Alignment is a word we hear a lot in business, but too often it stays at the surface. A meeting here. A pep talk there. Then everyone drifts back into their silos. The truth is, real alignment means the entire organization, not just sales and marketing, working from the same playbook of trust and transparency.
That raises a big question for leaders: How do you move from talking about alignment to actually living it in every department of your company?
In this episode of Endless Customers, I sat down with Ryan Shutt, CEO of Southwest Exteriors, and Allison Riggs, Executive Coach at IMPACT, to explore that question head-on. Together, we unpacked how Alignment Day can:
The conversation highlights something every business leader needs to hear: Alignment is not a one-time meeting. It’s a culture shift that only lasts if you keep practicing it together.
The honest moment that set this story in motion
Every real transformation starts with a moment of discomfort, and Ryan was willing to go there right away. He admitted, “What we thought was happening in our sales process was not.” For him, that was more than just a disappointing surprise. “It was really a gut check for me, one as a leader and then two as somebody who’s saying, hey, this is who we are.” Then he added the line that every leader dreads having to say out loud: “We really weren’t that person.”
That realization cut deep. It takes courage to stand in front of your people and admit that the values you’ve been promoting aren’t actually being lived out day to day. It’s easier to gloss over it, to tell yourself the issues are isolated, or to point the finger at someone else. Ryan didn’t do that. He named it. Then he invited his team to help him fix it.
The problem, as he explained, was partly structural. Endless Customers had been treated as a sales-and-marketing initiative instead of an organizational mindset. “I had never had accounting in the room to talk about Endless Customers. I had never had our installation team in the room.” By keeping the conversation in a corner of the company, he unintentionally created limits on how far the culture shift could go.
If the sales team promises one thing, but accounting or operations delivers something different, trust cracks open. It’s like saying, “We’re all about clarity and transparency,” but then sending a customer a confusing invoice. The intent may be good, but the inconsistency erodes credibility. That’s what Ryan was up against, and facing it meant acknowledging that alignment had never truly reached every department.
When I asked Allison why leadership buy-in is so important, she didn’t hesitate. Most companies, she said, see Endless Customers as a marketing strategy. They figure if marketing produces more content, they’ll get more leads. That thinking keeps the work locked in one department. It might even deliver short-term results. But eventually it stalls.
Endless Customers is not a tactic. It’s a cultural shift. “When you actually start to live and breathe the Endless Customers journey, you see that it really is a holistic change within the organization,” Allison explained. That means it touches everything: how you talk to buyers, how you set expectations, how you hold people accountable, how you train your teams, and how leaders show up every single day.
Leaders set the tone. If a CEO isn’t fully bought in, everyone knows it. Employees pick up on hesitation. They notice when standards aren’t enforced. And they take their cues from the top. Without visible, vocal commitment from leadership, the energy fizzles out. The marketing team may keep producing content, but sales won’t use it. Operations won’t adapt their processes. Accounting won’t see how their role fits. Slowly, the whole thing grinds to a halt.
On the other hand, when leadership owns it, everything changes. Buy-in is more than signing off on a strategy deck. It’s the CEO standing up and saying, “This is who we are. This is what we’re doing. And I’m accountable for making sure we live it.” That kind of commitment has a ripple effect. It creates a safe space for employees to speak honestly about what’s working and what isn’t. It motivates managers to hold the line. It transforms Endless Customers from an idea into a standard of behavior across the company.
What is Alignment Day, and what actually happens?
Alignment Day is not a seminar where people sit back and take notes. It is an active three-hour working session that gets the entire organization into one room to reset, refocus, and recommit
. The time is structured, but the conversations are anything but surface-level.
At its core, the day revolves around three questions that sound simple but cut straight to the heart of how a business operates:
By the end of the session, the group doesn’t just understand the language of Endless Customers. They see how it applies to their specific roles. A content manager understands how their articles impact a sales call. An installer sees how their interactions in the home either reinforce or undermine the promises made on the website. Even accounting realizes how clear billing or a proactive email builds the same trust that great marketing campaigns do.
Teams also walk away with a clear grasp of the frameworks that make Endless Customers actionable: The Big 5 (the most common buyer questions around cost & price, problems, comparisons, reviews, and best in class) and The Selling 7 (the types of videos that shorten sales cycles and build trust). But more than theory, Alignment Day connects the dots between those frameworks and the customer journey; from the very first click to the final invoice and beyond.
