Most companies don’t mean to build misalignment into their revenue engine.
But they do.
They design sales and marketing as parallel functions—separate goals, distinct incentives, different definitions of success—and then expect tight collaboration, fast handoffs, and unified execution. When the results fall short, the default response is to spin up an “alignment initiative.”
New dashboards. New messaging. Maybe even a workshop.
But when the results fade again in a quarter or two, what happens?
The cycle repeats.
It’s not a leadership failure. It’s a design flaw.
The Misdiagnosis at the Heart of Misalignment
Too many companies treat alignment like a project.
They run it like an internal campaign—with launch decks, kickoff meetings, and performance goals that look good on slides but don’t hold up over time.
But alignment isn’t something you “roll out.” It’s something you design around.
If alignment only exists in slides, sprint plans, or marketing playbooks, it was never built to survive pressure. It only works when it’s embedded in the infrastructure of how you operate—not added on top.
Structural Misalignment Can’t Be Realigned
One of the most overlooked truths about misalignment is this:
You can’t realign what was never structurally aligned to begin with.
When sales and marketing are designed to operate independently, misalignment isn’t a failure. It’s an outcome you could have predicted.
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Different success metrics
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Separate leadership goals
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No shared accountability for outcomes
This isn’t just inefficient. It’s unfixable through surface-level effort.
No amount of reorgs, new messaging, or enablement can solve the problem if the system wasn’t built to support shared execution in the first place. Trying to patch that with short-term sprints or campaign-style rollouts just creates false momentum.
Which is why so many alignment efforts feel successful—until the next quarter hits.
Three Signals You’re Treating Alignment Like a Campaign
Here’s how to know if alignment in your org is cosmetic rather than systemic:
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There’s no shared ownership of pipeline health or conversion.
If one team “builds” and the other “closes,” alignment won’t last. -
Alignment shows up in decks but disappears under pressure.
In crunch time, teams revert to functional behavior, not cross-functional goals. -
You’re constantly hitting reset.
If every initiative feels like a reboot, you’re not improving the system—you’re temporarily overriding it.
What Durable Alignment Actually Looks Like
Real alignment isn’t driven by urgency. It’s sustained by design.
It shows up in the way teams share goals, define accountability, and operate under pressure. It’s not perfect, but it holds—because it’s part of how the business runs, not a side effort layered on top.
If your alignment strategy requires constant resets, what you have isn’t a leadership problem. It’s a system failure.
If this resonated, you’re not alone.
Join a growing community of revenue leaders rethinking how sales and marketing work together to drive sustainable growth.
Until next week,
Jeff
RevEngine™ | Built for Revenue Leaders Driving Alignment and Growth—Together
