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Struggling to Grow?
The GTM Playbook
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High Tide Advisors

High Tide AdvisorsHigh Tide AdvisorsHigh Tide Advisors
Home
Struggling to Grow?
The GTM Playbook
Blog
Our Services
About Us
More
  • Home
  • Struggling to Grow?
  • The GTM Playbook
  • Blog
  • Our Services
  • About Us
  • Home
  • Struggling to Grow?
  • The GTM Playbook
  • Blog
  • Our Services
  • About Us

The GTM Playbook

When You Have Great Technology, And A Broken go-to-market.

25+ Product Launches

5-time Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader 

4 company transformations

$1.5B Successful exits


I've seen this pattern destroy growth. Brilliant founders. Revolutionary technology. And a go-to-market that's quietly bleeding the company dry. The symptoms are always the same.

- Dan Schoenbaum

A rocket failing to take off, and smashing into the ground

Without An Aligned GTM:

Everyone tells a different story

Your CEO pitches one vision. Marketing writes another. Sales improvises a third. Prospects hear confusion—and choose competitors who speak with one voice.

You're selling to everyone, winning no one

Without a ruthlessly defined ICP, your team chases enterprise deals you'll never close and burns cycles on prospects who were never going to buy.

Features lead. Value hides.

Technical founders love their technology. But CISOs, CFOs, and boards don't buy features—they buy outcomes. Your positioning buries the ROI story.

New reps take months to ramp

Your best performer's playbook lives in their head. When they leave, institutional knowledge walks out the door. Scaling feels impossible.

Partners will NEVER contribute to your growth

Partners don't create demand; they fulfill it. They are burdened by countless other vendors like you. If you don't make it easy to learn, scale and quickly succeed, they won't ever sell your product 

how winning playbooks are created the process:

1. DIAGNOSE

2. DEFINE & BUILD

2. DEFINE & BUILD

Rapid assessment of your current GTM: ICP clarity, positioning gaps, competitive differentiation, sales process friction, and messaging alignment across teams.


  • Win/loss analysis
  • Sales call recording review
  • Cross-functional interviews

2. DEFINE & BUILD

2. DEFINE & BUILD

2. DEFINE & BUILD

Create the comprehensive playbook: defined ICP, buyer personas, core use cases (sales plays), discovery frameworks, competitive positioning, and proof points.


  • Value proposition architecture
  • Qualification criteria and open-ended questioning
  • Objection handling frameworks


3. TEST AND VERIFY

4. EMBED, LAUNCH AND SCALE

4. EMBED, LAUNCH AND SCALE

Validate the playbook in live selling situations. Refine messaging, discovery questions, and competitive positioning based on real market feedback.


  • Pilot with top performers
  • A/B test positioning
  • Define key metrics to measure and benchmarks
  • Iterate based on results

4. EMBED, LAUNCH AND SCALE

4. EMBED, LAUNCH AND SCALE

4. EMBED, LAUNCH AND SCALE

Roll out across the entire organization. Train every team—from engineering to BDRs to the CEO—so everyone speaks the same language and drives the same outcomes.


  • Company-wide training
  • Deal review coaching
  • Monitor implementation, detect friction
  • Ongoing refinement
  • Celebrate the wins and newfound success


I find the breaks others miss

Proven Success

After leading go-to-market at RiskIQ (acquired by Microsoft for $800M) and Tripwire ($710M exit), I've developed an instinct for diagnosing exactly where a GTM is broken—often within hours of engagement.

"This transformation happened without any new features or changes to our products. The key was shifting focus away from technology into a compelling vision oriented around the positive change we could create for customers."

The Playbook

At Tripwire, we tripled revenue not by building new products, but by repositioning from "file integrity monitoring" to "compliance automation"—a story that resonated with the C-suite and drove urgency. At RiskIQ, we created the category and claimed early leadership in "Attack Surface Management" before others even understood the opportunity.


The playbook I create for you captures these same transformation principles—customized to your market, your technology, and your growth stage.

one playbook: total alignment

TRANSFORM YOUR GTM - TRANSFORM YOUR BUSINESS

This isn't a sales document that marketing ignores. It's a company-wide operating system that aligns every function around a single go-to-market strategy.


Engineers understand who they're building for and why. Product prioritizes features that support your sales plays. Marketing creates campaigns around the same pain points sales discusses in discovery. Sales qualifies ruthlessly and wins consistently. The CEO tells the same story as the newest BDR.


When everyone operates from the same source of truth, momentum compounds. That's when growth becomes predictable.

Benefits: What alignment delivers

3X REVENUE GROWTH

40% FASTER SALES REP RAMP

40% FASTER SALES REP RAMP

At Tripwire, we tripled revenue by repositioning from technical tools to compliance solutions—without changing the product.

40% FASTER SALES REP RAMP

40% FASTER SALES REP RAMP

40% FASTER SALES REP RAMP

A comprehensive playbook becomes your training system. New reps achieve productivity in weeks, not quarters.

$700M EXIT VALUATIONS

40% FASTER SALES REP RAMP

$700M EXIT VALUATIONS

Across multiple organizations - Tripwire, RiskIQ's and others -  sizable exits occurred, built on a clear category position and aligned GTM that told a coherent story to the market and acquirers.

Copyright © 2025-2026 High Tide Advisors. Providing go-to-market consulting, security startup advisor, CISO messaging, cybersecurity positioning strategy, security technology partnerships, M&A readiness cybersecurity, security sales coaching, PE due diligence security, fractional CRO cybersecurity, security vendor GTM strategy, cybersecurity exit strategy, security startup growth consulting.

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