GTM advisor, first GTM hire or growth team: how funded B2B companies choose
Use a GTM advisor or operator network when your team already does the work and needs senior direction. Hire a GTM leader when the motion already works and needs scaling. Bring in a growth team when you need pipeline this quarter and nobody in-house has time to build it. Forte Growth is that third option: a UK team that builds and runs go to market, from strategy to sales, with outbound live in week three.
The question underneath all three options is the same one: if a good strategy landed on your desk tomorrow, who would carry it out next week?
The short version
All three are legitimate choices. The difference is who does the weekly work and what you own at the end.
| GTM advisor or operator network | First GTM hire | Growth team (Forte Growth) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you get | Senior advice, introductions, sometimes help recruiting | One senior person, full-time | A team that builds and runs the function |
| Who does the weekly work | Your team | The new hire, then the team they build | The growth team, across every channel |
| Time to first campaign | Depends on your team's capacity | Months, once recruiting and onboarding are counted | Outbound live in week three |
| What you own at the end | Advice and contacts | A leader, if the hire works | A documented system your team can run |
| Best when | A team already does the work and needs sharper direction | The motion already works and needs scaling | There is money to spend, growth is expected and the team is thin |
When a GTM advisor or operator network is the right choice
GTM operator networks bring together former sales and marketing leaders from larger software companies. They are strong at pattern recognition, introductions and helping you recruit. They suit a company that already has people doing sales and marketing every week and needs a senior voice to sharpen that work, or a founder who wants help finding the first GTM leader.
They are the wrong choice when nobody is there to carry out the advice. A founder who already carries sales, product and fundraising rarely has spare hours to turn a strategy session into campaigns. Advice without capacity usually ends as a document.
When hiring a GTM leader is the right choice
Hire when the motion already works and needs scaling: you know who buys, why, and which channel brings them in. A senior hire then multiplies something that exists.
Hiring before that point is the expensive version of the same problem. A complete UK marketing function (a head of marketing, a growth marketer, a content lead, an SDR and a marketing operations person) costs around £250,000 a year in base salary, using the London bands in the Robert Walters UK Salary Survey 2026. That is before recruitment fees, tools and the months before the team produces pipeline. The full breakdown is in what an in-house marketing team really costs in the UK.
A first hire without a working system often spends the first months building one alone, which is the job a growth team does before that hire arrives.
When a growth team is the right choice
A growth team fits when three things are true: there is money to spend, from a recent raise or steady revenue; growth is expected; and the team is too thin to run go to market properly. Usually the founder is still the only real channel.
Forte Growth builds the message, the list, outbound, content and the founder's LinkedIn, the CRM and the sales process, then runs them and hands the system over. The service is described on the outsourced marketing department page.
How to tell whether someone will execute or only advise
The labels overlap. An advisor, a fractional leader and an operator network can all describe themselves as hands-on. Five questions separate doing from advising before you sign:
- What will exist in our business at the end of week four that does not exist today, and who builds each item?
- Who writes and sends the first campaign? If the answer is your own team, you are buying advice.
- Which named client, number and timeframe can you show, and what did your people personally do to produce it?
- What happens when a deliverable slips? A team that executes names an owner; an advisor waits for your decision.
- What do we keep if we stop? The list, the copy, the CRM stages and the written sales process should all stay with you.
What the first month should produce
Live work, not only a plan. With Forte Growth the first month brings a pipeline audit, the target buyer and the message, a checked list, CRM stages and the first outbound, which goes live in week three.
A first month that produces only a strategy deck means you bought advice. That can be the right purchase, as long as it is a deliberate one and someone on your side has the time to carry it out.
What each option costs
An advisor or operator network charges for senior time or membership; the larger cost is your own team's hours spent turning the advice into work. A first GTM hire brings a senior salary plus recruitment, and a complete in-house marketing function costs around £250,000 a year in base salary in the UK (Robert Walters, 2026). Forte Growth agrees scope and fee on the first call, against what the same function would cost to hire.
