What does GTM due diligence cost? Prices by approach
Almost nobody publishes a price for commercial or GTM due diligence. The market by approach, what drives the fee, and our fixed prices in CHF.
By Semir Jahic
/ 8 min read
Ask five firms what GTM due diligence costs and you get five proposals and no price. Almost nobody in commercial or go-to-market diligence publishes a fee, so every deal team starts with a round of calls to find out what it will pay. This post sets out the GTM due diligence cost by approach, from strategy-firm commercial due diligence at the top to automated checklists at the bottom, and explains what moves the number: scope, evidence, team and speed. It ends with the one figure you can verify, our own fixed fees in CHF, and an illustrative sum that puts the fee next to one wrong assumption in the revenue plan.
What does GTM due diligence cost?
Between low thousands and six figures, depending on who does it and what they test. A strategy firm running full commercial due diligence, with market sizing, dozens of expert calls and a team on the deal for weeks, charges six figures. An automated AI readiness checklist costs low thousands, or comes free with a subscription. Operator-led fixed-fee work on the sales engine sits between the two: ours runs from CHF 8,000 to 20,000.
Those are descriptions, not quotes: we found no public, non-vendor source that states a price per tier, so only our own fees appear here as numbers.
The question matters more than it used to. Revenue growth accounted for 71% of the value created in 2024 exits, up from 64% in 2023, according to Moonfare's 2026 private equity outlook. When the return rides on the sales plan, the fee for testing it is small next to the risk, as why GTM due diligence matters now sets out.
What are the five ways to buy it?
Five approaches cover the market, and each prices differently because each tests something different. Compare approaches, not logos: the method behind a proposal explains its fee.
| Approach | What it tests | How | Typical price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Strategy-firm commercial due diligence | Market size, position, customer view | Expert calls, surveys, a team for several weeks | Six figures |
| Big Four and mid-market boutiques | Market and commercial model, often bundled with financial work | Smaller teams, standard templates | Five to six figures, by proposal |
| Specialist GTM diligence firms | The sales and marketing engine | Interviews, CRM review, benchmarks | Five figures, by proposal |
| Operator-led fixed-fee work (our band) | The sales engine against the plan | The target's CRM data plus interviews, one operator, AI does the counting | CHF 8,000 to 20,000, published |
| Automated AI readiness checklists and AI diligence tools | Self-reported maturity | Questionnaire or document scan, no interviews | Free to low thousands |
What drives the price?
Four things set the fee: scope, evidence method, team and speed. Scope is the biggest. Testing a market means building a view of demand from outside the company, which takes expert calls, surveys and analyst time. Testing a sales engine means reading what the company already recorded. What GTM due diligence checks covers that difference.
The evidence method follows from scope. Expert calls are bought by the hour and add up fast across a long list. A CRM extract costs the target an hour of RevOps time and then needs analysis. The second route is cheaper and, for the question "can this team deliver this plan?", more direct.
Team and speed do the rest. A pyramid of partner, manager and analysts costs more to staff, and the partner's judgement arrives at the end. One senior operator with AI rebuilding the numbers charges a fixed fee.
What do our fixed fees include?
Three services, three prices, no proposal round. Each delivers a scorecard, the reasoning and evidence behind each score, a 100-day action plan with owners and measures, and benchmarking against public reference points. Deal DD for GTM and the GTM Health Check score all ten areas from 1 to 5. The AI Gap Analysis scores process and AI maturity and the functions that depend on it. Verdicts are Proceed, Adjust or Stop for a deal, and On track, Needs work or At risk for a CEO's own company.
| Service | Fee | Time | For | Depth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deal DD for GTM | CHF 20,000 | 15 working days | Investors inside the exclusivity window | Eight quarters of CRM data, one to two interview days, an investment committee memo, a risk register |
| GTM Health Check | CHF 8,000 | 5 working days | CEOs, and funds across portfolio companies | Four quarters of CRM data, three to five conversations, a readout call |
| AI Gap Analysis | CHF 8,000 | 5 working days | A CEO or fund asked for an AI plan | Process and AI maturity in depth, build, buy or skip per use case |
The five-day services take 4 to 8 hours of the team's time in total. The fee is fixed before work starts and no guarantee is attached to the verdict: you pay for an independent read, not for a particular answer. Missing data caps the affected scores, which are listed as not tested.
Illustrative: what is the fee next to one wrong assumption?
Illustrative, with round figures. A fund buys a software company on a plan of CHF 10 million revenue next year, at a price of CHF 50 million. Total transaction costs, with legal, financial and commercial work, come to CHF 1 million. Deal DD for GTM at CHF 20,000 is 2% of those costs and 0.04% of the price.
Now the plan carries one wrong assumption: pipeline coverage that reads 3x but is 2x once stale deals are removed. Of the CHF 10 million, CHF 3 million is new business, and at 2x the pipeline supports CHF 2 million of it. The engine supports CHF 9 million, not 10. At the same five-times multiple, the CHF 1 million of missing revenue is CHF 5 million of value, or 250 times the diligence fee.
Missing the plan is not rare. In Bain's 2026 B2B Growth Agenda, a survey of more than 1,100 senior executives across 18 industries, 42% fell short of their 2025 growth goals, up from 32% in 2024.
Who pays, and why does a published price matter?
The fund pays for Deal DD from deal costs, which are sometimes recharged to the target at completion. A CEO pays for a Health Check or an AI Gap Analysis from the operating budget and decides who sees the report. In both cases the instructing party is our only client: we take no fee from the target and we sell no software.
A published fixed price shortens the buying decision. Without one, a deal team collects proposals, compares scopes that do not match and negotiates while the exclusivity clock runs. With one, the only question is whether the scope fits, and that takes one call. If you have a deal or a board question in front of you, book 30 minutes with me and bring the number you are least sure of.
Key takeaways
- GTM due diligence costs from low thousands for a checklist to six figures for strategy-firm commercial work.
- Scope sets most of the price: testing a market costs more than testing a sales engine from its own records.
- Our fees are published: Deal DD for GTM CHF 20,000, GTM Health Check and AI Gap Analysis CHF 8,000 each, fixed.
- On an illustrative CHF 50 million deal, a 10% miss on the plan costs about 250 times the diligence fee.
- A published price turns a proposal round into one scoping call.
Frequently asked questions
How does the cost of commercial due diligence compare with GTM due diligence?
Commercial due diligence from a strategy firm runs to six figures because it builds a market view from expert calls and surveys over several weeks. GTM due diligence reads the target's own CRM data and interviews the team, so operator-led work costs CHF 8,000 to 20,000 at a fixed fee.
Is a fixed fee really fixed?
Yes. The fee is agreed before work starts and does not change with the findings. What can change is coverage: if the target cannot provide data, the affected scores are capped and listed as not tested, and the fee stays the same. Faster delivery is possible on request.
Is an AI readiness checklist a substitute?
No. A checklist scores what the company says about itself, which is why it costs little. It cannot rebuild pipeline coverage or forecast accuracy from records, and it interviews nobody. It is a useful first pass before paying for a scored, independent view.