How Well You Are Aligned, Dictates How Well Your Organization Thrives

By John Harvey

"Your biggest sales problem isn’t in your pipeline. It’s in your company."

Most businesses don’t lose revenue because of market conditions or bad products. They lose it because of internal dysfunction that drains morale, slows execution, and bleeds profits. The scary part? It happens so gradually that most leaders don’t see it until it’s too late.

Sales and marketing are out of sync. Operations pushes back on sales, creating unnecessary roadblocks. Customer success is left fixing deals that never should’ve closed and worst of all your most talented employees, the ones who actually drive revenue, start looking for the exit.

If you’re experiencing any of these problems, you don’t have a sales problem. You have a structural leadership crisis.

Here’s how to fix it before it destroys your organization from the inside out.

The Internal War That’s Killing Your Revenue

Every company is fighting two wars:

1. The fight against competitors
2. The fight against itself

And the biggest mistake leadership makes? Letting the second war go unnoticed.

Marketing blames sales for not closing deals. Sales blames marketing for poor lead quality. Operations slows everything down with unnecessary approvals. Customer success is stuck dealing with frustrated buyers.

This internal war doesn’t just kill collaboration, it erodes trust. Employees stop speaking up in meetings. Departments stop sharing insights. And leadership is left guessing where the problems are.,

How to Fix It:

• Create shared goals so every team is accountable for revenue—not just sales
• Align incentives so sales, marketing, and operations win together
• Encourage radical transparency so teams feel safe calling out inefficiencies

Instead of: “That’s not my department’s problem.” Say: “If we don’t win together, we lose together.”

The Sales vs. Operations Battle That No One Wins

I've always said; "Sales is built for speed. Operations is built for stability."

When these two are misaligned, everything slows down.

Sales pushes deals forward aggressively, even if operations can’t fulfill the promise. Operations pushes back, adding more restrictions, more approvals, and more red tape. The result? A never-ending battle where sales thinks operations is killing deals and operations thinks sales is signing bad contracts.

The Human Toll:

• Sales reps burn out fighting internal battles instead of closing deals
• Operations teams feel constantly blamed and undervalued
• Leadership gets stuck mediating fights instead of driving strategy

How to Fix It:

• Train sales on operational constraints so they sell realistic solutions
• Give operations insight into sales goals so they can prepare resources accordingly
• Create a deal review committee where both teams work together on complex sales

Instead of: “Sales makes promises we can’t keep.” Say: “How do we build processes that allow us to deliver what we sell?”

The Marketing Disconnect That’s Costing You Millions

Marketing’s job is to drive leads. Sales’ job is to close them.

But when these teams don’t communicate?

Marketing throws leads at sales and hopes something sticks. Sales ignores leads that aren’t perfectly qualified. Leadership wonders why conversion rates are dropping.

And here’s what leadership doesn’t see:

• Sales reps silently resent marketing. They waste hours sorting through bad leads.
• Marketing teams feel unheard. They’re blindly guessing what sales actually needs.
• The company loses deals. Because the right prospects aren’t being prioritized.

How to Fix It:

• Hold weekly sales-marketing syncs to review lead quality
• Give marketing direct insight into which leads are converting
• Ensure marketing KPIs are tied to revenue—not just traffic or impressions

Instead of: “Marketing’s leads aren’t good enough.” Say: “What feedback can we give to improve lead quality?”

The Customer Success Afterthought

Most companies obsess over closing the deal… …then drop the ball on customer retention.

Poor onboarding leads to churn. Misaligned expectations lead to refund requests. Lack of communication leads to lost upsell opportunities.

And here’s the reality:

Your customers don’t care about your internal chaos. They just want a seamless experience.

The Cost of Neglecting This?

• Unhappy customers = damaging reviews & lost referrals
• Higher churn = wasted acquisition costs
• Burned-out support teams = even more internal turnover

How to Fix It:

• Get customer success involved before the deal closes
• Align sales messaging with actual customer experience
• Prioritize retention just as much as acquisition

Instead of: “That’s customer success’ problem now.” Say: “How do we set this customer up for long-term success?”

Fix These Bottlenecks in the Next 7 Days

Day One: Identify where misalignment is costing you revenue

Day Two: Hold a leadership sync to break down internal friction

Day Three: Align sales, marketing, and operations goals

Day Four: Create a strategy for better lead handoff and qualification

Day Five: Eliminate bottlenecks in decision-making

Day Six: Implement cross-team training to build empathy and understanding

Day Seven: Test, measure, and refine

Let’s Keep the Conversation Going

?? Share this article with a sales manager who’s ready to take their team to the next level. And if you’re not already following me on LinkedIn, now’s the time to join the conversation.

Click here: Follow me on LinkedIn: www.dhirubhai.net/comm/mynetwork/discovery-see-all?usecase=PEOPLE_FOLLOWS&followMember=johnrobertharvey

We are not just building businesses. We are building legacies. The question is, will your legacy be one of excellence or one of missed opportunities? The choice is yours.

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