Hello and welcome to The Modern GTM Executive by Lunar Executive Search - read by 2,000+ 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 to 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.)

Market watch: U.S. stocks brace for AI disruption amid key jobs data & earnings on tap.

AI impact narrative: Wall Street anxieties grow as investors weigh tech valuations and labor dynamics.

Big layoffs: Block to cut over 4,000 jobs (~40% of workforce), citing AI-driven efficiency gains — stock jumps post-announcement.

Layoff trend: Corporate America continues job cuts as firms shift investment toward AI & efficiency-driven restructuring.

Federal cybersecurity shift: Acting director replaced at Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency after a year of internal cuts and reassignments.

Investor sentiment: VCs say AI SaaS investing is narrowing — generic AI layers and undifferentiated horizontal tools losing appeal.

AI financing risks: Corporate AI debt could balloon to hundreds of billions in 2026 as hyperscalers tap bond markets for data-center expansion.

Talent & labor: Tech layoffs continuing to accelerate — trackers show 50k+ roles cut in 2026 so far across startups and established firms.

Record funding: OpenAI announces an unprecedented $110B funding round led by Amazon, Nvidia, and SoftBank, fueling San Francisco economic growth and job listings.

Hot AI roles: Forward Deployed Engineers top the list of hottest AI jobs, reflecting strong demand for human-centric deployment expertise.

I recently sat down with Michael Hewitt, former enterprise AE turned vocal authority coach, and we unpacked something most GTM leaders underestimate:

Your voice is either reinforcing your credibility… or quietly eroding it.

And in 2026, that gap is widening.

Michael said something that stuck with me:

“Sales is leadership. And leadership has a sound.”

After speaking with 100s of reps across software, cyber, and AI every year, I can tell you this is true.

The highest performers:

They sound calm. Certain. Grounded.

Not loud. Not hype. Not “used car energy.”

In a world drowning in AI-written scripts and TikTok-level attention spans, mature presence is becoming a competitive advantage.

One of Michael’s frameworks is what he calls “resonating at the frequency of truth.”

Translation for GTM operators:

If you don’t understand what you’re selling at a deep level, your voice will betray you.

You can hear it when a rep says “zero-day exploit” but doesn’t truly understand what that means.
You can hear it when someone is trying to impress instead of trying to help.
You can hear it when the ego is louder than the conviction.

Buyers feel misalignment instantly. As Michael put it:

“The ears are BS detectors that work at the speed of sound.”

There’s a bigger trend happening underneath this.

Two forces are quietly degrading communication quality in the workforce:

When everything is consumed at 1.5x speed, we start speaking at 1.5x speed.

When AI writes everything for us, we stop sharpening our own thinking.

The result?
Less clarity. Less conviction. Less authority.

In a market where revenue is consolidating into fewer reps and leadership seats are tightening, this is not a small issue.

Here are three simple exercises Michael recommends:

1. Speak at 0.9x speed.
Slow down slightly. It eliminates filler words and forces clarity of thought.

2. Fill the room, without shouting.
Practice projecting your voice across a room naturally. Strong sound comes from coordination, not volume.

3. Write more, with structure.
Use frameworks (Socratic method, prompts, structured outlines). Clear writing sharpens clear speech.

Clarity of thinking → clarity of voice → credibility.

The reps and executives who win over the next decade won’t just know their metrics.

They will:

Because when your voice aligns with your conviction, doors open faster.

And AI can’t replicate that.

If this resonated, go listen to the full episode of The GTM Kickback with Michael Hewitt.

And ask yourself a simple question:

Does your voice match the level of leadership you aspire to?

If you want the 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

Want to be a guest? Ping me on LinkedIn! 😎

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