The goal is not to talk about trust. It is to build trust into the daily habits of how the company operates.
The moment Allison called an audible
Ryan’s team came into Alignment Day prepared. They had read Endless Customers. They were engaged. The energy in the room was positive. But partway through, Allison picked up on something most leaders might have missed. The sales and install teams were not aligned on how things were actually being done. Questions started popping up that revealed doubt: Is that really what happens? Is that what we tell customers?
Allison could have ignored it. She could have stayed on script, finished the exercises, and left with polite nods all around. Instead, she hit pause. She told the group, “We cannot go any farther until we address what is happening here.”
She set up a live role play on the spot. One person from sales walked through how they positioned the product in front of a homeowner. They would tell homeowners, “We use stainless steel screws when we install your windows.” Someone from the install team responded with No, we don’t. Within minutes, the disconnect became obvious.
On the surface, it sounded like a minor detail. But think about the homeowner’s perspective. They were promised one thing during the sales process, and then something different showed up on site. That tiny inconsistency could erode all the trust the company worked so hard to build.
What struck me most wasn’t just the detail; it was the way the team responded. No one shut down. No one snapped back defensively. As Ryan put it, “There were no barriers. There was no fear of like, if I say this, there is going to be a repercussion.” That didn’t happen by accident. Ryan had already set the conditions. Everyone read the book before the session. Everyone knew this was a space for honesty. And Ryan had made it clear he would listen, not judge.
For Allison, stopping the agenda was a risk. Coaches often feel pressure to deliver a neat, packaged experience. But she leaned into the uncomfortable moment. Later, she explained her thinking: “You brought me here for a reason. I am not doing my job if I let you get away with the things you have always gotten away with.”
That choice, to stop, call the audible, and surface the real disconnect, was the turning point. It transformed Alignment Day from a nice team-building exercise into a true reset. It showed the team that living Endless Customers isn’t about glossy presentations. It’s about real conversations, hard truths, and fixing the details that matter most to buyers.
The session sparked a lasting shift. The team now conducts weekly role-plays through each stage of the client journey. After a few weeks, they will move to a quarterly cadence. They also record calls and in-home presentations with an AI tool. That gives them real interactions to study.
Ryan’s advice here is clear. “If you are not role-playing, start.” He added that role-playing is not about explaining what you would do. It is about having the real conversation out loud. The words you use matter. The order matters. The handoff matters. When you practice those pieces, you find the friction and fix it together.
I love this part because it is simple and repeatable. You do not need expensive tech to start. Pick a moment that matters. A first call. A price conversation. An install walk-through. Put two chairs at the front of the room. Let a salesperson play the homeowner for fun. Then swap roles. Keep it kind. Keep it honest. Fix the words. Fix the steps. Fix the promises.
We also talked about price transparency. Ryan said it loud and clear. Posting price ranges and cost drivers was scary. Peers told him he would lose his job if he did it. They did it anyway. He also warned leaders to have patience. This is not a faucet you turn on for instant leads. This is a system that builds trust and shortens sales cycles over time.
I asked what else was hard. He said the pride cycle. Teams stop doing the small things that make the system work. A scoreboard falls off the wall. A weekly article slips. A video sits in a draft folder. Then old habits creep back in. His response was simple. Talk about the pride cycle openly. Put reminders up. Keep the cadence. Keep the faith.
A one-time event does not change a culture. The daily work does. Ryan records weekly videos to the team. He shares progress, values, and simple reminders about what Endless Customers looks like at Southwest Exteriors. He set non-negotiables. Role-playing will continue. Quarterly sessions are planned. The team knows what to expect, and they can see the work is not going away.
He also talked about the value of a third-party voice. Leaders repeat a message for months, and it can fade into the background. When a coach or outside expert says the same thing, people hear it fresh. That is not a knock on any leader. It is just how teams work.
Conversations like the one we had with Ryan and Allison are inspiring, but inspiration doesn’t move the needle unless you act on it. If you want to create the same kind of alignment in your own organization, here are four practical moves you can start making right away.
