Fractional Go-To-Market Engineer | Building practical GTM systems for B2B SaaS | Outbound, CRM & AI Automation · 4w ago
9 months ago, I had zero GTM experience. I still landed my first international paid client.
Here’s how I did it
And I’m still using almost the same approach to get clients today.
1. I studied 50 GTM Engineers.
> What were they building?
> What problems were they solving?
> What were they posting about?
> I basically tried to understand what the job looked like in real life.
2. I made my own target list.
Around 50 companies I thought I realistically had a chance with, plus a few dream companies/clients I really wanted to work with.
3. I researched before I pitched.
I looked at their GTM and made hypotheses about what could be broken, manual or improved.
4. Then I built something.(Mini-Project)
A small Clay workflow, research audit, automation, Loom whatever made sense for that specific company.
So instead of saying “Hey, I'm looking for GTM work”, I had something to actually show.
5. My outreach was simple.
Short, friendly, no giant pitch. Build a connection first, make a small ask, and if they were interested then send the work and get on a call.
And..
And I never pretended to have years of experience.
I told people I was early, but I learn fast, solve problems and care about revenue.
6. At the same time, I started posting on LinkedIn.
> What I was building
> What worked
> What failed
> What I thought about GTM.
Slowly, people started knowing what I could do without me having to pitch them.
That’s still bringing me inbound opportunities today.
And after every good proj…
Sonal G.
Fractional Go-To-Market Engineer | Building practical GTM systems for B2B SaaS | Outbound, CRM & AI Automation · 3w ago
HOT TAKE:
I probably shouldn’t be saying this as a GTM Engineer,
but your new GTM hire might not bring you revenue in month one.
I completely get the founder side.
You hire someone because you want:
> More leads
> More meetings
> More pipeline
> More revenue
But before a GTM Engineer can build something that actually works, they need to understand:
> who really buys and why
> what you’ve already tried
> what messaging has worked
> where the process is breaking
> what your data and CRM look like
Then comes testing.
> Segments
> Offers
> Angles
> Messaging
And yes, sometimes the first hypothesis is wrong.
That’s part of the job.
Month one should absolutely show progress.
> Research
> Systems
> Experiments
> Early signals
> Things launching
But expecting someone to understand your business, build the system, test it, and turn it into predictable revenue immediately?
That’s how you end up scaling the wrong thing faster 😭
Fast execution is great.
Fast execution in the wrong direction isn’t.
Sonal G.
Fractional Go-To-Market Engineer | Building practical GTM systems for B2B SaaS | Outbound, CRM & AI Automation · 4d ago
My 5 biggest struggles as a new GTM Engineer were:
1. Money
(I left without much of a backup because I genuinely believed I could make this work)
2. Having no idea where to start
(Everything looked important and everyone seemed to have a different roadmap)
3. Having no portfolio
4. Feeling like I wasn’t technical enough
(I came from sales, so for a while I genuinely felt behind)
5. Sending outreach and hearing absolutely nothing
(This one was humbling)
Anyone reading this who has the same struggles, here's my advice:
1. If you have a job, start building or freelancing alongside it first.
2. Don’t try to learn every tool at once. Learn whatever you need for that one problem you are solving.
3. Build projects, record Looms, take small client work. Your first portfolio does not need famous logos.
4. Get comfortable being bad at the technical stuff initially
(Most things stop feeling scary only after you’ve broken them a few times)
5. Keep improving your outreach instead of quitting after 20 ignored Emails
(Better targeting, better messaging, more feedback, more replies)
6. Document your work publicly
(LinkedIn is still where most of my inbound opportunities come from)
What else do you struggle with?
I will advise as best I can from my experience.
Sonal G.
Fractional Go-To-Market Engineer | Building practical GTM systems for B2B SaaS | Outbound, CRM & AI Automation · 2w ago
I used to think GTM Engineering would be hard without coding.
Then I started building anyway.
I came into GTM with zero coding knowledge.
And honestly, I’m not super proud of that !
I have started learning now because I know at some point I’ll need more technical depth.
But here’s the funny part:
I still haven’t really sat down and written code from scratch.
And yet I’ve built workflows, automations and GTM systems that actually work.
A lot of it started with:
> n8n
> Clay
> APIs
> webhooks
> MCP
> JSON
> ChatGPT / Claude / Grok
a LOT of “why is this not working?” 😂
At first, even seeing an API response felt intimidating.
Now I can usually look at a workflow, understand what’s happening, debug the logic, and figure out what needs to connect where.
Not because I suddenly became a developer.
Because I kept building.
That changed how I think about technical skills.
You don’t always need to learn everything before you start.
Sometimes you build first, get stuck, learn the exact thing you need, and keep going.
Will coding help me become a better GTM Engineer?
100%.
That’s why I’m learning it.
But if you’re currently waiting to learn Python, SQL, APIs, automation, and 17 other things before you build your first GTM project…
you might be waiting too long.
Start with what you know.
Let harder problems tell you what to learn next.
Sonal G.
Fractional Go-To-Market Engineer | Building practical GTM systems for B2B SaaS | Outbound, CRM & AI Automation · 8d ago
The more GTM work I do, the more I realise the job usually starts way before the tools.
A founder can come in saying: We need outbound !
Sounds simple right
Build a list, Write copy & Launch (not that easy, I swear)
But then you start asking questions like
> Who are your best customers?
> Why did they buy?
> Which segment actually converts?
> What have you already tested?
> Where do replies go?
> Who owns follow-up?
> Is the CRM clean enough to trust?
And suddenly BUILD AN OUTBOUND SYSTEM has turned into:
> Research
> Sales strategy
> Data cleaning
> Copywriting
> CRM logic
> Deliverability
> Automation
> Client communication
And funny enough, sometimes building the workflow is the easiest part.
The harder part is taking everything sitting inside a founder’s head and turning it into clear decisions a system can actually follow.
That’s what the title GTM Engineer didn’t capture for me when I started.
I thought I would mostly be connecting tools.
Now I think a lot more of the job is:
Understand the mess first. Then decide what deserves to become a system.
