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Every quarter you delay fixing misalignment, the cost doesn’t just stack—it compounds.

What starts as a missed number or a stalled deal can snowball into deeper issues: campaign fatigue, rep churn, messaging drift, pipeline confusion.

And the longer those symptoms linger, the harder it is to diagnose what’s really broken.

That’s why revenue leaders often fall into the same trap:

They chase surface-level fixes—
New messaging.
A quick restructure.
More tech.

But they’re solving the wrong problem.

Because most of these issues don’t stem from individual performance or execution.
They stem from structural misalignment across the revenue engine.

You’re Not Scaling. You’re Compounding Risk.

Many teams convince themselves they’ll fix alignment after they grow.
After the next hire.
After the new region launch.
After this year’s number.

But misalignment doesn’t wait politely on the sidelines.
It gets baked into the way teams operate—and scaling only multiplies the dysfunction.

Instead of making things better, growth stretches the cracks.

• Messaging becomes diluted across teams.

• Roles and rules of engagement get fuzzier.

• Strategic initiatives lose traction.

And suddenly, what felt like small problems become systemic drag.

Misalignment Rarely Feels Urgent—Until It’s Too Late

It’s not that leaders don’t care about alignment.
It’s that they underestimate its cost when it’s just under the threshold of visible failure.

But the cost is real.
And it’s not just in missed revenue.
It’s in:

• Duplicated effort

• Eroded trust

• Lower team output

• Slower time to market

• Customer experience gaps

By the time the data tells the story, the damage is already done.

Fix the Foundation—Not Just the Output
Alignment isn’t an initiative.
It’s not a quarterly priority.

It’s the infrastructure that powers your GTM system.
And if you scale before fixing that layer, you’re not building leverage—you’re building instability.

So if you’ve already started scaling—and things aren’t breaking yet—this is your window.

Because once it breaks, it won’t be a tactical issue.
It’ll be a systemic one.

And the fix won’t be fast or clean.

Until next week,
Jeff
RevEngine™ | Built for Revenue Leaders Driving Alignment and Growth—Together

Most revenue leaders don’t realize they’re paying for misalignment every single day.
But they are—just not in ways that show up on a financial statement.

When pipeline slows, deals stall, or marketing campaigns underperform, the instinct is to fix what’s visible: refresh the messaging, restructure the team, change the handoff. Sometimes it works—for a while.

But over time, the same issues resurface. And the cost compounds.

What most teams fail to see is that these problems aren’t isolated. They’re systemic.

The root issue isn’t a bad campaign or a missed forecast.
It’s the misalignment embedded in the operating system of the business itself.

The Misalignment Tax Is Real—Even If It’s Invisible

Every revenue team pays a price when alignment breaks down.
But unlike budget overruns or churn rates, the Misalignment Tax hides in the friction between teams:

• Handoffs that drop the buyer

• Conflicting definitions of a qualified lead

• Sales chasing accounts that marketing deprioritized

• Campaigns that launch without field feedback

• Reps frustrated by unclear ICPs or changing priorities

These issues don’t just slow things down.
They erode trust.
They kill momentum.
They create a system where people stop believing the process works—and start building their own.

That’s when the real tax sets in:
Wasted time, missed revenue, and top performers quietly burning out.

The System You Scale On Matters More Than You Think

What makes this even more dangerous is that most companies don’t notice the tax until the cost is too high to ignore.

And by then, they’re scaling on top of a fragile system.

Misalignment isn’t usually the result of bad intent or poor execution.
It’s the outcome of a system that was never deliberately designed to align in the first place.

In the absence of a clear operating model, most teams default to:

• Speed over clarity

• Silos over shared ownership

• Short-term wins over long-term cohesion

That’s not a strategy. It’s survival mode.
And it’s the reason even high-growth companies can stall without warning.

Fixing the Surface Won’t Remove the Tax

The truth is: you can’t fix a broken system by swapping out tactics.

You have to start by asking a different question.

Not, “What campaign should we run next?”
But, “What’s causing the friction in how our system operates?”

Because alignment isn’t a marketing initiative.
It’s the infrastructure layer that determines how your entire GTM engine performs.

If that layer is fractured, no amount of enablement or tooling will fix the real problem.

Until next week,
Jeff
RevEngine™ | Built for Revenue Leaders Driving Alignment and Growth—Together

Many revenue teams don’t realize they’re running on a faulty operating system.

Instead, they react to surface symptoms:

• A slow pipeline

• Conflicting priorities

• Misaligned KPIs

• Inconsistent buyer experiences

So they hold another meeting.
Reorganize teams.
Launch a new campaign.
Buy a new tool.

But none of that fixes the real issue.

Because the real issue isn’t tactical.
It’s systemic.

The Alignment Operating System

Alignment isn’t something you do.
It’s something your business runs on—whether you realize it or not.

