Pro Tips

The traditional B2B growth engine is reaching a breaking point because it remains disconnected from the modern buyer’s journey. While self-guided discovery and AI-driven entry points become the norm, buyer expectations for a seamless, personalized experience have reached an all-time high. When departments operate in silos and fail to pass sufficient context, the experience becomes fragmented, and the growth engine stalls. To overcome these challenges, leaders must adopt a go-to-market (GTM) data strategy that establishes a foundational data layer as the connective tissue between marketing, sales, and customer success.

To get the complete expert insights for approaching an integrated data layer for your organization, download the Trilliad 2026 Growth Imperatives, The Era of Precision Growth in B2B: A GTM Motion Powered by Data. 

Market Trends Calling for a Shift in GTM Data Strategy

The mandate for a data-powered approach is driven by a widening gap between internal processes and the actual buyer’s experience:

• 88% of buyers state that the experience a brand provides is as important as the product itself (Salesforce).
• Yet GTM teams are failing to provide the seamless experience they expect, as 77% of buyers shared that their last purchase was very complex or difficult (Advertising Week).
• Despite record access to tools, 62% of leaders report that growth is getting harder (Trilliad 2025 Sustainable Growth Study).
• In an attempt to gain some efficiency, many organizations have deployed AI point solutions, yet 56% of executives have yet to see a true impact on the bottom line (Oxygen Staff).
• While, 87% of AI project failures point back to poor data quality (RAND).

“Data continues to be the foundation that powers experience, but it has a newfound importance with the era of AI.” 

– Austin Frink, Director, Data Technologies, Sercante

Today’s trends demonstrate that marketing, sales, and customer success do not have access to the data they need to effectively power AI and provide the tailored, smooth experiences that today’s modern buyer expects. There is a lack of buyer context being passed from one department to the next, and data is locked up across a tangled tech stack of disparate systems. 

Today’s Challenges of Establishing a Solid Data Foundation

Creating a data foundation is often hindered by legacy habits and technical complexity:

• Tech Sprawl: The average large enterprise manages a technology stack of over 600 applications, leading to unparalleled volumes of fragmented data (WalkMe Inc.)
• Short-term Fixes: Prioritizing quick-fix point solutions over core process alignment is a habit that has led to the tech sprawl that creates disparate silos, preventing a cohesive view of the customer.
• An Unclear Path Forward: Leaders often feel overwhelmed at the thought of trying to connect all their data. Sorting through questions of: where do we start? Will we ever get to a point where our data will drive the value from AI that we need? Will we ever be able to be fully confident in our data and easily access actionable insights?

As Andrea Tarrell, Founder & CEO of Sercante, shared in the 2026 Growth Imperatives, it’s not about gathering more data or connecting it all at once. It’s about the right data for the right outcome. Understanding the results that can be achieved when an integrated data layer is established across marketing, sales, and customer success is one of the first steps to approaching your foundation. Knowing the impact that’s possible helps you to establish a vision that grounds your data initiatives in measurable business outcomes.

“More data does not make you better at anything. You need the right data, the right activation layer, and a team and process that knows what to do with what they are seeing.”

– Andrea Tarrell, Founder & CEO, Sercante

The Impacts of Integrated Customer Lifecycle Data in B2B

By architecting data as the connective tissue across the customer lifecycle, growth teams can deliver truly personalized experiences at scale and make smarter data-informed decisions that enhance brand engagements, maximize sales growth, and expand customer relationships. Unlocking this data also provides the Chief Revenue Officer and GTM leaders with the visibility needed to optimize the entire revenue cycle and prove the definitive financial impact of every initiative.

Marketing connects brand experiences to demand impact

Marketing shifts from disconnected lead lists to a cohesive target account approach. This ensures consistent, emotionally engaging storytelling that connects early brand interactions across the entire buying group to demand impact, proving measurable account-based ROI. The data not only allows marketing to enhance the level of personalization they deliver to buyers, it positions them as a value-driving engine that impacts the bottom line. Furthermore, when data is connected end-to-end, studies show that organizations are 50% more likely to achieve high revenue growth (Trilliad, 2025).

The data unlocked for marketing is then passed through to sales, creating a beneficial ripple effect for the buyer’s journey and the organization’s performance.

