New survey data from Mural reveals a troubling truth: Go-to-market (GTM) teams are confident in their collaboration, but that confidence may be dangerously misplaced.
According to Mural’s 2025 Global Go-to-Market Alignment Gap Index, 85% of sales, marketing, and R&D professionals say they’re collaborating effectively. That same 85% admit they’re routinely misaligned on goals, a contradiction with steep costs. The study, conducted with The Martec Group, surveyed global GTM teams and found that these gaps in alignment directly threaten revenue, time-to-market, and team morale.
Almost 90% of respondents said poor collaboration leads to reduced customer retention, slower conversions, and delayed launches. An additional 83% reported indirect fallout from siloed processes and duplicated work, to low morale and frequent fire drills.
Different roles, different realities
One of the sharpest divides uncovered by the study is a perception of the root cause. Executives and team leads are more than twice as likely as their frontline staff to blame poor strategy and unclear goals. Meanwhile, individual contributors seem more attuned to execution-level breakdowns, such as inconsistent deadlines or shifting priorities.
Even where sales and marketing teams share communication preferences, with 61% of both groups preferring visual or written learning, they still report frequent communication breakdowns (41% of sales, 43% of marketing). Shared learning styles, it turns out, don’t guarantee shared understanding.
“Across industries and geographies, we see organisations 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. As companies accelerate these initiatives and bring new products, AI transformations and processes to market, misalignment can undermine progress,” said Leigh-Margaret Stull, CEO of Mural.
The spreadsheet problem
Despite widespread access to advanced productivity and collaboration tools, one habit refuses to die, and that is spreadsheets. The report found that 87% of individual contributors still rely on spreadsheets to coordinate their work. The same percentage also reports regular misalignment, often weekly or monthly.
In a world awash in digital collaboration platforms, that statistic suggests that tools alone aren’t solving the root issue.
With pressure mounting to deliver results faster and with fewer resources, GTM teams can’t afford to waste time or revenue.