After momentum emerges, it can add resources and expand its ABM or account-based experience program. Hiring a full enterprise team before validation risks wasting capital. Piloting also avoids copying mature models built for different resources and customer evidence.

AI can help marketers create content and tailor landing pages by industry or role. Account-based experiences that once took hours, days, or weeks can take minutes. Revenue Operations can reduce time spent researching prospects, preparing for meetings, and studying competitors by making information easier to access.

Because the technology changes quickly, enablement cannot remain a one-time exercise. Teams need monthly updates organized around their jobs, with recommended tools and prompts for each task. Leaders should refresh those recommendations as technology develops. Organizations also need channels for employees to share effective methods, turning individual discoveries into common practices.