New report outlines benefits of collaboration between finance and sales

Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility might have been your least favorite book in high school, but it can offer an interesting parallel to the modern revenue org. The novel chronicles the story of the Dashwood sisters: Elinor (prudent and driven by reason) and Marianne (emotional and driven by impulse), and in doing so, warns of the dangers of overly pragmatic conservatism, and at the other extreme, unrestrained boldness.

While it might put one in mind of a particularly prickly sibling relationship, it deftly conjures the delicate relationship between finance and sales teams.

This timeless dynamic arguably helps keep a business on a sure footing but also has the potential to stifle creativity. Business intelligence firm and credit score provider Creditsafe addresses some of this tension in a new report.

Alignment: more than a buzzword

Of the findings in the survey, two stand out as particularly troubling. First, almost half (49%) of sales leaders said more deals were rejected by the finance team in 2025 versus the previous year. Second, late payments are becoming more of a regular occurrence. The study says only 18% of finance leaders reported that all their customers paid on time in 2025.

The good news for them is that the report highlights a hunger for more synchronicity within teams, something that could alleviate the problem:

• The best time to review credit risk is before requesting deal approval, according to 33% of sales leaders.
• Teams should have access to credit risk data after lead qualification, but before contact, according to 39%.

Additionally, 61% of finance leaders and 77% of sales leaders believe that having access to credit risk data directly in the sales teams CRM platform would reduce deal rejection rates.

Benefits of cooperation

Creditsafe’s head of brand, Ragini Bhalla, says functional differences between finance and sales teams can create friction when assessing risk.

“Most sales teams are happy to pursue a deal with a company that has a low business credit score and history of repeated late payments. But then, they’re frustrated when they bring these deals to the finance team and they get rejected,” Bhalla said in a statement to Revenue Brew.

She says this is because one of finance’s principal responsibilities is to protect cash flow and reduce bad debt. Sales teams, on the other hand, are incentivized to close deals and bring in the commissions.

Bhalla says sales should have access to credit risk data in the lead qualification stage, so they can avoid chasing after deals that are highly likely to be rejected at the last minute.

Finding the balance

It’s worth remembering that revenue generation is a complex and multifaceted journey. As this recent survey on workplace generation gaps demonstrates, it can be hard to uproot old ways of thinking, or even meet in the middle, despite technological advances that promise efficiencies.

There is an ideal meeting point between the ambitious CRO with a bias to action, and the more circumspect CFO that could please all the troops. That dynamic is a key one we will continue to explore in this publication, not least at our upcoming event: Reimagining Revenue: Building Growth through Resilience.