Centralized or Distributed GTM? The Strategic Tradeoff for CEOs & CROs
One Conductor or a Battle of the Bands? What’s the Best GTM Leadership Structure?
Ah, the age-old question (or at least as old as modern revenue operations): Should your Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy be centralized under one leader, or should each function—Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, and Revenue Operations—have its own commander-in-chief?
The Distributed GTM Model: A Symphony or a Circus?
The distributed model, still popular in Europe, sticks to the classic structure: separate heads for Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, and other customer-facing functions. In theory, this allows each department to dive deep into its specialty. In practice? It often plays out like an orchestra without a conductor—everyone’s playing, but are they playing the same tune?
Take, for example, an inside sales team that depends on Marketing-generated leads. Without clear alignment, Sales starts pointing fingers at Marketing for delivering “bad leads,” while Marketing fires back that Sales isn’t working them properly. Each team has its own KPIs, but who’s actually measuring lead quality without bias?
I lived this exact scenario at MakerBot. At one point, Sales was complaining that Marketing was generating unqualified leads, while Marketing insisted that Sales was dropping the ball. We lacked a shared definition of lead quality, which meant neither side was fully accountable—and ultimately, the business suffered. This dynamic is incredibly common in distributed GTM models, where alignment falls to the CEO (who has plenty of other things to worry about).
Or picture a big marketing campaign that requires Sales to execute flawlessly. If Sales doesn’t buy in, the campaign might flop—not because it wasn’t great, but because no one made sure Sales and Marketing were rowing in the same direction. Sound familiar?
The upside? A distributed model allows for deep expertise in each area. But without strong cross-functional alignment, internal friction can slow progress, leaving customers caught in the middle.
The Centralized GTM Model: The Rise (and Fall?) of the CRO
Now let’s talk about the centralized GTM model. Most organizations that go this route do so under a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), a relatively new role that started gaining traction around 2012. Back then, Paul Albright, Marketo’s CRO at the time, wrote an article calling the role the “CEO’s Secret Weapon”—and for good reason. A well-structured CRO isn’t just a glorified VP of Sales. Just as an orchestra needs a conductor to ensure the brass section doesn’t overpower the strings, a CRO ensures Marketing, Sales, Revenue Operations, and Customer Success are in sync—playing from the same sheet of music rather than competing for the spotlight.
I’ve personally seen this model work twice, especially during major transformations where change management and constant realignment were critical. Like a complex symphony, transformations require precise coordination, dynamic adjustments, and a leader ensuring every section is aligned. In these cases, the CRO role was instrumental (pun intended) in keeping different revenue functions in harmony—preventing the usual blame games and silos that can derail progress.
However, I’ve also seen how companies fall into the quarterly trap, slowly turning the CRO into nothing more than a VP of Sales with a fancier title. It’s like starting with a grand orchestra and ending up with a rock band that only plays hit singles—chasing short-term wins instead of executing a long-term composition. This happens when the CRO becomes too focused on quarterly revenue targets and loses sight of strategic initiatives, customer experience, and long-term market positioning. The end result? The alignment that once made the company’s GTM strategy powerful fades into discord, and the company reverts to the same fragmented structure it was trying to escape.
The key to making this work is having strong second-line functional leaders who can each act as expert musicians in their domain while trusting the CRO to keep the full composition on track. Otherwise, the risk is turning an orchestra into a collection of soloists—each talented, but ultimately playing different songs.
So… Which Model is Right for You?
Not sure whether to centralize your GTM under a CRO or keep it distributed? Here’s a quick gut check:
Do you need a long-term, multi-year roadmap to win in your industry? Yes or No
Is your company a market-maker rather than a market-follower? Yes or No
Can you afford strong second-line functional leaders? Yes or No
Is customer satisfaction highly dependent on post-sales execution (e.g., installation, onboarding, manufacturing)? Yes or No
Do customers frequently move across different teams in their journey with your company? Yes or No
If you answered “yes” to two or more, it might be time to consider centralizing your GTM. Of course, how you do it depends on your company’s culture, industry, and product complexity.
At the end of the day, whether you go with one Conductor or the battle of the bands, the key to success isn’t just the org chart—it’s making sure everyone is playing the same game, with the same goals, and marching in the same direction.