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.
| Sales Hiring Market – Current LinkedIn Job Postings | ||
|---|---|---|
| Within Software Industry – Posted Last 7 Days | ||
| VP of Sales Jobs | 355 | +0% |
| Enterprise AE Jobs | 416 | -4% |
| BDR Jobs | 293 | +13% |
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.
Quick Hits
(Our updated news & trends sections to highlight all relevant stories you need to know going into this week.)
Cloud conflict: Microsoft weighing action over OpenAI’s $50B AWS deal signals that AI partnerships, not products, will define enterprise GTM advantage.
Enterprise shift: Snowflake’s new AI agent platform points to a future where software is sold as outcomes, not seats, reshaping how reps position value.
Defense validation: Palantir’s expansion with the Pentagon reinforces that complex, high-trust enterprise deals are still human-led and relationship-driven.
Capital concentration: AI capturing ~40%+ of venture funding means fewer, better-funded competitors, raising the bar for every GTM hire.
SaaS pressure: Debt markets pulling back on traditional software signals tougher scrutiny on growth efficiency, not just top-line revenue.
Buyer evolution: Legal AI adoption accelerating shows buyers are moving from experimentation to ROI-driven purchasing, tightening sales cycles for proven use cases.
Private equity-backed companies outperform.
I listened to a McKinsey & Co podcast last week (you should listen - 20 minutes) that highlighted some very interesting insights in the world of PE-backed software businesses. Specifically around how they are able to disproportionately outperform nearly all other ownership segmentations (public, founder-owned, etc).
Faster growth. Better margins. More efficient & effective teams.
Most people assume it’s a result of short pointed strategy or large capital deployment. This is derivative of conventional conceptions around PE - classing them ‘Corporate Vikings,’ purchasing companies in high pressure / lost cost deals, inflating revenue through cutting costs and fancy financial engineering, then selling them for a lot more money before moving to the next.
It’s not that anymore. Maybe 10 years ago, but no longer due to the popularization of the ownership model and corresponding competition in market.
But how do they still engineer 10-12% productivity gains, when the rest of the market averages 2-4%?
McKinsey’s survey of over 300+ PE CEOs game to one singular factor that outweighed all others.
Talent. (shock!)
But not in the way most leaders & companies think about it.
After digging into deeper their research on the topic, one thing stood out:
The best companies treat talent as a system for value creation.
Most companies treat it as a simple headcount/growth equation and a line item on P&Ls.
My thoughts below on why & how the best apply these principles to scale more quickly, and productively (if you’re in a PE-backed firm that want to do better, or a VC-backed firm that wants to apply these).
Why these high-performers are not “Normal” hires at the Exec Level
“~60% of PE-backed CEOs are replaced within two years” (McKinsey & Co). Not great for sustainable growth or value creation.
Now apply that to your CRO or VP of Sales. It’s actually closer to ~72% replaced in only 18 months.
When you hire this role post PE transaction, you’re asking someone to:
Re-engineer & build a revenue engine, many times from scratch or within completely new markets
Improve efficiency of current resources, or substantially trim ‘production’ costs
Deliver results fast. Not just revenue, but enterprise value with future improved liquidity at the top of their priority list.
That’s not the ask of a standard or traditional CRO archetype hire. Meaning most don’t do this.
Most companies still run a ‘standard’ hiring process to court and qualify this hire.
It starts with this concept: You need to build your management team fit-for-purpose. Meaning, build the team around your thesis for growth as a CEO/Board, not form your strategy around “strong talent” you know and their particular capabilities.
We (Lunar Exec Search) help orgs do this by:
Deeply understanding their organizations performance based goals, per department (sales & marketing), over specific time frames (12 months, 24 months, 48 months generally).
We develop or reference specific research on what archetypes of GTM Leadership talent are most consequential in those goal periods
Define job descriptions & scorecards around those “performance based” requirements
Then all the rigorous work to ID, court, and further qualify those people
The first 3 bullets are the most important. Get them right, apply them diligently, and you have a substantially higher likely hood of success in your efforts.
Design First, Then Hire
PE leaders “clean sheet” the org. They do this so often, that they have gotten really good at it.
They ask themselves: If we built the end-result of this today, what should it look like?
Most companies skip this and:
Patch with hybrid operator, player-coach roles and ill-defined performance criteria
Stack unclear role & outcome ownership, with corresponding poor incentive models
Expect leaders to fix broken systems independently, without adjusting the macro variables that broke them in the first place
Don’t hire into a flawed design.
Fix the design first.
Talent > Strategy, and the cost of wrong-talent is substantial
Across the 300 CEOs surveyed, the top priority was talent, almost unanimously.
Specifically: fit-for-purpose teams.
Two questions (important: after defining performance goals & growth thesis):
Can they deliver now?
Can they get us where we need to go next?
Most companies only answer the first. Or do it without very specific goals.
That’s why they rehire 12–18 months later.
And the biggest cost isn’t just compensation paid on the wrong resource (with is substantial on it’s own).
It’s time and market opportunity.
Missed quarters, lost pipeline, loss of competitive advantages
Burned teams (leadership turnover effects org departures exponentially further up the leadership chain)
Lost momentum - there is generally a very small, critical window of market opportunity that could be lost
TLDR - The Bottom Line
The best companies:
Align talent to stage
Design before hiring
Incentivize profitable growth
Reassess constantly
Most don’t.
And that gap?
That’s where profitable outcomes are decided.
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.
We've got a number of active opportunities across our portfolio of software clients at Lunar Executive Search currently.
A few select openings:
Field CTO – VC Backed – Enterprise AI (East Coast)
Head of Sales - VC Backed - InsurTech (NYC Hybrid)
Enterprise Account Executive - VC Backed - Enterprise SaaS (Remote - Central Territory)
Strategic Account Executive - VC Backed - Enterprise AI (Remote)
(NEW) Enterprise Account Executive - Public - Data & Analytics Systems Integrator (Remote)
(NEW) Senior Sales Engineer - Public - Data & Analytics Systems Integrator (Remote)
Enterprise Account Executive - VC Backed - Media Tech (NYC OR LA Remote)
I'm also always looking to speak to great candidates for future & confidential roles:
Chief Revenue Officer - Venture/PE-Backed - SaaS/Cyber/AI
Chief Marketing Officer - Venture/PE-Backed - SaaS/Cyber/AI
VP of Product Marketing - Venture/PE-Backed - SaaS/Cyber/AI
VP of Partnerships - Venture/PE-Backed - SaaS/Cyber/AI
Highlights from The GTM Kickback! Podcast
Check out our latest episode of The GTM Kickback!, The 4 Decisions CEOs Must Make to Drive GTM Growth in 100 Days | #85 w/ Vanessa Goolsby
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
New to "The GTM Kickback!"? Subscribe to the podcast!
This newsletter is powered by Lunar Executive Search - Finding Premier GTM Talent for Growth Stage Tech Businesses.
We help disruptive technology companies grow. For venture-funded start-ups and PE-backed enterprise software firms, we have a track record in finding the Top 10% of Sales and Marketing Leadership Talent, and doing so swiftly.
Reach out here: [email protected]
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Till next time,
Joey
