Breakdowns in collaboration challenge go-to-market teams in meeting business objectives, according to a new survey by visual collaboration platform provider Mural.

The 2025 Global Go-to-Market (GTM) Alignment Gap Index, conducted in collaboration with market research firm The Martec Group, revealed that GTM teams made up of sales, marketing, and research and development (R&D) departments often work toward different goals. It also found that decision-makers and individual contributors on those teams disagree on the root cause of misalignment.

While a majority (85 percent) of GTM team members feel confident about how they collaborate, the same number frequently find that they are working toward different goals and objectives. This outcome results in a misalignment of results, frustrated staff, wasted investment and revenue forfeited to competitors who successfully got their products to market first.

“Across industries and geographies, we see organizations eager to transform, full of fresh ideas and a drive for change. Yet the true test lies in keeping teams unified throughout the transformation journey, especially during critical go-to-market motions,” said Leigh-Margaret Stull, CEO of Mural. “As companies accelerate these initiatives and bring new products, AI transformations and processes to market, misalignment can undermine progress. Our latest research reveals where go-to-market efforts hit the most friction and provides useful strategies to help teams align, move forward together, and realize their transformation goals.”

Collaboration breakdowns negatively impact revenue, with 89 percent of respondents recognizing direct revenue-related impacts. These include:

• Ineffective customer messaging and positioning that fail to resonate with target audiences.
• Lost revenue due to decreased customer retention and missed growth goals.
• Decreased return on investment across marketing and sales initiatives.
• Weakened conversion rates due to improper hand-off of generated leads.
• Inability to scale go-to-market efforts to meet business objectives.
• Slower time-to-market that allows competitors to gain an advantage.
• Decreased competitive advantage in fast-moving markets.
• Inconsistent and diminished customer experiences when interacting with different teams.

Additionally, 83 percent recognized indirect revenue-related impacts, including siloed systems and processes, lower morale, increased frustration, and frequent ‘fire drills’.

Decision-makers are twice as likely (43 percent) to attribute misalignment to a lack of clear strategy and goals compared to individual contributors (22 percent). Decision-makers are also more than twice as likely to attribute it to unclear deadlines and priorities (24 percent vs 10 percent).

Sales and marketing teams share learning styles, yet still struggle to communicate, the survey found. Though they’re equally likely to learn best visually or through reading and writing (61 percent), they are also nearly equally likely to say that it is difficult to communicate clearly between teams (41 percent for sales, 43 percent for marketing).

Despite massive software investments that should eliminate the need for spreadsheets, 87 percent of individual contributors still use them to collaborate.

“Our research shows it’s not enough to just spend time meeting together,” said Christina Bottis, CMO of Mural. “Teams must collaborate to reach alignment so they can drive faster GTM outcomes. That alignment requires intentional co-creation, well-defined methods, and the right platforms applied across the GTM team.”