Right now, from San Francisco to Singapore, hundreds of growth teams are asking the same question:
How do we grow revenue without increasing headcount?
A decade ago, the only way to grow revenue was to hire more people. More headcount meant more leads. Books like Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross, Sales Acceleration Formula by Mark Roberge, and Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes championed this approach, reinforcing the idea that growth required more boots on the ground.
But times have changed.
Today, we have an arsenal of tools that can leverage data to grow revenue. Data enrichment tools uncover prospect details, large language models (LLMs) personalize messaging at scale, sequencers automate outreach, and intent data helps teams strike while the iron is hot. With these tools, sales and marketing teams are expected to drive more pipeline per person. But achieving that requires striking a delicate balance.
Some teams over-automate, leaning on blunt, impersonal AI solutions that alienate prospects. Others under-automate, bogging themselves down with manual tasks. Both approaches leave teams siloed and struggling to hit their goals efficiently.
The sales floor of tomorrow won’t resemble today’s reality of AEs, SDRs, and RevOps manually crafting emails and cold calls. Instead, it will look more like an engineering organization.
Engineering teams build software that can serve millions of users without requiring more engineers. Similarly, sales teams will build automated systems that can reach thousands of prospects without adding headcount. Instead of each person working independently, they'll collaborate on reusable solutions that scale.
Like engineers, sellers will become technical problem-solvers who:
- Design scalable revenue-generating systems strategies for reaching prospects
- Build and maintain automated workflows
- Handle complex relationships while automation manages repetitive tasks
- Share successful approaches across the team
They'll develop deep expertise in modern sales technology - knowing when to use AI vs. human touch, creating automated data pipelines for prospect information, and continuously measuring and optimizing their systems for better performance.
The result? Sales teams that achieve more with fewer people, just like modern engineering organizations.
At Clay, we’re pioneering this future with the industry’s first GTM Engineering team—a reimagining of traditional sales roles that collapses SDRs, AEs, and sales engineers into a single, high-leverage function.
The default way to run sales at modern companies
The way most companies run sales is fairly straightforward:
1. SDRs research prospects and send outbound emails.
2. AEs take calls and close deals.
3. Sales engineers explain the technical side of the product.
4. RevOps ensures the CRM and tools are running smoothly.
These are distinct functions, doing distinct things, all in pursuit of a greater goal. The structure may look somewhat (or very) different depending on the company.
There's a massive problem with this approach: it's built around individual effort rather than scalable systems.
Think about how most SDRs work today. They're juggling LinkedIn research, crafting individual emails, and managing their own tech stacks—all while trying to hit aggressive meeting quotas. Some figure out clever shortcuts, others drown in manual work, and their best practices are rarely spread across the team.
It's like giving everyone a Swiss Army knife and hoping they'll build a house.
At Clay—given the market’s new technology, data, and automation potential—we decided that we could do better than this traditional team structure.
The rise of GTM engineering
It’s been less than a year since we landed on the term GTM engineers at Clay to describe our collapsed SDR/AE/sales engineering team.
Since then, the job title has exploded. Here are some screenshots of posts from just the last two weeks on LinkedIn.
GTM engineers automate processes that SDRs would’ve done manually.
For example:
- The old way: A team of SDRs works on manually researching prospects’ data, manually writing and personalizing emails, manually sending emails, and manually setting up meetings.
- The new way: A few GTM engineers use Clay, LLMs, an email warming tool, and an outbound sequencer to automate personalized outbound—at 10x the scale of the old team.
We’ve seen some companies where GTM engineers build systems to set up revenue opportunities that other people close on calls. At Clay, however, GTMEs do everything:
- Generate pipeline: Build systems for targeted outbound or inbound that can drum up demand that would’ve required an army of SDRs
- Close existing pipeline: Work with new prospects and prospects with upgrade potential
- Technical workshopping: Help people use Clay and understand how to uplevel their GTM teams to be more efficient and technically-forward
As a result, this is what our organization structure looks like.
