Aligned Teams, Aligned Growth

Why businesses stall when sales, commercial, marketing, product and CX aren't pulling in the same direction, and what to do about it.

You can have a clear vision. You can track all the right KPIs. You can have brilliant data, powerful tools, and a loyal customer base. But if your teams aren't aligned, your growth will stall, or worse, slip backwards.

I've seen it time and again: businesses spending huge amounts on acquisition, only to be undermined by disjointed messaging, disconnected customer journeys, or delivery bottlenecks.

Growth isn't just a strategy. It's a team sport.

What Misalignment Looks Like

You don't always realise it's happening because everyone thinks they're doing a good job. But you start to see signs:

• Sales push volume that gives CX headaches through overpromising

• Marketing campaigns attract the wrong kind of customer or none at all

• CX is overwhelmed because onboarding gaps cause avoidable support volume

• Product builds in isolation from customer feedback and often without different channel feedback

• Commercial teams chase KPIs that conflict with long-term retention goals

  
  

No one is intentionally working against the business but the outcome is the same: wasted time, reduced margins, unhappy customers.

A Real Moment From My Past Life

This still sends shivers down my spine.

A few years ago, while leading a cross-functional commercial team, we launched a product based on solid customer insight - the demand was real. But the execution wasn't aligned.

Commercial and product were racing ahead to launch. The backend process wasn't ready, the sign-up journey only worked through some channels, and the CX team wasn't prepped.

Sales were incentivised to push it hard. Customers joined in droves.

What happened? Customer experience plummeted. Calls to support surged. Churn crept up.

We weren't underperforming…. We were under-aligned.

The Case for Cross-Team Alignment

Aligned teams deliver:

• Higher customer lifetime value

• Lower cost to serve

• Faster decision-making

• Stronger culture

• Higher customer experience

• Better investor confidence

• More sustainable growth

And in recurring revenue models, where long-term customer value matters more than one-time wins, alignment isn't optional. It's essential.

5 Steps to Align Your Teams Around Growth

1. Start With Shared Objectives

Everyone should be working towards the same commercial goal. Not just 'hit your number,' but 'grow sustainable revenue by [x]% while improving retention and margin.'

Tip: In team planning or objective setting, link every department's top goals to one shared outcome - e.g. net revenue retention (NRR) or customer lifetime value (CLV).

2. Build Connected KPIs

Avoid the trap where:

• Marketing is measured on leads

• Sales is measured on volume

• CX is measured on satisfaction

• Product is measured on velocity

Each team needs KPIs that feed into business value, not just functional wins.

Example: If marketing's high-volume campaign is bringing in churn-prone customers, that's not growth. Connect metrics like CAC (Customer aqusution cost), conversion and churn to paint the full picture.

3. Create Cross-Functional Squads

Recurring revenue succes, is often about optimising the entire journey - from acquisition to onboarding to renewal.

Set up squads or teams, with representation from commercial, product, CX, marketing and finance, focused on solving one specific growth challenge at a time.

Focus areas could include:

• Onboarding completion

• Reducing churn in the first 90 days

• Increasing CLV in key segments

• Improving trial-to-subscription conversion

This builds empathy, removes silos, and creates faster decision loops.

4. Hold Joint Insight Reviews

Bring teams together monthly to review shared data (from Blog 3), interpret insights, and align on action.

Make these sessions collaborative, not competitive.

Start with this prompt:

'What do we think the customer is experiencing and how can we make that better?'

5. Reward Collective Impact, Not Just Individual Wins

Alignment won't stick if incentives fight against it.

If sales get rewarded for closing volume, they'll close. If CX get rewarded for lower tickets, they might reduce service quality. If product get rewarded for delivery speed, they'll ship, even if it's the wrong thing.

You need to reward customer impact and team performance, not just individual output.

Try this: Create a shared quarterly goal like:

'Improve onboarding-to-activation conversion by 15%' and tie a team-wide bonus to it.

Bonus: Align language too.

If your teams use different words to describe the same thing, you've already got misalignment.

Agree shared definitions for terms like:

• Active user

• Engaged customer

• Churn

• Upgrade

• Healthy account

This creates a common understanding that makes everything faster and clearer.

Alignment Creates Acceleration

When everyone pulls in the same direction, growth feels lighter, smoother, and more scalable.

You reduce firefighting. You improve customer outcomes. You create a company that feels easier to run and easier to invest in.

Where do you see alignment breaking down in your business right now?

If you're noticing friction between functions, let's talk - I've helped businesses build alignment from chaos.