The Illusion of Strength

Go-to-market leaders often equate strong revenue performance with organizational health. When the team hits its number, leaders assume the model is working. But our 2025 GTM Survey reveals a different reality: in most PE and VC-backed companies, roughly half or fewer of the reps consistently hit quota. A minority of exceptional sellers are driving a disproportionate share of results, and leadership is mistaking their contributions for broad-based execution. The model appears stable until one of those individuals leaves or stumbles. Then the fragility becomes obvious.

For Chief Revenue Officers (CROs), CEOs, and operating partners, this concentration of productivity can mask deeper issues inside the GTM function. The question is not whether the team has strong performers, but whether success is being built in a way that can scale. The next step is identifying the leadership signals that indicate over-reliance on a few individuals and the behaviors required to build a durable, repeatable model. 

Hidden Risk Behind Star-Driven Teams 

Every organization has a handful of top performers who deliver critical wins. But when too much of the revenue engine depends on their success, the business becomes vulnerable. Turnover is the most obvious risk. A strong seller may be recruited by a competitor or step away for personal reasons, immediately removing a significant share of revenue generation. Even when star performers remain, their output fluctuates. They can have an off quarter, lose a major account, or encounter market shifts that slow progress. 

Reliance on exceptional talent often reflects structural weaknesses within the GTM function. Organizations that cannot replicate success across the team typically lack regular coaching, clear processes, and the operational discipline required to develop the middle. Without a leadership model that builds capability across the entire team, the organization becomes fragile as it grows. Our survey reinforces this reality, with only 5% of respondents reporting their teams exceeded their goals in 2024. 

The Signs of Weak GTM Leadership 

If a team’s success depends on a few standout performers, the leadership model is often the root of the problem. Below are common behaviors that signal inadequate GTM leadership: 

1. Managing solely to metrics instead of developing people.
   Leaders focus on reporting numbers rather than coaching individuals to improve their skills and close capability gaps.

2. Spending disproportionate time with top performers instead of the middle.
   High performers require reinforcement, not heavy support, yet reps in the middle who are poised to make progress often receive the least attention.

3. Inconsistent 1:1s, deal reviews, and coaching rhythms.
   Irregular or unstructured leadership routines lead to unclear expectations, uneven feedback, and stalled progress.

4. No replicable playbook for skill development or pipeline quality.
   Without a consistent approach to qualification, discovery, and deal execution, reps rely on guesswork instead of proven methods.

5. Scaling headcount without scaling capability.
   Hiring more sellers without improving the team’s underlying skills and processes results in a larger organization with the same challenges. 

What Strong Leaders Do Differently

The most effective GTM leaders build operating models that make performance repeatable, not dependent on outliers. 

They analyze performance distribution, not just attainment.
Effective GTM leaders examine how results are distributed across the team. They track variance, monitor progression among middle performers, and evaluate whether success is becoming more consistent over time. 

They invest leadership time where it matters most.
Top performers need reinforcement, not intensive support. Strong leaders direct the majority of their coaching time toward developing the middle of the team, where skill gains have the greatest impact on overall performance.

They enable top performers without micromanagement.
Great performers might not need intensive coaching, but they do need the right environment to sustain their output. Strong leaders give them autonomy, remove obstacles, involve them in building repeatable playbooks, and create pathways for them to mentor others. 

They build repeatable, durable systems.
Rather than relying on individual heroics, they create standardized processes for qualification, discovery, deal reviews, and forecasting. They use what works among their top performers to formalize a replicable operating model and invest in enablement that builds capability across the entire organization. 

They stress test the organization.
Strong leaders model what happens if a star performer leaves or experiences a downturn. They build a GTM engine resilient enough to sustain performance even when individual outputs fluctuate. 

The strength of a GTM function is not defined by the performance of a few top sellers, but by the entire team. Leaders who want an accurate view of their GTM health should look beyond topline results and examine whether their success depends on individual heroics or a scalable, repeatable system. For CROs, CEOs, and boards, the question worth asking is not whether the team is hitting the number, but whether the model can sustain performance when the outliers are removed. 

To benchmark your organization’s performance distribution and learn how leading teams are preparing for 2026, download the full 2025 JM Search GTM Survey.