Your next market is probably the one you already have
The revenue ladder that held the line, the capacity gap I said out loud, and the planning method I run in July, not October.
Save this. 3 lessons from my week as a European operator, holding next year’s plan to its core markets while covering 2 seats, each turned into a move you can run today and the play behind it. My own take from the trenches.
Send it to 1 founder or GTM operator scaling toward 10M in Europe who reads everything and ships none of it.
The 90-second version
My CEO asked me again to go more aggressive into new markets. I brought a 6-quarter revenue ladder into the room: only 5 markets in the top 5, and the new ones not even in the top 20. I held the plan to what we already win.
I hit the wall covering 2 seats, so I said it out loud to my reps: I am too stretched, you take ownership. Then I put 6 placeholder 1:1 slots in my calendar and made them book their own time with a specific ask.
My specialists are not on-call experts. My solutions engineer sits in every deal review and forecast call, not only the ones that look technical, and I brought my leaders together to celebrate an H1 above plan before summer.
The European read: scaling here is a country-by-country question, so depth in 5 markets you understand beats a thin flag in 8 you do not, and a lean team wins on how well its few specialists are wired in, not how many it hires.
The thread: this week was 2 clocks running at once, next year and this quarter, and the discipline was choosing where to go deep instead of wide.
Read time: 7 min
The set-up
Most of my week ran on 2 clocks at once. On the surface it was a strong start to Q3, well ahead of pace, with H1 closed above plan on both new and existing business, new leaders starting, good energy in the office. Underneath, I was building next year’s re-acceleration plan and presenting it to a room of 30-plus execs and leaders, while covering an interim country manager seat on top of my regional director role. I was running on the leftovers of my energy before the summer break. Nobody sees that juggle directly. What they see is the output, and this week the output came down to 3 calls about focus, ownership, and who gets seen.
Here is what that taught me…
Hi, it is Koen Stam and welcome to GTMcraft: The Future GTM Operator. This newsletter is built from 100,000+ GTM signals collected from 100+ operators and founders, combined with 13+ years of my own lessons and failures from the trenches. I write at the intersection of go-to-market practice and AI-powered systems for founders scaling 0 to 10M+ ARR.
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13+ years over 3 GTM operator jobs across 3 GTM motions (SMB, MM, ENT). Scaling from 2-10M+ ARR multiple times. Same recipe. Different motions.
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Lesson 1: Focus beats new markets, even when the pressure comes from your CEO
My CEO has asked me more than once to go more aggressive into new markets we do not operate in yet. This week I stopped answering it with conviction and answered it with a revenue ladder. I put the last 6 quarters of closed-won on the table: only my 5 core markets sit in the top 5, and the markets I was being pushed toward do not crack the top 20. I had also asked my director of marketing and growth to pull the leading indicators, MQLs, brand awareness, any early sign a new market was warming. It was not there. So I held the plan to its 5 core markets, anchored on lifting net revenue retention toward 100-plus, not on planting a flag somewhere new.
Every 2 points of NRR is worth almost 2 months of new-business target to me. That is where the next leg lives, not in a market with no signal yet.
My take: the ladder did the talking, not my belief. I could have argued focus as a principle and lost the room to ambition. Instead I showed 6 quarters of revenue and let the data hold the line. Scaling toward the next leg, my growth comes from going deeper where I already win, and the data is what makes that defensible upward.
The European read: scaling here is a country-by-country question, not a map you colour in. Depth in 5 markets you actually understand beats a thin presence in 8 you do not, and the revenue ladder is what tells you which 5 to protect.
Do first: pull your last 6 quarters of closed-won by market or segment and rank them. Anything you fund that is not in the top 5 is a bet, so name it as one out loud.
Do this week: ask for the leading indicators on any market you are tempted to enter, MQLs, brand awareness, early pipeline. If they are flat, the market is not ready, whatever the ambition says.
Do this month: write your focus thesis on 1 page, backed by the ladder, so the next time expansion pressure lands you answer with data, not a debate.
The rule: expansion is a data decision, not an ambition. If the leading indicators are not there, the market is not there yet.
You know it worked when: you can defend your focus to your board or your CEO with 6 quarters of revenue, not a slide of conviction.
The play: 5 steps to defend focus against the pressure to expand (2026 series). Build the revenue ladder, test the leading indicators, and run a readiness gate before you open a market. Get full access below ↓
Lesson 2: When you are stretched too thin, say it, then hand the team the ownership
Covering 2 seats this week, I hit the wall most operators hide. I chose not to absorb it quietly. I told my mid-market reps directly: I am too stretched right now, so you need to take ownership. Then I put 6 placeholder 1:1 slots in my calendar and asked each rep to book their own time and show up with 1 specific ask. No specific ask, no meeting. It was the most honest thing I said all week, and it was also the most useful.
The version of me that pretends to be available in both seats is a bottleneck. The version that names the limit and hands over the booking turns my scarcity into their ownership.
My take: admitting the capacity gap out loud felt like exposure, and it was the right call. A stretched leader who fakes availability slows everyone down. One who says the limit and makes the reps drive the ask gets a team that owns its own pipeline instead of waiting on a calendar.