1. Bring everyone into the trust conversation.
Alignment can’t live in a single department. If only sales and marketing are in the room, you’re missing the people who send invoices, schedule jobs, or walk through the front door of a customer’s home. Every touchpoint with a buyer either builds or breaks trust. Invite accounting, operations, and installation into the conversation. When the whole team sees how their role connects to the customer journey, you stop operating in silos and start working as one unified voice.
2. Practice live, not just in theory.
Most companies talk about how they’d handle buyer questions, but very few actually role-play those conversations. That’s where the gaps and inconsistencies hide. Pick the critical moments, introducing price, handling objections, walking a homeowner through an install, and role-play them in real time. Record calls and meetings when possible. Then review them together and refine the scripts, the handoffs, and even the tone of voice you use. You’ll be surprised how much clarity comes from hearing the actual words spoken out loud.
3. Share price ranges and cost drivers openly.
Yes, it’s scary. Yes, your competitors may see it. But your buyers already know to ask. If you don’t provide clarity, they’ll look elsewhere. By teaching customers how pricing works in your industry, you take the mystery out of the process. Share typical ranges, explain what drives costs up or down, and point out the trade-offs that matter most. The result is fewer surprises, fewer awkward stalls late in the sales cycle, and clients who feel respected rather than misled.
4. Set the rhythm and keep it.
Culture change doesn’t happen in a single workshop. It happens in the cadence of what you do next. Commit to weekly content that educates buyers. Build a routine of weekly or monthly role plays. Schedule quarterly alignment sessions that pull the whole team back together. Have leadership send short video updates to reinforce progress and keep the conversation alive. The pride cycle, where teams drift back to old habits, only takes hold when rhythm is lost. Keep the rhythm steady, and trust becomes part of daily life.
When you put these four moves into practice, you’ll start to see alignment not as an event, but as a way of operating. And once your company runs this way, buyers will notice the difference.
Here’s how to take the first steps toward true alignment in your own business:
And if you’re thinking, this sounds powerful, but I don’t know if we could pull it off on our own, you don’t have to. If you need help running an Alignment Day and want a guide who knows how to unlock these breakthroughs, talk to us at IMPACT. We’ve facilitated Alignment Days for companies of every size and industry, and we’d love to help you create the same lasting clarity and momentum in your organization.
Ryan became part of the Southwest Exteriors team in December 2015, bringing with him a wealth of experience in marketing and leadership gained from other prominent home improvement companies. His unwavering dedication is focused on guiding the company towards establishing itself as a household name within the expanding San Antonio market. At the core of his endeavors, you will find a profound passion for excellence, an unyielding commitment to client satisfaction, and a strong emphasis on building a high-performing team.
Allison Riggs is a Head Coach at IMPACT. She trains sales, marketing, and leadership teams to embrace a culture of radical transparency within their organizations, empowering them to become the most trusted voice in their space.
Email Allison at ariggs@impactplus.com
Connect with Allison on LinkedIn
What is Alignment Day?
Alignment Day is a three-hour, company-wide workshop designed to reset your team around transparency, role clarity, and buyer trust. It’s not a lecture—it’s interactive, hands-on, and focused on getting every department speaking the same language. The outcome is simple: your business leaves with a shared playbook for how marketing, sales, and operations will work together to drive revenue. (That’s where the magic starts.)
Do I really need every department involved?
Yes. Alignment only sticks when the whole company is part of it. That includes departments leaders often overlook like accounting, operations, and customer service. Every buyer touchpoint, whether it’s a billing question or an installation schedule, shapes trust. If one area falls out of step, the entire buyer experience suffers. Bringing everyone in early builds unity and accountability from the start.
How often should role-playing happen?
In the beginning, weekly practice is best. It builds muscle memory and makes new behaviors feel natural in real buyer conversations. Once those habits are in place, quarterly sessions keep alignment fresh and prevent old patterns from creeping back in. Think of it like training for a sport—the reps matter most early on, but tune-ups keep you sharp.
What’s the hardest part of maintaining alignment?
The toughest challenge is what we call the “pride cycle.” After early wins, teams sometimes slip back into old ways of working, with less collaboration, less accountability, and more siloed thinking. The antidote is rhythm: a consistent cadence of role-playing, planning sessions, and leadership check-ins that keep everyone grounded in the system. Alignment isn’t a one-time event; it’s an ongoing discipline.