Summary
Harvard Business Review Analytic Services surveyed 522 B2B professionals and found a 45-point gap between go-to-market strategy and go-to-market execution. While 83% of respondents say their GTM strategy is very important, only 38% rate their execution as very effective.
This executive summary condenses the full report into a concise brief that outlines why execution falls short, what separates leading organizations from laggards, and the role that buyer journey alignment, team coordination, and AI play in closing the gap.
The research was published in March 2026 and sponsored by LeanData.
Key Findings From the Report
- 54% of respondents cite increased revenue as the top benefit of improving GTM execution
- 48% identify poorly integrated systems and data sources as the biggest challenge in designing their GTM strategy
- 53% of leaders understand the buyer journey well, compared to just 18% of followers and 11% of laggards
- 63% of leaders report strong team alignment versus only 11% of laggards, and 68% of all respondents agree AI is important to their GTM strategy
“There isn’t a function within the organization that owns the entire customer journey end-to-end. This creates multiple handoff and coordination challenges, which confuses customers — especially in more complex sales motions.”
Chris Dent
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Tags
Buying Journey
Intelligent Go-to-Market Orchestration
