Go-to-Market Best Practices: Reflections from the Stone-Goff Management Summit

Late last year, I had the pleasure of facilitating two small group discussions at the Stone-Goff Partners Management Summit — a gathering of leadership teams from across their portfolio companies.

The sessions were Go-to-Market Best Practices and What Today’s Rainmakers Do Differently. In both, the conversation funneled to a key truth:

To open doors, sales teams need something valuable to offer — not just an ask for time. Prospects are willing to engage — but only if your sales team brings a compelling insight to the table.

The real challenge? How do you get valuable insights from inside your organization into the hands of your sales team?

In the best-performing companies, it’s part of the culture. One professional services leader shared their approach:

“Client teams are trained to send insights to a general ‘Insights’ email address. I get 10 usable insights a month. It's expected — 'if you see something, say something'. It’s also an expectation at our monthly in-person meetings. Bring an insight, every time.”

People closest to clients have the best real-world insights — but unless you build simple systems and create cultural expectations to share them, they’ll never make it to your sales team.

I'm talking to many teams that are reworking their plans based on Q1 performance and asking: “Where do we find ideas that actually convert?”

The answer is inside your client teams. Build mechanisms to capture what they’re seeing, and your organization will produce marketing that wins new business instead of blending into the noise.

It was one of many powerful takeaways from that night, and I was proud to help guide the conversations. Looking forward to doing it again soon!