For years, go-to-market leaders lived by the laws of growth through sales capacity. The mentality was simple: if you want to increase revenue, hire more salespeople.
Today, rapidly changing technology is altering that equation. Experts say that standout growth will come from teams that double down on productivity.
"What we're seeing in the market is companies running with smaller teams and supplying them with more accurate and highly personalized datasets, to drive more revenue," says Millie Beetham, director of ZI Labs & GTM innovation at ZoomInfo.
Achieving next-generation GTM productivity requires automation and sophisticated enablement tools. Here's how revenue teams can modernize their go-to-market strategies and win the race for productivity.
What Is GTM Automation?
GTM automation is the process of using software to automatically trigger the right sales and marketing actions based on buyer signals. It replaces manual prospecting and research with systematic, data-driven workflows that respond when accounts show buying intent.
A GTM automation system connects data sources to workflows that respond to buyer behavior. The system has three core components:
Data layer: Contact and company intelligence, firmographics, technographics, and intent signals that identify who to target
Signal layer: Triggers that indicate buyer readiness, including job changes, funding events, tech installs, and intent surges
Action layer: Automated workflows that route leads, enrich records, and initiate outreach based on those signals
The B2B GTM approach has historically been a highly technical but disjointed process, riddled with data silos and inefficient workflows. Teams typically work in parallel but not together, often with siloed and incomplete data, creating redundant efforts that undermine their efficiency.
"Sales teams are building data pipelines over here, marketing teams are building data pipelines over there. They're running go-to-market motions and they're having to stand everything up themselves and review the results, which is highly resource intensive," Beetham says.
GTM automation solves this by centralizing data and orchestrating workflows across teams. When done right, it has a profound impact on B2B GTM strategy.
Why Revenue Teams Need GTM Automation
Revenue teams spend too much time on manual prospecting and generic outreach. This approach doesn't scale, and it doesn't convert.
What manual GTM looks like:
Reps research contacts one by one
Cross-referencing multiple data sources for each account
Building target lists from scratch for every campaign
GTM automation is not spray-and-pray. When built on accurate data, automation improves targeting precision and outreach relevance. Data quality is the prerequisite that separates effective automation from inbox spam.
Here's what changes when teams automate their go-to-market motions:
Without GTM Automation | With GTM Automation |
|---|---|
Manual list building | Signal-triggered outreach |
Inconsistent follow-up | Enriched records |
Generic messaging | Consistent plays |
Slow response to buying signals | Faster time-to-engagement |
Reduce Time Spent on Manual Prospecting
Automation eliminates repetitive research tasks. Reps no longer need to manually hunt for contact details, company info, or buying signals. The system surfaces enriched, ready-to-act leads.
GTM Workspace centralizes prospecting, engagement, and pipeline management in one place. The platform handles tasks that used to consume hours of rep time:
Researching contact details and verifying accuracy
Cross-referencing multiple data sources for company intelligence
Building target lists from scratch for each campaign
Improve Outreach Quality at Scale
Automation built on accurate data enables personalized messaging at volume without sacrificing relevance. The quality versus quantity tradeoff disappears when the system delivers context with every lead.
ZoomInfo Copilot assists with research and outreach preparation while keeping humans accountable for send decisions. The result is higher engagement without inbox fatigue:
Generic automation pitfall: Blasting the same message to everyone on a list
Data-driven automation outcome: Triggering personalized sequences based on account behavior and firmographic fit
Accelerate Pipeline Generation
Faster response to buying signals means more pipeline. When the system automatically routes high-intent leads or triggers outreach based on job changes, deals start sooner.
Speed impacts pipeline in three ways:
Faster follow-up on intent signals before competitors respond
Immediate routing of inbound leads to the right rep
Triggered sequences on buying events like funding or tech changes
Top GTM Automation Plays to Run
Plays are repeatable, automated workflows triggered by specific signals. Each play requires accurate underlying data to work. Without verified contacts, current firmographics, and reliable intent signals, automation creates noise instead of pipeline.
Here are four high-impact plays that revenue teams run to scale their outbound motions.
