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GTM consultants · go-to-market consulting · UK

GTM consultants for UK B2B teams

A route to named buyers

Most of your market is not buying this quarter.

A GTM consultant designs how a product reaches its buyers: the ICP, the positioning, the channels and the sales motion. We compare consultancies that work with UK companies, and list ourselves first.

Reviewed by Dan Keegan, GTM Quest · 8 October 2026 · 25 sources

AccountsMessageAdsContentTrackingOutbound

The motion starts

Day 1

0 of 22 in the room

GTM consultantsGo-to-market consultingGTM consultancyGTM advisorGTM consultant meaningDay ratesIR35FrameworksStage fitRevOpsUKLondonGTM consultantsGo-to-market consultingGTM consultancyGTM advisorGTM consultant meaningDay ratesIR35FrameworksStage fitRevOpsUKLondon
0

13 internal stakeholders and 9 external influencers in a typical buying decision

Forrester, 2026

0

of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free buying experience

Gartner, March 2026

0

win rate running four advertising products, a 71% lift over none

Demandbase, 2026

0

of UK businesses are companies: corporate subscribers under PECR

ONS, 2026

01 / GTM consultant meaning

What it costs to start

A GTM consultant is a go-to-market consultant: someone who diagnoses who to sell to, how to position and which channels to use.

Bought by the day, which keeps the budget small and the commitment short.

How many consultant days?

5days

A go-to-market plan

ICP, positioning, channels and a first account list you can run.

UK market range for 5 days

£2,035 to £4,535

Days × £407 (UK median contract rate, GTM strategy roles) to × £907 (UK interim average). Market range, not our price. We quote in writing after a 15-minute call.

02 / The role

What a GTM consultant does and what they don’t

A GTM consultant designs the plan for reaching buyers and, increasingly, builds the systems that run it.

The work sits across marketing, sales, customer success and revenue operations.

A go-to-market consultancy is not a management consultancy. It works only on the commercial engine.

Why the job exists

13 + 9

people in a typical B2B buying decision

Forrester, 2026

67%

of buyers prefer a rep-free buying experience

Gartner, March 2026

3 of 15

commercial activities where marketing and sales work together

Gartner, 412 leaders, 2024

10

channels used across a purchase, on average

McKinsey B2B Pulse, 2026

03 / The consultancies

GTM consultancies that work with UK companies

Each described from its own site or a named third party, checked 28 September 2026.

We list ourselves first and say so. Nobody paid to appear.

GTM Quest editorial guide · Updated 10 October 2026

Evaluate GTM consultants, advisors and ownership of deliverables

Practical guide · 01

Agree how you will accept the consultant’s work

A deliverable needs a decision and an owner. Agree what your team must be able to do with it before the engagement begins.

  1. 1

    Decision

    Name the unresolved choice: target segment, positioning, sales motion or operating ownership. Limit the brief to decisions the work can inform.

  2. 2

    Evidence

    Identify accessible buyer interviews, deal records and market evidence. Mark gaps rather than replacing them with confident assumptions.

  3. 3

    Acceptance

    Require a usable artefact, an explanation of alternatives and a named internal owner. A presentation is only useful if someone can act on it.

Practical guide · 02

Advisory, implementation or ongoing operation?

The contract decides which capability you buy. Similar job titles can hide very different boundaries, so compare the promised work and the handover.

Your decision

Advisory

You retain implementation responsibility. Ask for the reasoning, assumptions and decisions the advice supports.

Implementation

The supplier builds defined workflows. Ask who owns access, testing, documentation and support once it is live.

Operation

The supplier runs the motion. Ask for the reporting cadence, exit process and the internal owner who could take over.

Practical guide · 03

Worked example: a new segment is a hypothesis

Fictional example: an established SaaS company wants to enter manufacturing. An existing customer in that sector is a starting clue, not proof of a repeatable market.

  1. Stage 101

    Investigate

    Compare that customer’s problem and buying process with other target accounts. Identify the unusual circumstances behind the first win.
  2. Stage 202

    Test

    Run a bounded segment test with relevant proof and a clear disqualification rule. Keep the current motion running.
  3. Stage 303

    Decide

    Use the responses and sales evidence to expand, revise or stop. Document the decision so the next operator can understand it.

