What is GTM Engineering – and Are You Already Doing It?

You’ve probably heard the term “GTM” (Go-to-Market) thrown around in strategy meetings, product launches, or sales stand-ups. But what about GTM engineering — or a GTM engineer?

It might sound like another bit of tech jargon, but it’s actually a fast-growing discipline that’s quietly transforming how companies grow. In fact, if you work in sales, marketing, or operations at a high-growth business — especially in B2B SaaS — you might already be doing it, without realising.

So what is GTM engineering? Why is it becoming so important? And could this be the missing link between your tools, teams, and revenue?

At Lagom Consulting, we help financial, professional services, and B2B firms turn fragmented systems into streamlined, scalable go-to-market operations. If your tech stack is growing but your process isn’t keeping pace, this article is for you.

Let’s break it down GTM engineering and the role of the GTM engineer.

What Is GTM Engineering?

At its core, GTM engineering is about leveraging technology — particularly AI, automation, and integrated data systems — to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of how companies acquire and convert customers at scale. It requires a blend of engineering mindset, data fluency, and commercial awareness.

A GTM engineer is the person behind that process. Think of them as the architect and builder of the systems that connect your sales, marketing, and product teams. They’re not just coders — they blend technical skills with commercial awareness to solve real business problems.

• Automating outbound campaigns and personalisation at scale

• Orchestrating complex tech stacks (CRM, product analytics, marketing automation)

• Connecting APIs and custom workflows to remove manual bottlenecks

• Enriching and segmenting customer data to improve targeting

• Running rapid experiments and proof-of-concepts

• Feeding insights back to sales, marketing and product teams

In short, GTM engineers sit between strategic vision and technical execution, helping companies run faster, smarter, and more precisely.

How Is GTM Engineering Different from Traditional Marketing?

GTM engineering isn’t just a rebranded version of marketing ops — it’s a fundamentally different approach to scaling growth. While traditional marketing focuses on campaigns, messaging, and brand building, GTM engineering is about systems, automation, and real-time data orchestration.

A GTM engineer doesn’t spend their day writing ad copy or planning social media calendars. Instead, they’re behind the scenes connecting your CRM to your product analytics, automating lead flows, enriching customer data, and making sure your entire go-to-market engine runs like a well-oiled machine.

Here’s how the two approaches stack up:

Aspect	Traditional Marketing	GTM Engineering
Focus	Campaigns, brand, lead gen	Systems, automation, data, scale
Approach	Strategic, creative, channel-based	Technical, operational, workflow-based
Tools	Social, content, email, ads	APIs, AI platforms, automation tools
Output	Leads, brand awareness, conversions	Scalable workflows, clean data, efficiency
Measurement	Clicks, impressions, conversion rates	Automation ROI, data flow, system uptime
Team Structure	Marketers, designers, analysts	Engineers, RevOps, automation specialists

Key Differentiators

What makes GTM engineering so powerful — and so different from traditional marketing or sales ops — is its focus on precision, integration, and scale. A GTM engineer doesn’t just plug tools together; they build the underlying infrastructure that lets go-to-market teams move faster and smarter.

Here’s what sets it apart:

• Precision at Scale: Instead of broad, one-size-fits-all campaigns, GTM engineering enables finely tuned automation and AI-driven personalisation that adapts to real-time buyer behaviour.

• Seamless Integration: A GTM engineer bridges disconnected systems — syncing data across CRM, product usage, and marketing tools — to ensure teams are always working from the same playbook.

• Rapid Experimentation: GTM engineers can spin up tests and workflows in hours, not weeks, allowing businesses to iterate quickly and stay ahead of changing market conditions.

• Technical Depth: While marketers craft messaging and campaigns, GTM engineers build, maintain, and optimise the tech stack that makes those efforts scalable and measurable.

Ultimately, GTM engineering shifts the mindset from campaign-first to system-first — with GTM engineers acting as the glue between strategy, operations, and technology.

Are You Already Doing GTM Engineering Without Realising?

The funny thing about GTM engineering is that many companies are doing parts of it already — they just haven’t named it. If you’re in a B2B environment, particularly in technology, professional services or financial services, chances are your teams are already engaging in activities that fall squarely under the GTM engineering umbrella.

You might be using AI to route leads, integrating product usage data into your CRM, or automating repetitive workflows in HubSpot, Salesforce, or Zapier. If that’s the case, congratulations — you’re dabbling in GTM engineering. And whoever’s building and managing those systems? They’re your unofficial GTM engineer.

You might already be doing GTM engineering if:

• You’re scoring and routing leads using AI or rules-based logic

• Your marketing or business development (BD) team is using CRM automation to trigger follow-ups, alerts, or reminders

• Product usage or behavioural data is being fed directly into sales or marketing workflows

• You’ve built custom scripts, low-code/no-code workflows, or API connectors to eliminate manual tasks

• Teams are enriching client or prospect data with tools like PitchBook, Orbis, or Companies House integrations

• You rely heavily on platforms like Zapier, Make.com, Segment, or Tray.io to connect your systems

• Growth, RevOps, or BD team members are spending more time managing integrations and reporting than focusing on strategy

• You hear “we just need one more integration” more often than you'd like

• Your sales and marketing platforms technically work — but only thanks to a patchwork of behind-the-scenes automations

Each of these is a strong indicator that GTM engineering is already happening in your organisation, even if it’s not formalised. The question isn’t whether you’re doing it — it’s whether you’re doing it intentionally, with the right structure and support.

