Most sellers want to become more skilled and confident engaging senior executives. They envision meetings that build deeper relationships and uncover high-impact ways they can help their clients. But C-suite selling is its own skillset that most sellers get few opportunities to practice, leaving teams under-prepared when C-level conversations come their way.

When sales performance is under pressure, many organizations look first to pipeline. Are there enough qualified opportunities? Is there enough coverage? Is there enough activity to support the number? That focus is often warranted. Without enough qualified opportunities, growth becomes difficult. Pipeline matters. It always has. But the data suggests there’s more to the story.

Only about 3 in 10 sales managers are effective in getting maximum performance from sellers, have the necessary skills to manage and coach sellers, and prioritize coaching their teams, according to our Top-Performing Sales Organization research.

Sales and marketing alignment is usually framed as an internal coordination problem: teams need to communicate better, handoffs need to improve, metrics need to be shared. While that’s all true, it undersells what’s at stake.