GTM: The Visible Front and the Invisible Force
In our previous post on Getting GTM Right, we explored Nexus — how GTM readiness is built through alignment, enablement, and clarity of intent. Nexus sets the stage. But performance doesn’t come from planning alone. It comes from doing — consistently, coherently, and in sync.
This is where Nerve comes in. And it’s time to rethink what it really is.
The Classic View of GTM, and Why It’s Incomplete
When people think about GTM execution, they picture sales, marketing, customer success. The customer-facing functions. And rightly so — those are the faces the market sees.
But let’s pause and ask: who actually delivers the customer experience? The answer: everyone does.
A salesperson might close the deal — but it’s the operations team that activates the service, the finance team that ensures invoicing clarity, the product team that fixes malfunctions and evolves the roadmap, the supply chain that ensures availability, and the leadership team that steers trade-offs in capacity, pricing, or delivery.
Customer-facing functions may be in the spotlight, but the supporting cast makes the play possible. That’s why GTM can’t be seen as an isolated commercial lane. It must be understood — and run — as a company-wide pursuit, where every function plays an intentional, customer-facing role — directly or indirectly.
GTM is a relay race — and the baton is only successfully passed when every hand in the business is committed to a single outcome: customer impact.
Nerve = Execution in All Directions
Pathway’s concept of Nerve includes both the classic view of GTM execution (sales, marketing, success) and the extended view — all the hidden but essential infrastructure that determines whether the GTM motion flows or clogs.
We still recognise the external rhythm of GTM:
Deal Generation – winning new customers
Customer Success – ensuring they stay, grow, and advocate
Governance & Steering – maintaining alignment and decision velocity
But we go further. Because each of these is deeply reliant on a shadow system:
Deal generation that fails because the supply chain can’t meet demand.
Customer success that suffers because the backend can’t scale service delivery.
Governance loops that break down because operational data is fragmented or opaque.
These are not edge cases. They are everyday realities. And they arise not from bad execution, but from misaligned execution — where functions are expected to support a GTM motion they were never included in designing.
How Nexus Enables Nerve to Function
That’s exactly why Nexus matters. The outputs of Nexus — your defined offer, target segments, commercial model, and GTM baseline — are not just strategy artifacts. They are the jointly designed instruction set that outlines how every function is to play its role in the GTM.
Take “Product Management & Development.” If they weren’t engaged through Nexus, how can they evolve the roadmap to support the promises Sales is making? Take Finance. If they’re unclear on the financing model or are not briefed on ICP* dynamics, how can they back pricing flexibility or invest in the right incentives?
Nexus is what equips the entire organisation to perform within the GTM system.
Nerve is what brings that alignment to life — not just at launch, but through sustained, real-time execution.
When Nexus is done right, backend and support teams don’t lag behind. They’re not brought in as problem-solvers when friction arises. They are co-architects of customer value from day one.
GTM Output: Acquisition, Continuity, Expansion
When Nerve activates, it translates strategy into revenue motion. But not all revenue is created equal — and not all GTM motions are alike.
We break it down into three categories:
Acquisition: New logos. New deals. This is where your message and offer are pressure-tested in the market. But it’s not just about top-line growth — it’s about fit. Selling to the wrong customer segment is a slow form of failure.
Continuity: Delivering on the promise. Meeting expectations consistently. This is where most GTM systems either earn the right to grow — or quietly lose momentum.
Expansion: Where your existing customer base becomes your biggest growth lever. But expansion can only happen if continuity has done its job — and if you’re actively enabling customers to thrive.
Each of these requires different rhythms and resources. But all three share two fundamentals:
They depend on coordination between commercial and operational teams.
And they rely on real-time understanding of how the GTM is performing — across every part of the journey.
Market Feedback: The Nervous System in Action
In Nexus, Market Input is a constant, flowing into every part of the GTM loop. That signal doesn’t disappear in Nerve — it intensifies, as Market Feedback.
It happens in the obvious places — customer interactions, win/loss reviews, churn analysis, CSAT scores — but also in the less visible ones:
When delivery timelines slip because demand surged unexpectedly.
When operations flags a bottleneck that could jeopardize renewals.
When sales hears the same objection five times in a week.
These are not just operational quirks. They are market signals — and Nerve ensures they’re not lost in translation. That means:
Transparency in surfacing friction, not hiding it.
Agility in acting on it.
Customer First in prioritising what matters most.
Empowerment by enabling those closest to the problem to act.
And no, it’s not by chance that these aspects align with Pathway’s values…
Nerve is the mechanism by which market feedback is captured, shared, and acted upon.
Governance: Making GTM a Shared Discipline
If all of this sounds like it takes work — it does. But it also unlocks leverage. Because high-performing GTM isn’t managed reactively. It’s steered — deliberately and continuously.
This is where Govern & Steer comes in.
Not a quarterly review. Not a status check. But an operating system that enables:
Single-pane visibility across acquisition, continuity, and expansion
Joint ownership across commercial and operational leaders
Decision-making based on real data, not loudest voices
Critically, this means including backend leaders — operations, finance, delivery — in GTM governance. Not occasionally. Every time. Why?
Because they carry the weight of delivery.
Because their trade-offs shape what’s possible.
Because their perspective grounds GTM in reality.
A GTM governance model that excludes backend is not just incomplete. It’s fragile.
This is where Pathway’s Embedment value is most visible — creating the space and structure for leadership to act as a team, not a chain of command.
The Culture of Nerve
At its core, Nerve is not a process. It’s a way of operating. It’s what happens when the entire organisation moves:
With a shared definition of success.
With the discipline to prioritise what matters.
With the courage to tell the truth.
With the speed to respond, and the clarity to steer.
And it’s what happens when the customer sits at the centre of that motion — not as a persona on a slide, but as the very reason the company exists.
This is what our values look like in practice:
Customer First: We serve real needs, not vanity metrics.
Radical Truth: We surface what’s not working, early.
Nimble in Action: We move fast, without breaking trust.
Embedment: We don’t fix teams from the outside. We enable them to lead from within.
Final Word: Execution Is Everyone’s Business
You don’t build GTM muscle in isolation. You build it by turning alignment into action, and strategy into shared delivery.
Nerve is how that happens: it’s how GTM becomes a company-wide discipline; how functions stay connected to outcomes; how leadership steers, adapts, and empowers; and how customer impact becomes the lens through which every team makes decisions.
GTM isn’t a department. It’s the business, in motion.
Coming Next
In the next post, we’ll dig deeper into the operating layer of Nerve — how to execute and govern GTM across acquisition, continuity, and expansion. We’ll look at the metrics that matter, the rituals that sustain motion, and how to keep leadership aligned without slowing teams down.
* ICP: Ideal Customer Profile
