Who should we hire first for go to market: a CMO, a CRO, an SDR or an agency?
If pipeline still depends on the founder, none of them first. A CMO, a CRO and an SDR lead or multiply a go to market engine that already works; an agency sells volume in one channel. Forte Growth builds and runs that engine first.
What does each option do?
A CMO sets direction for a marketing team, budget and channels. A CRO owns the revenue number across sales, marketing and customer success. An SDR books meetings from outbound. An agency sends messages at volume in one channel, and the system usually stays with it.
When is each one the right first move?
Hire an SDR when outbound already books meetings without the founder and there are more accounts than one person can work. Hire a CMO when marketing already produces pipeline and has a team or budget to lead. Hire a CRO when pipeline arrives without the founder and several sellers or teams need one revenue owner.
An agency fits when all you need is sending in one channel. If none of this is true, build the engine first. "Should we hire a CMO?", "Should we hire a CRO?" and "Should we hire an SDR?" cover each role.
Why not hire the whole team at once?
Five UK hires (a Head of Marketing, growth marketer, content lead, SDR and marketing operations) cost around £250,000 a year in salary alone, and take months of recruiting, onboarding and ramp-up before any of them produces pipeline. "What does an in-house marketing team actually cost per year in the UK?" has the breakdown.
Should a fractional CMO come first?
Not if the gap is execution. A fractional CMO usually brings the plan and the frameworks, often after a strategy phase, and your team still has to run them. "Should we hire an in-house marketing team or use a fractional one?" compares the two.
What does Forte Growth do instead?
Forte Growth takes over your go to market and marketing: outbound, inbound, content, founder brand, sales process, CRM and automation. It builds it, improves it and runs it to get you results, with outbound live in week three.
You own the whole system: campaigns, content, CRM, playbooks and what they taught. Your first hire inherits it, or you keep Forte running it.
ALPER YURDER · FORTE GROWTH
Alper Yurder on what a first go to market and marketing team adds up to in the UK, and the engine it is hired to build.
What should we do first?
Take the diagnostic. Ten focused questions show where the commercial constraint sits and the best next move, with an instant result and no email gate.
Related playbook: The 90-Day GTM Clarity and Execution Tracker, thirty-one go to market decisions in one document, each with what good looks like at 30, 60, 90 and 180 days.