It’s the infrastructure layer powering:

• How decisions get made

• How buyers move through the funnel

• How teams hand off, escalate, and execute

When it’s healthy, things move.
When it’s broken, every department feels it—but no one can pinpoint why.

Because alignment drag doesn’t show up in one place.
It shows up everywhere.

Most Companies Are Running on an Dysfunctional OS

When you don’t design alignment intentionally, one still forms—by default.

And it’s usually shaped by:

• Speed

• Silos

• Short-term survival

Not by shared strategy.
Not by cross-functional clarity.
Not by deliberate design.

If your revenue engine keeps breaking, stop and assess the operating system your revenue engine is running on.

Alignment isn’t a fix. It’s the foundation.

And most teams are scaling on top of something very unstable.

Until next week,
Jeff
RevEngine™ | Built for Revenue Leaders Driving Alignment and Growth—Together

Redesign the System, Not the People

Why your teams keep falling out of sync—even when they want to work together.

Most revenue leaders think they have a collaboration problem.
Or a communication gap.
Or a visibility issue.

But if we’re being honest, that’s not what’s really going on.

Because if your sales and marketing leaders are talented, motivated, and still can’t stay aligned—it’s not them.
It’s the system they’re operating in.

Here’s what that looks like:

• Marketing is measured on MQLs. Sales is measured on bookings. No shared ownership of pipeline quality or revenue health.

• Planning cycles happen in parallel. Alignment meetings start after both teams have already locked in strategy.

• Tools reinforce silos. Scorecards reward output, not buyer progress.

These aren’t one-off mistakes.
They’re structural defaults baked into how most GTM systems are designed.

That’s why alignment doesn’t stick.
Not because your people don’t try.
But because the system they work in wasn’t designed for alignment in the first place.

Alignment isn’t a communication fix. It’s a business model redesign.

You can’t solve a structural issue with surface-level solutions.

• More meetings won’t fix it.

• Better dashboards won’t fix it.

• Even shared KPIs won’t fix it—unless the system around them is aligned, too.

The companies that sustain alignment don’t just get their teams talking more.
They redesign the system around the buyer.

That means:

• Rebuilding the incentive model so both teams win or lose together

• Structuring GTM planning around shared goals—not departmental independence

• Rethinking how tools, workflows, and reporting reflect the full revenue engine—not just functional snapshots

• Embedding cross-functional accountability into the operating model

Start with this question:

Was your GTM system built for alignment—or just efficiency?

If it’s the latter, friction isn’t a bug.
It’s the blueprint.

And until you redesign that blueprint, your revenue engine will keep stalling—no matter how many enablement sessions you run or how “aligned” your QBRs feel.

The good news?
You don’t have to blow everything up.
You just have to start redesigning intentionally.

More to come next week on what that redesign actually looks like—and how to do it without overwhelming your team.

Until then, here’s the simple truth:

If the system isn’t built for alignment, alignment will always be temporary.

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

Most alignment breakdowns don’t come from bad intentions.
They come from blind spots—places where ambiguity creeps in and no one realizes it until performance stalls.

Your team might have:

• Shared dashboards

• Aligned targets

• Regular pipeline meetings

And yet, the misalignment persists.

Why? Because the friction isn’t always visible.
It’s embedded in how your GTM system is designed—and what gets ignored.

These are the real misalignment triggers many leaders miss:

1. No one owns the gray zones

The space between “lead” and “opportunity” is a black hole in many orgs.
Marketing’s done. Sales hasn’t taken over. And the buyer feels it.

Without clear ownership, deals stall—quietly and consistently.

2. Escalation signals go unnoticed

Buyers ghost.
Follow-up gets automated.
Everyone assumes someone else is on it.

But when there’s no structured way to flag a stalled journey, inaction becomes the default.

3. Everyone defines success differently

Marketing hits MQL goals.
Sales misses revenue targets.
And both sides walk into the QBR with a different version of the truth.

When KPIs live in silos, success becomes performative—not aligned.

Alignment isn’t a communication problem—it’s a clarity problem.

It’s not enough for your teams to talk more.
They need a shared operating model that defines:

• Who owns which stage of the buyer journey

• How performance is measured across teams

• What actions are triggered when the buyer disengages

Because here’s the truth:

Alignment that doesn’t reflect buyer behavior is just coordinated performance theater.

You’re working hard—but not moving the buyer forward.
And that’s what revenue leaders have to fix.

For Revenue Leaders: What to Do Next

If you’re a revenue leader, your first question may not need to be: “Are we aligned?”

A better question may be: “Where does alignment quietly break down—and what’s our structure for addressing it?”

Start there.
Because if it’s not visible, it’s not being managed.

And if it’s not being managed, it’s already costing you revenue.

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

Many sales and marketing teams still define success based on their internal funnel.

