Y0 — GTM Operating Doc (The Sales Spine)

Asset: Y0 | Workstream: [GTM] | Ownership: [SO] | Owner: Sagar Status: drafted | Reviewers: Sagar (motion) · Nidhi (compliance-claim accuracy)

Purpose: The index for everything in the GTM workstream. Defines who we sell to, the motion we run, the funnel stages, and — for each stage — which Y asset and which A-series automation backs it. If a funnel stage has no named Y asset, that is a gap to close.

1. Who we are (one paragraph)

SnowOps is a compliance-focused platform engineering company. We deliver engineered, audit-ready cloud platforms that are compliant by construction — not click-ops infrastructure with a compliance dashboard bolted on. Every deliverable is code, config, or a runnable artifact. We are founder-led (Sagar — infra/delivery; Nidhi — compliance/risk/ops), India-based, serving global clients.

2. Who we sell to (ICP recap — full detail in Y3)

Segment: B2B SaaS · FinTech · HealthTech · Cloud-Native.
Stage: Series A → pre-IPO.
Size: 20–250 staff.
Cloud: Azure-first (our M1/M2 delivery surface). GitHub for source/CI. (Azure DevOps clients supported from M3; AWS discovery from M4.)
Pain that makes them buy:
Click-ops infrastructure, fragile CI/CD, no GitOps.
Missing SOC 2 / ISO 27001 / HIPAA is blocking an enterprise deal or a funding round.
First security/platform engineer just hired (or about to be) and drowning.

3. The motion: founder-led cold outbound

We do not wait for inbound. The motion is:

Target a named account from the Y3 list against a buying signal.
Reach out cold (email + LinkedIn) with the Y4 sequences. The CTA is always the free Discovery Audit — never "book a demo."
The free G-series Discovery Audit (apps/discovery-auditor/) is the wedge: a read-only, branded posture report that creates urgency and a remediation roadmap pointing straight at our claude.md §4 assets.
Findings review call walks the prospect through their own gaps.
Proposal (Y6) turns the findings into a priced engagement.
Close → Onboard (sales → delivery handoff, Y11).

Why the Discovery Audit is the wedge, not a demo: it is free, low-friction, gives the prospect something of standalone value, and — because every finding carries a remediation_asset_id — it is the pitch for the Baseline/Advanced package without us having to sell. It also disqualifies fast: a clean tenant isn't our buyer.

4. The funnel — stages, owners, and what backs each one

Each stage maps to at least one Y asset (content) and, where automated, an A-series asset (execution in HubSpot). This is the heart of Y0: no orphan stages.

#	Stage	What happens	Y asset(s)	A-series automation	HubSpot deal stage (Y13)
1	Target	Source an ICP account against a buying signal; add to list.	Y3	A1 (enrich), A2 (score + route)	— (lead/contact)
2	Outreach	Multi-touch cold email + LinkedIn. CTA = free audit.	Y4, Y1	A5 (offer email on `Qualified`)	New → Contacted
3	Discovery Audit	Run read-only Azure posture audit; deliver branded PDF.	G-series (tool), Y9 (sample report)	A5 (dispatch G4), G4/G5 (`discovery_report_url`)	Audit Running
4	Findings Review	Walk prospect through findings + roadmap; qualify hard.	Y5, Y7	—	Findings Reviewed
5	Proposal	Findings → scoped, priced SOW.	Y6, Y2, Y8	A3 (render proposal PDF)	Proposal Sent
6	Close	Negotiate, paper, sign.	Y12	—	Negotiation → Closed Won
7	Onboard	Sales→delivery handoff; provision repo + Azure.	Y11	A4 (kickoff webhook → B1)	Onboarding
8	Expand / Renew	QBRs, Baseline→Advanced upsell, renewal.	Y11, Y10	—	Customer / Expansion
—	Nurture (parallel)	No-response revival, post-proposal follow-up, lost-deal re-engagement.	Y10	A5/nurture	(any stage transition)

Drafting note: stages 5–8 link to Y assets not yet drafted. Those links are the to-do list — the same [[name]]-style forward reference pattern used elsewhere. As each Y asset lands, its row here becomes live.

5. The expansion ladder (commercial spine — detail in Y2 / `claude.md` §3.8)

We land small and expand, we do not sell isolated SKUs:

Free Discovery Audit  →  Starter / Quick-Win [QW]  →  Baseline "Cloud Secure" [B]  →  Advanced "Certification-Ready" [A]
   (lead magnet)            (proof of value)            (the core engagement)          (audit-ready, parallel to auditor)
                                                              │
                                                              └─ Retainer = the recurring engine (drift, evidence, posture upkeep)

Project fees fund delivery; the managed retainer is the durable revenue.

6. Roles

Person	Owns
Sagar	Outbound, discovery calls, technical scoping, proposals, delivery, pricing decisions.
Nidhi	Compliance-claim review on every outward asset, discovery-call compliance depth, audit-readiness narrative, contract/DPA review.

7. Success metrics (what we watch per stage)

Stage	Primary metric	Target (initial — revisit after first 10 deals)
Outreach	Positive-reply rate	≥ 8% (cold)
Discovery Audit	Audit-accepted rate (of positive replies)	≥ 50%
Findings Review	Review-booked rate (of audits delivered)	≥ 60%
Proposal	Proposal→Close rate	≥ 30%
Overall	Cold-touch → Closed Won	track; no target until baseline established
Retention	Retainer renewal rate	≥ 90%

These are the dials Y10 and Y13 instrument in HubSpot. Numbers are starting hypotheses, not commitments.

8. Guardrails (from `claude.md` Output Guardrails)

❌ Never position as generic IT consulting, offshoring, or advisory-only gap analysis.
✅ Authoritative, deeply technical, outcome-focused.
✅ Every claim in a sales asset traces to a real §4 asset (shipped or flagged roadmap). Nidhi gates compliance claims — no over-promising on audit guarantees.

Definition of Done (Y0)

Every funnel stage (§4) maps to ≥ 1 named Y asset and, where automated, an A-series asset — no orphan stage. (Met in draft; verify after Y assets land.)
Reviewed by Nidhi for compliance-claim accuracy.
Reconciled with Y13 deal stages once Y13 is drafted.

Sign-off

Reviewer: _ | Date: _ | Result: PASS / FAIL
Notes: