5min
You can feel it.
Something’s off.
The business is growing, the team is bigger, the systems are in place - but progress feels harder than it should. Campaigns are running, deals are closing, reports are being pulled... yet it’s all taking too much effort for too little return.
If you’re leading growth or operations inside a scaling B2B firm, that nagging friction isn’t unusual. You’ve likely even tried to solve it:
- Bought new tools
- Hired new roles
- Changed structure
- Pushed harder on KPIs
But here’s the thing we’ve learned at CONVRG, time and time again:
The real issues aren’t surface-level. They’re systemic. And they hide in plain sight.
We call them Growth Gaps - and they’re the seven patterns we see most often inside growing businesses where results aren’t matching effort.
In this article, we won’t just name the gaps. We’ll show you what they look like in the wild - the conversations, behaviours, and red flags we see inside real teams every week.
Let’s go gap spotting.
- The Sales Gap
Leads aren’t converting. Sales teams are winging it. Forecasts are guesswork.
On paper, you’ve got a pipeline. The CRM’s full. Sales targets are clear.
But every quarter ends the same way: a scramble. Missed targets. Forecasts that looked solid at the start but fell apart in the final weeks.
In the wild:
- Sales teams managing deals in spreadsheets or notebooks
- Reps guessing close dates or stages to keep managers happy
- Pipeline reviews full of friction: “It was committed, but...”
- CRM full of old, untouched opportunities
- No one agrees on what a qualified deal really looks like
The impact:
Forecasts lose credibility. Confidence drops. Leadership starts pushing harder - but with no clearer view of what’s actually happening.
You don’t have a people problem. You’ve got a system problem.
- The Marketing Gap
Activity is high, results are low. You’re not sure what’s landing or why.
Marketing is busy. Campaigns are being launched. Social content is flowing. The CRM is filling with MQLs.
But conversion is poor. Sales aren’t following up. And the finger-pointing begins.
In the wild:
- Marketing says “We generated 300 leads last month!”
- Sales says “None of them are any good.”
- Campaign attribution is unclear or non-existent
- Lead scoring is either too strict or too loose
- No consistent feedback loop between sales and marketing
The impact:
Marketing can’t prove ROI. Sales stops trusting the funnel. Budgets become harder to defend. And no one really knows what’s working.
This isn’t a talent issue. It’s a visibility and alignment issue.
- The Data Gap
Too many systems, too little clarity. You can’t trust your dashboards.
Everyone has their own numbers. Everyone pulls their own reports. And none of them match.
Dashboards become talking points, not decision tools.
In the wild:
- Sales dashboard shows £300K pipeline, finance reports £180K
- Three teams using different tools to track the same customers
- Endless meetings to “align on the numbers”
- Ops building manual reports because the CRM isn’t trusted
- Excel becoming the real source of truth
The impact:
Decisions slow down. Strategy becomes reactive. Leaders rely on gut feel, not data - because they don’t trust the data anymore.
You don’t need more dashboards. You need a single version of the truth.
- The Leadership Gap
Different visions, different goals, no shared picture of progress.
The senior team gets on well. There’s mutual respect. But behind closed doors, there’s misalignment.
Each leader is pulling in a slightly different direction - and the business starts to feel it.
In the wild:
- Strategy sessions full of agreement, execution full of chaos
- Departmental KPIs that conflict with each other
- Quarterly planning turns into prioritisation by influence
- Big decisions made in silos, then walked back later
- Frustration creeping into leadership meetings
The impact:
Energy gets wasted. Talent gets confused. And progress becomes scattershot.
You don’t need another offsite. You need operational alignment at the leadership level.
- The Customer Gap
Great products, but average experiences. The journey feels disjointed.
You’re winning business. But you’re also losing it.
Customers say the right things on the way in, then quietly churn after six months. NPS scores dip. Referrals dry up.
In the wild:
- Sales closes a deal, then throws it over the wall to onboarding
- Onboarding re-asks questions the customer already answered
- Support teams have no visibility into purchase history or past issues
- Marketing keeps emailing customers like they’re still prospects
- Account management feels reactive, not proactive
The impact:
Customers feel like they’re dealing with five different companies, not one. Even if they stay, they won’t advocate for you.
The fix? A joined-up view of the customer journey - from first click to long-term success.
- The Execution Gap
Everyone’s working hard, but not together. Energy gets lost in the noise.
The strategy looks great on paper. The vision is exciting. But six months later, progress is minimal.
Projects stall. Initiatives get launched, then forgotten. Accountability is vague. Everyone’s “really busy” - but outcomes are missing.
In the wild:
- Dozens of half-finished projects in Notion, Asana, or Monday
- Quarterly OKRs that no one revisits until the next quarter
- Initiatives that sound good but never get a delivery team
- Leadership saying “Why haven’t we shipped this yet?”
- Staff unsure what matters most right now
The impact:
Morale drops. Momentum fades. Great ideas never make it to customers.
You don’t need more ideas. You need clarity, ownership, and traction.
- The AI Gap
There’s pressure to adopt AI tools, but no strategy or integration.
AI is everywhere. Your board wants to see innovation. Your competitors are experimenting. Your teams are testing tools.
But it all feels disconnected.
In the wild:
- Multiple departments trialling AI with no shared plan
- ChatGPT used sporadically but not consistently
- No one owning governance, training, or use cases
- Vendor demos, but no follow-through
- “We need to be doing something with AI” - but no clear reason why
The impact:
Innovation fatigue. Wasted spend. Confused teams. No competitive edge.
You don’t need to rush AI adoption. You need a real strategy that fits your business.
What These Gaps Have in Common
After years of working with scaling firms, here’s what we’ve learned:
These gaps aren’t separate. They compound.
They share the same root causes:
- Teams working in silos
- Workarounds replacing systems
- Data spread across tools
- Leaders pushing without visibility
- Tools that exist, but aren’t used
- Strategy that can’t be delivered
You don’t need to overhaul the whole business. But you do need to understand where the friction really sits - and start closing the gaps, one by one.
The Good News? You Can Spot (and Fix) Them
Once you know what the Growth Gaps look like, you’ll start spotting them everywhere:
- In leadership meetings
- In campaign reports
- In customer feedback
- In project retros
- In your own to-do list
That’s not a bad thing. It’s the first step to fixing them.
You’re not broken. Your team isn’t underperforming. You’ve just reached the stage where growth needs orchestration - not more hustle.
Want to See Where You Stand?
We created the 7 Growth Gaps Guide to help you assess your own business.
It’s not a whitepaper. It’s a field manual - built from years inside teams like yours.
Inside, you’ll get:
- A breakdown of each gap
- Clear warning signs
- Real examples
- A self-assessment checklist
- First steps to close the gaps
[Download the 7 Growth Gaps Guide]
Because growth should feel smooth again - not stuck.
Final Word: Scale Without the Struggle
If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve already felt one or more of these gaps.
The good news? You’re not alone - and you’re not too far gone.
Every week, we help businesses close these gaps from the inside out - aligning people, process, and platform so the business works as one.
If that sounds like where you need to go, we’d love to help.
But for now, start with clarity.
[Grab the guide - and let’s get your growth flowing again.]
