GTM Confessions

Welcome to GTM Confessions. The show where we share what it takes to be a go-to-market (GTM) professional today…because it’s freaking hard and it’s far from the glamorous picture that social media often paints.

Each week, we’ll have a go-to-market professional on the show to share real examples of what’s worked and what’s failed spectacularly…the extreme highs of this career, the lowest of lows, and everything in between. Think of it as your weekly go-to-market therapy session…where you realize you’re not alone in trying to figure it all out.

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GTM Confessions

GTM Advice with Mason Cosby

February 28, 2025 • Stephanie Cox

In this GTM Advice episode, Mason Cosby, CEO of Scrappy ABM, answers a fast round of questions and shares his go-to-market advice with you.

Stephanie Cox: What is the biggest go-to-market challenge that exists today and how would you tackle it?

Mason Cosby: Brand awareness. How would I tackle it? Take a longer-term view on results and recognize that the goal is not to get conversions today, but it's to shift the perspective of the market to become their preferred prevent their preferred vendor over the next five years.

Stephanie Cox: Where would you focus your efforts if you had limited resources and how to drive immediate results?

Mason Cosby: Closed lost, customer win-back programs, website engagement, event activations, and building a podcast.

Stephanie Cox: How do you ensure there is alignment across all go-to-market functional areas, sales, marketing, product, and CX?

Mason Cosby: Looking at same dashboards and same data for the health of the business and understanding your LTGP to CAC ratio to understand exactly how we are doing from an efficiency perspective on getting best-fit customers in the door.

Stephanie Cox: What is the one dirty little secret and go-to-market that nobody talks about that everyone needs to know about?

Mason Cosby: That nobody talks about. The challenge is I talk to a lot of people.

Stephanie Cox: Or maybe few people talk about.

Mason Cosby: I don't think that this is one that few people talk about, but it may be talked about less than it should have been, which is just like, all these titles are made up, all of these terms are made up, none of this is real. You can do whatever you want as long as it generates greater results. No one actually cares what it's called. So stop Googling things to justify yourself. Just like figure out and then make definitions for your organization what these things mean.

Stephanie Cox: What do you think the biggest misconception about having a career and go-to-market is?

Mason Cosby: I'm really bad at this one too because like...I genuinely love this. So like it's been super hard, but I haven't felt how hard it is because like I actually enjoy most every day and I have for like the past six-ish years. Um, but I talked with friends about what I'm doing. They're like, you're a sociopath. Like you work 16 hours a day to like build a business from ground zero or like my first job was 15 percent commission with no base selling print ads. So I worked like 10 hours a day selling print advertising in a parenting magazine in Jackson, Mississippi, and made at the poverty level. But I loved it because I like, I don't know why God made me this way, but I actually genuinely enjoy this. like, I don't know, because all of this has been hard, but because I actually love it so much, I don't feel it. But like it takes a lot of determination and grit and like a lot of sacrifice.

So there's that. The other thing is PE (private equity) is just really horrible to work for as a general sentiment. That's why I wouldn't do it. Go work privately and work with somebody that actually wants to enjoy their life long term.

Stephanie Cox: What is the one skill that good market professionals need to have mastered in order to be successful?

Mason Cosby: Communication in general. Primarily written form communication and the ability to read body language and understand what is not being said but is being communicated.

Stephanie Cox: What is one thing you wish you knew sooner?

Mason Cosby: LGTP to CAC ratio. Yeah, it is, it has been super helpful in understanding and defining best or the thought process that most people are using bundled language to try to effectively communicate, but they don't know what they're saying. And as a result, half of what I do for a living is just defining terms in a way that people can understand.

Stephanie Cox: What is the one piece of advice you would give someone looking to grow their career and go to market?

Mason Cosby: I'll tell you what I did. I took every certification that I could get my hands on. So if you go look at my LinkedIn, there's 67 certifications that are currently on my social profile that I got in the course of six months. so nights and weekends, was, certifications, start with free ones. Then based on those free ones, you'll start to bump up against people and there are paid ones and some of them are heaping piles of garbage. Others are really worthwhile.

So I would invest so, so, so much in education because you can shave decades off of your career by stealing the lessons that somebody took 20 years to learn and you can learn it in three hours.