Sales creates a durable sales performance system that drives revenue

The customer lifecycle data gives sales access to insights about the buyer’s interests, potential goals, and what products and pricing they may have already viewed. It allows them to be a strategic guide to the buyer, to lead with meaningful conversations that are relevant to their needs. During these active deal conversations, top-selling behaviors can be reinforced and personalized for sellers with a progressive sales performance system that allows them to apply the skills that progress opportunities forward in the pipeline. All because they finally have access to the data they need to connect top-performing sales behaviors to financial outcomes and fuel AI with the right information to tailor impactful sales development for each seller at scale. Leading to 10% higher win rates and a 15% increase in revenue capacity per seller (Sandler, 2025). 

It’s the GTM data strategy that powers a more effective, data-driven sales organization and fuels a growth-obsessed customer success team that can finally take a proactive approach to account expansion.  

Customer success guides proactive account growth

Customer success transitions from reactive troubleshooting to proactive engagement. By using shared data to identify at-risk accounts and expansion opportunities before they arise, teams can make key enhancements that create lasting loyalty and increase customer lifetime value. 

Imagine a customer success team that anticipates the buyer’s needs before they raise a hand, positioning them as strategic advisors who build sustainable account growth.

“A strong data foundation transforms Customer Success teams from reactive support into a proactive, outcome-driven function, driving real, measurable results for customers and innovating the end-user experience with agentic reporting.”

– Behrang Asadi, Director, AI & Analytics, Sercante

A GTM Data Strategy that Drives Sustainable Growth

In today’s market, data must be reimagined as the foundational competitive advantage of the B2B growth engine. Organizations that successfully operationalize their data layer will be able to fuel AI that drives real results, advances GTM, connects initiatives to measurable financial outcomes, and delivers the seamless, individualized experiences the modern buyer expects. Creating deeper customer relationships that result in lasting growth for the business.

If you’d like support with designing your GTM data strategy or building impactful integrations that unlock meaningful data activation and actionable insights, reach out to the Sercante team. They partner with marketing, sales, and customer success leaders daily to help them achieve their goals with their data.

Many organizations today are discovering that one of the most significant barriers to AI success isn’t the technology itself, but the human factor in AI adoption. To move from siloed experimentation to operationalization that drives real impact, leaders must shift their focus from purely technical requirements to the organizational confidence of their people. This human-centric shift in mindset allows companies to convert technological capability into a strategic advantage by prioritizing the unique journey of every individual involved in the rollout.

The urgency for this human-centric approach is underscored by the current state of AI trends:

• A staggering 92% of organizations admit they do not yet have operational AI (McKinsey & Company).
• Research indicates that 70% of AI project failures are attributed to organizational and human factors rather than technical flaws (Adaptovate).
• Between 70-90% of AI projects fail to scale beyond the initial pilot phase (Forbes).
• Approximately 95% of generative AI pilots fail to achieve their intended revenue acceleration (Fortune, MIT Report).

When these initiatives stall, leaders often mistakenly blame the technology or the lack of data cleanliness. However, realizing true impact requires addressing the human and cultural gaps that keep teams fragmented and unsure, limiting their adoption. Which is why addressing the human factor of AI adoption is the fourth pillar in Sercante’s playbook for scaling AI for success in the report, The State of AI in Enterprise: Closing the Gap Between Investment and Impact. By understanding existing AI mindsets and observing how people actually operate, leaders can apply effective change enablement strategies, built on trust, clear guidelines, and role-based support, to finally unlock the confident adoption necessary for measurable AI impact.

The Human Factor of AI: Three Pillars of Uncertainty

Before your team can master a new tool, they must feel secure using it. AI rollouts can trigger unique psychological barriers that act as inhibitors for AI adoption. There is uncertainty that can swirl around in the thoughts of people, such as being replaced, mistrusting AI outputs, and not knowing what the true end goal is. To ensure a successful implementation, the change enablement approach must confront the three pillars of uncertainty:

• “Am I being replaced?” With major corporations reducing staff, anxiety is high across all sectors as people wonder if it’s due to AI efficiency replacement. The most successful implementations treat AI as a capability amplifier rather than a replacement, focusing on moving humans from transactional work to high-value validation and oversight.
• “Can I trust this data?” Hallucinations and AI-driven misinformation have eroded the fundamental concept of digital truth. Building trust requires formal processes, such as a cross-functional Data Trust Committee, to demonstrate a commitment to data integrity and output auditing.
• “What is our long-term goal?” Initial AI pilots and early experimentations are often implemented without a clear AI roadmap. Without transparency regarding the long-term plan and what the end goal is that is trying to be achieved with the AI solution, teams often become disengaged or fearful of the “next shoe to drop”.

Addressing the thoughts and feelings of uncertainty that people may be having around AI starts to meet people where they are, building trust that supports the human factor of AI adoption. In addition to uncertainty, there are also different mindsets that people can bring to the workplace toward AI that can either strengthen rollout success or limit it.