Practical guide · 04

Fit the consultant to the decision

A whole-function brief may need more than a channel specialist.

Compare

Narrow

Buy depth for a defined problem with clear boundaries.

Broad

Buy cross-functional judgement when ownership and strategy remain unresolved.

Practical guide · 05

Make the exclusions explicit

A clear boundary makes delivery easier to assess.

Compare

Included

List decisions, artefacts, workshops and implementation responsibilities.

Excluded

List ongoing operation, media, data and specialist advice separately.

Practical guide · 06

Separate fees from the running cost

A plan can recommend costs beyond the consulting fee.

Compare

Engagement

Price the agreed work and changes to scope.

Operation

List the tools, data, media and internal capacity needed afterwards.

Practical guide · 07

Ask what the client retained

The useful result should survive the engagement.

Compare

Artefacts

Ask what decisions and workflows the client could reuse.

Dependency

Ask which work still required the consultant and why.

Practical guide · 08

Close with an acceptance walkthrough

Test whether your team can use the output.

Compare

Demonstrate

Walk through a real account or decision using the deliverable.

Own

Assign maintenance and a review date to the internal owner.

Based in the UK

01GTM QuestLondon, UK

A London go-to-market consultancy that builds signal-led outbound and account-based systems: the ICP and positioning first, then a data layer in Postgres and Clay, then multi-channel outreach and content that we run with you or hand over.

Best for: B2B companies with product-market fit whose pipeline still depends on the founder or on luck

ICP definition and positioningAccount-based marketingClay-powered outboundLinkedIn content and adsGTM data and RevOpsFractional GTM leadership

Methods: The Quest System (Neon + Clay + Claude Code)

Published pricing: Scoped and quoted in writing after the discovery call.

gtm.quest ↗

GTM strategy playbooks →

The GTM reading list →

Checked 2026-09-28

02Arise GTMLondon, UK (Plexal, Here East)

A London consultancy built around the ARISE go-to-market methodology and its Arise OS, pairing GTM strategy with HubSpot and revenue-operations architecture for B2B technology and services firms.

Best for: B2B tech and services firms that want a named method and a HubSpot RevOps build in one engagement

GTM strategyRevenue operations and HubSpot architectureCustomer lifecycle and retentionSales enablementContent and narrative design

Methods: ARISE GTM Methodology · Arise OS

Published pricing: Not published.

arisegtm.com ↗ · Agency profile

Go-To-Market Uncovered (Wiley, 2025) →

Checked 2026-09-28 · Arise GTM, About · Go-To-Market Uncovered, Amazon listing

03Magnus ConsultingUK (Central London; registered in Hampshire)

A B Corp growth consultancy for mid-market, enterprise and private-equity-backed B2B businesses, working from where-to-play and how-to-win strategy through to embedding the change in the commercial team.

Best for: Larger B2B firms after an acquisition, a leadership change or a stall in growth

GTM and market strategyProposition and strategic-account planningCommercial behaviour changeAI-embedded GTM operating systemBrand and marketing transformation

Methods: Where to Play. How to Win. Embed. Activate. · GTM as an operating system

Published pricing: Not published.

magnusconsulting.co.uk ↗

Magnus Consulting →

Checked 2026-09-28 · Teresa Allan profile · MCA member listing

04Six & FlowManchester, UK (plus a London office)

A HubSpot Elite Partner consultancy covering HubSpot implementation, revenue operations, data and AI enablement, with demand generation and sales enablement on top.

Best for: Mid-market and enterprise teams whose go-to-market runs on HubSpot

HubSpot implementationRevOps consultingDemand generationSales enablementData and integrationsAI consulting

Methods: FLAIR framework for AI adoption

Published pricing: Not published.

www.sixandflow.com ↗ · Agency profile

HubSpot case study: Six & Flow →

Checked 2026-09-28 · Six & Flow · HubSpot case study

05SalesCaptainLondon and New York

An outbound and go-to-market agency running Clay- and AI-driven multi-channel outbound across email and LinkedIn, inbound-led outbound and RevOps, with coaching for in-house GTM engineers.

