II. What is GTM Tax?
GTM Tax is the hidden cost of running go-to-market. It’s incurred when teams primarily rely on human attention to recollect, reason, and coordinate GTM activities across a flurry of tools, dashboards, and data sources. Unlike traditional operating costs, you won’t find GTM Tax anywhere on the P&L. It’s an apparition expense, silently siphoning time and attention from senior-level operators through repeated efforts, handoffs, and operational overhead.
GTM Tax activities
GTM Tax is levied against operators through activities that don’t directly move revenue forward, but are required to justify and coordinate it. These primarily include:
- Responding to ad-hoc requests for data or insights
- Defending, validating, or explaining numbers
- Preparing reports, decks, or analyses for reviews
- Reconciling data across GTM tools
- Rebuilding or re-explaining historical context
How to measure GTM Tax
GTM Tax is measurable through two primary methods:
- Human Attention Hours (GTM Tax on time): Time spent on GTM Tax activities instead of high-value work that drives pipeline and revenue
- Wasted Hourly Cost (GTM Tax on salary): The monetary value of an individual Human Attention Hour based on average base salary
