8 Hidden Barriers in Your Sales Process That Are Holding Back Your B2B Revenue Growth

"You're your own worst enemy." Is a cliche, but do you ever feel like it rings true?

And I'm not talking about the post new year diet/exercise inner saboteur. I'm talking about the future-focused founder/CEO who unknowingly setup sales processes that hinder sales.

"Why do you make it so g*d d*mn hard to work with you?!?" are actual words said to a co-worker by his prospect. Our boss gave him a discount he could offer, but do you think the poor guy even got that prospect back on the phone to offer the discount? I won't belabor you with the story, but it opened my eyes to the fact that my employer had so many rules that it frustrated prospects and clients in addition to us employees.

So when I was promoted to VP of Sales, I inherited a sales process that, to put it bluntly, wasn’t working. I had been hand selected to turn things around, so there was a lot that wasn't working, but those are all stories for other days. Since my job was now to bring in new logo business, I set to work helping my team to do their jobs.

SaaS for financial services - very conservative, compliance-driven, and married to tradition. There were layers of rules, approval processes and plenty of hoops to jump through. And of course, every rule had a reason, so untangling the mess so we could grow was an effort. I listened to the challenges from my team, listened to clients and prospects, and reviewed the data. Something I learned is that it's not always obvious what are the barriers to growth, sometimes it's the way you've always done it - making it even harder to notice.

First as a coach and now as a fractional revenue leader, I have come to realize that this challenge is more common than people think. Many companies unknowingly sabotage their own sales process by creating operational bottlenecks, misalignment between teams, or rules that make selling harder instead of easier. Now I'm not ever here for "let the sales team do what they want as long as they bring in new clients", remember, I was Director of Ops too, and now a business owner. Growth at all costs is not my mantra.

If your sales team is struggling to hit goals, if you’re seeing longer sales cycles and lost deals, these hidden barriers might be the culprit. Let’s uncover the most common issues and how to eliminate them.

What You’ll Learn in This Post:

• The biggest hidden barriers that slow deals and frustrate buyers

• How organizational alignment between sales and operations helps remove roadblocks

• Strategies to fix these barriers so your sales team can close deals faster

• Plus a Sneak Peek into this week's podcast and a Bonus Tip about how robots can help us

What Are Hidden Barriers in the Sales Process?

Hidden barriers are the unintended obstacles that slow down your sales process, confuse your prospects, or make it harder for them to confidently choose your product or service.

They may seem small or insignificant, and might be there for very good reasons, but their cumulative impact is huge. Stalled sales, lost deals, frustrated prospect, and low team morale.

Side note: something I learned early on when I transitioned to my sales era, is that salespeople don't have as thick of skin as you might think. They need to feel confident when they arm up for battle; it's not easy hearing "no" as much as they do. And that confidence comes from knowing they've got a good product and a great team backing them. Low morale on your sales team is very dangerous.

8 Hidden Barriers That Are Costing You Deals

1. Misalignment Between Sales & Operations

• Ever heard someone from Sales claim that Ops throws up barriers or has too many rules?

• Ever heard someone from Ops frustrated that Sales over promises or doesn't follow the rules?

The Mistake: Sales is focused on winning deals, while operations is focused on delivering consistently and mitigating risk, but when these two teams aren’t aligned, it creates friction. For your clients.

Signs You Have This Problem:

• Sales sells features that don’t exist or aren’t fully operational

• Operations rejects deals because they don’t meet internal requirements

• Sales sees operations as “roadblocks,” while ops sees sales as “reckless”

The Impact:

• Sales blames operations for being too rigid

• Operations blames sales for making promises they can’t keep

• Buyers get caught in the middle and lose confidence

How to Fix It:

• Bring sales & operations together early in the process to set clear expectations

• Align on custom requests BEFORE the deal comes in so the client doesn't have to sit idle while you argue

• Standardize handoffs between sales & implementation to prevent bottlenecks

Sneak Peek:

I've led operations teams in addition to sales teams and have coached many companies in different industries. Long story short, this one deserves a deeper dive. I give actionable insights on how to improve this sibling relationship in this week's mini pod. But you get a sneak peek. Want the entire mini pod, catch it here.

2. Gating Critical Information & Making Buyers Jump Through Hoops

• Do prospects have to obtain pricing, references, and/or demo from a salesperson?

• Is an NDA required at any time during the sales process?

• Are case studies, API instructions or specs, SOC1 documentation or other things gated?