Best for: Teams that already know their ICP and need outbound execution capacity

Multi-channel outboundInbound-led outboundAI-powered RevOpsClay and AI agent workflowsOutsourced BDR and appointment settingGTM engineer coaching

Methods: Inbound-led outbound

Published pricing: Not published.

www.salescaptain.io ↗ · Agency profile

SalesCaptain coaching →

Checked 2026-09-28 · SalesCaptain outbound sales · SalesCaptain on LinkedIn

International

06DirectiveIrvine, California (London office since 2018)

A B2B performance marketing agency whose Customer Generation method ties paid media, SEO, content, creative and RevOps to pipeline rather than leads.

Best for: Series A to IPO tech companies buying paid acquisition at scale

Paid mediaSEO and contentPerformance creativeProgrammaticRevenue operations

Methods: Customer Generation

Published pricing: Not published.

directiveconsulting.com ↗ · Agency profile

Directive UK, our story →

Checked 2026-09-28 · Directive opens London office · Directive UK, our story

07Winning by DesignMountain View, California (fully remote)

A revenue consulting and training firm for recurring-revenue B2B companies, and the source of the Revenue Architecture model, the Bowtie and the SPICED discovery framework.

Best for: Scaling recurring-revenue companies and PE or VC portfolios that need one revenue model across marketing, sales and customer success

Consulting and advisorySales, CS and management trainingRevenue Architecture certificationKeynotes and workshops

Methods: Revenue Architecture · Bowtie · SPICED

Published pricing: Not published.

winningbydesign.com ↗ · Agency profile

Revenue Architecture →

The Bowtie →

SPICED →

Checked 2026-09-28 · Winning by Design, About · Revenue Architecture

09Refine LabsBoston, Massachusetts

A B2B demand generation firm working to a Brand, Demand, Expand model across strategy, paid media and creative, with a six-week revenue performance assessment as its diagnostic.

Best for: Series B and later B2B tech companies that want demand generation run for them

Paid media managementDemand strategy and executionCreative productionRevenue performance assessmentPipeline measurement

Methods: Brand. Demand. Expand.

Published pricing: Paid media from $14,000 a month (six-month minimum); full service from $26,000 a month; creative only from $5,000 a month; revenue performance assessment from $35,000. Pricing source ↗

www.refinelabs.com ↗ · Agency profile

Refine Labs pricing →

Checked 2026-09-28 · Refine Labs, the next chapter · Refine Labs pricing

10Heinz MarketingRedmond, Washington (Seattle area)

A B2B go-to-market strategy and demand generation consultancy known for its Predictable Pipeline method, covering ICP and messaging, ABM, launches and marketing orchestration.

Best for: B2B SaaS and technology firms whose marketing and sales hand-offs leak pipeline

GTM strategy and executionAccount-based marketingProduct and solution launchesDemand generationAI-enabled GTM

Methods: Predictable Pipeline Method

Published pricing: Not published.

www.heinzmarketing.com ↗ · Agency profile

About Heinz Marketing →

Checked 2026-09-28 · Heinz Marketing, About · Heinz Marketing FAQ

11FullFunnelBoston, Massachusetts

A go-to-market and revenue operations firm offering GTM strategy and launch, Clay-based GTM engineering and RevOps as a service, working with public tech firms, PE-backed mid-market and VC-backed start-ups.

Best for: Companies that want GTM design and a RevOps team on a consumption model

GTM strategy, design and launchGTM engineering (Clay)RevOps as a serviceDemand generation and paid mediaSales development

Methods: RevOps as a Service

Published pricing: Not published.

www.fullfunnel.co ↗

About FullFunnel →

Checked 2026-09-28 · FullFunnel · About FullFunnel

1publishes prices

Prices appear only where a firm publishes them. A guessed price is worse than none.

Only Refine Labs publishes, on its pricing page.

Left out: Passetto (now software), GTM 80/20 (a marketplace), Werk Insight (market research).

04 / Why now

Buyers moved. Most GTM plans didn’t.

Most of the decision is made before a salesperson is invited in.

Buyers punish irrelevant outreach. Most of the market is not buying this quarter.

