Revenue Remix - Inspiring Visionary Leaders

Sales vs. Operations: The Business Rivalry That’s Killing Your Revenue

• summer poletti

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Sales and operations should be the ultimate power duo, but when misaligned, they create costly bottlenecks that slow deals down, frustrate teams, and drive customers away before they even see value.

In this episode, Summer breaks down:
✅ Why sales and operations often clash (and why it’s NOT about bad intentions)
✅ The hidden operational barriers that are quietly killing your deals
✅ The CEO’s action plan for creating alignment—without slowing anyone down
✅ 5 simple, high-impact changes that will make both teams more effective

💡 Because when sales & ops work together, businesses scale faster, clients onboard smoother, and revenue flows with less friction.

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Show notes:

  • Connect with Summer on LinkedIn
  • Visit Rise of Us for more information about Summer's services
  • Episode recorded and edited using Descript
  • Repurposed content, such as this description created using CastMagic
summer:

Why does it feel like sales and operations are constantly at odds when they're actually on the same team, yours? And here's the answer. Competing priorities.

AI host:

Welcome back to Revenue Remix, a podcast from Rise of Us, where we take a fresh spin on driving revenue growth, hosted by Summer Pelletti, a fractional CRO who works with business owners and leaders who feel held back by outdated systems. This podcast explores how adaptable, unified frameworks can transform static processes, equipping teams to meet evolving customer needs and drive resilient, lasting growth. Each episode features insights from Summer and her guests, offering practical strategies to sidestep common pitfalls and build real revenue momentum. It's time to remix the way we think about growth. Enjoy the show.

summer:

Hello, and welcome back to Revenue Remix. I'm your host, Summer Paletti, and today, we're tackling one of the most frustrating and costly alignment issues in business, sales and operations alignment. I actually had planned a collaborative discussion with an operations leader, but struggled to find one willing to join me, which is a sign of a deeper issue. Okay, so you're getting a one woman show again. Did you know that I spent the first part of my career in operations? Yeah, I've seen this from both sides. And as a CEO, you probably have as well. Have you ever seen sales saying operation slows us down with unnecessary red tape or operations saying sales over promises and creates chaos for our team and the customer they're stuck in the middle and frustrated even if they're not saying so to you and you know what? They're all right. So here's the reality. Misalignment between sales and operations isn't just an internal headache. It is a revenue killer, which is why it matters to you. Companies with strong alignment between revenue teams grow 19 percent faster and are 15 percent more profitable. When sales and ops don't align, deals get stuck. Onboarding is slow and customers churn before they even see value. If any of this sounds familiar, you're in the right place. In today's episode, I'm breaking down why sales and operations struggle to align, the biggest hidden barriers slowing deals down, and what you as the CEO can do to fix it starting today. So, get your popcorn and let's go! Let's start with a question. Why does it feel like sales and operations are constantly at odds when they're actually on the same team, yours? And here's the answer. Competing priorities. Sales job is to close deals, hit revenue targets, and move fast. Operations job, deliver efficiently, consistently, reduce risk, maintain order. Neither is wrong, but when these priorities aren't aligned, tension builds. Sales pushes deals through too fast. Ops slows them down with extra approvals. Sales offers custom options to close prospects. Ops says, um, that's not possible. Operations enforce strict processes. Sales find workaround to just get it done. Operations does the hard work day in and day out while the sales team takes victory laps and seems to get all the glory and have all the fun. Then the sales team is out there facing rejection 99 times for every yes they hear. And operations is grumpy and also seems to have the favorite word, no. All of this friction doesn't just foster distrust and hurt internal morale, it costs you revenue. So let's talk about the hidden barriers slowing deals down. And this is something that no one seems to talk much about. Sales and operations aren't trying to make each other's jobs harder, but the way their systems are built can accidentally create barriers. One, overly complex approval processes. Example, a financial service team requires multiple legal sign offs, credit checks, review of past finances, before even onboarding a new client, adding weeks to the sales cycle. And the client just gets frustrated and walks away, and takes their business to someone who's willing to onboard them faster Or even worse, they stick with what they're currently doing because it's too hard to change. Here's a solution. CEOs, you need to streamline approvals. Create a fast track for pre qualified deals so that you don't lose momentum. Make it easy for people to buy from you. Number two, rigid implementation timelines. Here's an example, a SAS company with a five step onboarding process, lots of paperwork for the client to sign and a strict no mid quarter implementation, delaying product access for new customers. Some clients churn even before they sign up. They leave during implementation, or once again, they decide it's just easier to stick with the status quo. Here's your solution. Audit onboarding. Where can processes be optimized to get customers to value faster without sacrificing quality? Can you add an optional service level for expedited or mid quarter starts? Here's another hint. Um, sometimes if the service is optional, and by optional I mean it costs some money, suddenly the client isn't so gung ho on starting right now. They realize that they can wait a little bit. Number three, misalignment between sales promises and operational reality. As a former operations leader, I can tell you that this was probably the biggest one for me. Sales closes a deal on a 30 day delivery timeline, but we need 60 days. So, who's going to tell them that? Because the client comes in expecting one thing. The reality is another thing. And now we either have to give bad news to a brand new client, or we have to work on the weekends. So your solution is set realistic expectations. Sales should not be promising anything without pre approved delivery timelines. And also, operations can probably find some wiggle room where their timelines don't have to be so strict. As the CEO, you cannot afford these disconnects. You need processes that drive speed and efficiency. Here's a fourth one that we don't really have time to get into today, but it's always there in the background. You know, I study disk and personality types. So it is important to recognize That sales and ops folks generally have brains that are wired very differently. Miscommunication is almost in their DNA, and you have to work very intentionally to understand the perspective of the other person. And understand how you can communicate best with them. And the other thing is that often CEOs are an entirely different third personality type. So it's definitely worth taking some disc assessments and learning how to better communicate with someone who's wired just a little bit differently. But what can you do to fix it starting today?

