The Customer Signals That Can Transform Your GTM
The best GTM strategies start with your customers. Discover how to leverage them.
Hi! 👋
I’ll let you in on a little secret: the best GTM strategies don’t come from brainstorming sessions or whiteboard workshops. They come straight from your customers.
The words they use. The reasons they buy (or don’t). The emotions driving their decisions.
These aren’t just nice-to-know details, they’re the difference between messaging that gets ignored and campaigns that actually convert.
If you’ve been feeling like your GTM isn’t quite clicking, chances are you’re overlooking a few of these customer signals. Let’s break them down, one by one.
Signal 1: The Words They Use (Not the Ones You Wish They Used)
You might think your product is all about “intelligent automation for operational efficiency.” But your customers might just say: “It saves me time when I’m swamped.”
The difference? It matters. The language you use can both alienate your prospects or bring your ideal customer closer.
Customer-led messaging starts by mirroring the real language your customers use to describe:
Their pain points
Their goals
Their alternatives and competitors
The way they measure success
How to collect it:
Review support tickets, demo calls, testimonials, online reviews, and customer interviews. Use a simple spreadsheet or a tool like Dovetail or Grain to tag common phrases and themes.
What to do with it:
Use those exact phrases in your landing page headlines, email CTAs, or ad copy. The more a customer feels like you’re describing their exact situation, the more likely they are to convert.
Signal 2: Who’s Actually Buying (and Why)
Many teams define their Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) based on what they think the market looks like. But what does your data say?
You might discover that:
A different industry is gaining traction
Your “mid-market” product is resonating more with enterprise teams
A new segment is using your product in a totally unexpected way
These are all valuable GTM insights hiding in your CRM or support logs.
How to collect it:
Look at win/loss analysis, enrichment tools (like Clearbit), or even manual tagging of your active customer base.
What to do with it:
Refine your ICP and GTM campaigns accordingly. Shift budget or sales enablement to the personas that are actually closing and sticking around. Build use case-specific messaging on what these users care about most.
Signal 3: Why They Churn (and Why They Stay)
Retention is one of the most powerful growth levers, but it’s also one of the most underused when it comes to informing GTM.
Churn signals help you spot red flags early:
“Didn’t see value fast enough” = This generally means there is a messaging mismatch.
“Too complicated to use” = This signals that GTM should set better, more realistic expectations.
“Switched to [insert the name of any of your competitors here]” = It might be time to focus on competitive repositioning.
On the flip side, loyalty signals tell you what’s working:
“I recommend this to everyone on my team”
“I love that you [insert feature/value]”
“Customer support is incredible”
How to collect it:
Run exit surveys, NPS follow-ups, or check-in interviews. Tools like ChurnZero can help structure the data.
What to do with it:
Build messaging that amplifies loyalty drivers and addresses churn risks head-on. Update onboarding flows or marketing assets to highlight retention-worthy value faster.
Signal 4: The Feature Requests and Workarounds
Customers will always find ways to tell you what they want, sometimes directly (feature requests), sometimes indirectly (how they “hack” your tool to solve a problem).
This is gold.
How to collect it:
Check product feedback forms, support requests, community forums, or sales notes. Track feature mentions over time using AI tagging or manual review.
What to do with it:
Use those insights to inform positioning. You might discover a core job-to-be-done that’s not even in your current messaging, or a workaround that points to a major need.
When marketing, product, and sales align around these real use cases, GTM campaigns feel more relevant, and they perform better.
Signal 5: Emotional Drivers and Objections
Humans don’t buy purely logic. They buy based on emotion, and justify it with logic later.
The most effective GTM strategies understand not just the functional benefits of a product, but the emotional triggers that drive action.
Ask yourself:
What are they afraid of? (Example: “I don’t want to waste money on another tool we won’t use.”)
What are they dreaming of? (Example: “I want to look like a rockstar to my boss.”)
What objections do they have? (Example: “This seems too complicated for my team.”)
How to collect it:
Listen to tone and phrasing in demo calls, surveys, or testimonials. You can also prompt your CS or SDR teams to document common objections and “has moments”.
What to do with it:
Speak directly to these emotions in your marketing copy, sales emails, and even your product UI. A good GTM strategy is rooted in empathy as much as it is in data.
Supercharging Your GTM with AI
Manually digging through thousands of customer interactions isn’t scalable. I get it. But that’s where AI comes in.
Natural Language Processing (NLP) and feedback analysis tools like Siena AI, Syncly, or Kodif AI can help you:
Detect sentiment and intent at scale.
Cluster qualitative data into themes.
Highlight priority signals by volume or urgency.
By using AI to analyze your customer data, you can move from gut feelings to grounded strategy, faster.
What This Means For You:
Here’s a quick checklist of customer-led insights that should guide your GTM strategy:
Real customers phrasing for your copy and ads.
Buyer behavior trends across ICPs.
Churn and loyalty patterns.
Common feature requests or workarounds.
Emotional motivators and objections.
If you start listening for even two or three of these, your GTM will immediately feel more aligned, and your metrics will show it.
And that’s all for this week!
I’m curious, has a customer ever said something that completely changed how you think about your GTM? If so, I’d love to hear it.
Talk soon,
Marian 💚