ROI (Return on Investment)
The ROI of a GTM initiative is never measured in the quarter it launches. It's measured when it stops producing effects, and that's often much later.
“Judging the ROI of a GTM initiative after a single quarter is like judging a seed after a week in the ground.”
Otto GTM ObservatoryThe problem of the wrong time horizon
The ROI of B2B GTM initiatives (a new channel, a repositioning, an ABM investment) should be read over a horizon consistent with the sales cycle: evaluating it before the first deals have had time to mature systematically produces a false negative.
This doesn't mean giving every investment a blank check: it means defining the correct evaluation horizon and intermediate milestones (MQL, SQL, pipeline growth) to monitor before closed revenue arrives.
Anti-patterns
Common mistake: cutting a GTM initiative after a quarter of negative ROI without considering that the company's average sales cycle is 8-9 months, killing initiatives that would have paid off beyond the observation horizon.
Second mistake: calculating ROI only on direct costs (media spend, tools), excluding internal team time dedicated to the initiative, which in many cases is the most significant cost line.
Practical Application
An €85,000 account-based marketing investment generates only €12,000 of pipeline in the first 3 months: apparent ROI of -85.9%. Extended to the 9-month horizon consistent with the company's enterprise sales cycle, the same investment generates €340,000 of closed revenue: real ROI of +300%, invisible to anyone who decided to cut the initiative at month three.