GTM Tech's Race for Power *and* Ease of Use
The Signal
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GTM Tech's Race for Power *and* Ease of Use
In one of my consulting gigs, I had a SVP of Sales say something along the lines of: “Hey, I’m not sure Clay is right for us. It’s very powerful, but I don’t have someone to manage it when y’all leave.”
It’s something I’ve thought about a lot. Even when we’re building evergreen plays in a client’s own Clay instance. The power and flexibility of Clay comes at a cost — ease of use (or, lack thereof). I’m not saying anything the team at Clay doesn’t already know. And they’re improving the product and education, fast. But for now, you need someone who has spent, I think, 50-100 hours in Clay, to really master it (maybe even a dedicated GTM Engineer).
I don’t think you have to have a GTM Engineer or Clay expert to use Clay. But, to get the most value out of it (and use it to its fullest capabilities… which is… a lot), you do need someone who knows their way around a Clay table/workflow.
At the other end of the spectrum are the incumbent data providers (and sales engagement platforms) who are the least flexible (and thus, arguably, the least powerful), but the easiest to use. These can, and should, be used by non-technical users like SDRs, AEs, SDR Managers, etc. Along with RevOps folks.
Then, in the middle is a new, emerging category of players (signal-based / warm outbound platforms) — companies like Common Room, Koala, Pocus, Unify, UserGems, etc. These sit somewhere in the middle.
The race? Who can get to the upper-right hand of the 4x4 quadrant first.
By the way, there’s an argument to be made for AI SDRs being at the very far right, bottom quadrant here. They’re incredibly easy to use (all you have to do is swipe your credit card!), but not flexible (you can’t control them… entirely). This opens up a can of worms, so, for simplicity, I left them off of this graphic for now.
There’s a famous line in Silicon Valley (by Alex Rampell, of a16z):
“The battle between every startup and incumbent comes down to whether the startup gets distribution before the incumbent gets innovation.”
The equivalent for gtm tech at this moment in time is the following:
“The battle between startups and Clay comes down to whether the startups can get more flexible/powerful before Clay gets easier to use.”
This is the 300 billion dollar question. The holy grail of gtm tech. Get out your popcorn — the race to win the trophy for #1 gtm tech is on.
Here’s another way to visualize the current options on the market:
Category 1: High Flexibility/Power, Low Ease of Use
As you can see, the example for a company that is the most flexible, and I would also argue the most powerful, but is the hardest to use, is Clay. This is a horizontal solution, so it can kind of do anything. They also allow you to bring your own LLM API keys, so you can build custom AI workflows within Clay tables/workflows — making this the most flexible and powerful option on the market right now (well, other than vibe coding a fully custom solution, in-house).
The user for Clay should be someone technical, like RevOps or Growth, or even a GTM Engineer.
Category 2: Medium Flexibility/Power, Medium Ease of Use
The middle ground: companies that sit in between the extreme options. These are startups in the category of “signal-based selling platforms” or “warm outbound platforms.” Basically, better lead intelligence products (as G2 calls it).
These are companies like Common Room, Koala, Pocus, Unify, UserGems, and many others.
The users of these platforms are often less technical than a GTM Engineer — maybe a Growth Marketer, an SDR leader, or even a sophisticated IC (eg: an SDR or AE).
Category 3: Low Flexibility/Power, High Ease of Use
At the other end of the spectrum are incumbent data tools (and sequencing products aka SEPs) that have rigid filters and workflows. They're very easy to use, but lack the flexibility and power that other (horizontal) tools on the market currently offer.
The users of these platforms can be an SDR, SDR Manager, AE, or RevOps.
I’m excited to see if companies like Apollo, Gong, Outreach, Zoominfo, etc. can become more flexible and powerful in the next 6-18 months.
Of course, every company in this last category is trying to figure out where/how to leverage AI (as they should) in hopes of making their products more flexible and powerful, while maintaining their ease of use.
So, to recap, the race I’m watching unfold is: who can get to the upper-right hand of the 4x4 matrix first, and be the most flexible/powerful, while also being easy to use. Today, as a buyer, there is a trade-off you have to make when deciding which tool is right for you. In the future, I hope don’t have to choose between either flexibility/power *or* ease of use.
If you’re considering buying a tool, I hope this gives you a helpful framework for deciding which product (or category) is best for your GTM stack in 2025.
Thank you for your attention and trust.
See you next time,
Brendan 🫡