4 Predictions for GTM in 2026

Here’s what I think will matter most this year.

As we kick off 2026 and shake off the holiday break after a couple of quieter weeks, I’ve been thinking about where go-to-market is headed. This year has been marked by a mix of sober budgeting, team recalibrations, and pressure to do more with less. But it’s also been a year of strong GTM fundamentals rising to the top and some unprecedented and explosive growth - Lovable anyone??

So what’s around the corner? Here are three GTM trends I’m watching closely and believe will be at the forefront of GTM in 2026. I hope they help you plan ahead as you enter the new year.

“No Decision” Becomes Your Biggest Competitor

In 2026, the biggest threat to your pipeline won’t be a head-to-head competitor. Instead, it will be the customer doing nothing. The shift isn’t about product quality or pricing. It’s about internal buyer dynamics and growing risk aversion after a year of testing AI products. Even the best-fit prospects are stalling because they’re overwhelmed, under pressure, and afraid to make the wrong call.

We’re seeing this firsthand across the Stage 2 portfolio: longer sales cycles, more CFO involvement, and an uptick in “pushed” close dates with no clear next step or real sense of urgency. Tactical shifts to help close deals in a no-decision world:

• Reframe your discovery to uncover internal blockers. Ask, “What happens if this problem goes unsolved for another quarter?” Or, “What’s the internal approval process like for initiatives like this?”

• Arm your champion with real-deal materials. Think: short business cases, ROI models (without the buzzwords), internal pitch decks, and a TL;DR for the CFO.

• Introduce “anti-decision” language. Make it clear that “waiting” isn’t risk-free. Use customer examples where inaction caused pain like missed goals, headcount cuts, or churn risk.

Remember: It’s not enough to sell the solution; you now have to highlight the cost of doing nothing.

Buyer Journeys Will Become Decentralized

The days of a single champion leading the charge from discovery to decision are (mostly) behind us. In 2026, expect more fragmented buying journeys with:

• Multiple stakeholders entering the process earlier

• Uncoordinated research happening across teams

• A growing appetite for asynchronous evaluations (think: videos, sandbox environments, AI-assisted demos)

Founders often ask why their pipeline is “ghosting” even when the problem fit is clear. The truth? You may be selling to a single contact while the broader team is self-educating in parallel, and no one’s syncing internally.

What to do:

• Arm champions with materials they can easily forward and share, with value propositions tailored to each buyer, not feature lists

• Assume the deal is never a one-person decision, even if your contact says otherwise.

• Track signals across the buying group and build processes internally to ensure your team is multi-threading and getting to the right contacts, not just your main POC.

Revenue Leaders Will Need to Be Cross-Functional Operators

The best-performing revenue leaders in 2026 will look less like traditional sales VPs and more like mini-COOs for the go-to-market engine. In the past, you could get away with a CRO who focused almost exclusively on the sales number…and maybe lead gen. That’s no longer true.

Today’s CRO must:

• Eat, sleep, and breathe data - it’s all about the numbers

• Constantly think about how the tech stack and systems should evolve with AI

• Collaborate with product to influence roadmap

• Work hand-in-hand with marketing on buyer education and lead quality

• Build a retention strategy with customer success

• Translate GTM metrics into board-level conversations with finance

We’re seeing this evolution clearly inside Stage 2 companies. The sales leaders who thrive are deeply aligned with product strategy and customer health metrics, not just the forecast. One founder told us: “Our CRO became the glue between product and revenue, and that’s what helped us land our first enterprise expansion.”

If you’re hiring GTM leadership in 2026:

• Prioritize strategic range and ability/willingness to learn and evolve

• Look for candidates who’ve owned revenue across new sales, expansion, and retention

• Ask how they’ve partnered cross-functionally, and what broke when they didn’t

Founder-Led Prospecting Makes a Comeback

2026 is the year we see a clear divide emerge in outbound strategy. In vertical software the, SDR-led motions are working. Why? Because they go to events, they (often) answer the phone and you can write a compelling outbound email when:

• You know exactly who to target

• Their pain is well-defined

• There’s a clear reason to take the meeting

• Your messaging is consistent and value prop well defined

Outbound is flourishing in these vertical motions because the buyer sees themselves in the message, the ROI is easy to understand, and you can quickly build name recognition.

But if you’re building a horizontal product? Or a new category? Or targeting a generalist buyer? You need a different play.

In those cases, founder-led prospecting is your best weapon.

• You bring the credibility that no SDR can fake.

• You can spark real curiosity because you’re not selling, you’re exploring.

• You can open doors that templated outbound simply can’t.

• You can cross channels and mediums - LinkedIn, podcasts, email, etc…

2025 was a year when many founders invested in building their personal brands. 2026 is when we are going to see this pay off. Our advice to get started:

• Move beyond investor intros as the primary top-of-funnel and commit to a regular cadence of posting to build a founder-brand.

• Send 1:1 highly personalized messages. Ditch automation entirely in the early days. AI is great for research, but you need the human touch.

• Show up with a learning mindset: “We’re building X, and I’d love your input on how you handle Y…”

Reach out and let me know what trends you’re watching and what you believe 2026 has in store for GTM teams.

Until next week!