In this episode of Grounded and Aligned™, Karen Gombault speaks with Kirsten Schmidtke, founder of a revenue leadership consulting firm focused on B2B technology companies.

The discussion examines why revenue issues are often treated as sales problems when they come from how leadership is operating.

If your growth targets are not converting into consistent results, this episode looks at how leadership structure, priorities, and decisions affect revenue, especially in the context of AI, remote work, and shifting buyer expectations.

Karen and Kirsten look at:

• The gap between individual sales performance and the ability to generate revenue through a team
• How low trust in forecasting leads to inefficient inspection processes and slower deal cycles
• The effect of multiple or unclear priorities on execution quality and consistency across teams
• Leadership-created bottlenecks that restrict deal progression and reduce responsiveness in the sales cycle
• The shift from managing activity to coaching for judgment and decision-making in complex sales environments

Revenue variability is usually driven by how leadership operates, not the market. Clear standards, consistent execution, and fewer internal obstacles determine how reliable results are.

Kirsten Schmidtke is the founder of Kirsten Schmidtke Coaching & Consulting, a revenue leadership consulting firm serving B2B technology companies. With 15+ years in enterprise tech, including AWS, she has generated over $100M in revenue and carried multimillion-dollar quotas.

She works with CEOs and CROs to close the leadership execution gap that stalls pipeline, burns out sellers, and keeps revenue unpredictable — helping them find the one problem that, when solved, unlocks revenue growth.

www.linkedin.com/in/kirstenschmidtke/

www.instagram.com/kirstenschmidtke/

Connect with Karen: Karen Gombault | LinkedIn