Hello and welcome to The Modern GTM Executive by Lunar Executive Search - read by (now 2,400+) leading Sales, Marketing, and Executive Leaders within Growth-Stage Technology businesses. We’re here to help people redefine their perspective on modern revenue acquisition models, understand what talent & skills are necessary to do so, and how to find the top 10% of GTM Leaders to execute.

To help readers stay grounded in the reality of today’s GTM hiring landscape, I’ll be sharing a weekly snapshot of active sales roles on LinkedIn. These metrics offer a simple but powerful pulse check: where demand is rising, where it’s cooling, and how the broader software market is shifting beneath the surface.

(Our updated news & trends sections to highlight all relevant stories you need to know going into this week.)

Chip crescendo: At GTC, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang said the company sees a path to $1T in AI chip sales by 2027, another sign the infrastructure race is still accelerating.

Enterprise agents: Snowflake launched Project SnowWork, a new autonomous AI platform aimed at enterprise workflows across functions like sales, finance, operations, and HR.

Cloud tension: Microsoft is reportedly weighing legal action over OpenAI’s $50B cloud deal with Amazon, highlighting how competitive the enterprise AI stack is becoming.

Defense demand: The Pentagon is set to adopt Palantir’s Maven as a core AI system, a major signal for defense-tech and enterprise AI credibility.

Legal AI surge: Legora raised $550M and said U.S. adoption has exceeded expectations as law firms move from AI testing to real deployment.

Startup signal: Eragon raised $12M in seed funding to build an AI operating system for enterprise customers, pointing to continued appetite for workflow-layer AI.

Venture concentration: AI startups captured 41% of all venture dollars raised by companies on Carta last year, reinforcing that the funding market is still heavily tilting toward AI.

Software reset: Debt investors are trimming exposure to software companies as AI disruption fears reshape how the market values traditional enterprise software.

Workforce warning: Meta is reportedly preparing for deeper cuts as it balances AI infrastructure spending against labor costs, another reminder that AI investment and headcount efficiency are increasingly linked.

Most sales reps think they’re “using AI” right now.

They’re not.

They’re prompting ChatGPT.
They’re maybe using a sequencing tool.
They’ve dabbled with a call recorder.

That’s not an edge.

That’s table stakes, and it’s already getting commoditized.

The best reps I’m speaking with right now aren’t just using tools.

They’re quietly building systems.

Not in a technical, engineering-heavy way, but in a practical, workflow-driven way:

They’re not working harder.

They’re removing entire categories of work.

We’re entering a world where the highest-performing reps aren’t just great communicators.

They’re autonomous operators.

They know:

The gap between reps is no longer just skill.

It’s leverage.

And that gap is about to widen.

There will be two types of salespeople over the next 12–24 months:

1. Tool Users - Logging into platforms. Following process. Doing the work manually (just a bit faster).

2. System Builders - Designing lightweight “AI stacks” that:

One group gets marginally better. The other becomes exponentially more productive.

This doesn’t mean building some complex, custom infrastructure.

In practice, it’s simple:

Connected. Repeatable. Personalized.

Over time, these become “agents.”

But right now, they’re just systems that give reps unfair speed and clarity.

This is how companies justify:

Because a rep with the right system is not 10–20% better.

They’re 2–3x more effective.

And they don’t need as much support around them.

We’ve spent the last decade optimizing:

The next decade will be about optimizing individual leverage.

The best sales reps won’t just run the playbook.

They’ll build the system that runs with them.

If you want our full breakdown of our thoughts on GTM compensation in 2026, and all appropriate salary bands across Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, and more, the data is in this report.

A few select openings: 

I'm also always looking to speak to great candidates for future roles:

Check out our latest episode of The GTM Kickback!, Command the Room - The 7 Skills of Tonality | The GTM Kickback #84 w/ Michael Hewitt

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We're looking for: High-performance GTM Operators, VC/PE Investors in SaaS, and Leading GTM Consultants for early stage technology businesses

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Till next time, 

Joey