GovTech
1/16/2026

After 25 years in sales, I’m finally doing it

Written by John Kitsmiller

After 25 years in sales, I’m finally doing it.

I’m launching energizeGTM to fix broken GTM playbooks.

For years I sat inside big operators:

Microsoft

Dell

I saw strong GTM engines up close.

Big teams. Deep budgets. Heavy process.

Later I started working with smaller GovTech and LegalTech SaaS teams.

  • Lean headcount.
  • Long sales cycles.
  • Complex buyers.

They kept reaching for “best practice” GTM decks from enterprise playbooks.

Playbooks built for Salesforce-sized orgs.

  • Huge SDR teams.
  • Channels they could not support.
  • Processes they could not maintain.

They tried to copy it all.

It burned people out.

Pipelines stalled.

Good products looked weak on paper.

That was the moment for me.

I did not want to keep “translating” enterprise GTM to small teams.

I wanted to build something purpose-built for them.

So energizeGTM is focused on one thing: Designing GTM for lean GovTech and LegalTech SaaS teams that need:

✅ Clear ICP and segments for complex public and legal buyers

✅ List building and messaging

✅ Motions a 2–5 person team can run every week

✅ Pipelines built for long, multi-threaded deals, not quick wins

The win for me is not only starting a company.

The real win is building a business that fits:

• My 25 years of GTM experience

• My values around focus, honesty, and execution

• What my ICP needs in the field, not only in a slide deck

Excited to share more as energizeGTM takes shape.

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No pitch

Let's find out if I can help.

Thirty minutes. You tell me what you are selling, who you are selling it to, and where it is getting stuck. If I can help, I will tell you how. If I cannot, I will tell you that.

No slides
Straight answer either way
30 minutes
No slides
Straight answer either way
30 minutes
No slides
Straight answer either way
30 minutes