MCR.AE

Method · Phased GTM

Phased GTM. Five stages. Two gates. Built so you can stop early if it isn’t working.

The operating system behind every MCR.AE engagement. Same sequence for funded founders and SG SMEs, different inputs, different calendar, same discipline.

Apply this to your situationSee the engagement ladder

Thesis

Most marketing problems are sequencing problems wearing other costumes.

When the work feels chaotic, the underlying issue is usually not effort, it’s order. Channels built before a beachhead is named. Hires made before a role is defined. Campaigns running before the audience is agreed. Each looks like a marketing problem; each is a sequencing failure.

Phased GTM fixes the order first. Five named stages, two explicit Go/No-Go gates, named deliverables at each step. The system doesn’t replace your team, it gives them a sequence they can run from Monday. The long-form companion to this overview is the Singapore B2B Sequence, which adapts each stage for SG buyer dynamics, PDPA-aware outbound, and government-channel access.

The arc

Discovery. GTM. Scale.

The high-level narrative of every engagement. The five stages below are the operational implementation of these three acts.

Act 01

Discovery

Find the beachhead.

Stages 1–2 · Foundation, Discovery

Act 02

GTM

Build the spine.

Stages 3–4 · Build, Execute

Act 03

Scale

Hand off the function.

Stage 5 · Handoff

The stages

Five named stages. Two Go/No-Go gates. Concrete deliverables at every step.

  1. Stage 01

    Pre-Discovery

    Foundation

    Pre-engagement readiness audit.

    • Compliance and PDPA readiness check
    • Tech and ops stack snapshot
    • Stakeholder alignment, who decides, who delivers, who pays
    • Prerequisites checklist for the next stages

    What you leave with: A 1-page readiness brief, the foundation everything else stands on.

  2. Stage 02

    Act 1 · Discovery

    Discovery

    Find the beachhead.

    • 16–20 customer interviews, recruited, conducted, analysed
    • Interview synthesis: themes, pull quotes, segment definition
    • Beachhead segment defined with named buying triggers
    • Strategic brief written for board-level reading

    What you leave with: A 5–8 page strategic brief and a named beachhead segment your team can act on.

    Gate

    Gate 1 · Go / No-Go

    If the work isn't landing, you stop here, capped commitment, all deliverables to date are yours, no retainer pressure.

  3. Stage 03

    Act 2 · GTM

    Build

    Frame the GTM.

    • Channel strategy across three channels (named, weighted)
    • Positioning and messaging brief
    • Landing page copy + 5-email trial sequence
    • Sales script and objection guide
    • Brand voice guide your team can write to
    • Executor briefing, the handover document for whoever ships the work

    What you leave with: A complete GTM toolkit your team can run from week one of execution, not a deck, working copy and frameworks.

  4. Stage 04

    Act 2 · GTM

    Execute

    Run it. Measure it.

    • Six weekly check-ins on the operating cadence
    • Channel performance analysis after weeks two and four
    • Asset optimisation, landing page v2, email sequence v2
    • Decision log: what we kept, what we changed, why

    What you leave with: Six weeks of measured runs, performance data, and a v2 of every asset that didn't hit on v1.

    Gate

    Gate 2 · Go / No-Go

    Performance review at week six. Continue, adjust scope, or stop. Same exposure cap, same deliverable rights.

  5. Stage 05

    Act 3 · Scale

    Handoff

    Leave the system.

    • Performance synthesis report for board / investors
    • 2-page scale roadmap, what to do next, who does it, how it gets measured
    • 5–10 page GTM playbook your team operates without me
    • Exit meeting and capability transfer

    What you leave with: The durable artefact: a documented system your next hire inherits intact.

The split

Strategy + frameworks + QC from me. Execution from your team.

I write the strategy. I design the frameworks. I run quality control on the work that ships. Your team, an in-house marketer, a contractor, the cofounder, whoever, owns running it.

This isn’t a delivery convenience. It’s the only way the discipline outlasts the engagement. If the work depends on me to keep moving, you’ve bought a dependency. The point is to leave a system your next hire inherits.

Phased GTM is built around that fact. The Handoff stage isn’t the end of the work, it’s the durable artefact the rest of the work produces.

Same sequence, different calendar

The five stages don’t change. The inputs and timeline do.

For funded founders

All five stages, 17 weeks.

Stages 1–2 run as a Discovery Sprint (6 weeks, Gate 1). Stages 3–5 run as a Fractional CMO retainer (11 weeks, Gate 2 at week six of execution). Same sequence, founder-stage inputs, founder-stage cadence.

Right shape if you raised between USD 1M and USD 8M and the next cheque depends on traction you don’t yet have.

For SG SMEs

Unbundled stages, calendar to suit.

SMEs rarely need all five stages in sequence, established revenue means the problem is usually scoped to one or two of them. Stages 1–2 run as a governance-led Discovery Sprint. Stages 3–4 run as a focused Build/Execute intervention. Advisory covers Stages 4–5 at lighter cadence.

Engagements with a PMC-accredited consultant are eligible for the Enterprise Development Grant, up to 50% support for qualifying scope. Final approval rests with Enterprise Singapore.

What Phased GTM isn’t

Honest about the wrong-fit cases.

  • Not a campaign. Phased GTM is a system, not a single intervention. If you need one campaign run well, hire an agency.
  • Not pre-product. If you don’t have something working to sell, the Founder’s Clarity Sprint workshop is the right entry, Phased GTM picks up after that.
  • Not a one-day workshop. The discipline only compounds across weeks. A single session can’t deliver Phased GTM, no matter how senior the room.
  • Not an agency engagement. I do strategy, frameworks, QC. Your team or a separate agency runs the campaigns. If you need execution capacity, that’s a different hire.

Read further

The methodology, in essay form.

Phased GTM is the operating system. These essays are the long-form arguments that sit underneath each stage.

See all essays

Tell me where you are. I’ll tell you which stages to run.

A 30-minute discovery call. We’ll agree which stages of Phased GTM fit your situation and over what calendar, or whether a different shape entirely would do you more good.

Book a discovery callSee the engagement ladder