The European read: on a lean team spread across markets there is no spare manager sitting in every country. When you cover 2 seats, the only thing that scales is rep ownership, so make the ask explicit and make them the one who drives it.
Do first: block the 1:1 slots you can actually offer this week, then ask each rep to book 1 with a specific ask attached, not a status update.
Do this week: for anything you cannot cover, name the owner and the deadline in writing, so nothing lives in the gap between 2 seats.
Do this month: set a standing rule that reps come to you with a specific ask and a recommendation, not an open question, so your scarce time goes to decisions, not diagnosis.
The rule: hidden overload breaks the quarter. Name the capacity gap, then convert it into ownership with a specific-ask rule.
You know it worked when: your reps book their own time with a real ask, and the deals keep moving in the seat you cannot fully cover.
The play: 5 steps to run two GTM seats without losing a quarter (2026 series). Map the time you actually have, set 3 explicit expectation statements, and audit the gap weekly before it costs you a deal. Get full access below ↓
Lesson 3: Your specialists are full team members, not on-call experts
This week I told my mid-market team that our solutions engineer, does not get looped into deal reviews only when a deal looks technical. She needs to sit in every deal review, every forecast call, and every team meeting. Same for the partner manager and the overlay payroll manager. We have a habit of isolating expert roles and paging them situationally. I want them as standing members, carrying context across every deal instead of parachuting into 1. And before everyone scatters for summer, I brought my leaders together to celebrate an H1 that closed above plan on both new and existing business, because the quiet contributors who made that number deserve to be seen, not just the closers.
Standing membership and recognition are the same idea from 2 angles: the people who make the number happen should be in the room and named on a rhythm, not called in by mood.
My take: the fastest way to waste a specialist’s edge is to treat them as a resource you page. Make your SE a standing member and she carries the thread across every deal, not only the 1 I flagged as technical. Recognition works the same way. On a rhythm, it reaches the quiet contributors. Left to mood, it defaults to the loudest closer.
The European read: a lean multi-market team wins on how well its few specialists are wired into every deal, not on how many it can afford to hire. Standing membership spreads 1 solutions engineer across markets better than any org chart, and it is the cheaper edge.
Do first: add your SE, partner, and overlay roles as standing invitees to every deal review and forecast call this week, not as optional experts to pull in later.
Do this week: name 2 quiet contributors who moved the number this quarter and recognise them specifically, in front of the team, for what they actually did.
Do this month: set a simple recognition rhythm that rotates through named contributors, so being seen is a system, not a favour to the loudest.
The rule: a specialist you page is a specialist you underuse. Put them in every cadence, and recognise the quiet contributors on a rhythm, not by mood.
You know it worked when: your specialists raise risks early because they were in the room from the start, and recognition reaches past your top 2 closers.
The play: 5 steps to run a recognition rhythm that does not play favorites (2026 series). Rotate named recognition weekly and make specific praise a standing system, so belonging and retention do not ride on the loudest performer. Get full access below ↓
This week’s play
I held the focus in Lesson 1. This week’s inline play is the method behind it: how I build next year’s plan early enough to actually hit it, and why I start in July, not October.
Play: 5 steps to build next year’s plan early enough to hit it (2026 series)
Fixes: late-autumn planning that lets activation lag eat the first half of next year, so a program greenlit in Q4 does not show up in the number until H2.
Best for: operators at 2-10M+ ARR building next year’s number while running this one, where hiring, marketing, and product asks all take a quarter or 2 to activate across markets.
The 5 steps:
Map the activation lag: for every lever (hiring, marketing programs, partnerships, product), write how long from greenlight to first impact on the number, so you can see what has to start now.
Build the number top-down, then stress-test it bottom-up against 6 to 7 years of your own trend lines, so ambition meets what the data actually supports.
Draw 2 scenarios, a realistic case and an aggressive one, and mark which the trend data supports. Assume the aggressive case is not real until it earns it.
Cost the initiatives and headcount behind the realistic case, so the plan is an investment ask, not a wish.
Start now, in July, and co-build a rolling forecast with your leaders, so programs activate before H1 instead of after it.
Template: a 2-scenario planning sheet with 1 row per growth lever: the lever, its activation lag, the realistic contribution, the aggressive contribution, and the trend-line evidence behind each. Any lever with no evidence is a wish, not a plan.
Paste this into your AI:
Here is my last 6 to 7 years of revenue by quarter and my list of growth levers for next year [paste]. Map the activation lag for each lever, build a realistic and an aggressive scenario stress-tested against the trend lines, mark which scenario the data supports, and tell me which programs have to start this quarter to land in H1.
Full play, template and workbook inside GTMcraft. Reply to this email or DM me to get access.
One question for the room
Look at your best rep, the one already hitting the number. When did you last tell them to ask for more help, not less, because the extra question is the quality injection that separates a good quarter from a great one?
Reply or send me a DM.
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Koen
Your (human) GTM Agent
the revenue-ladder move is the right call, and the harder version is deciding what to cut, not just what to protect. In NL/EU I see founder-led teams keep a thin presence in three extra markets "to keep the option open," and that optionality quietly eats the capacity that should be going deep in the top five. Worth asking: what did you actually kill to fund the focus?