10 Questions That Reveal Revenue Readiness

Drivers of Revenue Growth

10 Questions That Reveal Whether Your Team Is Ready to Hit Its Revenue Goals

Most organizations don’t miss revenue because of the market — they miss it because they’re misaligned. Top-line growth is ultimately a capacity test — how well your strategy, people, and resources work as a system to produce consistent results.

“Top-line revenue growth is the key driver of long-term company performance.” — Corporate Executive Board

Why Alignment Beats Ambition (Every Time)

One of the fastest ways to spot problems early is simply to get people talking — openly, without slides, and without the usual departmental posturing. In my experience, the quietest people in the room often see the risk the earliest… they’re just rarely asked.

These conversations aren’t about blame. They’re about surfacing what’s real:

• What’s actually driving results

• What’s noise

• What assumptions are outdated

• And where the strategy doesn’t match the organization’s capacity

Get this right early, and planning becomes a lot less political — and a lot more honest.

The Questions That Tell You What’s Really Going On

Below are the 10 questions I’ve used with leadership teams for years. Nothing fancy — just prompts that get people telling the truth.

A suggestion: Have everyone answer anonymously first. When you read the responses out loud, you’ll see very quickly where alignment is real… and where you’ve been assuming it. Here are 10 questions worth asking:

1. What actually drove revenue this year — and what didn’t?

You’ll be surprised how different the answers are.

2. Which “vital few” factors really move the dial? Are we actually putting resources behind them?

3. What assumptions are we making about next year? Have any of them been tested against reality?

Assumptions sink more plans than competitors do.

4. What should we do more of? And honestly, what should we stop doing?

5. What’s going to be meaningfully different next year in the drivers of revenue?

If nothing is different, expect the same results.

6. How long will each change realistically take to show up in revenue?

(Everyone underestimates this.)

7. How do we rate our capacity — skills, clarity, alignment — to execute better than competitors?

8. How well are sales and marketing actually working together? Not theoretically — in practice.

9. Are both teams aligned on definitions, expectations, incentives, qualification, and pipeline stages?

This is where misalignment hides.

10. Which leading and lagging indicators matter most, and how often will we look at them?

What You’ll Learn (Usually Faster Than You Expect)

When people answer honestly, you’ll uncover two things very quickly:

1. Whether your organization has the alignment and capacity to hit next year’s goals.

Not the goals on paper — the real ones.

2. Where your hidden assumptions are — the ones that become next year’s revenue gaps if you ignore them.

These conversations aren’t glamorous. They’re not “innovation workshops.” They’re the foundation of predictable, steady revenue performance. And most teams don’t have them nearly enough.