The 2026 GTM reset: where enterprise buyers are moving

Having planned a series of 2026 roadmaps with enterprise partners by now, two converging forces summarize how large B2B organizations deploy capital and design growth engines today:

• The buyer’s journey has moved upstream. Forrester reports that nearly 70% of enterprise buyers complete evaluation before engaging sales, and Gartner confirms that 41% choose a preferred solution category before any vendor contact. I’ve indicated this in previous issues with 6sense data from early 2024 as well.

• GTM discipline has gone under audit. Bain’s 2025 benchmark shows that firms with advanced RevOps and data systems outperform peers by 27% in pipeline velocity and 19% in marketing ROI - while tech-heavy, siloed teams face rising CAC and slower cycles.

This is also proven by our bespoke data stack that we maintain for our RevOps consulting services:

In short, the “growth at all costs” era is over. 2026 demands growth with evidence - precision, accountability, and systems that make revenue predictable.

Let’s look into the core 3 strategies we dive into with mid-market companies that come up at every conversation:

1. The behavioral and structural shifts shaping enterprise buying

2. Where to reallocate budget for efficiency and compounding impact

3. How leading companies are re-architecting RevOps and talent systems for predictability

1. The new buyer reality: deals are pre-closed

Enterprise buyers now operate in a pre-qualified market. By the time they contact you, they’ve benchmarked your category, analyzed peers, and likely shortlisted solutions internally.

Here’s what the market shows:

• 68% of buyers say vendor reputation and thought leadership directly influence shortlist inclusion (per a Forrester, Q3 survey).

• 52% of C-suite buyers cite “trusted insights or communities” as their top influence channel, up from 27% pre-pandemic.

• 43% of deals >$250K begin with an internal recommendation, not a campaign lead.

Traditional top-of-funnel activities-paid social, lead-gen forms, SDR outreach-are increasingly reactive. The GTM battleground has shifted to credibility assets: executive content, earned trust, and visible operational expertise.

Practical actions that executives take in this new era are:

• Build early-stage visibility programs - industry reports, category scorecards, and data briefings.

• Establish expert-led presence (exec-level LinkedIn, podcasts, analyst mentions).

• Map buyer enablement content to the “hidden 70%” of the journey, skipping the traditional post-demo stages.

2. Budget reallocation: every dollar works harder

In 2026, we’re repeating a 2024-2025 playbook: every CMO and CRO faces the same mandate: Do more with less - but prove it.

A review of >200 mid-market GTM budgets (Growth Shuttle advisory clients + Forrester panel) shows the top performers recalibrated spend across four dimensions:

If you want to apply the same principles internally:

1. Audit 2025 spend by channel efficiency, not total volume.

2. Identify 20% of “activity cost” that didn’t move revenue metrics - reinvest into RevOps (following the 80-20 principle).

3. Consolidate martech stack (most firms can cut 30–40% of unused licenses).

4. Increase enablement investment per rep - aim for <3-month ramp to full quota.

3. Predictable growth through RevOps, data, and talent architecture

A common conversation in the the $50M–$250M revenue bracket is RevOps maturity - integrating marketing, sales, and CS under unified accountability.

Top characteristics of outperformers:

• Centralized revenue intelligence - unified dashboards across GTM, finance, and delivery.

• Quarterly data sprints - measuring attribution accuracy, conversion efficiency, and pipeline hygiene.

• Talent re-architecture - replacing high-volume roles (SDRs, campaign ops) with hybrid strategists (data, automation, enablement).

• Executive scorecards - connecting GTM metrics to EBITDA, not MQLs.

Our plans adapt to different use cases and layers of maturity, but a high-level breakdown looks like this:

If you’re leading a mid-market or enterprise GTM org:

• Revisit your buyer’s decision path - most of it now happens before you enter the room

• Reallocate 20% of budget into lifecycle, RevOps, and enablement

• Measure success in pipeline efficiency, retention, and EBITDA contribution - not just top-line “growth”

Mario

Our hiring process is slower as we’re taking the pulse on the IT economy again:

📚️ Books I read this month

• “The Algebra of Wealth” by Prof. Scott Galloway (35% in)

• “The Hard Thing About Hard Things” by Ben Horowitz (65% in)

• “The Sweaty Startup” by Nick Hueber (85% in)

• Ray Dalio’s “How Countries Go Broke: The Big Cycle” (55% in)

• The FP&A Handbook: Mastering Financial Planning & Analysis (40% in)

• “Revenue Architecture” by Jacco van der Kooij (55% in)

• “The Sales Acceleration Formula” ✅ 

• “Hooked” - on habits and cues and product alignment ✅ 

🎤 4 weeks to WordCamp Sofia - excited to meet the largest WordPress community in town, here’s what the event is promising.

