70% Gross Margin Used to Be Great. Now It's Failing.

Margin isn't a finance problem, it's a go-to-market problem. The gross margin bar that used to make you elite, 70%, is now barely passing, and most CEOs are flying blind because they only look at margin in aggregate instead of by ICP. PE firms aren't buying revenue anymore, they're buying margin, and the businesses that don't fix this now will feel it hardest at due diligence. ⏱ TIMESTAMPS (00:00) Why 70% gross margin used to be elite and now barely passes (00:57) OpenAI, Microsoft, and Meta's real gross margins right now (01:19) Reason 1, AI infrastructure costs (01:55) Reason 2, brutal competition compressing prices (02:11) Reason 3, investors demanding profitable growth over growth at all costs (02:53) Margin is a go-to-market problem, not a finance problem (04:06) The margin of error framework (05:02) My Pardot story, 95% integration vs. the 5% that nearly killed us (06:15) The margin blind company, celebrating revenue without knowing the cost (06:22) The CMO who hit every number and got laid off two weeks later (08:16) 1, know your margin by ICP (08:56) 2, fix your cost of acquisition (09:26) 3, stop selling to everyone, the muddy middle kills margin (10:15) 4, align your team on efficiency, not just activity (11:36) Why PE firms buy margin, not revenue, when they acquire you (12:24) Take the free GTM assessment at runongtmos.com/move 📌 Take the free GTM assessment to see your margin by ICP: runongtmos.com/move 📌 Subscribe for daily GTM OS strategy and leadership frameworks: https://www.youtube.com/@SangramHere?sub_confirmation=1