World of DaaS Roundtable Recap: The New GTM Stack in DaaS

At our latest World of DaaS roundtable, leaders from across the data world gathered to unpack what’s changing in their go-to-market (GTM) strategies. The conversation covered a lot of ground, from the rapid decline of traditional SEO to why SDRs are quietly making a comeback and how AI is reshaping every piece of the stack.

1. LLMs Are the New Front Door to Your Brand

Search traffic is dropping, and nearly everyone is seeing it. Multiple participants reported double-digit declines from SEO, largely due to zero-click search and tools like Gemini that pull answers directly into the page. But not all traffic is created equal. Leads coming from ChatGPT or Perplexity are converting better and closing faster.

One participant put it simply: “ChatGPT told me you were the best.” That’s now becoming a common lead source.

The shift has sparked a new playbook. Instead of blogging for keywords, companies are doubling down on documentation and structured content. “Our API docs are our new SEO,” said one executive. Others echoed this, saying they’re investing heavily in FAQs, tutorials, and list-style content. LLMs tend to favor depth, structure, and clarity over keyword tricks.

Tools mentioned: Profound (for tracking LLM visibility), MakeMedia.ai (turns interviews into optimized content), custom GPTs built on internal docs, and structured content engines connected to Google Drive.

2. SDRs Still Matter, Just Not in the Way They Used To

Several participants shared that they had sunset SDR teams to go all-in on automation, only to bring them back. One company saw conversions double after reintroducing SDRs, but with a twist: just two reps supported by a well-tuned stack.

“You don’t need 50 SDRs… You need two with the right setup,” said one founder. Those setups included tools like Gong for conversational analysis, internal GPTs for email generation, and platforms like Fin (from Intercom) to automate support so sales teams can focus.

Another leader shared how their SDRs now operate more like analysts, synthesizing intent data and generating highly tailored outreach. “It’s not about throwing more bodies at the funnel anymore. It’s about enabling the few people you trust with the right inputs,” one participant mentioned.

Other tactics mentioned:

• Using Fin by Intercom to handle 90% of support queries

• Custom GPTs to generate sales emails based on internal content

• Value quantification tools to surface ROI in early sales stages

3. The Best Leads Aren’t Coming From Conferences Anymore

Almost no one saw strong ROI from large conference booths. In contrast, nearly everyone had stories about scrappy, in-person tactics that worked.

One participant flew to a conference without a badge, camped in the hotel lobby with phone chargers, and walked away with 40 qualified leads. Another said that sharing the stage at a partner event drove immediate inbound. Dinners, happy hours, and small meetups were by far the most effective GTM plays.

The key takeaway: big budget doesn’t equal big impact. Trust and timing matter more, and small environments often outperform giant venues.

4. GTM Ops Is the New Bottleneck

As the tech stack gets more sophisticated, GTM operations are falling behind. Everyone agreed it’s tough to find ops talent that can keep up with the data and tools. “It’s easy to get bad output, hard to get good,” one person said. Some companies rely on a single internal wizard to make the whole stack work.

Others are shifting from sales ops to true revenue engineers, people who combine experimentation, analytics, and tool fluency. There's also more attention on infrastructure: CMS speed, crawlability, and structured metadata all matter now, not just for Google but for LLMs too.

CMS notes:

• Many teams are sticking with WordPress for flexibility, despite its speed tradeoffs

• Others use Webflow for simplicity

• Most are customizing or “hacking” their CMS to support thousands of programmatic landing pages

Key Takeaways

• Discovery is shifting to LLMs, and well-structured documentation now beats traditional SEO.
  

• Small SDR teams are thriving when paired with the right data and automation.
  

• Low-cost, high-trust events often outperform traditional outbound.
  

• GTM success now depends on deeper ops talent and smarter infrastructure.

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