What is Your Team’s AI Mindset?

Understanding where people stand today around how they view and use AI is another step in meeting them where they are. There are five common AI mindsets, ranging from low to high openness and usage: Skeptic, Quiet Adopter, Evaluator, Enthusiast, and Trailblazer. How they fall on the scale is illustrated below. 

Mindset	Openness & Comfort	Usage Level	Common Behaviors	Change Enablement Strategies
Skeptic	Lowest	Lowest	– Hesitant or resistant to AI. – Relies on traditional methods. – Questions AI’s value or accuracy. – Needs proof before adoption.	– Build trust through small, low-risk AI pilots. – Share clear success stories and data demonstrating measurable impact. – Provide step-by-step guidance and support. – Encourage dialogue and address fears openly.
Quiet Adopter	Low	High	– Uses AI tools mainly out of necessity. – Quiet about AI adoption. – Focused on practical efficiency gains. – May not explore beyond immediate tasks.	– Offer role-specific training to optimize use. – Recognize and reward efficiency gains. – Provide clear guidelines and best practices. – Encourage sharing of successes to build confidence.
Evaluator	Moderate	Moderate	– Experiments selectively with AI. – Pilots new tools before wider adoption. – Comfortable but not fully integrated AI. – Focused on risk/benefit analysis.	– Provide frameworks for experimentation with measurable goals. – Offer mentorship or coaching on AI integration. – Ensure clear criteria for success. – Encourage peer learning and collaborative evaluations.
Enthusiast	High	Moderate	– Curious and explores AI possibilities. – Advocates for AI adoption. – Uses AI consistently but not fully optimized. – Prioritizes exploration over impact at times.	– Channel curiosity into strategic initiatives. – Offer advanced training and sandbox environments. – Help prioritize high-impact use cases. – Provide opportunities to mentor others and share knowledge.
Trailblazer	Highest	High	– Early adopter and AI advocate. – Drives innovation and integration. – Mentors others and promotes AI transformation. – Regularly experiments and measures results.	– Empower them as change champions. – Provide access to cross-functional projects. – Recognize leadership in AI adoption. – Align their efforts with strategic business objectives to maximize measurable impact.

(Source: Sercante, 2026)

Identifying these mindsets within the organization enables leaders to tailor their change enablement plan to address the AI mindsets of the people. For example, a “Skeptic” needs different reassurance than an “Enthusiast” who may already be experimenting with tools outside of the core systems.

To further verify and understand the existing AI mindsets, observe how people are executing the processes today that will involve the AI solution, and listen to what the team is already saying about AI. 

Verifying AI Mindsets: Observing the Real Flow of Work

From a technical standpoint, AI solutions need to align with the core processes happening across the customer lifecycle, meaning they need to be designed so that they support how people actually work. From a change enablement perspective that considers the human factor of AI adoption, there needs to be an understanding of where skills and attitudes are today to provide impactful communication and training materials. To do both, consider conducting Day in the Life exercises. 

Day in the Life exercises involve sitting with team members to observe how they use AI and other systems to execute core processes. This practice helps to discover the “real” flow of work versus the documented one. By observing these daily habits, skill gaps can be identified along with true AI mindsets, and solution designers can ensure the final AI solution removes friction rather than adding it.

During these exercises, it is important to listen to the people executing the process to understand what they are saying about AI, allowing further verification of the AI mindset and also proactive planning for change enablement materials that will address differing levels of baseline adoption.

Confirming AI Adoption: Listen to the Voice of the User

In change enablement, silence does not imply consent. If people are not providing initial reactions or feedback, find out why. A “Quiet Adopter” might be using the tool out of necessity while still harboring deep skepticism that could eventually lead to disengagement.

Listen to what people are saying about the technology. When AI is brought up in conversations and team meetings, how do people seem to react? If they are not saying anything at first, what does their body language communicate? Paying attention to the words and expressions people are using about AI will support understanding of the current AI mindsets in the organization and further inform how to tailor the change enablement plan to successfully address the human factor of AI adoption.

