Don’t Scale Activity, Scale Revenue: Mario Hernandez on GTM Strategy

In a recent LinkedIn post, Mario Hernandez discusses a common pitfall in Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies: mistaking activity for actual revenue generation. Hernandez shares a personal anecdote about his own company, where months were spent attempting to scale a part of their GTM that, upon closer inspection, wasn’t delivering the best results.

Hernandez highlights the initial assumption that more activity in the funnel, such as increased outreach, leads, and sales engagement, would automatically lead to growth. However, a deeper dive into their most valuable customer acquisition revealed a different story.

“We had meetings. We had proposals. The CRM looked active. So naturally, I assumed we needed more of everything: More outreach. More leads. More sales activity.”

The uncomfortable truth, as Hernandez points out, was that their best customers weren’t originating from the system they were trying to scale. Instead, they were primarily coming through a select group of individuals who possessed a deep understanding of the market and knew when to introduce the company into relevant conversations.

The Flaw in Measuring Activity Over Impact

Hernandez argues that a critical distinction exists between a channel that produces activity and one that produces genuine advantage and revenue. He observes that many founders fall into the trap of focusing on the busiest parts of their sales funnel, assuming this high level of activity must be the engine driving growth.

“A channel can produce activity without producing advantage,” Hernandez writes, emphasizing that this is a mistake frequently made by new companies.

Working Backwards from Success

To avoid this common error, Hernandez advises founders to take a different approach. He suggests identifying their ten best customers and meticulously working backward to understand the journey that led to their acquisition.

This retrospective analysis should focus on key influencers and touchpoints:

• Who initially created awareness for the product or service?
• Who was instrumental in establishing credibility?
• Who introduced a sense of urgency in the buying process?
• Who helped the buyer feel secure in their decision?
• Who influenced the final decision without ever being formally logged in the CRM system?

Hernandez posits that this exercise often reveals that the most productive revenue streams are not necessarily large, scalable channels, but rather a small group of key individuals.

“You may discover that your most productive revenue channel isn’t a channel at all. It’s five people.”

He further elaborates on the danger of overlooking these crucial individuals, stating, “And instead of building around them, you’ve been treating their contribution like luck.” This sentiment underscores the importance of recognizing and nurturing the relationships and insights that truly drive revenue, rather than simply increasing transactional volume.

The Core Lesson: Scale What Causes Revenue

The central lesson Mario Hernandez wishes he had understood earlier is a powerful reframing of GTM strategy: “Don’t scale what is easiest to see. Scale what is actually causing revenue.” This advice challenges the conventional wisdom of investing more resources into visible, high-activity areas of a sales funnel and instead directs focus towards the less obvious, yet more impactful, drivers of business growth.

By understanding the true sources of their most valuable customers, businesses can allocate resources more effectively, focusing on nurturing relationships and leveraging the expertise of key individuals who demonstrably drive revenue, rather than getting lost in the pursuit of mere activity.