But here’s the problem:
The funnel isn’t how buyers actually buy.

Buyers don’t progress in clean, predictable stages.
They loop, they stall, they skip steps.
And most teams aren’t set up to recognize that—let alone respond to it.

What we call “alignment” today is often just synchronized execution around internal processes.

To build a unified revenue engine, teams must shift from aligning around the funnel to aligning around the buyer’s journey.

Why Internal Alignment Isn’t Enough

It’s not that alignment isn’t happening.
It’s that it’s often happening in the wrong direction.

Marketing tracks leads.
Sales tracks deals.
Operations tracks pipeline stages.

Each team is aligned—to itself.

But no one is actually aligned to the buyer’s experience across the journey.

That’s the disconnect.
And it’s where growth quietly stalls.

3 Signs You’re Aligned to the Funnel—Not the Buyer

1. The buyer disappears after the demo
   The team keeps following a stage-based sequence, while the buyer’s priorities have shifted.

2. Marketing content doesn’t reflect live deal conversations
   Top-funnel messaging is disconnected from what sales hears every day.

3. Opportunities stall in the same stage with no response plan
   There’s no shared mechanism to escalate or adapt based on buyer behavior.

These are escalation signals—buyer cues that something’s off.
But most teams are too focused on pipeline status to catch them.

What Buyer-Centered Success Actually Looks Like

Success isn’t about internal alignment.
It’s about designing go-to-market execution around how buyers move—not how teams report.

That means:

• Defining journey stages based on buyer behavior, not internal ops

• Tracking metrics like dwell time, stage velocity, and friction points

• Coordinating outreach based on where the buyer is, not where the CRM says they are

• Building SLAs and feedback loops around progression, not just handoffs

What Revenue Leaders Should Take From This

If you’re a CRO or CMO, your org doesn’t need more alignment meetings.
It needs a common operating view of the buyer.

Without that, no amount of shared dashboards or weekly standups will move the needle.

When you align to the buyer—not just to each other—you reduce friction, shorten cycles, and build a revenue engine that actually scales.

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

It’s tempting to jump straight to org charts when alignment breaks down.
Reorg the departments. Move a few boxes. Add a dotted line or two.

But here’s the problem:
You can’t structure your way into alignment.

Real alignment starts with strategy, shared goals, and sustained collaboration.
Only once that’s in motion does structure become the lever that locks it in.

Structure Isn’t the Starting Point—It’s the Reinforcement

In the early stages of alignment transformation, teams need room to experiment, collaborate, and prove traction.

But once that traction is in place, structure becomes critical:

• It turns proven teamwork into a permanent operating model

• It locks in cross-functional collaboration through shared KPIs and aligned incentives

• It prevents backsliding by designing around the customer—not internal silos

Structure isn’t there to fix what’s broken.
It’s there to protect what’s working.

Why Misalignment Resurfaces

Many companies try to fix misalignment with collaboration.
They increase the number of cross-functional meetings.
They create shared dashboards.
They build surface-level alignment around messaging.

But without structural reinforcement:

• Teams drift back into old patterns

• Execution becomes fragmented

• Customer experience suffers

What looks like collaboration is often just friction in disguise.

Redesign the System—Don’t Just Redraw the Org Chart

The most effective structural changes don’t focus on hierarchy.
They focus on ownership. Shared outcomes. Customer proximity.

Because without traction, structure becomes theater.
But with traction, structure becomes the key to scale.

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

Ask any revenue leader if their sales and marketing teams are aligned, and you’ll usually hear the same answer:

“We’re getting there.”

But ask whether those same teams share accountability for revenue—and the conversation changes fast.

Because here’s the truth:
You don’t have an alignment problem. You have an accountability problem.

Alignment Without Ownership Doesn’t Last

You can run all the cross-functional meetings you want.
Build shared dashboards.
Even agree on lead definitions and personas.

But if sales and marketing are still measured on different outcomes, alignment will always be fragile.
Eventually, the cracks show up:

• Sales questions lead quality.

• Marketing chases volume instead of pipeline value.

• Each team optimizes for its own success, not shared outcomes.

That’s not a revenue engine. That’s a broken system.

What Shared Accountability Actually Looks Like

Shared accountability doesn’t mean micromanaging.
It means creating clarity without killing autonomy.

It looks like:

• Joint ownership of pipeline targets—not just lead or close rates

• Shared definitions of success that span functions

• Clear metrics that are visible to everyone—not siloed in separate systems

• A GTM strategy that reinforces collaboration, not just communication

When marketing owns pipeline impact—and sales engages earlier in the buyer journey—you don’t just get better numbers.
You get a more efficient system, a better customer experience, and a team that acts like one.

Sustainable Alignment Is Built, Not Declared

Leaders often talk about alignment like it’s a switch you flip.

