GTM Engineering guide
Clay agency vs GTM Engineering consultancy: which do you need?
A Clay agency builds workflows inside Clay: enrichment tables, list building, and data pipelines for outreach. A GTM Engineering consultancy designs the whole go-to-market system across marketing, sales, and RevOps, chooses the tools, builds the workflows, and hands the system to your team. Choose a Clay agency for a tool-specific project; choose GTM Engineering to fix how revenue work runs.
By Jérémy Grandillon, Co-founder & CEO, TC9. Updated .
What does a Clay agency do?
Clay is a data orchestration platform that combines many data providers, AI steps, and integrations in one workspace. A Clay agency specializes in building on it: account and contact list building, waterfall enrichment, AI research columns, and pushing results to a CRM or an outreach tool.
That specialization is the strength and the limit. A Clay agency is usually excellent inside Clay, but the scope stops at the tool. Routing rules, CRM data standards, inbound qualification, and how the output reaches reps are often outside the brief.
What does a GTM Engineering consultancy do?
A GTM Engineering consultancy starts from the revenue process, not the tool. It maps how leads and accounts should flow from first signal to closed deal, then builds the automated system that makes that happen, using whichever tools fit your stack.
- Strategy: define the ICP, qualification criteria, and the signals worth acting on.
- Architecture: decide which tools own which step, and how data moves between them and the CRM.
- Build: enrichment, scoring, routing, and outreach workflows across marketing, sales, and RevOps.
- Handover: documentation and training so your team owns and runs the system.
How do the options compare?
B2B revenue leaders usually weigh five options when they want more pipeline without more headcount:
| Option | Focus | What you keep |
|---|---|---|
| Outbound agency | Execution: running campaigns for you | Activity that stops when the contract does |
| Clay agency | One tool | Workflows inside a single platform |
| RevOps consultancy | Advisory: process and CRM recommendations | A plan your team still has to build |
| In-house hire | One person's bandwidth | Knowledge concentrated in one person |
| GTM Engineering consultancy | Strategy, architecture, build, and handover across marketing, sales, and RevOps | A documented, working system your team owns and runs |
What should you ask before hiring either?
- Who owns the workflows after the engagement, and are they documented?
- Is the recommendation tool-agnostic, or does every answer run through one platform?
- Does the scope cover how output reaches your team: CRM updates, routing, and alerts?
- Which pillars are in scope: marketing signals, sales pipeline, RevOps data, or all three?
- Are deliverables, limits, and client responsibilities agreed before work starts?
Where does TC9 fit?
TC9 is a GTM Engineering consultancy and an Official Clay Solution Partner. We use Clay where it is the right tool, alongside OpenAI, Anthropic, FullEnrich, PhantomBuster, Prospeo, RB2B, lemlist, and HeyReach, on top of HubSpot or Salesforce. The engagement is defined by your revenue process, not by one platform.
There are three ways to work with us: GTM Advisory at $450/hour, a fixed-scope GTM Launch Sprint at $6,500, or a Custom GTM Engine from $35,000/project. Every engagement ends with handover: you own the system, with no lock-in.
Questions, answered.
Is a Clay agency the same as a GTM Engineering agency?
Not quite. Many GTM Engineering teams use Clay heavily, but a Clay agency is defined by the tool, while GTM Engineering is defined by the revenue process it automates. The difference shows up in scope: routing, CRM data standards, and handover.
Do I need Clay to work with TC9?
No. Clay is one of the most common tools in a GTM Engineering stack, and TC9 is an Official Clay Solution Partner, but we recommend the stack that fits your CRM, data sources, and workflows.
Why not just hire an outbound agency?
An outbound agency runs campaigns for you, which can create meetings quickly. When the contract ends, the activity usually stops, because the system stays with the agency. TC9 does not compete on meeting volume; we build a system your team keeps.
Should we hire a GTM engineer in-house instead?
An in-house hire gives dedicated capacity but concentrates the knowledge in one person. A common path is to have a consultancy build and document the foundation, then hire in-house to run and extend it.
Build the engine.
Keep the keys.
Book a call. We'll map your current process and show you where GTM Engineering moves the needle first.