19 Jun 25
Organizations that underestimate the importance of these two aspects of the operating model are ill-prepared for the uncertain environment.
Even before the April 2025 tariff announcement and other recent shifts that have amplified economic uncertainty, CEOs were already indicating a turn in sentiment. As Q1 ended, SBI’s commercial sentiment index, an average of five indicators (pipeline, deal velocity, deal size, deal speed, and renewal rates) began declining, with an even sharper drop from March to May.
In this environment, execution matters more than ever. To better understand what separates top performers from the rest, SBI’s latest CEO Value Creation Pulse Report examined how companies that missed their revenue targets in 2024 approached execution compared to those that exceeded. While past performance does not always predict future outcomes, this comparative analysis highlighted patterns and three areas of risk that can undermine execution:
- Underestimating the importance of market coverage and the organizational model
- Executing with the wrong people, with the wrong skills, turning over at higher rates
- Taking an overly conservative approach to commercial technology investments decision-making.
This blog explores the first of those three risks.
What is Driving the Performance Gap?
SBI found two stark differences in how companies that beat their revenue targets and those that missed view certain aspects of their go-to-market operating model as more or less critical to value creation:
- 64% of CEOs who beat their revenue targets viewed having the right organizational model as critical
- Only 50% of those who missed targets viewed it as critical
- 70% of those who beat their revenue targets viewed having the right market coverage as critical to success
- A mere 44% of CEOs who missed revenue targets viewed this as critical.
This gap in perception leads to a gap in preparation. Organizations that underestimate the importance of these two factors find themselves under-prepared for growing levels of uncertainty and higher purchase scrutiny.
Getting market coverage right is particularly important when deal scrutiny is elevated. Our research finds that companies are unlikely to have significantly evolved their coverage models. This leaves them with expensive account teams chasing lower-potential accounts that may be better pursued by channel partners or even automated outbound motions.
Address Market Coverage with The ROAD Model
To help leaders segment and prioritize existing accounts, SBI recommends using the ROAD Model. For each account, this framework plots potential spend with actual current spend and places them in one of four quadrants with distinct sales motions and coverage requirements. This gives commercial leaders insight into the highest potential opportunities and how to proceed.
Streamlining thee Go-to-Market Organizational Model
The most successful companies are focused on ensuring their teams are coordinated and streamlined. They do this through two methods.
Bringing in a Strong RevOps Leader
By building a strong revenue operations capability and appointing a leader with a large degree of involvement in GTM strategy development and decision-making, top-performing companies avoid under-resourcing their analytics and coordination.
This gives the CRO the space needed to focus on commercial execution, people management, and driving change management. Separating the duties in this way is critical to succeeding in an uncertain market.
Minimizing Buyer Friction Through Role Definition
One of the biggest drivers of friction in the buying process is lack of alignment among the selling team. We often see multiple commercial team members supporting the same account, and buyers report interacting with five individuals from the supplier on average.
When this group is not aligned, it creates a frustrating supplier experience, with buyers reporting that 70% of the time they are unsure what each individual does and the value they bring to the transaction. During times of uncertainty when buyers are under higher scrutiny, this friction will kill deals .
Strong Execution Starts with a Strong Foundation
Navigating and prevailing through uncertainty starts with mitigating these foundational risks. Organizations that outperform are focusing on optimizing their organizational model to support the dynamic needs of the changing environment.
Review the insights of our latest CEO Value Creation Pulse Report.
