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Let me say something I wish more founders would hear early:

Before you prioritise another platform, dashboard, or prospecting tool, you need to get clear on what your team is actually trying to do.

It’s the biggest mistake I see both start-ups and scale-ups make and it’s often a costly one. Because somewhere between Series A and Series C, the pressure builds. You’ve got targets. Investors to update. A team that’s doubling.

And suddenly, enablement becomes a tool problem…

• “If we just get the latest sales automation tool…”
• “If we just find the right onboarding platform…”
• “If we just integrate Slack with Salesforce or HubSpot with…”

But here’s the thing: tools don’t fix misalignment.

You can’t automate your way out of a lack of clarity. Let’s talk numbers for a moment; 

According to Gartner, 77% of B2B buyers say their last purchase was complex or difficult. Why? Because sales teams aren’t aligned on messaging, product capabilities, or process.

👉 Read the full insight here

And LSA & McKinsey found that companies with aligned teams grow revenue 58% faster than those without that alignment.

👉 Read the full insight here

But alignment doesn’t come from software. It comes from clarity.

Clarity on what success looks like. Clarity on how we get there. Clarity on who owns what. Clarity on what your team actually needs to perform.

So before you roll out a new platform or bring in a new process, ask:

“Do I know what I am trying to solve or enable?”

Imagine you hired a builder to renovate your house. You give them a hammer, a saw, and a box of nails. Then you walk away. No blueprint. No measurements. No idea what you want the final room to look like. Would you expect a great result?

No. Because tools are only as good as the plan that guides them.

Same goes for your go-to-market team.

So what should you do instead?

Here are three practical steps I recommend to every founder or revenue leader before they invest in tools for their tech stack or headcount:

1. Define the core job-to-be-done. Ask yourself: What does “great performance” look like in this team right now? Be specific. For sales, it might be shortening deal cycles. For customer success, it might be increasing renewal rates. If you don’t know what you’re enabling, no platform will help you get there.
   
2. Map the friction. Where are people getting stuck? Look at the end-to-end process as well as onboarding, communication flows, manager support, access to content, clarity of goals. You’ll often find the problem isn’t a lack of tools, it’s too many conflicting ones, or too little clarity on how to use them.
   
3. Co-create solutions with your team. Your team already knows what’s working and what’s not. Involve them in the fix. This builds buy-in, surfaces blind spots, and helps you spend smarter.

That means removing noise, aligning expectations, and building capability — not just throwing tech at the problem and hoping it sticks.So yes, there’s a time and place for tools.

But don’t start there. Start with a clear path. Then choose the tools (and people) who’ll help you walk it well.

If your team’s growing but performance isn’t scaling with it, that’s not a tool problem — it’s an enablement one. I help founders and GTM leaders design practical, people-first enablement that drives results (without the overwhelm).