The 7-Question GTM Diagnostic

Most GTM audits are lists of things that could be better. They're not wrong — they're just not actionable. You end up with 40 pages of observations and no clear answer about what to fix first.

This diagnostic asks seven questions. Each one targets a specific failure point in the pipeline. Your answers reveal which failure points you have. Your score tells you where to start.

Do this honestly. The diagnostic only works if you resist the urge to grade yourself charitably.

Score each question 0, 1, or 2. Zero means this isn't happening at your company. One means it's partially in place but not working well. Two means it's solid and generating real results. Add your scores at the end.

Open a new browser tab and search for your CEO's full name. What comes up? A sparse LinkedIn profile? A company bio from three years ago? Nothing?

Now search for the CEO of your top competitor.

This is the most revealing test of your content program. Buyers research executives before taking meetings, accepting LinkedIn requests, and responding to cold email. If your CEO doesn't have a visible presence in your category, you're invisible during the most important phase of the buying process — the one that happens before you know the buyer exists.

Ask your best SDR: how often does someone reply to a cold email and mention they've already heard of you?

For most early-stage B2B companies the answer is rarely or never. Every outbound touch starts from zero. Every email has to earn trust from scratch.

When a buyer already knows your name, the entire dynamic shifts. They're not deciding whether to engage — they're confirming what they already think they know. That's the difference between cold outreach and warm outreach, and it's almost entirely a content problem.

Pull up your last five closed-won deals. Look at the notes, the email thread, the deal history. Now try to name the content that moved each deal — a LinkedIn post they mentioned, a report they cited, a webinar they attended before booking the demo.

For most companies, this information doesn't exist. The content team measures impressions. The sales team measures close rate. The connection between those two things has never been made.

This is why most marketing teams can't defend their budgets. Not because content doesn't work — because they've never built the attribution layer to prove it does.

Look at your last five posts or content pieces. What was the call to action?

"Learn more on our website" is not a call to action. "Contact us" is friction disguised as a CTA. The question is: after someone reads your content, is there an obvious next thing they can do that requires almost no effort and delivers real value?

A specific resource to download. A diagnostic to complete. A short workshop to attend. Something concrete enough that they know exactly what they're getting. Companies that convert content into pipeline have specific, low-friction next steps everywhere. Not generic contact prompts.

Do you have any way to know when a prospect moves from unaware to considering — before they tell you?

Pre-intent signals look like this: someone who follows you on LinkedIn and starts engaging with posts. A prospect who downloads two resources in one week. An account that keeps showing up in your analytics with repeat visits to the pricing page.

Without a way to capture these signals, your SDR reaches out at random instead of at the moment of highest intent. Your content generates awareness that never gets converted because nobody is watching for the signal that awareness has become consideration.

If you stopped all paid ads tomorrow, what would generate leads?

This is a stress test. Strip out the paid channels. Remove the budget. What's left?

For most B2B companies, the honest answer is: not much. A small email list. Some word of mouth. Maybe a few inbound inquiries. Ads generate leads while you're paying for them. The moment you stop, the leads stop. There's no asset building over time.

The companies that build genuine pipeline durability invest in channels that compound — a growing audience, a content library, an executive who has become the recognizable voice in the category. These assets keep generating returns long after the work was done.

Call your best customer and ask them: "If a colleague asked what we do, what would you tell them?"

If they give a generic description that could apply to any competitor, you have a positioning problem. And the solution is almost never a new website — it's a visible, consistent, original point of view communicated over enough time that it becomes associated with you.

The companies that win in competitive categories are the ones where the buyer's peer network already has an opinion before the first sales call. That opinion is formed by content.

Add up your scores. Maximum is 14.

0–4: Visibility crisis. Your buyers can't find you. You're starting every conversation from zero. The highest-leverage fix is a consistent founder content program — a visible presence with a clear POV in front of your ICP.

5–8: Conversion gap. Buyers are finding you but not converting. The content exists but it's not building enough trust to move deals. Focus on trust signals, attribution, and content with specific next steps.

9–11: Scaling gap. Your foundation works and you're generating pipeline from content. The opportunity is compounding what's working — more systematic distribution, better attribution, and activating your outbound motion with content.

12–14: You're in the minority. The content engine is working. The question now is how to protect the lead you have over competitors who are still catching up.

Most companies want to fix everything at once. Don't.

If you scored 0–4: fix Q1 and Q2. Everything else depends on visibility. Until your buyers know who you are, no amount of attribution infrastructure or intent signals will matter.

If you scored 5–8: fix Q4 and Q5. You have awareness without conversion. Build specific next steps into your content and install the infrastructure to watch for intent signals.

If you scored 9–11: fix Q3 and Q7. You're generating pipeline but not measuring it or positioning for the long term. Attribution and word-of-mouth are the investments that compound the most.

In almost every case the root cause of all seven questions is the same: the people who know your category best aren't visible enough. Their insight isn't reaching the market at the frequency and depth it needs to.