Merging the SDR, sales engineer, and AE roles has several benefits.
1: Tighter feedback loops
An SDR doesn't need to pass a lead to an AE, who pulls in a sales engineer for help—it's all the same person, and crucially, that person is a true product expert. Unlike AEs who sometimes have surface-level product knowledge and must defer to technical teams, our GTM engineers use Clay daily to build automated systems. They can immediately demonstrate advanced functionality, solve technical challenges, and show exactly how to implement solutions. Customers get expert consultation from day one rather than a basic sales pitch. That means customers get a better, faster, and more unified experience, and we're much more efficient in hitting our revenue targets.
2: Better product feedback
GTM engineers are all experts at using Clay, which is useful as they run sales calls and write copy about the product. Unlike traditional AEs who view the product as a sales tool, GTM engineers think like power users and product builders. Their deep technical understanding and daily hands-on experience means they spot valuable product opportunities that sales teams typically miss. Our primary product feedback and roadmap often draws from the experiences of GTMEs.
It becomes a flywheel. A GTM engineer closes a lead → working with that lead surfaces a product fix or idea → product team implements the fix or idea → product becomes better → GTM engineers close new leads more easily → Clay grows revenue.
A perfect day for a GTM engineer at Clay is a combination of taking calls with new customers, helping current customers get more value, and building tables and data pipelines directly in Clay.
What's particularly interesting is that our customers view GTM engineers not just as sellers, but as strategic advisors in their own transformation. Customers often tell us that working with GTM engineers helps them envision and implement their own revenue automation initiatives. These aren't traditional sales conversations—they're collaborative sessions where GTM engineers are thought leaders on how to build scalable revenue systems.
This educational component is crucial as the entire industry moves towards more technical, systematic approaches to revenue generation. Our GTM engineers are at the forefront of this shift, helping customers understand not just what's possible today, but what their own GTM motion could look like tomorrow.
How GTM engineering is different than RevOps
GTM engineering may sound like GTM Ops (Marketing Ops, Sales Ops, Customer Success Ops) team members. The difference is mostly in focus.
Existing GTM ops teams need to ensure things run smoothly, often by managing tools and core data pipelines.
GTM engineers, on the other hand, create entirely new systems—often through customizations and integrations—to grow revenue. New customer conversations and deals inform their work.
Let’s use outbound as a simple example:
- RevOps might set up the email sequencer and make sure the CRM is integrated properly.
- GTM engineers might build an entirely new outbound system—pulling data from enrichment tools, creating personalized emails with LLMs, and automating follow-ups—replacing what would have taken dozens of people doing manual labor.
This distinction becomes even more important as companies scale. While RevOps maintains the infrastructure that keeps revenue operations running smoothly, GTM engineers act as architects of growth, designing and implementing new tools and systems that didn’t exist before.
How we hire for GTM engineers
GTM engineering is a new role, and the best-fit candidates have likely spent most of their careers doing something different.
The strongest signal that someone will be a good GTM engineer at Clay is simple: they’re really good at using Clay. This is both because using Clay is a major part of a GTM engineer’s job and because it signals that they’re good systems thinkers.
Here is the exact take-home we use:
During our interview process, here are a few clear positive signals:
- Somewhat (or very) technical
- High product IQ: Can provide clear, useful feedback to product/engineering teams
- Great with people: Comfortable and effective on sales and customer calls
- Have run (or worked on) growth at other companies.
- High agency: Can get things done and unblock themselves.
You may notice we use a lot of stereotypically contradictory criteria. Great with people but highly technical. Product-minded but good at growth. That’s what makes hiring for GTM engineers difficult—but we feel great about the people we’ve found so far.
We believe that GTM engineering has a bright future. It’s one of the highest leverage jobs in the GTM world today. And there will be a significant gap between demand and supply: a good GTM engineer can generate incredible amounts of value, but there aren’t many people who make great GTM engineers.
If you think you may be a fit at Clay, let us know here.
