• by Ray Schultz , Columnist, March 25, 2025

Like any other units, email teams are responsible for driving revenue.

But they face several challenges, especially if they mismanage the process, judging by The Revenue Imperative: Overcoming Inefficiencies to Maximize Growth, a study from Conga, conducted by Ascend2. 

The biggest downsides to mismanagement are:

• Higher operational costs — 50% 
• Missed opportunities for revenue — 43% 
• Revenue leakage — 38% 
• Decreased customer satisfaction and retention — 32% 
• Reduced forecasting accuracy — 31% 
• Delayed decision-making and limited strategic agility — 29% 
• Increased risk of compliance and regulatory violations — 27%
• Strained collaboration between departments — 22% 

There is reason to be concerned about these issues. While all respondents agree that they need to understand the entire revenue lifecycle, from the initial proposal to a customer sale, only 54% are extremely confident in their firm’s ability to do so. 

Moreover, companies face these challenges in identifying and capturing all possible revenue opportunities: 

• Time-consuming manual tasks — 46% 
• Difficulty integrating data across systems — 34% 
• Compliance and security risks — 32% 
• Poor collaboration between teams (e.g. sales, finance operations)—29%
• Errors in data or forecasting — 28%
• Limited ability to gain insights from data — 27% 
• Siloed data or technology — 23% 
• Lack of resources/budget — 23% 
• Difficulty in contract management and renewals — 20% 

What tasks do brands focus on these areas when pursuing revenue? 

• Customer retention — 51% 
• Sales and opportunities management — 46% 
• Customer support — 41% 
• Lead generation/marketing—37% 
• Invoicing and billing — 37%
• Contract renewal — 35%
• Customer cross-selling/upselling — 35%
• Contract management — 34% 
• Customer onboarding/order fulfillment — 32% 
• Gaps in pricing or revenue strategies — 31% 
• Close or win rate — 21% 

What does it take to achieve a high revenue outcome? Firms with full integrations of tools and systems are 2.5X more likely to be very confident. 

The companies polled are now using these tools to manage revenue:

• Customer relationship management (CRM) — 70% 
• Data analytics tools — 64%
• Enterprise resource planning (ERP) — 54%
• Workflow automation tools — 46%
• Configure price quote (CPQ) — 36%
• Contract lifecycle management (CLM) — 35% 
• Subscription management systems — 32% 
• Other — 2% 

Meanwhile, 87% see AI as a reliable way to improve business performance. But only 25% are already using AI for this purpose. 

Conga and Ascend2 surveyed 616 professionals in decision-making roles in revenue management. Of these, 62% were in the United States and 38% were in the U.K..