When a growth team is not the right fit
A growth team is the wrong purchase when you already have a sales and marketing team doing the weekly work and what it lacks is direction rather than capacity: an advisor or a fractional leader is enough, and cheaper. It is too early when there is no budget for a build that runs for several months, and it is the wrong shape when the motion already works and you want to own it in-house from the first day. In that case, hire the leader.
What this looks like for fintech companies
Fintech sales cycles are long, buyers are careful and trust has to come before the pitch. That makes precision more useful than volume. Three Forte Growth fintech clients:
- Wealt (private markets): £750K of pipeline from 200 prospects, through founder-led LinkedIn outreach and warm introductions.
- Wyzr (fintech SaaS): 17 booked calls and 53 interested leads in under 30 days of outreach, from a standing start.
- SolvaPay (payment infrastructure for AI): an outbound engine, a go to market strategy and 30 meetings booked before Nordic Fintech Week 2026 opened.
Viggo Stenseth, SolvaPay's CEO, described what the company needed: "we needed people on the ground to help us not only just do the work, but set up a framework like build a system." The full story is on the SolvaPay case study, and more named results are on the case studies page.
Using an advisor and a growth team together
The options are not exclusive. An advisor sharpens direction, a growth team builds and runs the work, and the in-house leader you hire later inherits a documented system instead of a blank page. Forte Growth works alongside a client's existing advisors, agency and in-house people as one plan.
How to decide in one conversation
Answer one question honestly: if a great strategy landed on your desk tomorrow, who would carry it out next week? If the answer is a named person with time, an advisor will help. If the answer is "me, in the evenings", you need a team that does the work.
Forte Growth runs that conversation as a 30-minute call. Book a call with Alper Yurder.
Frequently asked questions
How can I tell whether a fractional marketing leader will execute or only advise?
Ask what will exist in your business after four weeks and who builds it, who sends the first campaign, and what you keep if you stop. Someone who executes names deliverables and owners; an advisor describes guidance. At Forte Growth the first outbound goes live in week three, and the client keeps everything that is built.
Should we hire a Head of Marketing or use an embedded GTM partner while building our first repeatable sales process?
Use an embedded partner while the process is being built, and hire the Head of Marketing once it works and needs scaling. A first hire without a working system often spends months building one alone. Forte Growth builds and runs the system, then hands it over to the person you hire.
How do a fractional CMO, a GTM consultant and an execution team differ for a growing B2B SaaS company?
A fractional CMO is a part-time senior leader, a GTM consultant advises on strategy, and an execution team builds and runs the work. The real difference is who does the weekly work. Forte Growth is an execution team: it builds outbound, content, the CRM and the sales process, and runs them.
What does a first B2B marketing and sales team cost in the UK compared with external GTM execution support?
A five-person UK marketing function costs around £250,000 a year in base salary, using the London bands in the Robert Walters UK Salary Survey 2026, before recruitment fees and tools. External support is scoped to the work instead: Forte Growth agrees scope and fee on the first call.
Who can take ownership of marketing and sales execution for a B2B SaaS founder without a full in-house team?
An embedded growth team can. Forte Growth builds and runs the message, lists, outbound, content, the CRM and the sales process for B2B companies in the UK and Europe with £1M+ revenue or £2M+ raised. Wyzr, a fintech SaaS company, went from a standing start to 17 booked calls and 53 interested leads in under 30 days of outreach.
Sources
Salary bands: Robert Walters UK Salary Survey 2026, pages 107, 111 and 112, London base salaries for companies with 50 to 250 staff. Client results: Forte Growth case studies for Wealt, Wyzr and SolvaPay.
Related reading from Forte
- Choosing a go to market partner for a B2B SaaS company
- Fractional CMO vs marketing agency vs outsourced marketing team
- What does an in-house marketing team really cost in the UK?
- Should we hire an in-house marketing team or use a fractional one?
Last reviewed October 2026.