⌚️ Revenue operations management in 2025: What are the core roles leading revenue lifecycles in mid-market organizations? Here’s a snapshot from our data source.

🔤 How lawyers use ChatGPT and get caught - it’s mind-boggling to see legal professionals getting caught for citing non-existent cases.

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🔖 Segment by customer value. Use CLV-based segmentation to focus marketing on your most valuable customers.

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🔖 Fix messy AI data before launch. Address AI data quality problems using proper governance and automation.

🔖 Rethink your meeting tools. The latest video conferencing trends bring AI and hybrid setups into focus.

🔖 Get deeper behavior insights. Use psychographics from social data to refine your audience targeting.

🔖 Simplify ROAS decisions. This ROAS formula guide breaks down how to act on ad performance data.

🔖 Understand motivation collapse. Learn what truly drives effort in this guide on why motivation fails and how to fix it.

🔖 Improve long-term founder energy. Learn why resilience beats grit when it comes to leading sustainable companies.

📰 Location data sale. Data brokers sell diplomat GPS info without enough oversight in EU data governance.

📰 Chancellor shapes prebudget talk. Reeves hints at fiscal changes to sway markets in Treasury control debate.

📰 Bank of England rethink. Reform UK urges MPC overhaul to test central bank independence in rate-setting review.

📰 Real-time illness tracker. Walgreens launches Respiratory Index to spot outbreaks via healthcare hotspot data.

📰 Hybrid access management. P0 Security adds on-prem controls for least-privilege access in hybrid environments.

📰 Intranasal vaccine trial. CastleVax begins trial of mucosal vaccine via clinical trial.

📰 Real-world assets platform. Hedge & Sachs rolls out tool for global asset management via asset management tool.

📰 Walmart adapts to tariffs. Walmart shifts inventory and predicts trends to handle new tariffs via policy response update.

📰 Nuclear testing context. Trump’s test proposal fits ongoing efforts to modernize US nuclear forces via US modernization efforts.

📰 Commerce media scale gap. Retail media networks struggle to match ad audience size before holidays in scale bottleneck analysis.

📰 Holiday loyalty boost. La Quinta doubles loyalty revenue through personal touchpoints and engagement in practical loyalty approach.

📰 a16z pauses DEI fund. Andreessen Horowitz halts TxO program for underserved founders amid staff cuts via program suspension news.

📰 AI market winners. Elad Gil maps dominant AI segments and identifies open areas for investors via investment opportunity guide.

📰 Honda targets F1 return. Honda uses Formula 1 to advance electrification and strengthen US market in F1 strategy discussion.

Let’s see the latest offers from Flippa. Don’t forget to sign up for their newsletter for daily/weekly/monthly offers like these.

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Working with me

Here are the main projects I focus on:

🌐 Scaling $30M - $100M+ companies on top of WordPress. DevriX provides full RevOps consulting + delivery with GTM enablement for PE-backed portfolio companies, traditional tech, healthcare, finance, and professional service businesses pacing toward revenue growth initiatives. Our standard retainers between $10K and $40K include revenue lifecycle services for marketing and sales leaders, FP&A for financial teams, pipeline enrichment through websites and dozens of lead sources, automations and delivery integrations, CRO and ongoing testing, product delivery and platform integration solutions, and more through our consulting solutions.

🚀 1:1 Consulting. At Growth Shuttle, I run two popular plans: Async Advisory ($3,500/mo) for $3M - $30M founders and executive teams and the smaller Strategic Growth Circle ($997/mo) for $100K - $500K entrepreneurs, agency founders, scale ups.

📈 Building US LLCs from Europe. I help European and Asian founders scale faster through doola and their “Business in a Box” model. Also suitable for US citizens (given their bookkeeping solution), but in very high demand across Europe.

📊 Post-Merger Integration. I support M&A initiatives through Flippa’s marketplace. Working closely on PMI initiatives for PE companies and fast-growing startups integrating new companies within their portfolios, enabling data pipelines, and securing more deals through my personal network.