Right now, from San Francisco to Singapore, hundreds of growth teams are asking the same question:
How do we grow revenue without increasing headcount?
A decade ago, the only way to grow revenue was to hire more people. More headcount meant more leads. Books like Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross, Sales Acceleration Formula by Mark Roberge, and Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes championed this approach, reinforcing the idea that growth required more boots on the ground.
But times have changed.
Today, we have an arsenal of tools that can leverage data to grow revenue. Data enrichment tools uncover prospect details, large language models (LLMs) personalize messaging at scale, sequencers automate outreach, and intent data helps teams strike while the iron is hot. With these tools, sales and marketing teams are expected to drive more pipeline per person. But achieving that requires striking a delicate balance.
Some teams over-automate, leaning on blunt, impersonal AI solutions that alienate prospects. Others under-automate, bogging themselves down with manual tasks. Both approaches leave teams siloed and struggling to hit their goals efficiently.
The sales floor of tomorrow won’t resemble today’s reality of AEs, SDRs, and RevOps manually crafting emails and cold calls. Instead, it will look more like an engineering organization.
Engineering teams build software that can serve millions of users without requiring more engineers. Similarly, sales teams will build automated systems that can reach thousands of prospects without adding headcount. Instead of each person working independently, they'll collaborate on reusable solutions that scale.
Like engineers, sellers will become technical problem-solvers who:
- Design scalable revenue-generating systems strategies for reaching prospects
- Build and maintain automated workflows
- Handle complex relationships while automation manages repetitive tasks
- Share successful approaches across the team
They'll develop deep expertise in modern sales technology - knowing when to use AI vs. human touch, creating automated data pipelines for prospect information, and continuously measuring and optimizing their systems for better performance.
The result? Sales teams that achieve more with fewer people, just like modern engineering organizations.
At Clay, we’re pioneering this future with the industry’s first GTM Engineering team—a reimagining of traditional sales roles that collapses SDRs, AEs, and sales engineers into a single, high-leverage function.
The default way to run sales at modern companies
The way most companies run sales is fairly straightforward:
1. SDRs research prospects and send outbound emails.
2. AEs take calls and close deals.
3. Sales engineers explain the technical side of the product.
4. RevOps ensures the CRM and tools are running smoothly.
These are distinct functions, doing distinct things, all in pursuit of a greater goal. The structure may look somewhat (or very) different depending on the company.
There's a massive problem with this approach: it's built around individual effort rather than scalable systems.
Think about how most SDRs work today. They're juggling LinkedIn research, crafting individual emails, and managing their own tech stacks—all while trying to hit aggressive meeting quotas. Some figure out clever shortcuts, others drown in manual work, and their best practices are rarely spread across the team.
It's like giving everyone a Swiss Army knife and hoping they'll build a house.
At Clay—given the market’s new technology, data, and automation potential—we decided that we could do better than this traditional team structure.
The rise of GTM engineering
It’s been less than a year since we landed on the term GTM engineers at Clay to describe our collapsed SDR/AE/sales engineering team.
Since then, the job title has exploded. Here are some screenshots of posts from just the last two weeks on LinkedIn.
GTM engineers automate processes that SDRs would’ve done manually.
For example:
- The old way: A team of SDRs works on manually researching prospects’ data, manually writing and personalizing emails, manually sending emails, and manually setting up meetings.
- The new way: A few GTM engineers use Clay, LLMs, an email warming tool, and an outbound sequencer to automate personalized outbound—at 10x the scale of the old team.
We’ve seen some companies where GTM engineers build systems to set up revenue opportunities that other people close on calls. At Clay, however, GTMEs do everything:
- Generate pipeline: Build systems for targeted outbound or inbound that can drum up demand that would’ve required an army of SDRs
- Close existing pipeline: Work with new prospects and prospects with upgrade potential
- Technical workshopping: Help people use Clay and understand how to uplevel their GTM teams to be more efficient and technically-forward
As a result, this is what our organization structure looks like.