But in reality, sustainable alignment is the result of strategic design decisions—not just good intentions.
And shared accountability is one of the highest-leverage decisions you can make.

Because when everyone’s held to the same outcome, behavior changes.
Collaboration becomes proactive.
And revenue becomes everyone’s job—not just sales’.

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

In many B2B organizations, marketing is still seen as the department responsible for generating leads—not revenue. The goal is often volume over value: fill the top of the funnel, hand off the MQLs, and let sales figure out the rest.

But here’s the truth:

When marketing stops at the MQL, the funnel breaks.

The disconnect isn’t always obvious at first. Teams might be hitting lead targets. Sales might be closing some deals. But behind the scenes, pipeline quality suffers, buyer experiences feel disjointed, and no one’s quite sure who owns what after the handoff.

That’s not a revenue engine.
That’s a broken system.

The Cost of Stopping at the MQL

When marketing is only measured by lead quantity—not revenue contribution—several things start to break down:

• The wrong buyers enter the pipeline, forcing sales to waste time qualifying instead of closing.

• Messaging misfires, because what worked in a top-of-funnel campaign doesn’t support the conversations sales needs to have later.

• Teams misalign, because each side is optimizing for different outcomes.

And while shared dashboards and alignment meetings might mask the issue temporarily, they don’t fix the underlying problem.

Marketing Must Step Into the Revenue Conversation

Fixing this isn’t about asking marketing to do more. It’s about asking marketing to do the right things—things that move pipeline, accelerate deals, and support revenue generation from start to finish.

That means:

• Owning parts of the pipeline, not just the top

• Collaborating on sales stage messaging, not just persona decks

• Reporting on contribution to revenue, not just MQL volume

The best marketing teams today think in terms of conversion, not just campaigns. They know how to influence pipeline health, partner with sales, and use data to prove their impact.

This Is the Future of B2B Marketing

Many marketing leaders are already making this shift. But if your organization still sees marketing as lead gen only, alignment will always be fragile. And revenue performance will always hit a ceiling.

Marketing doesn’t stop at the MQL.
It helps build and sustain the pipeline—because that’s where growth happens.

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

If you’ve been following my LinkedIn posts this week, you already know the truth:

Surface-level solutions—shared dashboards, common goals, and frequent meetings—aren’t enough to drive real alignment between sales and marketing teams.

Here’s why:

Visibility Isn’t Alignment

Shared dashboards have become a staple for revenue teams, promising better transparency. But transparency alone won’t solve deep strategic disconnects. Dashboards simply make visible the symptoms of misalignment without addressing the root cause. Misalignment isn’t just about seeing what each team is doing—it’s about strategically aligning what they’re working toward.

Action Step: Before investing further in dashboard technology, revisit your strategic alignment. Ensure both teams are not only seeing the same data but actively working toward shared, strategic outcomes.

Shared Goals Aren’t Enough Without Shared Accountability

Most alignment initiatives focus on setting shared goals: hitting pipeline numbers, improving close rates, or growing revenue. However, without explicitly defined joint accountability, shared goals quickly deteriorate into blame games:

• Marketing complains sales doesn’t follow through on leads.

• Sales argues marketing delivers poor-quality leads.

Goals alone highlight the problem; shared accountability solves it.

Action Step: Define clear joint KPIs that both teams must own and deliver together. Establish mutual accountability—both teams celebrate wins and equally own setbacks.

Your Go-to-Market Strategy Might Be Sabotaging You

The most overlooked cause of misalignment is often your foundational go-to-market (GTM) strategy. Many GTM strategies unintentionally reinforce departmental silos by:

• Clearly defining sales roles but vaguely defining marketing’s role in revenue generation.

• Developing strategy without cross-team input, leading to lack of buy-in or confusion.

• Creating incentives that reward department-specific outcomes rather than holistic revenue growth.

Misalignment isn’t accidental—it’s built into the very structure of your strategy.

Action Step: Involve both sales and marketing teams in GTM strategy development. Clearly define roles and responsibilities at each stage of your funnel. Ensure incentives align with cross-departmental collaboration rather than individual team goals.

Your Next Steps:

The solution isn’t more meetings or better dashboards. True alignment starts by addressing the deeper, structural problems outlined above.

In future issues, we’ll dive even deeper into practical approaches for restructuring incentives, creating effective joint accountability models, and redesigning your GTM strategy for sustainable alignment.

Why Subscribe?

LinkedIn posts are great for quick insights—but this newsletter is your strategic resource, giving you practical tools and deeper analysis so you can take real action to align your revenue teams.

If you found value here, forward this to a colleague who’s struggling with alignment. The more aligned you become, the faster your revenue grows.

Until next week,
Jeff
RevEngine™ | Built for Revenue Leaders Driving Alignment and Growth—Together