Managing Revenue Expectations for Global Teams

When businesses think about revenue, the first thing that often comes to mind is the sales team, and for good reason. Sales play a critical role in driving income for any organisation.

Over the years, I have learned that revenue generation is much bigger than one department. In reality, every employee in a company contributes to revenue generation, whether directly or indirectly.

“Revenue is everyone’s business.”

Leading a global revenue team, I’ve come to see how important it is to develop and implement revenue expectation strategies that reflect shared responsibility. Yes, the sales team close the deal. However, the marketing team generates the leads that feed the sales pipeline, and the customer experience team ensures those clients stay and grow their accounts over time.

Revenue as a Team Sport:

Let’s break it down. The revenue engine of a global company typically has three components: the pre-sales, core sales, and post-sales teams.

Pre-sales includes the marketing and SDRs (Sales Development Representatives) teams; the people who create awareness, drive campaigns, and qualify leads. Core sales is where the Account Executives and Business Development teams come in to close deals and bring new businesses. Then we have the post-sales team: the often-underestimated heroes of revenue generation; Customer Success, Relationship Managers, and Account Managers. This team is tasked with managing and retaining accounts, preventing churn, and upselling. A €200,000 deal can easily become a €1 million account if managed properly by the post-sales team.

Yet, too often, the burden of revenue generation is placed solely on sales. This is how businesses end up with burnt-out salespeople, broken client trust, and missed opportunities. Every revenue touchpoint (from the first marketing email to a client renewal) matters and should be handled by experts at each stage.

Revenue Alignment: All teams on the same page:

How do you get a global team in sync when setting revenue goals?

The best place to start is ‘Target Alignment’. Every department directly involved with revenue generation should have KPIs tied to revenue. The sales team already knows this; their targets are always number-driven. However, the marketing and customer success/experience teams must understand how their day-to-day work contributes to the company’s bottom line, revenue.

This way, bonuses and performance incentives are tied to outcomes, not just activity. If a customer success manager loses an account, their bonuses should reflect this churn. If the marketing team doesn’t generate the expected number of qualified leads (MQLs & SQLs), this should impact KPI and target achievement. When every revenue generation team's performance is measured by its contribution to actual revenue, collaboration increases and silos break down. 

“It’s not only about who brings in revenue, but also who retains and grows the revenue.”

Revenue Segmentation: Region and Team Capacity:

Managing revenue across regions isn’t just about time zones; it’s about strategy. While some companies segment their teams by geography: EMEA, APAC, and the Americas, others segment by deal size: SMB (Small & Medium Business), Mid-Market, and Enterprise teams.

The best approach, however, is to combine both segmentations: region and capacity. For example, your EMEA, APAC, and Americas teams should also have SMB, Mid-Market, and Enterprise sub-teams. Over the years, I have seen deals fall through because companies failed to segment by region and capacity. The result? A mismatch of skill and opportunity - Enterprise salesperson working small deals, and vice versa.

By aligning team structure to both region and capacity, you build a system that acknowledges market differences while ensuring that your salespeople are handed deals based on their expertise.

Revenue Operation: Metrics and Management Tools:

One of the biggest challenges revenue leaders face is adjusting expectations without killing team morale. In today’s market, revenue patterns change more frequently; what looked like a strong pipeline in Q1 could dry up by Q3.

This is where a great CRM (Customer Relationship Management) implementation and adoption becomes non-negotiable. For businesses, the CRM gives full visibility into lead generation costs, conversion timelines, deal velocity, Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV), churn patterns, and also forecasts future performance. With these insights, revenue leaders can accurately plan team headcount, track Cost of Acquisition (CAC) per customer, average deal cycle, spot customer experience gaps, and make data-informed decisions instead of relying on Excel sheets or intuition. Having a robust CRM system is non-negotiable as it is indeed the revenue command centre.

Building and managing revenue expectations for a global business is not a walk in the park. However, with clear KPIs, strategic team segmentation, transparent goal setting, and the right tools in place, you set up your team to become a sustainable revenue machine.

Jessica Uche is a global revenue expert with extensive background in Go-To-Market (GTM) implementation, business development, and revenue operations. Schedule a strategy or speaking session here.