AI host:

Summer Pelletti of Rise of Us helps her clients transform by building adaptable, customer focused sales systems that replace outdated models. With these new frameworks, their teams can respond quickly to evolving customer needs, reduce friction, and work as one cohesive unit. This shift equips them with the tools to drive consistent growth. Lowering churn and creating lasting customer relationships. As a result, they achieve sustainable revenue growth that positions them ahead of competitors and prepared for future challenges. Together, you and Summer will create a foundation that not only meets today's demands, but supports long term success.

summer:

what can you do to fix it starting today? One, create joint accountability between sales and ops instead of separate goals where sales only cares about new logos and ops only cares about efficiency, create shared KPIs like. Faster onboarding times, higher retention rates, fewer post sale escalations. Look at where you have some challenges and see if you can create a shared KPI around improving those. When these teams start to win together, they're going to stop pointing fingers at each other. Two, hold monthly sales and ops alignment meetings starting this week. No long agendas. Definitely no blame. This is a judgment free zone. Couple of questions just to cut straight to the heart of it. Where and why are deals getting stuck? What frustrations do your team members have? What do you need from me? How can I help? We're going to focus it on positive and focus it on solutions. Number three, implement a fast track sales process. Not every deal should need multiple sign offs, pre approved certain contract types, discount thresholds, common timeline expeditions that can be accommodated so that sales can move quickly without breaking operational rules. Go through, figure bottlenecks are, and look. To see what you can expedite and of course coming on the heels of that You need a no go list so that sales knows what not to sell You got to give your sales folks boundaries, or they can go a little haywire. I love me some sales folks, but if you don't tell them that they can't do something, they're not going to know. So give them permission to say yes in areas where it's safe and then definitely set boundaries for them. And last create escalation paths for high risk or high value deals. If a big deal is on the line, make sure there's a direct way to fast track approvals. Instead of letting it get buried in red tape. This is getting leadership aligned on flagship deals and also have an escalation process to quickly notice signs of disapproval with a new client so that you can nip it in the bud. And here's a bonus create a post implementation survey to gather feedback from clients right after they've gone through the process. Just a couple of questions 1 or 2. don't make them jump through a bunch of hoops, but learn immediately ways in which you can approve while the process is still fresh in their mind. Let's wrap this up. Alignment isn't a luxury. It is a revenue strategy. Sales and operation misalignment isn't about bad intentions. These folks are on your team. They believe in your dream. They want to see the company grow. It's just about competing priorities that need to be brought together. When these teams align, businesses scale faster, clients onboard smoother. Internal friction disappears. So your job as the CEO, make sure they're working together, not against each other. Here's your action plan. Think about your sales process right now. Where do deals slow down? Is it legal approvals? Is onboarding taking too long? Too many back and forth discount requests? Customers waiting in a queue for when implementation can take them on? Are customers frustrated with misalignment between what they were promised and what they get? If you don't fix it. You're leaving revenue on the table. All right, that's a wrap. But I want to hear from you. If you're in sales, what's one operational barrier that slows your deals down? If you're in operations, what's one sales behavior that makes your job harder? And if you're the CEO, how often do you hear these teams blaming each other? What are you going to do to fix it? For more information specific to hidden sales barriers that might be costing you money, Check out this week's blog on theriseofus. com and while you're there, check out the podcast page and read about being a guest. If you've got a cool story to tell, I definitely want to hear it. And so does the audience. If this episode made you think a little bit, I'd love a share or a review. It helps me with my reach. And if you want to chat about alignment or friction on your team, and you think you might need a little bit of help, find me on LinkedIn. I'm Summer Paletti, rhymes with spaghetti. I appreciate the listen, and I will see you next week. Bye for now.

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Summer Poletti

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