Buyers who prefer a rep-free experience

67%

Gartner, March 2026

Buyers who used AI in a recent purchase

45%

Gartner, March 2026

Buyers using a trial before buying

60%+

Forrester, 2026

Trials on purchases of $10m or more

78%

Forrester, 2026

Cycles where procurement is a decision-maker

53%

Forrester, 2026

Buyers who avoid suppliers sending irrelevant outreach

73%

Gartner, June 2025

Buying groups that ranked vendors before first contact

94%

6sense, 2025

Potential buyers not in the market today

95%

LinkedIn B2B Institute

Year-on-year lengthening of sales cycles

32%

Ebsta and Pavilion, 2023

05 / Go-to-market consulting services

Six things a GTM consultant is hired to fix

Most consultancies specialise in two or three of these.

Match the consultant to the one that is holding you back.

Six
fixes

Positioning that sounds like everyone

The claim a competitor could not make about themselves, starting from what buyers would do without you.

06 / Go-to-market consulting

Go-to-market consulting or a GTM agency?

Go-to-market consulting is advice on who to sell to, how to position and which channels to use, usually delivered as a plan.

A go-to-market agency does that and then builds the system.

Slide to how much you want built and run.

Outer · adviseInner · build and run

Go-to-market consulting

A plan you run

A consultant diagnoses and specifies. Best when you have a team that can build and lacks direction.

07 / How we build it

08 / The first 90 days

What a GTM consultant should deliver in 90 days

M6

first revenue

Plan the cash for it. The only lever is starting conversations earlier.

Weeks 1 to 2

Diagnose

Customer and lost-deal interviews, a pipeline and CRM audit, and the binding constraint named in writing.

Weeks 2 to 4

Decide

The ICP and the accounts that match it, positioning against real alternatives, and the two or three channels worth testing.

Weeks 3 to 8

Build

The data layer, sequences, content and reporting, built in your tools and documented as it goes.

Weeks 6 to 12

Run and measure

Live campaigns reported against meetings and pipeline, not activity, with a review that decides what to double and what to drop.

Day 90

What you should hold

A documented ICP, messaging the sales team uses, one channel producing qualified conversations, and pipeline by source.

What 90 days does not contain is revenue. Ebsta and Pavilion, 2023: deals close best at 31 to 60 days for small deals, 61 to 90 for medium, 150 to 180 for larger ones.

In that study, sales cycles lengthened 32% year on year, across 3.2 million opportunities at 364 companies.

09 / The months after

What happens month by month once the motion is running

The question most consultancy pages skip, in the order it happens.

Month one

Conversations, and the build around them

Month one

Conversations, and the build around them

Almost all the work is diagnostic: which segment answers, which subject line does not, which enrichment field is wrong more often than right.

✓ Deliverability checks✓ Segment tests✓ Data fixes
M1M2 · stop zoneM6

If an engagement is going to be stopped, it is almost always stopped in month two, on a number that has not had time to mean anything yet.

That is the argument for a weekly break clause rather than a twelve-month term.

15 minutes · video or phone

See what your day one would contain.

Tell us who you sell to and where pipeline stalls. A written next step after the call.

10 / ROI and forecasting

Return on investment and a pipeline forecast

Your numbers, not ours. Every input is a slider, and every output follows from them.

The defaults are placeholders. Replace them with your own.

Meetings ramp to the monthly figure by month 3. Revenue lands one sales cycle after the opportunity (your cycle from day one: 150 days).

1.7x

revenue ÷ cost

£1.1m

Pipeline, 12 months

£120k

Closed, 12 months

M9

Payback

Forecast · cumulative, by month

M1M6M12
PipelineClosed revenueCumulative cost

Not a promise. A way to see how much the sales cycle and the win rate move the answer.

For a full projection from your facts, use the free GTM workspace.

11 / Frameworks

The frameworks you’ll hear on the first call

GTM consultants borrow a shared vocabulary.

Ask which one they would use for your situation, and what they would do if the numbers disagreed with it.

Origins: MEDDIC (PTC, 1990s), the Bowtie (Winning by Design), competitive alternatives (April Dunford). More in our GTM strategy framework guide.

Positioning

Competitive alternatives

April Dunford: start from what buyers would do without you.

12 / Stage fit

Match the consultant to your stage

Stage fit matters more than reputation.