Merging the SDR, sales engineer, and AE roles has several benefits.
1: Tighter feedback loops
An SDR doesn't need to pass a lead to an AE, who pulls in a sales engineer for help—it's all the same person, and crucially, that person is a true product expert. Unlike AEs who sometimes have surface-level product knowledge and must defer to technical teams, our GTM engineers use Clay daily to build automated systems. They can immediately demonstrate advanced functionality, solve technical challenges, and show exactly how to implement solutions. Customers get expert consultation from day one rather than a basic sales pitch. That means customers get a better, faster, and more unified experience, and we're much more efficient in hitting our revenue targets.
2: Better product feedback
GTM engineers are all experts at using Clay, which is useful as they run sales calls and write copy about the product. Unlike traditional AEs who view the product as a sales tool, GTM engineers think like power users and product builders. Their deep technical understanding and daily hands-on experience means they spot valuable product opportunities that sales teams typically miss. Our primary product feedback and roadmap often draws from the experiences of GTMEs.
It becomes a flywheel. A GTM engineer closes a lead → working with that lead surfaces a product fix or idea → product team implements the fix or idea → product becomes better → GTM engineers close new leads more easily → Clay grows revenue.
A perfect day for a GTM engineer at Clay is a combination of taking calls with new customers, helping current customers get more value, and building tables and data pipelines directly in Clay.
What's particularly interesting is that our customers view GTM engineers not just as sellers, but as strategic advisors in their own transformation. Customers often tell us that working with GTM engineers helps them envision and implement their own revenue automation initiatives. These aren't traditional sales conversations—they're collaborative sessions where GTM engineers are thought leaders on how to build scalable revenue systems.
This educational component is crucial as the entire industry moves towards more technical, systematic approaches to revenue generation. Our GTM engineers are at the forefront of this shift, helping customers understand not just what's possible today, but what their own GTM motion could look like tomorrow.
How GTM engineering is different than RevOps
GTM engineering may sound like GTM Ops (Marketing Ops, Sales Ops, Customer Success Ops) team members. The difference is mostly in focus.
Existing GTM ops teams need to ensure things run smoothly, often by managing tools and core data pipelines.
GTM engineers, on the other hand, create entirely new systems—often through customizations and integrations—to grow revenue. New customer conversations and deals inform their work.
Let’s use outbound as a simple example:
- RevOps might set up the email sequencer and make sure the CRM is integrated properly.
- GTM engineers might build an entirely new outbound system—pulling data from enrichment tools, creating personalized emails with LLMs, and automating follow-ups—replacing what would have taken dozens of people doing manual labor.
This distinction becomes even more important as companies scale. While RevOps maintains the infrastructure that keeps revenue operations running smoothly, GTM engineers act as architects of growth, designing and implementing new tools and systems that didn’t exist before.
How we hire for GTM engineers
GTM engineering is a new role, and the best-fit candidates have likely spent most of their careers doing something different.
The strongest signal that someone will be a good GTM engineer at Clay is simple: they’re really good at using Clay. This is both because using Clay is a major part of a GTM engineer’s job and because it signals that they’re good systems thinkers.
Here is the exact take-home we use:
During our interview process, here are a few clear positive signals:
- Somewhat (or very) technical
- High product IQ: Can provide clear, useful feedback to product/engineering teams
- Great with people: Comfortable and effective on sales and customer calls
- Have run (or worked on) growth at other companies.
- High agency: Can get things done and unblock themselves.
You may notice we use a lot of stereotypically contradictory criteria. Great with people but highly technical. Product-minded but good at growth. That’s what makes hiring for GTM engineers difficult—but we feel great about the people we’ve found so far.
We believe that GTM engineering has a bright future. It’s one of the highest leverage jobs in the GTM world today. And there will be a significant gap between demand and supply: a good GTM engineer can generate incredible amounts of value, but there aren’t many people who make great GTM engineers.
If you think you may be a fit at Clay, let us know here.
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