Most B2B companies pour resources into hiring talent, buying tools, and building data systems. But there’s a critical component that gets overlooked until it’s too late. Email infrastructure might not sound exciting, but ignoring it can cost organizations millions in lost revenue and compliance penalties. Chrisley Ceme has spent the past decade working at the intersection of outbound sales and revenue strategies, and he’s seen this problem derail even well-funded operations.
Understanding Email Deliverability Impact
Sales leaders love tracking close rates and pipeline velocity. Ceme thinks they’re missing the point. “Deliverability is the first KPI for your overall communication health,” he says. Your CRM could be top of the line. Your content strategy might be perfect. Your brand voice could resonate with every prospect. None of it matters when your messages never reach the inbox. Here’s what most people get wrong about deliverability. They think it’s just a sales problem. “Deliverability isn’t just a sales metric, it’s the heartbeat of your communications across your entire ecosystem,” Ceme explains. Marketing campaigns need it. Product-led growth companies depend on it for user notifications. Customer onboarding, product updates, even basic invoices all rely on your domain health staying solid.
A bad sender reputation doesn’t stay in one lane. Engagement drops because emails hit spam folders or disappear completely. Nurture sequences fall apart. Revenue opportunities evaporate before anyone notices. He has watched this happen enough times to see it coming. Smart companies handle this differently. “The most successful organizations don’t wait for these problems to appear,” Ceme points out. They watch deliverability as closely as they track churn. Before pushing the gas on growth, they check their domain health and IP reputation. Then they build guardrails to scale without breaking things.
Adapting to Stricter Email Standards
SPF, DKIM, DMARC. These acronyms sound like IT department problems. But Ceme sees them as business critical. “Authentication is no longer optional. It’s compliance at this point,” he says. These protocols prove your domain identity, stop bad actors from spoofing your emails, and keep you out of spam filters. The game changed recently. Google and Microsoft tightened up their standards over the past few years. That wiggle room companies used to have with sender reputation? Gone. Poor domain reputation means your emails get throttled or blocked entirely. Bounce messages stack up. The revenue impact hits fast and hard.
Linking Deliverability to Business Health
Bad domain health doesn’t just hurt your cold emails. Newsletter deliverability tanks. Customer success reps think they’re being ignored when really their messages aren’t getting through. Transactional emails that customers actually need never show up. Domain reputation touches everything, which is why infrastructure matters so much. Think of it as brand hygiene. Regular checkups keep things healthy. Tools such as Postmaster and Glock Apps help you monitor what’s happening. Ceme suggests monthly reviews if you’re sending a lot of emails. Quarterly checks might work if email isn’t your main channel. Either way, you need to be looking.
Regular monitoring does more than catch problems early. When your newsletter numbers drop or outreach campaigns flop, you need to know why. If deliverability looks fine, your marketing team can focus on fixing content or trying new segments. “You can rule out any technical issues, which are always a pain,” Ceme notes. Technical problems mess with how teams think about their entire approach. The stakes justify the attention. Email infrastructure problems can kill growth plans and cost millions. But most of these issues are fixable with proper monitoring and maintenance. Ceme offers to walk companies through their current setup, identify gaps, and suggest improvements. The alternative is waiting until something breaks and paying for it later.
Connect with Chrisley Ceme on LinkedIn to explore practical deliverability strategies that protect revenue and brand trust.