Signal-Based Outbound Campaigns
What it does: Trigger outbound sequences based on intent signals like topic surges, website visits, or content engagement. When a target account shows buying behavior, the system automatically adds contacts to a sequence or alerts a rep.
What it requires: Reliable intent data and accurate contact records. Common signals that trigger outbound include:
Intent surge: Account researching your category or competitors
Tech install: Account adds or removes complementary or competitive technology
Content engagement: Multiple contacts from same account engaging with your content
Champion Tracking and Job Change Alerts
What it does: When a contact who previously bought from you or engaged deeply changes jobs, the system alerts the rep or triggers outreach. Former champions at new companies are warm leads with built-in trust.
What it requires: Accurate, continuously updated contact data to detect job changes. What makes it effective:
Built-in trust: You have history with this person
New budget: They may have buying authority at their new company
Timing advantage: Reach them before competitors do
Product-Led Sales Automation
What it does: For companies with free trials or product usage data, automate outreach based on product-qualified leads. When a user hits a usage threshold or engages with a high-value feature, trigger a sales touchpoint.
What it requires: Product usage data enriched with firmographic and contact intelligence to route leads appropriately. Common PQL triggers include:
Usage milestone: User hits a feature or volume threshold
Team expansion: Multiple users from same account sign up
Feature engagement: User accesses high-value or enterprise-tier feature
Closed-Lost Re-engagement
What it does: Automate outreach to closed-lost opportunities when conditions change. The system monitors accounts and re-engages when timing improves.
What it requires: CRM integration and signal monitoring to detect account changes. Re-engagement triggers include:
Funding event: Account raises capital, signaling budget availability
Leadership change: New decision-maker joins, especially if a known champion
Tech change: Account adds or removes technology that creates an opening
Intent resurface: Account starts researching the category again
How to Build a GTM Automation Engine
Building a GTM automation engine requires four sequential steps. Data quality is the foundation. Automation without accurate data creates noise, not pipeline.
Start with Accurate, Actionable Data
Automation only works if the underlying data is accurate. Garbage in, garbage out. Start by ensuring contact records are verified, company data is current, and enrichment is automated.
ZoomInfo provides the data layer that powers automation. Data requirements include:
Verified contacts: Accurate emails and direct dials
Complete firmographics: Industry, size, revenue, location
Technographics: What tools the account uses
Enrichment automation: Continuous refresh, not one-time import
Define Your Signals and Triggers
Identify which signals correlate with pipeline in your business. Not every signal matters equally.
Pick three to five high-value triggers to start: intent surges, job changes, funding events, tech installs, or form fills. Map each signal to a specific action.
Example signal-to-action mappings:
Intent surge on competitor terms: Add to outbound sequence
Champion job change: Alert account owner
Funding announcement: Trigger targeted campaign
Connect Workflows Across Your Tech Stack
Signals and data need to flow into action. Connect your data platform to CRM, sales engagement, and marketing automation tools.
GTM Studio provides a customizable environment for building and orchestrating go-to-market motions. Integration priorities include:
CRM: Salesforce, HubSpot for record management and routing
Sales engagement: Outreach, Salesloft for sequence execution
Marketing automation: For campaign triggers and nurture flows
Add Governance and QA Loops
Automation creates three core risks:
Inbox fatigue: Over-contacting accounts
Duplicate outreach: Multiple reps hitting the same person
Poor timing: Triggering sequences at the wrong moment
Build in volume controls, SLAs for follow-up, and feedback loops to improve targeting over time. Monitor what's working and adjust signals accordingly.
Governance safeguards include:
Volume controls: Cap outreach per account or contact per time period
SLAs: Define response time expectations for routed leads
Feedback loops: Track which signals convert and deprecate low-performers
QA checks: Review automated outputs periodically for quality
GTM Automation Requires a Data Foundation
GTM automation only works when built on accurate, continuously refreshed data. ZoomInfo provides the contact intelligence, firmographics, technographics, and intent signals that power effective plays. With this foundation, sales and marketing teams can identify and target key decision-makers when and where it matters.
Talk to a specialist to learn more.