GTMcraft Plays · The Move Upmarket Play

Teams chase bigger deals and quietly break the efficient SMB engine that funds the whole move.

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move-upmarket-signal.html

The 90-second read

Your failure state is a stalled bet on both ends. You reach for enterprise logos and larger ACV before the SMB engine is ready. The SMB motion that funds the move starts to leak while enterprise deals sit in procurement. You end up worse at both, with a thinner runway and a slower cycle.

• Enterprise deals take 9 to 12 months; SMB deals close in 30 to 60 days.
• A 10K ACV sale is not a 250K ACV sale, and the motion differs.
• Wait for the gate: US near 10M ARR, Europe near 6 to 7M ARR.
• Move only when CAC payback is under 12 months and NRR is 100%.
• Enterprise buying runs through 5 to 8 stakeholders, not one champion.

Read time: about 5 minutes. First step runnable Monday morning.

The #1 move this week

Set the readiness gate before you chase a single enterprise logo this quarter.

Most teams move upmarket on ambition, not evidence, and break the SMB engine first. The gate is simple and it is a hard stop. If CAC payback runs long or NRR sits under 100%, you fix the base before you climb.

Start here: pull CAC payback, NRR, and win rate by segment into one table. You need your finance and CRM data from the last four quarters.

Ignore this week: do not hire an enterprise AE yet. Prove the gate and the process before you add headcount.