Where the Gaps Start to Show

If you're scaling — or simply trying to become more efficient — this is where the cracks tend to appear:

• No single owner of the GTM tech stack: Marketing, sales, and operations are working in silos

• Manual processes are everywhere: Prospect handovers, onboarding, reporting — all done via email or spreadsheets

• The CRM is messy or underused: Tools are in place, but no one’s truly responsible for making them work well

• You can’t track the full buyer journey: Data lives in five places, and no one knows which source of truth to trust

• Automation is piecemeal: There are automations, but they’re reactive, undocumented, and fragile

This is where a dedicated GTM engineer comes in — someone who sees the bigger picture, owns the systems end-to-end, and proactively builds infrastructure that scales.

Why It Matters in Financial and Professional Services

In financial services, GTM engineering ensures that every piece of client-facing outreach and internal workflow complies with regulatory requirements — without slowing teams down. In professional services, it streamlines BD processes, improves client onboarding, and removes the friction that comes from legacy tools or siloed data.

Ultimately, as more firms aim to be data-driven, efficient, and scalable, GTM engineering is quickly becoming a must-have capability — not just for tech companies, but for anyone serious about growth.

So the real question is: Do you have a GTM engineer — or are you still relying on duct tape and goodwill?

Why GTM Engineering Matters Now

Why is GTM engineering suddenly getting so much attention?

The way businesses go to market has fundamentally changed — and it’s only getting more complex.

Teams are juggling more tools than ever: CRMs, marketing platforms, onboarding systems, analytics dashboards, data enrichment services, compliance layers… the list goes on. In financial and professional services, this complexity is compounded by strict regulations, long buying cycles, and the need for highly personalised client experiences.

In this environment, having a GTM engineer — someone who can stitch all of these moving parts together — is becoming essential.

Three big reasons GTM engineering is gaining ground:

1. Tech stacks have exploded — and someone needs to own them

The average go-to-market team is no longer dealing with one or two systems. It’s ten, twenty, sometimes more — all needing to talk to each other in real time. A GTM engineer ensures those systems don’t just function, but function as one.

2. No-code and low-code tools have levelled the playing field

Tools like Zapier, HubSpot Workflows, Salesforce Flow, Make.com, and others have made automation accessible — even to non-developers. But accessibility doesn’t equal scalability. A GTM engineer turns one-off automations into sustainable infrastructure that grows with your business.

3. Manual processes don’t scale — and they’re costing you

In growth-focused businesses, the cracks show quickly. Leads slip through the net. Client onboarding drags. BD and marketing waste hours exporting data instead of acting on it. GTM engineering fills the gap, replacing bottlenecks with well-oiled workflows that save time and protect revenue.

Why It’s Not Just for SaaS Anymore

Yes, GTM engineering was born in the SaaS world — but it’s just as relevant in regulated industries where compliance, accuracy, and speed all matter.

In financial services, a GTM engineer might:

• Automate KYC workflows from CRM to compliance platforms

• Ensure FCA-compliant email sequences are triggered automatically

• Connect onboarding forms with internal systems to reduce admin time

In professional services, they might:

• Build workflows that track BD interactions across the full client lifecycle

• Sync data between email marketing platforms and CRM tools

• Surface insight on which accounts are most likely to convert — and when

Wherever data, process, and people intersect, GTM engineering brings structure, scale, and speed.

Final Thoughts: GTM Engineering Is Already Here — Are You Ready to Embrace It?

Whether you call it GTM engineering or not, the need for it is growing — fast. Businesses today are being asked to do more with less, connect more systems with fewer errors, and scale faster without losing control. That’s exactly where a GTM engineer adds value.

This isn’t just a trendy new job title. It’s a recognition that revenue doesn’t happen in silos. It happens when systems work together, when data flows seamlessly, and when your teams can focus on growth instead of firefighting.

For firms in professional services, it means smoother client journeys and more effective BD efforts. In financial services, it means automating with confidence — without compromising on compliance. And for any business operating in today’s fragmented, tech-heavy environment, it means building a revenue engine that’s built to last.

So take a moment and ask yourself:

• Are your systems truly integrated — or are they patched together?

• Is someone in your team proactively owning your GTM stack — or just reacting to requests?

• Do you have a GTM engineer — or just someone making it work, one spreadsheet at a time?

If the answers give you pause, it might be time to formally embrace what’s already happening — and invest in GTM engineering as a capability, not just a coincidence.

How can Lagom Consulting help with GTM engineering?

At Lagom Consulting, we support high-growth firms in financial services, professional services, and B2B markets in building scalable, efficient go-to-market systems.

If your business is working with fragmented tools, inconsistent processes, or under-leveraged data, our team can help you design and implement a robust GTM infrastructure — aligning strategy, technology, and revenue operations for measurable growth.

Whether you're looking to streamline automation, improve CRM integration, or define ownership across your tech stack, we can guide you through the process with practical, commercially-focused solutions.

Get in touch to discuss how GTM engineering can drive better performance across your revenue engine.

Who are Lagom Consulting? 

At Lagom Consulting, we pride ourselves on being more than marketing and management consultants; we are your strategic allies in building marketing strategies to market into financial services market.  

Our ethos centres around delivering first-class service, underpinned by a hands-on approach that melds practical problem-solving with time-tested marketing solutions. We recognise that effective marketing is an ongoing journey, not a one-off exercise. We steer clear of ‘random acts of marketing’, opting instead for a comprehensive and sustained approach.  

Working with Lagom Consulting means gaining more than a consultant; it means acquiring a partner committed to your enduring success