Considering the Human Factor in AI Adoption: Developing Change Enablement 

To address uncertainty, existing AI mindsets, and bridge any skill gaps that would limit the success of an AI rollout, there needs to be an effective change enablement plan implemented. As a starting point, consider this four-phase Change Enablement Checklist:

1. Identify & Respond: Perform stakeholder impact assessments to identify unique role-based needs and concerns. Uncover the uncertainties and AI mindsets.
2. Define & Design: Collaborate with tech teams to streamline processes before designing the automation, ensuring human expertise and intervention points are clearly defined.
3. Listen & Inform: Provide regular, transparent updates that explain the “why” behind the change and the long-term roadmap. Continual clear communication builds trust to ease uncertainty and help shift AI mindsets.
4. Prepare & Sustain: Offer role-based training and post-launch support tools. Remember, users only retain about 34% of training within 24 hours (Harvard Business Review). Sustaining AI adoption is where the real value is realized.

Take the Next Step

To take a deeper dive into this human-centric approach, watch the on-demand MarDreamin’ session: Empowering Your People: Nailing Change Enablement for AI Rollouts.

If you need support with implementing a change enablement strategy or conducting team readiness analysis, creating learning materials, or developing your AI roadmap, reach out to the Sercante team today.

Prioritizing the Human Side of AI for Sustained Success

To mature from siloed AI experiments to operationalized processes that power a modern growth engine, the human factor must be integrated into every stage of planning. Taking the time to understand the team’s AI mindset, current usage, and skillset, and tailoring the change enablement plan to meet them where they are with post-launch support, allows the people involved to shift from uncertainty to sustained, confident AI adoption. Gaining measurable business impact with AI isn’t just about the technical or data factors. It’s also about mobilizing the people involved to trust it, master it, and use it to execute the strategy to reach the organization’s growth goals.

In the modern landscape, marketing, sales, and customer success leaders are facing a challenge where they are surrounded by more technology and information than ever before, yet siloed data and complex stacks often feel like an obstacle course rather than a growth engine. Most leaders feel that their technology is underperforming, but at the same time, there is a significant portion getting unused. The hard truth is that the issue is rarely the technology itself. Instead, the roadblock is usually rooted in the strategy, how the tool is used, and the level of adoption. Turning systems into a growth engine requires a shift in mindset, where leaders use a strategic approach and change enablement for technology that drives measurable business impact.

To get the highlights on how to approach this, continue reading below. To get the full deep dive, watch Part VI, Tech That Grows With You (Not Against You), of the Built to Buy Series.

 

The Challenge: Complex tech stacks falling short

Over the years, growth leaders have been in a cycle of “Have a problem? Buy a solution.” Over time, this has led to fragmented systems, manual workarounds, and disconnected data, leaving teams drowning in clicks and frustration. The average large enterprise has over 600 applications (WalkMe Inc.). Leading to tech stack bloat, underutilization, and underperformance. 

• 55% of organizations fail to manage their full portfolio of tech projects, along with their interdependencies (Boston Consulting Group).
• 54.9% of companies shared that their technology underperforms according to their expectations (The CMO Survey).
• 44% of marketing technology gets underutilized (Deloitte).
• Only an average of 33% of martech stack capabilities get used (Gartner).

Historical technology purchases were made with the best intentions. The team member, team leader, or the buyer would identify a real pain point, see a promising new tool, and genuinely believe, “This solution is going to help solve it.”  Based on the level of investment of time, money, and organizational energy required, they moved forward, implemented the system, and added it to their tech stack, eager for the promised returns.

Which begs the question: how did organizations get to a place where that initial optimism was replaced by daily frustration? How did this technology, meant to empower them, feel more like a roadblock, with systems that are not meeting the expectations of the people using them, and are not maximized to their full capabilities?

Root causes of technology underperformance and underutilization

There are a few root causes for technology falling short, and most of the time, it is not the technology itself, but rather how it is approached and then rolled out to teams. 

1. Missing a strategic approach that considers the bigger picture

When technology is approached as a point solution to fix one singular challenge, there is a lack of strategic planning that considers how the technology fits into the bigger picture of the organization. Such as: 

• How will this technology align with the business strategy?
• How will it contribute to the desired end experience we want to give to our customers?
• What are the goals that we want to achieve with this solution?
• How will it fit with how our people operate?
• How will it integrate into our data strategy?
• How will this technology work with the other systems we already have?

A symptom of technology not being aligned with the business strategy was a trend found in the 2025 Trilliad Sustainable Growth Study. The study surveyed 350+ growth leaders, and 1 in 3 admitted that their alignment strategy stops at the planning phase. Meaning that their strategy for cross-team collaboration throughout the customer lifecycle is not consistently being executed on, because the technology that marketing, sales, and customer success use daily does not reflect the strategy.

Without the critical step of strategic alignment of both the broader business aspects and the human impacts, the system will often fail to meet expectations and become another silo.

