Why Commercial Models Break | Commercial Transformation | Episode 02

Most businesses do not fail because they run out of money.

They fail because their commercial system stops working long before revenue collapses.

In this episode, we explain why revenue plateaus, win rates slip, and sales cycles lengthen even when marketing is active, the CRM is populated, and teams are busy.

The issue is rarely tools. It is structure.

What You’ll Learn

• Why commercial underperformance is usually structural, not tactical

• How “layered commercial debt” silently erodes growth

• Why disconnected marketing, sales, and operations cap revenue

• The difference between commercial activity and commercial performance

• How to identify revenue leakage across your commercial system

• The 5-Point Commercial Connectivity Audit

The Core Problem

Most organisations operate a collection of commercial tools, not a connected commercial system.

Website. CRM. Email platform. Proposal software. Finance system. Support desk.

But data does not flow cleanly. Teams optimise locally. Leadership lacks a single source of truth. Marketing generates leads sales do not prioritise. Sales close deals operations struggle to deliver. Retention is unmanaged. Reporting requires meetings.

This is not a people problem. It is a structural problem.

The Hidden Cause: Layered Commercial Debt

Early growth decisions harden into infrastructure:

• Affordable CRM becomes embedded

• Manual processes become standard

• Sales conversations lack qualification structure

• Proposal frameworks remain inconsistent

• Retention has no defined system

As complexity increases, gaps widen.

Performance erodes slowly, not dramatically.

Revenue volatility replaces predictable growth.

The Commercial Connectivity Audit

1. Flow – Can you trace a clean line from first click to recurring revenue?

2. Alignment – Do marketing and sales share qualification standards and metrics?

3. Conversion Architecture – Are transition points designed or improvised?

4. Data Architecture – Can leadership access real-time revenue intelligence?

5. Retention Infrastructure – Is customer expansion structured or informal?

If one area is broken, growth is constrained.

If several are disconnected, revenue plateaus are inevitable.

Consequences of Inaction

• Invisible opportunity cost

• Compounding complexity

• Leadership time consumed by manual fixes

• Hiring into broken processes

• Volatile revenue cycles

The commercial system that got you to £10M will not get you to £50M. Not because of talent. Because it was never designed to.

Who is this episode for?

• Founders scaling beyond early growth

• Commercial Directors facing stalled revenue

• Revenue leaders managing misalignment

• Businesses experiencing longer sales cycles

• Organisations investing in tools without performance gains

If revenue feels harder than it should, this episode will resonate.

Next Steps

Run the 5-Point Commercial Connectivity Audit on your own business.

Answer honestly.

If structural questions surface, B10 specialises in redesigning commercial architecture from first click to recurring revenue.

Not tactical fixes. Structural transformation.

Lets Talk