Tent and tension share the same ancient root: ten-, to stretch. That’s not trivia. It’s actually a great description of Go-to-Market.

Ten- Proto-Indo-European root meaning “to stretch,” with derivatives meaning “something stretched, a string; thin.”Etymonline

As a concept, tension is something I’m pretty fascinated with – I wrote about tension a few years back, same word but with some different content. Perhaps I’m able to lean in here because while most people get stressed by the word, I tend to believe that some tension is good. Yes, at times I can hold a contrarian view.

And the truth is, when it comes to making a tent, not only is it good, it’s actually required.

And these are two big words in business – tents and tension. And like with any tent, if there is too much tension in any one direction… well then the tent can’t maintain its form and it will falter. And while we’re here, let’s stake a claim on one more word from the same neighborhood: the tentpole. I know it well from my Hollywood days, where tentpole films carry a studio’s entire year. Business has them too: the big thing holding up the center. Usually that’s leadership, but it could be a key person or a flagship product.

OK – so far we have a tent. And keeping that tent in place is tension. And yes, the tentpole. No tension and we have a tentpole without any siding. Too much pull in one direction and well, the tent topples. Too tall a tentpole and the canvas can’t reach the ground. It all needs to work together, with each tether, guy line (the proper term for what I thought were tension rods!) and stake playing its role as intended, and leaning on the strength of all the other parts to do the same. See… good tension.

The Go-to-Market Tent

The Go-to-Market tent: business casual camping, where the only s'mores are pipeline reviews

So now let’s talk a little about Go-to-Market, and use some of our fancy business lingo to help us here – specifically the tent. What’s important to realize, particularly if my analogy is going to hold up, is that the modern-day Go-to-Market is not a single department – it is literally how a business goes to market, and within that grouping there is a range of teams that all facilitate how a business goes and remains in market.

All these groups fall within the Go-to-Market tent of any business. The groups likely include marketing, sales, customer success, product. Your business might look different, but the Go-to-Market team is everyone in the business who touches the customer.

And often these groups might not be as fully in sync as they could be. Which gets us to the next part…

Go-to-Market Tension

Go-to-Market tension in action: every team pulling its line so the tent stays up. Nobody let go. Probably.

Some degree of tension is needed to hold everyone up and to keep everyone accountable. Too much tension and of course we quickly get out of balance. Tension with purpose actually achieves a degree of health, but everyone, every group, needs to lean in and do their part – to go back to the roots of what we’re exploring here – literally to stretch (ten-).

And perhaps equally important: this isn’t tug-of-war. There’s no winner and no loser. Sometimes supporting your teammates means letting out a little line so they can pull harder, and the whole business holds a stronger shape. In the moment this one is often hard to see… but if you widen out, with the right vision and diagnostics, it is clear when a tent no longer has the correct shape.

And yes, if everyone pulls too hard, the lines will break. So will the canvas.

Sometimes the pull comes from the top. If your leadership team doesn’t agree on what transformation means, you end up with competing tentpoles inside the same tent.

So a quick tension recap, directly tied to your Go-to-Market:

  1. Slack: no accountability, and the tent sags.
  2. Imbalance: one function dominates (sales-led discounting, product-led roadmap-only), and the tent leans.
  3. Overtension: everyone pulls hard at once, and stakes rip out or people burn out.

Shifting Ground

And there’s one more force in play, beyond the people holding the lines: the ground beneath the tent isn’t guaranteed to be perfect.

You might spend time finding the ideal place to pitch your tent, but things happen. This holds true in business as well – new market entrants, leadership changes, acquisitions, the regulatory landscape, or the AI tsunami crashing into everyone’s beachfront tent. You get it… the ground beneath is not fixed.

And the ground doesn’t shift at one speed. Some shifts are sudden: your head of sales leaves for a competitor. Others are slow, and you don’t notice until the tent is leaning.

Establishing Your Go-to-Market Campsite

A Go-to-Market campsite: several tents, one patch of ground, and nobody agrees where the fire pit goes

Now zoom out. Most businesses of any real size aren’t one tent. They’re a campsite: business units, product lines, geographies, each with its own tent, its own poles and its own lines. Every tent can be pitched perfectly and the campsite can still be a mess. Tents crowd each other, two teams stake a claim to the same patch of ground, and nobody decides where the next one goes. A good campsite is laid out on purpose: which tents go where, which share ground, which get more room, and, if we’re honest, which ones should come down.

Who Pitches the Tent?

Great. We have a tent. We have tension. Your Go-to-Market leaders are the tentpole. But someone still has to decide where the tent goes – so who is deciding where to pitch the tent, and when? Well it varies, but I’d argue that this sits squarely on the shoulders of your Go-to-Market leadership team, and ultimately it should be driven by the leader of all the groups. That could be your CEO or president. It could be the head of your business unit. Or maybe the leader of a geography. But it should be a person who sits outside and above the Go-to-Market groups.

At some point you have to see the tent for what it is – a pretty complex and dynamic structure that really needs to have the whole of the Go-to-Market organization working together, and sometimes calls need to be made such as where to pitch the tent, and who is pulling which strings in which direction, and how much tension is needed to ensure the tent maintains a good shape.

Here’s the nuance, and it’s baked right into the word. That one root gave us both the tent and the tension: same mechanic, different application. Go-to-Market works the same way. The principles hold, but how you apply them shifts by product, market and moment. That judgment call is the leader’s job.

So now I’ll pose a Go-to-Market question for you – where is there slack in your tent, which areas are pulling too hard, and at the end of the day, is it clear who’s deciding where to pitch your tent, and who’s laying out the campsite?