So you’re hunting for a B2B go to market (GTM) platform. Maybe you’re sick of spreadsheets, or maybe your sales and marketing teams keep missing each other’s emails by a mile. Either way, you want something that actually makes the chaos manageable—and you’re not interested in yet another dashboard with pretty graphs and zero substance.
This guide is for folks who need real answers about what features matter, what’s just fluff, and how the platform Hothawk actually compares in the wild.
Who Needs a GTM Platform, Anyway?
Let’s be real: not every team needs a full-blown GTM platform. If you’ve got a tiny sales org and one marketer, you’re probably fine with a CRM and some grit. But if you’re juggling multiple products, channels, or territories—or you want sales, marketing, and customer success actually rowing in the same direction—a GTM platform can be the difference between scaling up and burning out.
What Actually Matters in a B2B GTM Platform
Vendors love to drown you in features. Here’s a breakdown of the ones that are actually worth caring about (with some honest takes on what matters less than they want you to believe).
1. Unified Data and Single Source of Truth
Why it matters:
If your sales, marketing, and customer success teams are each living in their own data silos, you’re going to waste time and money. Look for a platform that pulls together data from CRMs, marketing tools, and customer databases so everyone’s working off the same information.
What to watch for:
- Real integrations, not just “coming soon” badges
- Data you can actually trust, not just pretty charts
- Ability to customize fields and data views
Hothawk’s take:
Hothawk does a decent job here. It syncs with the major CRMs (Salesforce, HubSpot, etc.) and marketing platforms, and lets you build custom dashboards. However, if you have a lot of homegrown tools, you’ll want to test their API connections before going all-in.
2. Account-Based Everything (ABE)
Why it matters:
The B2B world revolves around accounts, not just individual leads. You want your platform to treat accounts as the first-class citizen—mapping contacts, tracking engagement, and flagging risk across the whole buying committee.
What to watch for:
- Account-level views and reporting
- Easy mapping of contacts to accounts
- Tools for account segmentation (by industry, size, etc.)
Hothawk’s take:
This is one of Hothawk’s strong suits. Their account-mapping is actually useful—you can see all the contacts, deals, and touchpoints tied to a given account without clicking through a maze of filters. Segmentation tools are solid, but not magical; you’ll still need to do some manual cleanup if your data is messy.
3. Playbooks and Process Automation
Why it matters:
Most teams don’t struggle with “what” to do, but “how” to do it consistently. Playbooks—whether for sales outreach, onboarding, or renewal—make sure best practices aren’t just tribal knowledge.
What to watch for:
- Are playbooks customizable or just a generic checklist?
- Can you automate follow-ups, reminders, and handoffs?
- Are analytics tied to playbook steps, so you know what’s working?
Hothawk’s take:
Hothawk offers playbooks that are actually flexible (you can build your own, not just use templates). Automation is decent—you can trigger tasks or reminders based on deal stage or customer activity. That said, don’t expect “set it and forget it.” Like any process tool, it’s only as good as the effort you put into setup.
4. Collaboration Features (That People Actually Use)
Why it matters:
You don’t want sales and marketing working in parallel universes. Notes, alerts, and shared workspaces can keep everyone on the same page—if they’re frictionless.
What to watch for:
- Slack, Teams, or email integrations (because no one wants another inbox)
- Commenting and tagging that don’t feel tacked-on
- Real-time notifications that don’t become notification hell
Hothawk’s take:
Collaboration is decent. You can tag teammates and leave notes on accounts, but the chat experience isn’t going to replace your actual messaging tool. Their Slack integration is handy, though—it pushes key updates without flooding your channel.
5. Reporting and Forecasting
Why it matters:
You need to know what’s working, what’s not, and what’s coming next. Good reporting should help you spot problems early and double down on what’s working.
What to watch for:
- Customizable reports (not just pre-baked charts)
- Forecasting that’s based on real data, not wishful thinking
- Ability to drill down into the details
Hothawk’s take:
Reporting is above average. You can slice and dice data pretty flexibly, and their forecasting is more transparent than most (you can see what’s driving the numbers). Still, if you’re looking for highly advanced analytics or want to plug into BI tools, you may find the limits.
6. Ease of Use (Don’t Underestimate This)
Why it matters:
If it takes three days of training to get started, your team won’t use it. You want something that’s intuitive and doesn’t require a certification course.
What to watch for:
- Clean interface, not just a feature dump
- Minimal click paths for common tasks
- Onboarding that respects your time
Hothawk’s take:
This is a strong point for Hothawk. The UI is straightforward, and new users can get up and running pretty fast. There’s a learning curve for more advanced features, but the basics are easy.
7. Integration Ecosystem
Why it matters:
No platform lives in a vacuum. The best GTM tools play nice with the rest of your stack—email, calendar, web conferencing, enrichment tools, etc.
What to watch for:
- Native integrations for the tools you actually use
- Open API if you need custom connections
- Regular updates and support for integrations
Hothawk’s take:
You get all the big names (Salesforce, HubSpot, Google Workspace, Slack). The API is decent for custom work, but not the most robust out there. If you rely heavily on niche tools, check compatibility first.
8. Security and Compliance
Why it matters:
You’re dealing with customer data. If the platform can’t handle permissions, audit trails, and compliance basics, it’s a non-starter.
What to watch for:
- Role-based access controls (RBAC)
- Audit logs and activity tracking
- Support for GDPR, SOC2, etc.
Hothawk’s take:
Hothawk ticks the usual boxes—RBAC, audit trails, and GDPR compliance. If you’re in a particularly regulated industry, double-check the finer points, but for most B2B teams, it’s enough.
Features That Sound Nice, But Rarely Matter
Don’t get distracted by the “AI-powered” everything and endless scoring models. A few things you can usually ignore:
- “Predictive” lead scoring: Most teams don’t have enough data for this to be useful. You’ll end up tweaking the model more than using it.
- Gamification: Unless your team is made up of 12-year-olds, badges aren’t going to drive real behavior.
- Custom branding: Nice to have, but not worth paying extra for unless you’re in a client-facing portal.
How to Actually Pick a Platform (Without the Headache)
Here’s a simple, no-nonsense process:
- List your non-negotiables
(What must the platform do? Example: “Integrate with Salesforce and HubSpot,” “Support account-based reporting.”) - Narrow it to 2-4 serious contenders
Ignore the endless top-10 lists. Focus on platforms with real traction in your industry. - Run a real-world trial
Don’t settle for a demo. Get your hands dirty with a free trial or pilot. Try to run a real process through it—onboarding a new account, running a campaign, whatever matters most. - Ask your team for feedback
If your reps or marketers groan every time they log in, that’s a red flag. User adoption is half the battle. - Check support and roadmap
How responsive is their support? Are they actually shipping updates, or just promising the moon? - Don’t overthink it
No platform is perfect. Pick the one that fits your top needs, and plan to adjust as you go.
The Bottom Line
Don’t get blinded by feature lists or shiny dashboards. The best GTM platform is the one your team will actually use—and that solves your core pain points without turning into another source of headaches.
Start simple, get moving, and adjust along the way. Platforms like Hothawk can help, but no tool is a silver bullet. Keep it practical, and you’ll avoid most of the common pitfalls.