“When you’re scaling, the playbook that got you to $1 million in ARR is not the one that will get you to $10 million. Growth teams must adapt and learn constantly to avoid hitting a wall.”
Every GTM leader trying to scale a business can resonate with this. Scaling is one of the toughest challenges we encounter as our companies grow. What works to get you to $1 million starts to break down as you push toward $10 million. Strategies, processes, and channels that once seemed effective no longer cut it, and the growth plateaus.
This is exactly the problem SaaSBoomi’s first roundtable session for GTM leaders in Chennai set out to address. The event, aimed at helping companies scale to $10 million ARR, brought together a group of GTM leaders to share experiences, insights, and actionable strategies for breaking through those walls.
Insights from SaaSBoomi’s First GTM Leaders Roundtable
Led by Surendran Balachandran, Director of Growth at Atlan, this roundtable session brought together GTM leaders from a few of the growing SaaS companies — Atlan, Everstage, Almabase, Klenty, Facilio, Garageplug, and Tagalys. The event kicked off at 11:30 AM, covering a wide range of topics and sparking some lively, in-depth discussions.
We started with a seemingly simple question: “What are the top three problems you’re facing in scaling your GTM efforts?” Sounds easy, right? Well, not quite. The real challenge for everyone wasn’t coming up with three problems—it was trying to limit their list to just three! The first half of the session was spent discussing the problems and by the end of it – We arrived at an overwhelming list of 19 problems.
The problems ranged across key areas: understanding ICP (Ideal Customer Profile), capturing TAM (Total Addressable Market), quality of pipeline, outbound & ABM channels, and alignment between marketing and sales. The second half of the session was all about diving deep into some of these issues, with everyone exchanging insights and strategies on how to tackle them head-on. The discussions were full of actionable takeaways that every GTM leader could walk away with, ready to apply to their scaling challenges.
Cracking Growth: Challenges to Scaling $10 Million ARR
1. Understanding Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)
The first key challenge discussed was the ongoing refinement of the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Most participants in the roundtable agreed that truly understanding your ICP is a continuous process that evolves as your business grows and the market shifts.
The best way to refine your ICP is to study your best customers – the ones who regularly pay for your product and see real value in it. Speak with them directly, listen to the sales calls, and study their product usage to understand their challenges and the goals they are trying to achieve. This will help you understand who in the market is willing to pay for your product or service, and why they’re choosing you over the others.
Key takeaway: Make it a regular practice—at least once a year—to re-evaluate your ICP by talking to your best customers and understanding why they continue to use your product.
2. Capturing the Total Addressable Market (TAM)
This is another significant challenge GTM leaders face—how do you go about capturing your TAM without feeling like you’re trying to boil the ocean? Everyone agreed that the best approach is to focus on a specific, winnable slice of the market rather than trying to target everyone at once.
Here’s an example that was discussed to explain this better: Imagine you’re selling chat support software. Sure, in theory, anyone offering customer support could be a potential customer, but casting such a wide net is often inefficient. Instead, you should narrow your focus. For instance, target “cloud-first companies with at least 3 support agents.”
By focusing on this well-defined segment, you’re focusing on a market where your product can deliver immediate value, and you’re more likely to win deals. As your product grows and your roadmap evolves, you can then gradually expand into new segments of your TAM, capturing more of the market over time.
Key takeaway: Continuously monitor the market and stay closely aligned with your sales team to identify the segments where deals are closing faster. By focusing on those high-opportunity segments, you will be able to capture your TAM strategically.
3. Quality of Sales Pipeline
This was the topic that really got everyone talking. The group went into a lively discussion about what actually counts as a healthy sales pipeline. Should we focus more on the number of leads or the overall pipeline? How do we assign a dollar value to the pipeline, and who gets the final say on that? Do ebook downloads count as an SQL (Sales Qualified Lead)? And the big one: how do we prevent pipeline leakages?
Every member of the group shared their own processes and practices, and it became clear that every company handles pipelines differently. But one thing we all agreed on: only leads converted into opportunities by AEs (Account Executives) after a demo should be considered as a “good” pipeline.
Key takeaway: For GTM leaders, the focus should always be on the quality of the pipeline, not just how many leads you have. Having a solid, well-defined pipeline is crucial for growth, and it’s where your primary focus should be.
4. Outbound & ABM Channels
This was another topic that sparked some interesting conversations. Everyone shared their experiences with outbound strategies and the challenges they have been facing.
The most common was the Named Account List approach, where each SDR (Sales Development Representative) is assigned a few specific accounts to target. The SDRs’ job is to get the meeting booked and then hand over the account to an AE (Account Executive). The SDR then works alongside the AE until the deal is closed. Someone in the group had another interesting approach where both the AE and SDR worked together – from the very start until the deals closed.
Most teams were using a combination of emails, calls, and other channels to engage their prospects. The biggest challenge most teams face is the declining effectiveness of email as a channel, mainly as a first touch point. And then a difficulty in obtaining accurate phone numbers.
Key takeaway: Outbound isn’t an easy channel. You need to consistently experiment with different cohorts and refine your approach. It can take up to 20-24 months to make it a truly scalable and repeatable channel.
5. Marketing & Sales Alignment
It is critical to ensure that both sales and marketing are aligned on product messaging so they’re telling the same story to prospects. A big focus was on how product marketing can help sales reps by providing the collateral needed to ensure the message is consistent across outreach efforts.
At the same time, marketing needs to actively listen to feedback from the sales team, who are on the front lines communicating with the leads. By understanding what messaging resonates and what isn’t, marketing teams can refine their messaging and better support sales efforts.
Key takeaway: Aligning sales and marketing is not a one-and-done task — it’s an ongoing process that requires continuous effort from both teams.
6. AI in Marketing
This was the most intriguing topic that wrapped up the session. We discussed practical ways teams are already using AI tools, like Notebook LM, for tasks such as SEO optimization, competitive research, and other marketing use cases. The conversation also touched on how different companies incorporate AI in their products to improve customer experience.
To cap things off, every participant discussed the AI tools in their tech stack and showed how AI-generated content has reached a level of quality that is hard to distinguish from human writing. This exercise underscored how AI is here to stay, and the sooner we embrace it, the better-equipped teams can become.
Key takeaway: AI isn’t just a buzz — GTM leaders need to integrate AI across different functions like marketing, customer success, and sales to empower them and make them more productive.
In Conclusion: A Session Full of Insights
SaaSBoomi’s roundtable for GTM leaders was packed with actionable insights. It was a fantastic opportunity to meet other GTM leaders to have honest conversations about scaling, learn from what’s working (and what’s not), and pick up practical tips from others who have been there.
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