The CEO’s Most Costly Blind Spot: Misalignment

By Alison Fell – Practice Partner| SalesStar

Are You Losing 10% of Revenue to Internal Friction?

As a CEO, you know the frustration: your sales team is working flat out, putting in the hours, but the results are unpredictable, and forecasts routinely fall apart. You’re not worried about graft; you’re worried about alignment.

The CEO of a small or mid-sized B2B business often feels like they are “driving without a dashboard” because the sales engine is out of sync. This isn’t just an internal headache; it’s a measurable drain on your turnover (revenue).

The Hidden Cost of Working Hard, Not Smart

When your team is misaligned, the CEO shoulders all the risk. The cost of this misalignment manifests in several ways:

• Wasted Effort: Your salespeople are busy every day, but not always on the right activity. This often means chasing poor-fit opportunities, essentially quoting for anyone who asks, which wastes time and resources
• Unpredictable Results: The pipeline looks busy but rarely converts, leading to erratic sales performance and a heavy emotional load of frustration and anxiety about growth.

The numbers don’t lie. Research from SiriusDecisions and Forrester Research shows that failure to align sales and marketing teams around the right processes can cost B2B businesses up to 10% of annual revenue.

Conversely, a study by the Aberdeen Group found that highly aligned teams are 72% more profitable and achieve up to 32% faster revenue growth.

Alignment is the difference between a busy team and a high-performing team.

The Solution: A Unified Sales Strategy

The most immediate action you can take to stop the revenue bleed is to Align Leadership Around a Unified Sales Strategy.

This means ensuring the CEO, Sales Leader, and salespeople are all making decisions from the same strategic foundation. By removing ambiguity and eliminating random activity, you stop conflicting priorities or mixed messages.

The most effective way to create alignment is through SalesStar’s Strategic Foundation Workshop. This two-phase model moves you from a fragmented sales approach to a fully aligned, high-performing team. Learn more about our Strategic Foundation Workshop Offering.

When the strategy is clear, you restore confidence and create predictable sales performance.