The Mistake: There might be very valid reason for all or any of the above, but in the eyes of a prospect, these are just hoops. According to Gartner research:

Signs You Have This Problem:

• “Request a demo” is the only way to get pricing details

• Buyers can’t access security or compliance docs until late in the process

• The website lacks self-service options, frustrating modern B2B buyers

The Impact:

• Buyers drop off early and choose more transparent competitors

• Sales teams waste time answering basic questions instead of closing deals

• You create distrust and skepticism before the conversation even starts

How to Fix It:

• Un-gate non-sensitive content (pricing ranges, security docs, feature details, case studies)

• Offer self-service options like assessment or ROI tools so buyers can research independently

• Let buyers explore the product with a short demo video

3. The Linear Sales Process Doesn’t Match the Non-Linear Buying Journey

Do you have a well-defined sales process that the sales team (mostly) follows and to which your sales leader coaches? Documented step-by-step in your CRM?

Good. You should. Did you also know that the way that your buyers buy look more like this:

The Mistake: B2B sales teams often rely on linear, step-by-step sales processes, while buyers move back and forth between stages, conduct independent research even after engaging with a salesperson, and have a lot of meetings without you where they talk about you.

Signs You Have This Problem:

• Sales teams get confused when buyers don’t follow the “expected” journey

• Buyers feel like they’re being forced through unnecessary steps

• CRM tracking doesn’t match how buyers actually move through the process

• The Impact:

• Sales reps misread buyer intent and miss opportunities or see opportunities that aren't there

• Buyers get frustrated when forced into things they don't want to do

• The sales process slows down instead of accelerating deals

• How to Fix It:

• Adapt sales strategies to match how buyers actually buy

• Allow buyers to skip steps when they’re ready to move forward

• Stop treating discovery calls, demos, and proposals as fixed, sequential steps

• Your sales team needs to ensure they are properly qualifying deals in the pipeline, but they also need to be empowered to think on their feet

4. Prioritizing Internal Processes Over Buyer Experience

The Mistake: Sales teams focus on internal approvals, processes, and policies instead of making the buying experience seamless.

Signs You Have This Problem:

• It takes too long to generate contracts or pricing approvals

• Buyers feel like they’re jumping through your internal hoops

• “That’s just how we do things” is used as an excuse for inefficiency

The Impact:

• Buyers lose patience and walk away

• Deals get stuck in internal red tape instead of closing faster

• Sales teams feel powerless to move things forward

How to Fix It:

• Identify where your internal processes slow things down and streamline them

• Are there discount ranges or deals sales can offer without asking?

• Could you greenlight common contract change requests with pre=approved language from legal? Or better yet, revise the contract itself so you get fewer change requests?

• Review back-office processes with the intention of speeding things up - look for steps that could be removed, internal SLAs, or revision/removal

5. Lack of Transparency Creates Distrust

The Mistake: Sales teams withhold details on pricing, contracts, or fulfillment timelines. Or sales has little to no control over parts of the process and can't meet promised deliveries. Both of which makes buyers skeptical.

• Signs You Have This Problem:

• Pricing is hidden until late in the process or buyers have to ask for testimonials

• Buyers get different answers from different different team members or teams use different jargon

• There’s no clear timeline for implementation and onboarding

• Sales controls the entire process

• The Impact:

• Buyers distrust the process and push back harder

• Deals take longer because buyers feel like they need to “double-check” everything

• You create negotiation friction that slows momentum

• How to Fix It:

• Review everything you have gated with the intention of opening up

• Can you create a downloadable implementation or buyer's guide, release some pricing details, encourage clients to write Google reviews?

• Get rid of jargon in client-facing conversations

• Could you ask the client when they want to onboard and reverse=engineer a timeline so they feel in control of the process?

6. Not Empowering Buyer Champions to Sell Internally

The Mistake: Buyers often need to justify the purchase internally, but companies don’t give them the tools to do so.

Review your buyer journey and be honest with yourself - is your solution, onboarding/training, and ROI laid out so crystal clear that someone could recommend you and feel ZERO reputational risk?

Signs You Have This Problem:

• The proposal lacks clear ROI or case studies or buyers have to ask for testimonials

• There are no internal pitch materials for buyer champions

• Buyers ask for more information late in the process because leadership isn’t convinced

• You lose deals because prospects have decided to stick with their current process

The Impact:

• Buyers struggle to win internal approval, delaying deals

• Sales teams lose deals to status quo instead of competition

• Buyers (and Partners alike) find it hard to advocate for your solution

How to Fix It:

• Create pre-built pitch decks for buyer champions

• Provide custom ROI calculators to justify the investment

• Offer comparison charts to help buyers make their internal case

• Have your sales team ask "how can I help you?" when their contact is prepping for an internal meeting

7. Ignoring Risk Aversion & Fear of Making the Wrong Decision

The Mistake: Buyers don’t just consider ROI, they worry about making a bad decision that could cost them their reputation or worse, their job.

