The early warning signs your GTM system is slowing you down

(And how Enablement can turn these issues into strategic advantages)

Every GTM organization produces signals. Some are loud - missed quota, churn, falling win rates.

But the most dangerous ones are the subtle early indicators that your revenue system is fundamentally misaligned.

These issues slow you down quietly… until the cost becomes impossible to ignore.

And here’s the truth:

If Enablement doesn’t identify and address these issues early, they compound into bigger problems that affect the entire customer lifecycle.

But this is exactly where Enablement transitions from reactive support to proactive, holistic GTM Multiplier - the strategic function that protects, accelerates, and scales revenue.

Below are the early warning signs you cannot afford to overlook.

Early Sign 1

Opportunities consistently stall in the Commercial stage

Late-stage stagnation is almost never a seller issue - it’s a system issue.

Likely root causes:

• Manual paperwork reviews slowing approvals

• Missing CPQ or pricing automation

• Every deal requiring custom pricing

• Undefined SLAs across Sales ↔ Deal Desk ↔ Finance ↔ Legal ↔ Security

• Communication gaps across functions

• No prioritization model for high-value deals

Without fixing the commercial engine, no amount of coaching will move deals faster.

Early Sign 2 Sales cycles don’t move beyond the Intro Call

Prospects take the intro call… and disappear.

This indicates a selling motion that’s centered on the product, not the problem.

Likely root causes:

• Playbook focuses on features, not buyer pains

• Reps lack frameworks for handling objections or curveballs

• Sellers rush to pitch/demo instead of diagnosing

• Weak preparation → little personalization

• Poor pre-call qualification → broad, generic conversations

A full top-of-funnel means nothing if nothing advances.

Early Sign 3 Your Funnel is flooded with New Leads but zero engagement

MQLs and inbound inquiries spike - yet nobody responds, books meetings, or moves.

This is a classic GTM misalignment signal showing that volume is masking deeper issues in awareness, intent, positioning, and messaging.

Likely root causes:

• Weak brand awareness - buyers simply don’t know you

• No “warm-up layer” (no social selling, no thought leadership, no value-first touchpoints)

• Outreach messaging focuses on selling, not educating or creating insight

• Playbook relies on a false definition of “qualified leads” - you’re overqualifying

• You’re likely meeting researchers with zero buying intent

• Buyers don’t see urgency, relevance, or differentiation

Lead volume without engagement is not success - it’s a signal your GTM foundation is misfiring.

Early Sign 4 Customer Onboarding takes longer than industry benchmarks

When onboarding drags, it’s rarely a CS execution issue - the misalignment starts earlier.

CS often inherits deals that were poorly qualified, oversold, or misunderstood from day one.

Likely root causes:

• Customers cannot allocate the internal resources required

• Customer was told onboarding is “self-service”

• No mutual success plan documented during late-stage Sales

• Weak discovery → wrong use cases or unrealistic expectations

• Inconsistent or incomplete AE → CS handoff

• Product expectations misaligned with actual capabilities

Slow onboarding → slow Time-to-Value → early churn risk. Churn begins at the sales process, not renewal.

Early Sign 5 Onboarding completion scores are high, but new reps fail to deliver

If reps graduate successfully but fail in the field, the issue is not talent - it’s the system design behind onboarding.

Likely root causes:

• Bootcamps lack simulations and real-life scenarios

• Syllabus doesn’t include hands-on tool, workflow, and process training

• Selling environment is too complex to learn from slides alone

• Reps over-rely on technical SMEs

• Wrong hiring fit (SMB reps selling into ENT, non-technical reps selling technical products)

High test scores don’t equal readiness. Your system is producing “trained” reps who still can’t operate.

Early Sign 6 Reps spend more time looking for content than selling

Content exists but no one can find the right version when they need it.

Likely root causes:

• Materials scattered across multiple platforms

• No tagging, taxonomy, or search intelligence

• Content created without alignment to deal motions

• Conflicting versions of the same deck

• No ownership or governance lifecycle

This drains productivity and slows every deal cycle.

The Big Picture:

Each early sign reveals deeper structural misalignment that:

• Slows velocity

• Reduces win rates

• Weakens forecasting

• Delays value realization

• Exhausts your team

• Confuses buyers

• Damages trust

• Erodes pipeline health

And this is where modern Enablement becomes indispensable.

Enablement’s highest value is not content creation. It’s the ability to diagnose and solve systemic friction across Marketing, SDR, Sales, CS, and Product - turning GTM chaos into predictable momentum.

Fix the system → everything downstream improves. That’s the heart of the GTM Multiplier mindset.

Closing Thought

Proactive Enablement isn’t about doing more. It’s about seeing earlier, understanding the root cause, and preventing small cracks from becoming revenue-impacting failures.

When you detect these signs and solve them holistically, you stop being reactive…and become the strategic backbone that fuels predictable, scalable growth.

More insights coming soon,

Avner Baruch Project Moneyball