How to Save $200K and 2 Months Without a GTM Engineer (And Without Clay)
Why GTM tech fails: Sellers can't build workflows. Buyers can't execute.
GTM tech is an unwinnable market.
And before you blame the sellers. . .blame the buyers.
I’ve spent the last 2.5 years watching this movie on repeat:
A company buys GTM tech.
The tech works.
The company can’t execute.
The tech gets blamed.
The company buys different tech.
Repeat.
After 12 client churning this year and countless conversations with founders on both sides of this equation, I finally understand why. . .
GTM tech fails because of a double admission of failure.
Failure #1: The sellers build products missing critical workflows.
Failure #2: The buyers can’t execute without a six-figure translator.
Solution?
Enter the GTM Engineer: a $150K-$250K band-aid on a broken process.
(lean in closer....let me tell you a little secret)
🤫 Clay created a problem so they could sell the solution. Complexity arbitrage.
And I can prove it.
The Unwinnable Game
GTM tech companies face an impossible choice:
Option A: Get profitable, slow product development, watch a VC-backed competitor out-innovate you, deal with increased churn.
Option B: Raise money, give up more equity, accept low multiples, still deal with churn.
One Series A founder told me: “We’re at ~$5M ARR with strong growth, but it’s just not worth a great multiple in this market.”
The problem isn’t the technology. The problem is that buyers don’t know how to use it, and sellers aren’t building the workflows that would make it usable.
So everyone hired GTM Engineers to translate, right?
The $200K Mistake
A former client insisted on hiring a GTM Engineer.
They gave him a ‘to do’ list:
Connect Clay to 5 data providers
Integrate The Swarm for relationship mapping
Write custom scrapers and APIs
Debug when providers go down
Manage credits across platforms
Rebuild workflows when they break
Timeline: 3+ months of work Cost: $200K+ (salary + tool stack)
I watched this unfold. Knew it was wasteful. Sent the new GTME a Loom video showing how to build the same infrastructure in 2 hours at 10% of the cost,
His response? He blocked me.
The irony?
A GTM Engineer building complex workflows to avoid complexity.
But he wasn’t wrong to be defensive. His entire job exists because:
Clay built a platform so complex that it requires a translator
His employer bought tools missing critical workflows
Nobody invested in enablement
He’s not the villain. He’s a symptom.
Enablement > Tech. Always.
The Infrastructure Shift
Here’s what’s changing right now, whether you’re ready or not:
Before: Claude + Sales Navigator + The Swarm + Clay + 2-3 data tools + prospecting tool + CRM + GTM Engineer ($150K+) to stitch everything together
Now: CRM + The Swarm integrated to Claude + prospecting tool
One API. One prompt. No tabs. No specialist.
In 18 months, tools requiring another login will be a 🚩.
MCP (Model Context Protocol) and similar standards are making tools communicate natively. Claude and GPT are becoming universal interfaces. The 47-tab workflow is collapsing into conversational commands.
Why? Because the best UX is no UX. The best workflow is no workflow.
What used to require a GTM Engineer spending 3-6 months building waterfalls now takes one prompt:
—> “Show me accounts where engagement is declining AND our champion’s team is actively engaging with competitors on LinkedIn.”
—> “Which of our top 50 targets have employees who previously worked at our existing customers?”
—> “Which accounts hired a new VP of Sales in the last 90 days AND have the most employees with work overlap to our customers?”
This isn’t theoretical. This works today.
Let me show you.
How to Run a High Velocity of GTM Experiments (No Clay or GTM Engineer Required)
Here’s the exact step-by-step process to integrate The Swarm with Claude and eliminate the need for complex enrichment waterfalls.
What You Need:
Claude Desktop (download at claude.com/download)
The Swarm API key (start your trial at theswarm.com)
10 minutes
Step 1: Install Claude Desktop
Download and install Claude Desktop from www.claude.com/download. This gives you access to Claude’s desktop app with MCP integration capabilities.
Step 2: Get Your Swarm API Key
Sign up for The Swarm trial. You’ll receive an API key that connects their relationship mapping, job tracking, and data enrichment infrastructure directly to Claude.
Step 3: Connect The Swarm to Claude
In Claude Desktop settings, add The Swarm as a connected data source using your API key. Copy and paste. That’s it.
https://www.theswarm.com/integrations/mcp
Step 4: Run Your First Prompt
Full, unedited 10-minute demo video here.
Instead of building enrichment waterfalls across 5 tools, just ask Claude:
“Using The Swarm’s data, identify which of my target accounts recently hired a Head of Sales AND have employees with strong connections to my existing customers. Give me the top 20 with decision maker contact info.”
Claude queries The Swarm’s API, processes the relationships and job changes, and returns a clean CSV ready to upload to your prospecting tool.
Step 5: Iterate and Refine
Feed results back to Claude: “The last campaign targeting recent sales hires got a 6% reply rate. Now find accounts with recent marketing hires who previously worked at [Customer X].”
The system learns what works. No rebuilding workflows. No debugging waterfalls. Just better prompts.
Watch the Full Demo:
https://www.send.co/a/swarm-claude-future-of-gtm-sxWD0gue
What This Replaces:
Clay enrichment waterfalls ($30K/year)
5 different data providers ($15K-$40K/year)
Custom APIs and scrapers (3 months of GTME time)
Debugging and maintenance (ongoing GTME time)
Total savings: $200K+ in year one
What This Means for GTM
The GTM Engineer role won’t disappear overnight. But it will evolve the same way Systems Administrators evolved after AWS launched.
The skillset still exists. It just got absorbed into DevOps roles.
GTM Engineers will follow the same path. The skills become table stakes for any growth role. The full-time specialist role disappears.
What replaces it:
No more logins. One interface (Claude, GPT) queries all your data sources.
Consolidation over expansion. The winning companies aren’t building more tools. They’re building infrastructure that eliminates the need for tools.
Single UX. Natural language replaces complex workflows.
Faster experimentation. When you can test a new signal in 10 minutes instead of 10 days, you run more experiments.
Less specialization. When the tools are conversational, you don’t need specialists to operate them.
This isn’t about firing people. It’s about stopping the hiring of roles that only exist because our tools failed to do what they promised.
The GTM Engineer was always a workaround. Now we have the infrastructure to build the actual solution.
Try it yourself. Start your Swarm trial, integrate with Claude Desktop, and run your first prompt.