Ask five experts and you’ll get five different answers — six if one went to Harvard.
—Edgar Fiedler
That quote from Fiedler sums up a challenge we’ve seen for years: everyone’s talking GTM, but few are speaking the same language. While as consultants we strive for simple terms with plain speak definitions, we’re well-aware the language around GTM is squishy―prone to interpretation and misunderstanding. That ambiguity slows down teams, derails alignment, and undermines strategy. So we built something to help.
Working in go-to-market, there are so many terms we use with such regularly that it’s become its own jargon language. As part of the exploration we tried to find the right, perfect, ONE definition for the terms we frequently use. There’s no shortage of definitions. Some are academic. Some are consultant-speak. Never are they all found in one place.
- Is Go-to-Market strategy the execution of a business model, or marketing execution
- Are routes-to-market about sales structure or distribution strategy?
- Is demand generation the same as lead gen? Or does it encompass brand and awareness?
And, we kept finding slightly nuanced answers, as Fiedler pointed out. Not only that, amid the multitudes of definitions, we found inconsistencies in context and applicability.
Step 1 Alignment: Agree on Language
The nuance is where the misalignment hides. These differences aren’t hair-splitting, they’re real definitional differences that can confuse what’s being said and misguide audiences. We needed our own list, the Go-to-Market Glossary.
According to Gartner, 70% of B2B sales and marketing teams report misalignment on strategy and execution priorities. We all know, organizations with high alignment outperform those with low alignment by up to 15% in revenue growth, and 20% in customer retention. And McKinsey noted most failed GTM transformations aren’t due to quality but to coordination breakdowns, unclear roles, and inconsistent planning language.
Introducing the Go-to-Market® Glossary
You can’t align teams with fuzzy language. At Marketbridge, Go-to-Market isn’t just a phrase we use. It’s a practice we have built over 30 years—when we trademarked the term Go-to-Market®. Since then, we’ve worked with Fortune 500 companies, leaders and innovators to define and execute Go-to-Market strategies that drive growth and customer relevance. Across industries, we’ve learned is this: GTM isn’t static―it evolves with the market, the buyer, and the business model. We launched the GTM Glossary not to settle every debate, but to start a conversation―one grounded in practical experience, shared language, and strategic clarity.
It’s a dynamic resource that includes:
- Simple, usable definitions of core GTM terms in one place
- Related terms and concepts, to highlight how one definition influences another
- Resources to go deeper, for those looking to connect ideas to action
- And a feedback loop to continue the conversation
We didn’t build this to be definitive—we built it to be useful. The Go-to-Market Glossary is meant to evolve, just like GTM itself. We’ll be updating it regularly with feedback from practitioners, clients, and readers like you.
Check the Go-to-Market Glossary out and let’s discuss!
