Roles we recruit
Seven practices, 27 functions. Start at the practice when you cannot yet name the title; go straight to the function when you can.
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A GTM strategist picks the segment, sets what the offer is worth, chooses the route to market and proves the plan with a model your board will accept. Everyone interviews well, so we shortlist the ones who can name a number that moved because of their decision.
A strategist’s first quarter decides whether the plan ever reaches the field. Each stage below has a signal that predicts it, and we test for that signal before you meet anyone.
The first quarter, and the test behind each milestone
Weeks 1 to 3
Win and loss by segment, pipeline, pricing history and churn, then conversations with sales, customer success, product, finance and a handful of customers. The plan you already have gets taken apart before anything new is proposed.
On track looks like can name the three assumptions your current plan rests on, and which one is weakest.
How we test for it before you meet them
Our screen: forty-five minutes on one decision they made and what revenue did in the two quarters after it. Process talkers stop here.
Weeks 4 to 6
Which customers you pursue this year and, harder, which ones you stop serving, with the revenue and cost of each named. The second half is where weak strategists go quiet.
On track looks like a written segment call your CRO and CFO can argue with line by line.
How we test for it before you meet them
We ask for a segment they stopped serving: the revenue given up, the reason, and where the freed capacity went. Almost nobody offers this unprompted.
Weeks 7 to 9
How the product is packaged and where it is priced against the alternatives your buyer really compares, and whether direct, partner or self serve carries it, costed to payback rather than argued by preference.
On track looks like two route-to-market options with acquisition cost and payback, and a recommendation.
How we test for it before you meet them
A two-hour working session on a redacted cut of your numbers. We challenge assumptions live and watch what they admit they still need to know.
Weeks 10 to 13
A forecast built upward from segment size, win rate, deal size and capacity, every assumption visible and open to challenge, taken to the leadership team and defended there.
On track looks like a model your CFO can read line by line, not a deck that hides the arithmetic.
How we test for it before you meet them
We ask about a forecast they took to a board that missed, and how they explained the variance. We want the miss, not the beat.
After day 90
What launches first, what waits, and what the field needs on day one: territories, quota inputs, enablement and reference accounts. Strategy that never reaches a rep is filing.
On track looks like reps selling into the chosen segment, with a date set to review the numbers.
How we test for it before you meet them
References built around the decision, not the personality: we ask a CFO or sales leader whether the plan held and what it cost. You get the notes, unflattering ones included.
Five responsibilities. If three or more are unowned, or split between a product lead and a sales lead who disagree, you are hiring a GTM Strategist whatever the requisition says.
Which customers you pursue this year and which ones you stop serving, with the revenue and cost of each named.
How the product is bundled, what sits in each tier, and where you land against the alternatives your buyer is comparing. Position here, pricing mechanics elsewhere.
Direct, partner, self serve or a mix, costed to payback. This call quietly sets your hiring plan for two years.
A forecast built upward from segment size, win rate, deal size and capacity, with every assumption visible. If a CFO cannot read it line by line, it is a deck.
What launches first, what waits, and what the field needs on day one: territories, quota inputs, enablement and reference accounts.
Three neighboring titles absorb work people assume belongs here. Drawing the line wrong is why a GTM strategy hire unravels in month four.
That seat ownsThe engine once the plan exists: pipeline coverage, conversion rates, quota and territory design, comp.
Hire it instead whenthe model is sound and the number is still missed.
That seat ownsHow the decision is explained: positioning, messaging, launch narrative and field enablement.
Hire it instead whenthe segments are settled and the market simply does not understand the product.
That seat ownsThe mechanics: elasticity testing, discount governance, renewal uplift and margin by tier.
Hire it instead whenthe market position is set and the number needs proving and defending deal by deal.
The title stays the same; the scope does not. Pick the one that matches the decision in front of you.
The company’s first dedicated strategist, usually reporting to the founder or CEO, taking over segment and price calls that were made informally until now.
Hired to take an existing product into a new segment, vertical or country.
Runs the planning cycle across segments, pricing and channels, sometimes with an analyst, and presents the plan to the board.
The questions we ask in our own screen. Use them in yours; the warning signs are as useful as the answers.
