Corporate Culture First, Then Alignment: Why Your Revenue Strategy Depends on Trust

Summer Poletti
Jun 2
5 min read

In the fast-paced world of B2B SaaS and fintech, it's tempting to focus solely on metrics, tools, and processes. But before you can align your teams and strategies effectively, you must first establish a strong corporate culture. Without trust and shared values, even the most well-designed go-to-market (GTM) strategies can falter.

Culture isn't just a buzzword. It’s not what you write in your mission statement or core values. It’s how your team makes decisions when no one is watching. Especially in fast-moving orgs, where not every call or conversation gets reviewed, culture becomes the operating system, it's the bedrock upon which sustainable growth is built. When teams trust each other and share a common purpose, they can navigate complexities and drive revenue more effectively. But when culture is weak or misaligned, it creates friction, stalls deals, and hampers growth.

Why Corporate Culture Matters: The Data Speak

Consider these compelling statistics:

4x Revenue Growth: Companies with strong cultures see a 4x increase in revenue growth compared to those without.
40% Performance Difference: An aligned workplace culture accounts for 40% of the difference between high- and low-performing companies in terms of revenue growth and profitability.
88% Employee Priority: 88% of employees prioritize company culture when choosing where to work, and 69% of Gen Z prefer it over salary.
Higher Profitability: Companies with high-trust cultures are more profitable and have higher stock market returns.

Three people in suits form a circle with their hands against a bright sky, smiling and exuding teamwork and unity.

These numbers highlight that culture isn't just about employee satisfaction, it's a strategic asset that drives performance and growth.

I tell clients all the time: if you’re not sure what your culture is, look at what you tolerate. Ask your leaders and key employees what they tolerate. Look at how feedback is given. How people react under pressure. What behaviors get rewarded, and which ones are ignored. That’s the real culture. Not the one you put in your handbook or post on social media.

How to Know This Is Your Problem

Deals stall during pricing, contract negotiations or onboarding.
Service teams block or delay sales progress.
Reps are demoralized or churn frequently.
Internal conflicts get in the way of customer experience.

These aren’t execution problems. They’re culture problems.

Does any of this sound familiar?

You’ve got a top-performing rep suddenly coasting, and no one’s sure why.
Your marketing and Client Success teams are great on paper, but don’t talk to each other.
Your great sales hire didn't figure it out as quickly as you had planned.
You’re layering on tools and still can’t get a clear picture of what’s working.

Why it Matters to You - Podcast Sneak Peek:

Sean Shanks, President of Moneywise Payroll Solutions joined me for a discussion. And among the standard talk about business growth, he got real about corporate culture.

Tune in for the whole conversation on Thursday, find it here.

How to Strengthen Your Corporate Culture Before You Align

Alignment only works when there’s trust. Start there:

Start With Shared Goals: Alignment isn't just shared goals, but we do need them. Everyone wants the company to grow. Anchor conversations in that truth. It gives people a reason to reach across the aisle. And, from my experience, everyone outside of sales and marketing might need to be shown how their goals are part of revenue growth.

Lead With Humanity: Ensure people's psychological safety. Ask open-ended questions. Listen more than you speak. I once conducted culture-related interviews 1:1, offsite, at a Starbucks. Away from the "thin walls" is what made that team feel safe. And I circled back with follow-up meetings at that Starbucks again because some of the trust issues were "nothing ever changes, so why bother".

Make Feedback a Habit: Think back to your days on the front lines, did you ever dread a review? Did you ever try to be on your very best behavior the weeks before your review? Your folks today are no different. Annual or even quarterly reviews cause anxiety. And at the speed at which things change these days, you're doing yourself a disservice if you wait for review time to give feedback. Let them know what they're doing well and what could be done better. Make sure there's a balance - you don't want them to see a call or message from you and feel dread.

Live Your Values: Your missions and values need to be more than just words on a wall. Make them come alive by incorporating them into your praise; connect the work to a core value that your team member exemplified. I recently worked with a company that place "Employee Experience" as a top core value, so when I saw leader step in and help his employee with a little in-the-moment coaching, I praised him upholding a great employee experience. It's little things like that which make the values come alive.

Protect Your People From Clients: The customer is always right, is wrong in some situations. A toxic customer can destroy morale. It makes your workers think you care more about your bottom line than you do about them, big trust killer. It’s on leadership to step in. Your team needs to know you’ve got their back, not just the client’s.

Protect Your People From Each Other: This goes without saying, but you can't tolerate poor behavior from your employees either. The hardest is when someone might rub people the wrong way, but they produce good work. Might be great for your efficiency, but it's toxic to your culture. And you employees are quietly watching what you tolerate because you're "giving permission".

Encourage Reflection: In workshops, I ask teams to recall a time when misalignment, miscommunication or misunderstanding hurt their work, and what they’d do differently. It’s simple. But it builds empathy and creates change.

Next Steps: Culture Is the Real Work

If your revenue strategy feels stuck, your culture may be the missing link. You can’t align a team that doesn’t trust each other. You can’t scale what you haven’t built safety around.

Don’t wait for Q4.

Culture isn’t fluff. It’s operational infrastructure. If your numbers are flat, if your best people seem off, if your growth if more friction than flow, culture is likely the lever.

Fix that, and growth gets easier. Alignment clicks into place. And revenue follows.

Let’s talk if that’s what you’re ready for. Book your Alignment Scan now, spend 15 minutes with me and I'll give you one actionable takeaway.

Rise of Us is a practice run by Summer Poletti, specializing in revenue growth: sales, strategic partnerships, customer success, marketing alignment. We generally work with financial services and SaaS companies from $2MM - $20MM ARR and help them plan and execute for their next stage of revenue growth. We concentrate on strategy, coaching, and organizational alignment.