If you’re in B2B sales, product marketing, or operations, you’ve probably been pitched a dozen “GTM software” tools this year alone. Most promise to fix your launch headaches, align your teams, and make revenue rain from the sky. Let’s get real: most of these tools are just spreadsheets with better design and too many notifications.
This review is for folks who have to actually ship products, close deals, or coordinate cross-functional teams—people who need real help, not another dashboard to ignore. We’ll dig into Baton’s B2B GTM platform ([baton.html]), figure out what it actually does, and see if it’s worth adding to your stack.
What Is Baton, Really?
Baton pitches itself as an end-to-end “GTM orchestration platform” for B2B companies. Strip away the buzzwords, and what you’ve got is a tool for planning, tracking, and managing complex go-to-market (GTM) projects—think product launches, onboarding new customers, or rolling out features across teams.
Who’s it for? - B2B SaaS companies with multi-step onboarding or deployment - Product and ops leaders juggling lots of moving parts - Sales and CS teams who need more structure (and fewer email chains) during customer rollouts
Who’ll hate it? - Super-small teams who could get by with Google Sheets - Anyone allergic to process or workflow tools
Key Features (and What Actually Matters)
Let’s break down Baton’s biggest features—and whether they’re worth your time.
1. Project Templates for Repeatable GTM Motions
The pitch: Build out reusable project templates for launches, onboarding, or process rollouts.
What works:
- You can build out checklists and workflows that match your actual process, not just a generic template.
- Assign tasks, deadlines, and owners—so nothing falls through the cracks.
- Templates make it way easier to onboard new hires or scale up the team.
What’s meh:
- The UI is better than most, but still clutters up fast if your process is complicated.
- If your GTM process changes a lot, maintaining templates gets tedious.
Pro tip: Start simple. Over-engineering your templates is a fast way to annoy your team.
2. Task Tracking and Automation
The pitch: Track progress, automate reminders, and keep everyone aligned—without endless status meetings.
What works:
- Automated reminders actually show up (and can be customized).
- Dependencies are easy to set—so you’re not waiting on Bob in Legal without knowing it.
- Built-in automations for things like kicking off customer onboarding or sending handoff alerts.
What’s meh:
- Baton integrates with Slack and email, but notifications can pile up.
- If your team ignores notifications now, Baton won’t magically fix that.
Ignore if: Your team already has a project manager who’s on top of things, or you’re already deep into Jira/Asana.
3. Customer Collaboration Portal
The pitch: Bring customers into the process so everyone sees what’s next.
What works:
- Customers can see their own onboarding or rollout plan—no more “where are we at?” emails.
- You control what customers see (and don’t see).
- Decent for managing expectations and building trust.
What’s meh:
- If your customers aren’t used to portals, expect some hand-holding.
- Not a replacement for actual human updates, especially for high-touch accounts.
4. Reporting and Analytics
The pitch: Get insights into process bottlenecks, team performance, and customer progress.
What works:
- Simple dashboards that show where projects are stuck.
- Data export options if you prefer your own reports.
What’s meh:
- Reporting is basic. Don’t expect deep analytics or fancy charts.
- Not a BI tool, so if you want forecasting or pipeline analytics, look elsewhere.
How Does Baton Stack Up? (vs. The Usual Suspects)
You’re probably wondering: why not just use Asana, Monday, or a spreadsheet?
Baton vs. Project Management Tools
- Purpose-built: Baton isn’t trying to be your whole company’s PM tool. It’s specifically for GTM processes, onboarding, and complex rollouts.
- Customer visibility: Most PM tools aren’t built to let customers in (at least, not without a million permissions headaches).
- Templates: Baton’s templates are tailored for repeatable GTM motions, not just generic tasks.
Baton vs. Spreadsheets
- More structure: You don’t have to babysit formulas or worry about version control.
- Automations: Reminders, dependencies, and notifications are baked in.
- Audit trail: Track who did what, when—a nightmare in Excel.
Still, spreadsheets are free and flexible. If your process is simple, don’t overthink it.
Baton vs. Other GTM “Platforms”
- There’s a lot of noise in this category. Most tools are either too general (trying to do everything) or too niche (only solving one small problem).
- Baton’s biggest strength: it’s focused on the messy handoffs and coordination problems that kill speed in B2B launches.
- Weakness: It’s not a CRM, BI tool, or sales enablement platform. Don’t expect it to be.
Honest Pros and Cons
Let’s cut through the fluff.
What Baton Does Well
- Makes complex GTM processes easier to run, repeat, and scale.
- Reduces finger-pointing by making ownership clear.
- Gives customers a window into onboarding (if they’ll use it).
- Good for cross-team visibility—Product, Sales, CS, and Ops can finally see the same plan.
Where Baton Falls Short
- Not a one-stop shop: You’ll still need a CRM, chat, and probably a doc tool.
- Learning curve: Teams need to buy in—otherwise, it’s just another icon on the toolbar.
- Price: Not cheap for small teams. There’s a free trial, but the value shows up mostly for larger, process-heavy orgs.
- Customization: You can tweak, but it’s not infinitely flexible. If you want to reinvent the process wheel, you’ll hit limits.
When Does Baton Actually Make Sense?
You Should Consider Baton If:
- Your onboarding or rollout process is a headache and costs you deals.
- You run lots of similar projects but keep reinventing the wheel.
- Coordination between teams or handoffs to customers are slow or error-prone.
- You want customers to see progress without endless status calls.
You Can Skip Baton If:
- You’re a small shop with a straightforward launch process.
- Your current tools are working and nobody’s dropping the ball.
- You hate process and just want to move fast (and don’t mind the occasional fire drill).
Setup and Adoption: What to Expect
Getting started: - Import your process or start from Baton’s templates. - Set up your team, roles, and permissions. - Integrate with Slack, email, or calendar if you want reminders. - Optionally, customize customer-facing views.
Biggest challenge:
Getting everyone to actually use it. Like any workflow tool, Baton lives or dies by adoption. If leadership doesn’t care or teams are set in their ways, it’ll just gather dust.
Pro tip:
Pilot with one team or project first. Don’t roll out to everyone on day one.
Final Thoughts: Keep It Simple, Iterate Often
Baton isn’t magic. It won’t fix broken processes or make your team care about onboarding overnight. But if you’re drowning in spreadsheets, missing handoffs, or constantly answering “where are we?”—it’s a solid option worth a real look.
Start simple, get buy-in, and don’t be afraid to tweak as you go. Tools like Baton help, but the real win is building a process your team will actually use. Don’t let the software run the show—use it to keep things moving, then refine as you learn what works.
If you’re on the fence, take advantage of the trial. Worst case, you spend an afternoon poking around. Best case, you finally get out of project management hell and ship faster. Either way, keep it simple and iterate—no tool is a silver bullet.