Every candidate we put forward is scored on these five, and the scores travel with the shortlist, gaps included. Four out of five with a named weakness beats a clean sweep you cannot verify.
| What we score | Weak evidence | Strong evidence |
|---|---|---|
| A segment they stopped serving | Has only ever added segments, or cannot name the revenue given up. | Names the segment, the revenue given up, the reason and where the freed capacity went. |
| A price or packaging change they shipped | A recommendation or pricing study that never went live. | A live change with before and after on deal size, win rate or churn, and what broke. |
| Channel economics owned to payback | Prefers channels by instinct, with no acquisition cost behind the view. | States acquisition cost and payback for two channels they ran, and why they stopped funding one. |
| A forecast they defended | Talks only about forecasts that beat, or models someone else built. | Built the model, took it to a board, then explained the variance when it missed. |
| Handover to the field | The plan ended at the deck. | Territories cut, quotas set, enablement written, deals closed against the new motion. |
Public US benchmarks, read October 2026. The rows are the nearest published titles, each labeled as a neighboring seat. Read scope rather than label: the same job is a GTM Strategist at one company and a GTM strategy manager or Director of GTM Strategy at the next, and pay moves with the scope.
Each bar runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile, the middle half of reported pay.
Base salaryWages including commission (BLS)
Strategy Manager
Salary.com base benchmark, neighboring seat
$122,761 to $146,380 base
Strategic Planning Manager
Salary.com base benchmark, neighboring seat
$121,446 to $145,365 base
Director of Strategy
Salary.com base benchmark, the director-level seat
$150,092 to $179,848 base
Management analysts
BLS, all industries
$77,950 to $133,370
Strategy Manager, Strategic Planning Manager and Director of Strategy: Salary.com base salary, 25th to 75th percentile, United States, as of October 1, 2026. Management analysts: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, annual wage at the 25th and 75th percentiles (SOC 13-1111), all industries; the BLS notes they are often called management consultants. Bonus and equity come in addition to base at director level. Public aggregates, not ZaphyrRecruit placement data.
A GTM strategist, or go-to-market strategist, decides which customer segment a company goes after, how the product is packaged and priced for that segment, and which channel carries it to market. They then build the model that shows what the plan is worth and hand a sequenced launch to the teams who execute it. The seat rarely carries a quota or a team. Its output is a decision and a model that survive the board.
The nearest published benchmarks put a Strategy Manager at $122,761 to $146,380 base and a Director of Strategy at $150,092 to $179,848 base (Salary.com, 25th to 75th percentile, October 2026). Scope moves the number more than the title: a senior individual contributor usually prices near the first band and a director who runs the planning cycle near the second, with bonus and equity added at director level.
A product marketing manager owns how a product is explained: positioning, messaging, launch assets and the enablement the field uses. A GTM strategist owns which market the product is aimed at, how it is priced and packaged, and which channel carries it. One decides the plan, the other lands it. In smaller companies one person does both. Where they are split, hold the strategist to the segment and price call, the marketer to the launch.
Look for someone who has owned a segment, pricing or channel decision end to end and can name what it changed. Strong backgrounds include revenue strategy, product marketing with commercial ownership, corporate strategy followed by an operating role, and consulting followed by at least two years inside a company. Pure consulting profiles read well and often stall, because the work ended at the recommendation. We ask about the twelve months after the deck.
Both work, and the trigger is different. Hire permanent when the segment, pricing and channel decisions recur every quarter and someone has to hold the model between them. Bring in a fractional strategist when you need one decision made well, usually a market entry or a repricing, with a defined end date. The GTM Strategy page sets out how we run permanent, fractional and head of strategy searches.
Give them your real numbers and two hours. Ask which segment you should stop serving, what the offer should cost and which channel should carry it, with the trade-offs priced. A good strategist will tell you what data is missing and decide anyway. A weak one presents a framework. Avoid the take-home deck: it rewards production value and says little about how someone reasons under challenge.
Ten working days from a signed brief to a shortlist. The rest of the clock is yours: interview slots, internal sign-off and the candidate’s start date. Most US candidates start two to four weeks after accepting, and we flag anything longer on the shortlist rather than at offer.
Tell us the decision this person has to make in their first quarter. We come back within one business day with how we would run the search and what that scope pays.
We build shortlists from people doing this work now, often before a seat is advertised. Set up a job alert for strategy roles, or send your CV and we will come to you when a seat opens.
The GTM Strategist is one of ten seats in this function. If the gap sits somewhere else, start there.