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Identifying and Removing Constraints in Go-To-Market Teams

  • Writer: Shawn Dunahue
    Shawn Dunahue
  • Apr 4
  • 4 min read

Chapter 1 of 6


Get ready for a powerful deep dive into the hidden forces that hold your business back. In this series, we’re pulling back the curtain on how internal constraints and misalignment across teams create friction, derail priorities, and drive up unnecessary costs.


We’ll explore the most common breakdowns between Sales and key departments—including Operations, Finance, Marketing, Revenue Management, and yes, even Sales itself. From misaligned goals to broken processes, we’ll uncover what’s really causing the disconnect—and more importantly, how to fix it.


If you're ready to transform cross-functional chaos into a high-performance revenue engine, this series is for you.

 

Revenue Operations (RevOps) is the backbone of effective Go-To-Market (GTM) execution, integrating sales, marketing, and customer experience (CX) teams. However, organizations often encounter bottlenecks that hinder efficiency, alignment, and revenue growth. Applying Eli Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints (TOC) to GTM teams allows organizations to pinpoint, analyze, and resolve key constraints that slow down sales velocity and customer acquisition.


At its core, TOC suggests that every system has at least one constraint limiting its performance. In the context of RevOps and GTM execution, these constraints can take many forms—misaligned sales and marketing strategies, inefficient lead handoff processes, disconnected customer experience initiatives, and fragmented data that hinders decision-making. To improve productivity, alignment, and effectiveness, organizations must first identify their primary constraint and apply systematic improvements to alleviate its impact.



Understanding Constraints in Go-To-Market Teams

One of the most common bottlenecks in GTM workflows stems from the misalignment between sales and marketing teams. Despite having shared revenue goals, these departments often operate in silos, using different metrics to measure success. Marketing may focus on lead generation volume, while sales prioritizes conversion rates and revenue impact. This misalignment creates inefficiencies in lead qualification, causing potential revenue leakage. Research from Harvard Business Review indicates that organizations with strong sales and marketing alignment achieve 208% higher marketing revenue than those with misalignment. Ensuring a standardized approach to lead qualification and handoff is crucial to breaking down this barrier.


A case study from HubSpot highlights how applying TOC principles to RevOps led to a 35% improvement in lead conversion rates. The company identified that their primary constraint was the inefficiency of lead handoffs between marketing and sales. By refining lead scoring criteria, automating handoff processes, and implementing shared KPIs, they successfully streamlined their GTM workflow, reducing friction and improving deal velocity.


Another major constraint in GTM execution is the lack of cohesive customer experience strategies across departments. In many organizations, customer interactions are segmented, with marketing, sales, and customer success managing different aspects of the customer journey. This lack of integration often results in inconsistent messaging, poor customer satisfaction, and missed opportunities for upselling and retention. Salesforce’s 2023 State of the Connected Customer report found that 76% of customers expect consistent interactions across departments, yet only 45% of companies report having a unified customer data platform. To address this, organizations must invest in cross-functional collaboration and centralized data strategies to ensure a seamless customer experience.



Eliminating Bottlenecks with TOC Principles

Goldratt’s TOC methodology provides a structured approach to resolving GTM constraints:

  1. Identify the Constraint: Organizations must conduct deep pipeline analysis to determine the primary bottleneck affecting revenue growth. This could be an inefficient lead nurturing process, a lack of sales enablement resources, or a fragmented customer journey.

  2. Exploit the Constraint: Instead of immediately investing in additional resources, businesses should maximize the efficiency of their existing processes. For example, if sales reps struggle to convert leads due to poor qualification, refining marketing’s lead scoring criteria can significantly improve conversion rates.

  3. Subordinate Other Processes: Align all GTM functions to support the identified constraint. If the bottleneck is slow sales cycles, marketing should focus on producing sales enablement content to educate prospects earlier in the funnel, while customer success should be involved in post-sales expansion opportunities.

  4. Elevate the Constraint: If internal optimizations fail to resolve the issue, businesses may need to invest in new technology, expand their sales teams, or provide additional training to improve performance.

  5. Repeat the Process: Continuous improvement ensures that once a constraint is resolved, the next weakest link can be addressed, fostering sustained revenue growth.



Expert Perspectives and Market Direction

Industry leaders have embraced TOC to drive GTM efficiency. In a Forbes interview, Jon Miller, co-founder of Marketo, emphasized that revenue growth is often hindered not by a lack of leads but by inefficiencies in converting them. He argues that businesses should shift their focus from demand generation to optimizing conversion processes. Similarly, research from McKinsey & Company highlights that B2B firms with integrated GTM teams grow 2.4 times faster than their peers due to improved alignment and operational efficiency.


As market maturity advances, companies in manufacturing, trade services, and construction must prioritize RevOps excellence to remain competitive. With increased adoption of automation, AI-driven analytics, and revenue intelligence platforms, organizations that proactively address their GTM constraints will outperform their competitors. By applying TOC, businesses can create a structured roadmap to overcome revenue bottlenecks, improve cross-functional collaboration, and accelerate growth.


 

Where Do You Go From Here?

So, what’s next? If your business is facing any of the challenges outlined in this series, the next step is taking action. The good news is, you don’t have to do it alone.

At Tidewater Solutions Group, LLC, powered by Sales Xceleration, we specialize in:


  • Diagnosing revenue bottlenecks across Sales, Marketing, Finance, and Operations

  • Implementing structured workflows that eliminate inefficiencies and improve alignment

  • Integrating data-driven forecasting, pricing strategies, and revenue management best practices

  • Empowering teams with the right processes, technology, and accountability structures


For manufacturing, construction, trade services, and B2B businesses looking to scale, the path forward isn’t about adding more complexity—it’s about simplifying, standardizing, and optimizing revenue operations.


If you’re ready to remove constraints, increase revenue predictability, and create a scalable, high-margin growth engine, let’s talk.


📩 Contact: Shawn Dunahue

📞 Phone: 941-320-2131

 
 
 

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