GTM Motion Selector Quiz
A 12-question self-assessment on deal size, buyer count, and product complexity that scores out to a recommended sales-led, PLG, or hybrid go-to-market motion.
What's inside
- 12 scored questions covering ACV, buyer count, sales cycle, product complexity, time-to-value, and virality
- Point-value answer key for every question (1-5 points each)
- Scoring bands mapping total points to Sales-Led, Sales-Assisted Hybrid, PLG+Sales-Assist, or Pure PLG
- A tie-breaker rule for scores that land on a band boundary
- Motion definitions — what each recommended motion actually looks like in headcount and process
- A re-take cadence recommendation as the product and ICP evolve
Answer all 12 questions honestly about your current product and buyer, not your aspirational one. Score each answer, sum the total, and read the band at the end.
The 12 Questions
1. What is your average contract value (ACV)?
- a) Under $2,000/year — 5 pts
- b) $2,000-$15,000/year — 4 pts
- c) $15,000-$50,000/year — 3 pts
- d) $50,000-$150,000/year — 2 pts
- e) Over $150,000/year — 1 pt
2. How many people are typically involved in a purchase decision?
- a) 1 (self-serve, individual) — 5 pts
- b) 2-3 (small team consensus) — 4 pts
- c) 4-6 (departmental buying committee) — 2 pts
- d) 7+ (enterprise procurement, legal, security review) — 1 pt
3. How long is your typical sales cycle, first touch to closed-won?
- a) Under 1 day (self-serve signup) — 5 pts
- b) 1-14 days — 4 pts
- c) 2-6 weeks — 3 pts
- d) 2-4 months — 2 pts
- e) 5+ months — 1 pt
4. Can a user get to a meaningful "aha" moment without talking to a human?
- a) Yes, in minutes — 5 pts
- b) Yes, but takes a guided onboarding flow — 4 pts
- c) Only with some hand-holding (docs, chat support) — 2 pts
- d) No — requires implementation/services to see value — 1 pt
5. How technically complex is your product to configure or integrate?
- a) Zero-config, works out of the box — 5 pts
- b) Light config (a few settings/integrations) — 4 pts
- c) Moderate (API integration, data migration) — 2 pts
- d) Heavy (custom implementation, professional services required) — 1 pt
6. Does your product have a natural viral or invite loop (users bring in other users)?
- a) Strong built-in virality (collaboration, sharing features) — 5 pts
- b) Some virality, not core to the product — 3 pts
- c) None — value is single-player or org-contained — 1 pt
7. Who is the primary buyer/user?
- a) Individual practitioner/consumer — 5 pts
- b) Team lead / department manager — 3 pts
- c) VP/Director with budget authority — 2 pts
- d) C-suite / procurement-led enterprise buyer — 1 pt
8. Is security/compliance review (SOC 2, legal, procurement) typically required to close?
- a) Never — 5 pts
- b) Rarely, small accounts skip it — 4 pts
- c) Sometimes, depends on account size — 2 pts
- d) Always — 1 pt
9. How price-sensitive/comparison-shopped is the purchase?
- a) Credit-card, low-consideration purchase — 5 pts
- b) Some comparison shopping, low-friction — 4 pts
- c) Formal evaluation against 2-3 competitors — 2 pts
- d) RFP/competitive procurement process — 1 pt
10. Does the product require significant customization or professional services to go live?
- a) None — 5 pts
- b) Minimal (a config call) — 4 pts
- c) Moderate (a short onboarding project) — 2 pts
- d) Heavy (multi-week/month implementation) — 1 pt
11. What's your current close rate on inbound self-serve signups with zero sales touch?
- a) Meaningful revenue already converts with no sales touch — 5 pts
- b) Some converts, but sales touch clearly increases conversion — 3 pts
- c) Almost nothing converts without a sales conversation — 1 pt
12. How differentiated/complex is your value proposition to explain?
- a) Self-explanatory from the product UI alone — 5 pts
- b) Needs a short explainer/demo video — 4 pts
- c) Needs a live demo to click — 2 pts
- d) Needs a consultative conversation to even identify the right use case — 1 pt
Scoring
Add up your points across all 12 questions. Maximum possible: 60. Minimum possible: 12.
| Total score | Recommended motion |
|---|---|
| 50-60 | Pure PLG (Product-Led Growth) — self-serve signup and activation should be the primary acquisition engine; sales exists only for a small enterprise upsell tier, if at all |
| 36-49 | PLG + Sales-Assist — self-serve is the front door; a sales team engages only accounts that show usage/expansion signals above a defined threshold |
| 22-35 | Sales-Assisted Hybrid — marketing/self-serve generates and qualifies interest, but a rep is required to navigate the buying committee and close |
| 12-21 | Sales-Led (Enterprise) — dedicated AEs, SEs, and often SDRs are required end-to-end; self-serve trials do not meaningfully substitute for a sales process |
Tie-breaker rule: if your score lands within 2 points of a band boundary, answer this single question to break the tie — "If we removed all sales headcount tomorrow, would revenue materially continue?" Yes → move one band toward PLG. No → move one band toward Sales-Led.
What Each Motion Actually Requires
| Motion | Team shape | Primary metric to run the business on |
|---|---|---|
| Pure PLG | Growth/product team, minimal or no AE headcount, support-led | Activation rate, self-serve conversion rate, expansion within product |
| PLG + Sales-Assist | Small sales-assist team triggered by product usage signals (PQLs) | PQL-to-opportunity conversion, usage-based expansion rate |
| Sales-Assisted Hybrid | SDR/AE team working marketing-qualified leads, shorter cycles | MQL-to-SQL conversion, sales cycle length, win rate |
| Sales-Led (Enterprise) | Full AE/SE/SDR org, named accounts, longer cycles, procurement navigation | Pipeline coverage ratio, average sales cycle, ACV, win rate against competitive RFPs |
Re-Take Cadence
Re-run this quiz whenever any of the following change materially: your ACV shifts by more than ~30%, you launch a materially simpler or more complex product tier, or your ICP moves up-market or down-market. A quiz taken at Series A with a $5K ACV product is not valid guidance once ACV has moved to $40K.
How to use it
Answer all 12 questions about your product and buyer as they exist today, sum the point values, and read the corresponding band — treat the result as a starting hypothesis to pressure-test with your actual conversion data, not a final verdict.