Use it to rule firms out before you shortlist.

Before product-market fit

Holds growth back · The product, not the go-to-market

Founder-led selling and customer discovery. No GTM consultant yet.

From this list · none yet

Early revenue, founder still selling

Holds growth back · No repeatable way to find and win the right accounts

A hands-on consultancy that sets the ICP and builds outbound with you

From this list · GTM Quest, Arise GTM, SalesCaptain

Scaling a first sales team

Holds growth back · Inconsistent win rates; marketing and sales misaligned

Sales process, RevOps and demand generation in one engagement

From this list · GTM Quest, Six & Flow, Heinz Marketing, FullFunnel

Growth stage, funded

Holds growth back · Demand creation at scale and efficient paid acquisition

Demand generation firms and outsourced marketing teams

From this list · Refine Labs, Directive

Mature or PE-backed

Holds growth back · One revenue model across functions; change after M&A

Revenue architecture and commercial transformation

From this list · Winning by Design, Magnus Consulting

If a consultancy says it serves every stage equally well, ask for case studies at yours.

13 / Sectors

GTM consulting by sector

The basics hold everywhere. The buying group, the cycle and the rules change by sector.

Ask any consultant how much of their recent work was in yours.

SaaS

Trials, buying groups and churn

Plan for the trial as part of go-to-market, and for expansion as much as acquisition.

SaaS GTM specialists →

Trial signalsExpansionPLG or sales-led

14 / Pricing

What GTM consultants cost in the UK

Most consultancies do not publish prices, and there is no UK survey of GTM consultant fees.

So here is what can be verified, and how to read a proposal.

Day rate

Advisory by the day

Most flexible

Project

Fixed scope and price

Most certain

Retainer

Monthly, ongoing

Watch the notice period

Fractional

A seat, part-time

Accountable over time

Days

A written diagnosis

What is wrong, and the first three things to change.

What moves the price: seniority, strategy or execution, channels, the tools you license, and length.

Ask every firm to separate its fee from software, and to name who does the work. More in the GTM consultant pricing guide.

What the market publishes

The figures that can be checked. Each links in the sources.

GTM strategy contract roles, UK median

£407/day

ITJobsWatch · 20 rates · 6 months to 8 Oct 2026

Same roles, 75th and 90th percentile

£550 · £1,050

ITJobsWatch · the senior end

UK interim day rate, all functions

£907/day

IIM survey 2026 · private sector £1,004

Refine Labs six-week assessment

$35,000

Published price · the only firm on this list that publishes

Refine Labs paid media to full service

$14k–$26k/mo

Published · six-month minimum

Permanent UK roles citing GTM strategy, median salary

£65,000

ITJobsWatch · 97 salaries · 6 months to 8 Oct 2026 · the in-house comparison

15 / Contracting

Hiring a consultant in the UK: IR35 and the contract

If the consultant works through their own limited company, the off-payroll rules (IR35) apply.

A medium or large client decides status and must issue a status determination statement. Test your size.

3/3tests met

Medium or large

You decide status and issue a status determination statement.

Two or more of: turnover over £15m, balance sheet over £7.5m, more than 50 employees. Financial years from 6 April 2025; under HMRC’s two-year rule the new limits first change a client’s size for 2027/28 at the earliest. Not legal advice.

53% of UK interims had no status determination statement in 2026 (IIM). Inside IR35 they averaged £830 a day; outside, £949.

15 minutes · video or phone

Not sure a consultant is the right shape?

We will tell you what your first month would contain, or that you need an agency, a hire or nothing yet.

16 / Choosing

How to choose a GTM consultant

Seven criteria, then the ten questions.

More in how to choose a GTM consultant.

Seven
criteria

Market understanding

Do they understand how your buyers buy, and who is in the room?

17 / Diligence

Ten questions to ask on the first call

Each has a good answer and a bad one. The bad answers are more common.

Tap a question to flip between them.

No licence or exam is needed to call yourself a GTM consultant.

0

of 10 read

Have the list in front of you on the call.

18 / Timing

When to hire a go-to-market consultant

Tick what is true for you.

A consultant cannot fix the five, and a good one will say so.

Eight signs you need one

Five situations where you should not

0

of 8

Tick what is true for you.

