Oh, they exist. But you won’t find them in the obvious places.

Or maybe it’s like what they say about aliens: they’re already among us, we just don’t have the senses to notice.

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It’s the same with great Go To Market strategists. They’re out there. We just haven’t reprogrammed how we see them.

Because what most companies think they’re looking for…doesn’t match the reality of who these people are or how they work.

They seem like unicorns because they can:

• Understand why your conversion rates are stuck
• Map the full customer journey in their head before they even hit the whiteboard
• Build automation flows for fun
• Think like a strategist and build like an engineer
• Spot friction between sales and marketing that nobody else even sees

They get customer behavior. They get business dynamics. They know how to make tools talk to each other without creating chaos downstream.

Here’s the uncomfortable part:

This person doesn’t exist in your hiring funnel. Not because they’re a myth. Because the role you’re hiring for doesn’t make sense to them.

You don’t have a clear career path for them. You don’t know how to interview them. You definitely don’t know how to keep them.

And the real issue isn’t just hiring. It’s structure.

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Why You’re Not Finding This Person

You’re asking for someone who can:

• Understand market positioning and competitive dynamics
• Break down a sales pipeline
• Optimize marketing funnels and nurture sequences
• Build and automate systems in Pipedrive, n8n, Constant Contact, Salesforce, Zapier, etc.

That’s not “cross-functional.” That’s four full-time roles. In one person.

And you want them to do it all well. Strategic insight, business fluency, technical execution, automation logic, process thinking. Oh and by the way, they should love it.

Each added skill filters out 80% of the talent pool. By the time you layer in curiosity, speed, systems obsession, and an actual track record — you’re down to 1 in 10,000.

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No Ladder. No Home. No Chance.

Most orgs don’t know where to put this person.

They don’t fit the traditional VP of Marketing role — too much brand baggage. They don’t belong under Sales — not quota-driven enough. They get bored in Ops — too executional, not enough vision. They’re overkill for a RevOps analyst, under-leveled for strategy, and overlooked for product.

So what do the good ones do?

They leave.

They start their own thing. They build niche portfolios. They find or create custom roles inside companies that actually get it.

They’re not replying to your job post titled “GTM Strategist.” They’re not looking for jobs where nobody speaks their language.

You can’t find them if you’re using the same old filters.

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If you want the real-deal GTM strategist, you need to rethink how you see the role, and the person behind it.

Not a unicorn. Just someone who’s been trained to hide in plain sight.