Have you ever wondered why someone would stick with an outdated process or a supplier with poor service instead of making a switch?

Signs You Have This Problem:

• Sales teams focus only on features and benefits without addressing impact of business challenges and buyer fears

• There are no testimonials, case studies, or third-party validation

• No clear risk-mitigation strategy (money-back guarantees, pilot programs, etc.)

The Impact:

• Buyers hesitate to move forward even if they like the product

• Sales cycles drag out because buyers are afraid of making a (wrong) mistake

• Deals fall through due to lack of internal confidence

How to Fix It:

• ROI calculators aren't enough - focus on providing value every step of the way, through marketing content and sales interactions

• Offer risk-free pilots, guarantees, and implementation support

• Provide third-party validation (analyst reports, customer reviews, testimonials)

8. Overly-Complex Pricing or Contracts

I saved this one for last and spent more time on it because in Financial Services and SaaS, I see this a lot. Compliance-driven and risk-averse businesses who have to be careful, but are accidentally costing themselves in terms of growth.

The Mistake: Your intention is probably to be thorough and account for anything that could come up - pricing scenarios like client growth or non-compliance and contracts that cover every risk. But instead, you’ve just made it exhausting to buy from you.

Do your clients often send the contract out for legal review and/or submit a lot of change requests?

Do your sales reps schedule conference calls or meetings centered around presenting the pricing?

Signs You Have This Problem:

• Buyers constantly ask for "simplified" pricing or complain about pricing structure

• Sales reps struggle to explain pricing or contract terms without a manager present, especially when they're newer

• Deals get stuck in legal review or require multiple redlines

• Prospects ghost after reviewing contracts

• The learning curve for new sales reps is long

The Impact:

• Deals stall in purchasing and legal limbo

• Sales wastes time explaining pricing instead of closing deals or hunting down new ones

• Buyers assume there's room to negotiate, even if there isn’t

• Competitors with clearer pricing and contract terms win the deal, or you've made it too hard to change and status quo wins

How to Fix It:

• Simplify your pricing. If a rep can’t explain it to their mom, it’s too complex

• Be transparent. At minimum, provide pricing ranges or typical deal sizes or the types of things clients pay for even if each deal is custom

• Pre-approve common contract edits. Or better yet, change the agreement - if buyers always push back on a clause, fix it

• Empower sales clear negotiation guardrails. Remove unnecessary approval steps so deals don’t get stuck

Final Thoughts: Remove These Barriers & Watch B2B Revenue Growth Accelerate

If your sales process feels harder than it should, these hidden barriers might be the reason. Start by identifying friction points, streamlining processes, and aligning sales with operations.

Bonus: Can AI Help?

Let's face it, some of these challenges are deeply rooted in the psyche of people drawn to sales careers versus those drawn to service or IT careers. And you could have biases affecting the way your teams work together. So can we leverage technology to break down some of those barriers? The good news is yes!

• Leverage predictive analytics in your CRM so that Sales is focusing on (and forecasting) the deals most likely to sell

• Setup workflows and automations to hand clients over to implementation, submit requests for approval, reminders for approval deadlines

• Use AI to analyze lost deals and look for patterns - where in the stage they were lost, reasons given, or presumptive reason given the deal stage

• Consider an online sales room in which buyers can explore on their own and invite other stakeholders

• An AI-powered chatbot on your website to answer FAQs and point buyers to helpful resources

And if you don't know by now, while I love the power of AI, I also remain healthily skeptical about leveraging it too much.

• A large client will be more impressed with a personal hand-off than an automated one

• The sales team will know reasons why a deal is perfectly valid even though it isn't closing this month

• Track what your buyers are engaging with and their intent signals so your sales people can provide the right kind of resource when they need it, and avoid sending them things they've already seen

• Use video, when appropriate, in your sales process to relate to buyers and show empathy (ok this isn't necessarily AI, but it is tech)

• Ever argued with a chatbot, maybe on a banking website? Test those like crazy before going live with one.

What’s Next?

• Listen to this week’s mini-pod on sales & operations alignment

• Join the free forum and gain access to exclusive tips and tricks

• Let’s chat if you need help auditing your sales process

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 $3MM - $10MM ARR and help them plan and execute for their next stage of revenue growth. We concentrate on strategy, coaching, and organizational alignment.