CB Insights, 431 start-up shutdowns: poor product-market fit was behind 43%. No consultant fixes that one.

19 / Red flags

Eight warning signs before you sign

None proves a consultancy is wrong for you.

Each is a reason to ask a harder question.

In the pitchNo named, dated exampleA percentage in a deck with no source.
In the pitchA senior pitch, a junior deliveryAsk who does the work, by name.
In the pitchVolume before targetingMore emails is not a strategy.
In the pitchNothing they would not doA consultant with no disqualifying case has never turned work down.
In the contractA long term with a long noticePrices a bad quarter at a full quarter.
In the contractTools in their nameA migration you negotiate from the weaker position.
In the contractNo definition of failureNo named month or metric to judge it by.
In the contractFees bundled with softwareYou cannot see what you are paying for.

20 / The choice before the choice

Consultant, agency, fractional or in-house?

Six alternatives get bought, and they are not substitutes.

They differ on one axis more than any other.

GTM consultantGTM agency

What you buy

Strategy and the system design, often with the first build

Execution: campaigns and channels run for you

Who leads

The consultant, with the founder or CRO

An account team under your direction

What you keep

A working system and the know-how to run it

Results while you pay; the system if the contract says so

Best when

The problem is how, not how much

You know what to do and lack the hands

Watch for

Decks without a build

Activity reported as outcome

→ GTM Quest is a hybrid: we design it, build it, then run it with you or hand it over.

More: What a go-to-market agency does

Gartner, March 2026: 67% of 646 buyers prefer a rep-free buying experience, and 45% used AI during a recent purchase.

Whoever you buy, they are building for a buyer who would rather not meet them.

21 / AI

AI in go-to-market: adoption is not impact

AI makes research, enrichment and first drafts cheap. It does not decide who to target or what to say.

Ask any consultant to show what their AI workflow produces on your own accounts, and where a person checks it.

88%

of organisations use AI regularly

McKinsey, State of AI 2025

39%

see enterprise-level EBIT impact

McKinsey, State of AI 2025

87%

of sales organisations use AI

Salesforce, State of Sales 2026

35%

of UK firms with 10+ staff use AI, from 12% in 2023

ONS, July 2026

22 / The UK market

The UK market in numbers

Why the UK is a serious place to build a go-to-market function.

Company counts move month to month, so we date them.

23 / Glossary

Ten terms you’ll hear from a GTM consultant

Plain definitions, so the first call is about your business rather than vocabulary.

The full list is in our GTM glossary.

Term

Ideal customer profile

The accounts most likely to buy and stay, by firmographics, roles and trigger.

24 / Questions

GTM consultant FAQ

17

questions

A go-to-market consultant: an outside specialist who decides who a B2B company should sell to, what to say, which channels to use and how sales follows up, and often builds the system that runs it.

Designs and often builds the system a B2B company uses to reach buyers and turn them into revenue: the ideal customer profile, positioning, channels, sales process and the measures that track it. Most specialise in two or three of the six services above.

A senior operator who pressure-tests your go-to-market decisions, usually a call every week or two, without building anything. An advisor suits a company with someone in post to do the work; a consultant suits one that needs it designed or built.

Few publish prices. ITJobsWatch puts the UK median contract day rate for GTM strategy roles at £407, with the 90th percentile at £1,050. The IIM's 2026 survey puts the average UK interim day rate at £907. Of the firms here, only Refine Labs publishes: from $14,000 a month. GTM Quest prices each engagement in writing after the discovery call.

A consultant decides what to do and designs the system; an agency runs channels and campaigns for you. Many firms are hybrids. The test is who holds the work when the engagement ends.

A fractional CMO or CRO is a part-time member of your leadership team with a number to own and people to manage. A GTM consultant is usually engaged for a defined piece of work. The difference is accountability and time.

After product-market fit and before the go-to-market motion is repeatable: when pipeline is unpredictable, when entering a new market, when changing sales motion, between senior commercial hires, or before a fundraise. Not before product-market fit.

A defined sprint, such as an ICP and positioning project, usually runs one to three months. Build-and-run engagements tend to start with three to six months before either side commits further. The contract should say how to stop.

