The B2B industry faces many challenges, however there’s one problem that has been pressuring GTM teams over the last years, and that now more than ever is causing GTM teams to be 70% times more likely to experience extended sales cycles and experience a 48% higher rate of lost deals.

According to the 2025 Future of Revenue Report, the problem that has been tormenting GTM teams in the B2B industry is: misalignment. 

57% of GTM leaders don’t expect to meet their targets this year due to misalignment. We’re aware that each team has its own problems; marketing teams are fighting for resources and trust, sales teams face longer cycles due to tighter budgets, and partnership teams struggle to integrate seamlessly with the rest of the GTM organization. 

But in order to make things better for everyone, all GTM teams have to work together. 

To help you with that first step towards alignment, we want to share with you the 5 key takeaways of The 2025 Future of Revenue Report by Pavilion and Crossbeam. 

This report is an in-depth exploration of the strategies shaping revenue generation via insight from more than 400+ experienced leaders, movers, and shakers pioneering them in the field. These experts are mainly (96.93%) composed of Directors and above, with an average experience of 20.1 years, belonging to companies with 250 to 499 employees. 

Here are the key takeaways from 400+ GTM leaders (and actionable strategies to implement them effectively):

1. Alignment across Go-to-Market teams

Teams that achieve complete alignment across functions — such as sales, marketing, partnerships, and customer success — are 67% more likely to meet or exceed their revenue goals. When teams are aligned, each one of them has a clear vision on what they need to do, budgets are allocated to maximize efforts, and your customers’ experience improves due to a simplified strategy — your company can operate smoothly, reducing CAC and increasing profitability. 

Action items:

• Set unified revenue goals: Establish shared objectives tied to company-wide revenue targets. To do that, start by asking: What’s your vision for this quarter? What should you prioritize?, and What strategies have you tried before? 
• Foster transparency: Map your customer’s journey and share with your GTM team the strategies that have to be implemented (and by which team) on each step, and identify the areas in which you might need some extra help from partners. Have monthly or biweekly meetings with your GTM teams to make sure you collaborate and stay aligned. 
• Create accountability systems: Implement KPIs that incentivize cross-functional collaboration, such as shared pipeline or customer retention metrics. You can start by  tagging directly in your CRM to properly attribute the effort of your strategy and team, or rely on cookies and UTM links to track conversions. 

2. Adoption of Ecosystem-Led Growth (ELG)

Companies leveraging ELG, a GTM strategy that leverages partner ecosystems to drive revenue, outperform those relying solely on traditional models. ELG can lead to higher-quality leads, improved deal velocity, and better close rates. Organizations embracing ELG integrate deeply with partners for co-selling, co-marketing, and intelligence sharing.

‍Action items:

• Develop a partner playbook: Create structured frameworks for engaging partners, including co-branded initiatives and joint strategies. Before you start inviting partners (or accepting partner requests), make sure you ask yourself: 
  
  • What are the goals of my company?
  • What are the goals for my partner program?
  • What types of partners do my company need?
  • What are the right metrics to measure success?, and 
  • What should be in the partnership team’s tech stack?

• Invest in ecosystem tools: Use platforms like Crossbeam to identify overlaps in customer bases and opportunities for mutual growth. Leverage account mapping to get 4 easy wins: retention and vetting, pipeline review, deal acceleration, and net new opportunities. 
• Incentivize partner collaboration: Establish rewards for sales reps and teams who drive revenue through ecosystem partnerships. Make sure you include at least one of the following incentives in your strategy: sales rebates, deal referral rebates, payment terms, enablement incentives, sales performance incentives funds (SPIF), awards, etc.

3. Focus on relationships and collaboration

Relationship-driven strategies such as customer referrals, partner networks, and executive engagement yield stronger revenue outcomes than purely transactional approaches. This trend highlights the growing importance of trust and collaboration in the buying process, particularly in B2B markets.

Action items:

• Build a referral network: Establish formal referral programs for customers and partners, rewarding successful introductions. For example, Everflow built an ecosystem-led referral program that led to a 37% increase in customers. 
• Expand executive engagement: Encourage leaders to participate in strategic accounts, demonstrating commitment and building trust. One way to involve your leaders is to ask for intel about the accounts, sometimes they have key insights that can also help you close deals faster. 
• Enhance customer feedback loops: Actively solicit customer input to refine solutions and strengthen long-term relationships. For example, Nigel Liaw, Global Director of Technology at Fullstory, not only leverages ecosystem data to find new integration partners, he also takes the time to listen to his customers and gather intel from his customer-facing teams. This has helped him to find the best partners to integrate with. 

4. Overcoming challenges in generating high-quality leads

One of the top challenges cited by GTM teams is generating high-quality leads amidst shifting buyer behavior and competitive pressures. Traditional lead-generation tactics struggle to meet the demands of highly informed buyers who seek personalized, value-driven interactions.

Action items:

• Leverage data analytics: Use data-driven insights to better understand customer needs and identify high-value prospects. A clear example of this is how BEMO leveraged platforms like Crossbeam, Clay, and Zoominfo. In tandem, these tools can help you achieve a 100% ICP accuracy.
• Personalize outreach: Tailor communication and offers to address the specific pain points of different customer segments. For this you can check how your accounts at various stages in your pipeline overlap with your partners’ customers and open opportunities. For example, Fivetran uses Crossbeam to view their accounts vs modern data stack from the customers (and opportunities) of their partners to tailor their pitches.  
• Enhance content strategies: Develop thought leadership content that resonates with prospects and positions your brand as a trusted advisor. Start by focusing on creating case studies, this will showcase how your customers have already achieved their promised land with your platform's help. Don’t forget to tag partners along the process, they can add valuable POV to your content and give you access to their audience too. 

5. Leadership’s role in driving alignment

C-suite involvement is critical to fostering alignment across GTM teams. Teams with active leadership support report 52% higher alignment scores. Leadership serves as the glue, setting a unified vision, championing collaboration, and breaking down silos.

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‍Action items:

• Implement executive sponsorship programs: Assign senior leaders to oversee key accounts and partner relationships, reinforcing alignment and focus. This might take you a bit of time, since you might need to showcase the value of your ecosystem, Lizzie Chapman shared with us how to achieve that. 
• Host regular strategy sessions: Facilitate quarterly or monthly meetings where leadership reviews cross-departmental progress and resolves misalignments. For this, you can leverage Crossbeam to identify the particular open opportunities your GTM team is working on, and how partners can boost that motion — then whether it’s through Slack, Zoom, or email, align with your teams internally and with your partners, before asking for intel, influence, or introduction. 
• Align incentive structures: Ensure leadership sets an example by tying their own incentives to cross-functional team success. Allocate some of your sales budget towards offering sales program incentive funds (SPIFs), or immediate cash incentives, to your sales reps (think: a reloadable debit card or gift card). 

The way forward in 2025

Achieving alignment in your GTM teams isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s essential for thriving. By implementing strategies like ELG, personalized outreach, and leadership-driven collaboration, your teams can overcome challenges like extended sales cycles and lost deals. 

Want to dive deeper into the insights shaping the future of revenue? Access The 2025 Future of Revenue Report for actionable strategies from industry leaders who’ve been there, done that, and found success.