No. Management consulting covers strategy and operations across a whole business; GTM consulting works only on the commercial engine: marketing, sales, customer success and revenue operations.

If the consultant works through their own limited company, yes. A medium or large client decides status and must issue a status determination statement; for a small private-sector client, the consultant's company decides. The size thresholds rose for financial years from 6 April 2025. This is not legal advice.

Common ones include MEDDICC and SPICED for qualification and discovery, the Bowtie for post-sale revenue, April Dunford's positioning from competitive alternatives, ICP and buying-group mapping, and efficiency measures such as CAC payback. Ask which they would use for you, and why.

Companies with product-market fit whose revenue is not yet repeatable: after the founder has proved people will buy, and before a full commercial team is in place.

Ask for case studies at your stage and in your market, speak to a recent client, get the delivery team named in the proposal, and agree three or four success measures and an exit.

Use a consultant to design and prove the motion, and in-house hires to run it once it works. Hiring a team before the motion is proven is the expensive mistake.

Most now do. Salesforce found 87% of sales organisations use some form of AI, but McKinsey found only 39% of organisations see enterprise-level EBIT impact. Ask to see what their AI workflow produces on your own accounts, and where a person checks it.

In B2B strategy, go-to-market: the plan and execution for bringing a product to its buyers.

Rarely, and they should not take the money if the product is the problem. CB Insights found poor product-market fit behind 43% of the 431 start-up shutdowns it analysed in 2026. Before fit, spend on customer discovery and founder-led selling.

15 minutes · video or phone

Book 15 minutes on your go-to-market.

Tell us who you sell to and where pipeline stalls. We come back with what day one and your first month would contain, and whether a consultant is the right shape at all.

  1. 0115 minutes, video or phone
  2. 02We look at your ICP, channels and data
  3. 03A written next step after the call
  4. 04Handover, embedded or run-for-you engagements
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Sources

Primary sources

Every figure traces to the instrument’s owner. Data, prices and guidance checked on 8 October 2026.

01forrester.comForrester, The State of Business Buying, 2026 ↗21 Jan 202602gartner.comGartner, 67% of B2B buyers prefer a rep-free experience ↗9 March 202603gartner.comGartner, 61% prefer rep-free; 73% avoid irrelevant outreach ↗25 June 202504businesswire.com6sense, 2025 Buyer Experience Report ↗12 Nov 202505linkedin.comLinkedIn B2B Institute, the 95-5 rule ↗06mckinsey.comMcKinsey, The surprising economics of B2B growth ↗2026 Global B2B Pulse07mckinsey.comMcKinsey, The state of AI in 2025 ↗5 Nov 202508salesforce.comSalesforce, State of Sales 2026 ↗3 Feb 202609ons.gov.ukONS, Artificial intelligence in UK businesses, 2023 to 2026 ↗20 July 202610ons.gov.ukONS, UK business: activity, size and location, 2026 ↗24 Sept 202611gov.ukDSIT, Digital sector economic estimates (GVA) ↗12 Feb 202612ipa.co.ukIPA, Bellwether Report Q2 2026 ↗16 July 202613ebsta.comEbsta and Pavilion, 2023 B2B Sales Benchmark Report ↗Feb 202314itjobswatch.co.ukITJobsWatch, GTM Strategy contract rates (UK) ↗6 months to 8 Oct 202615itjobswatch.co.ukITJobsWatch, GTM Strategy salaries (UK) ↗6 months to 8 Oct 202616iim.org.ukInstitute of Interim Management, Interim Management Survey 2026 ↗June 202617refinelabs.comRefine Labs, pricing ↗Checked 8 Oct 202618gov.ukHMRC, Understanding off-payroll working (IR35) ↗19gov.ukHMRC, ESM10006A: size thresholds from 6 April 2025 ↗20businesswire.comGartner, Marketing and sales collaborate on 3 of 15 activities ↗4 June 202421cbinsights.comCB Insights, The top reasons startups fail ↗5 March 202622meddicc.comMEDDICC, Who created MEDDIC ↗23winningbydesign.comWinning by Design, the Bowtie ↗24aprildunford.comApril Dunford, A quickstart guide to positioning ↗March 202125Companies HouseFractional Quest Ltd (17322105) ↗