2. Lacking effective change enablement for the people

Successful technology transformations are not just about the tech itself, but about ensuring people are motivated to adopt the changes. Without effective change enablement that considers how people operate today, how the technology will impact their processes, and provides the tools, guidance, and support needed to ensure sustained, successful adoption, then technology will continue to be underutilized, leading to underperformance.

Without effective change enablement that considers how people operate today, how the technology will impact their processes, and the training and communication needed to ensure sustained, successful adoption, then technology will continue to be underutilized, leading to underperformance.

An example of this is now being seen with AI projects. Up to 90% of AI projects are failing to scale beyond the pilot phase (Forbes), which would also cause 80% of organizations to say that there is no tangible enterprise-level EBIT impact from AI investments (McKinsey & Company). A major factor is a lack of effective change enablement for the people. 70% of AI project failures are organizational (Adaptovate). 

Even the best ideas or technologies can fail if people don’t embrace them. When people are not enabled to effectively use the technology, there is a lack of communication in the plan and value behind it, or it turns into more of a roadblock for how they operate, they will resort back to what they know because “It just works.” Causing an overall lack of sustained adoption.

A customized, human-centric Change Enablement approach that guides the teams through the transformation with persona-specific communications delivered in a variety of ways, advocacy activities to encourage peer engagement, information and support leaders need to guide their teams, and robust role-based training and post-launch support ensure all stakeholders are aligned and actively driving toward a lasting impact.

Stopping the cycle of disparate systems that underperform and are underused requires a mindset shift for maximizing the technology already in place and continuing to evolve platforms with the latest solutions available.

The Solution: Implementing a strategic approach and change enablement for technology that drives growth

To effectively approach technology, it needs to be thought of as a growth engine rather than just mere overhead. This mindset shift guides leaders toward considering the big picture and the people involved to get the most out of the systems they currently have, and when evolving technology. 

Maximizing systems: The strategy for assessing current technology

To maximize technology in place, it first needs to be evaluated to identify gaps. Where is it currently not meeting expectations, where it is being underutilized, and what areas need advancing to enable people to be as effective as possible with engaging our customers and building lasting connections?

There are four areas in which technology should be assessed to help guide teams toward effectively maximizing what they need. 

• People & Adoption: How are your people using the technology? Do you have enablement in place to support your teams and ensure sustained and effective adoption? Are you continuously listening to your users to determine system effectiveness?
• Strategy: Is your technology aligned with your strategy? Do you have a plan in place for how the technology will be used and how it will drive business value?
• Capabilities: Is the technology being used to its full potential? Does the technology do what we need it to for our people and our customers today? If yes, what about six months from now?
• Data & Integration: Is the system’s data locked in a silo? Is the data being used, and how so? To what level would you say that the data in the system is accurate and reliable?

For a full list of questions to consider in each area and to start applying this strategic approach for assessing technology at your organization, download our Technology Assessment Guide.

 

Answering these questions will help growth teams define the biggest areas of need with their technology, and start to define the system optimization projects they want to pursue to actually maximize what they have.

Prioritizing technology optimization with an actionable roadmap

After completing the technology assessment, teams can often feel overwhelmed when looking at the long list of needs within their tech stack. The key to gaining momentum is not to try and fix everything at once, but to prioritize projects based on a balanced scorecard of business impact, effort to execute, organizational impact, and the dependencies involved.

By categorizing your initiatives, you can create a roadmap that balances quick wins with long-term strategic transformations:

• Business Impact: Tying projects to business impact ensures that efforts are focused on high-value initiatives. Ask: Will this move the needle on revenue, customer retention, or lead conversion? If the project can’t be tied back to a core KPI, it might be a vanity project rather than one that should be prioritized for the growth engine.
• Level of Effort: Evaluate the resources required. Is this an out-of-the-box configuration change (low effort) or a custom API integration that requires months of development (high effort)?
• Organizational Impact: Consider how many people this affects. A change to the CRM affects every seller, while a change to a niche social listening tool may only affect a small subset of marketing.
• Dependencies: Identify the “domino effect.” Does the new lead scoring model depend on a data cleanup project that hasn’t started yet? Mapping these interdependencies prevents projects from stalling mid-execution.

Take a deeper dive into the considerations for building your technology roadmap, with this example of how the Sercante experts apply this approach for AI in this on-demand webinar. To get support with creating your AI roadmap, reach out to the Sercante team.

Strategically evolving technology to enhance experiences at scale

The latest developments happening in the technology landscape with data and AI are making it possible for growth teams to converge solutions and be more effective at what they do. It poses a great opportunity for organizations to embrace innovation and meet their buyers where they are through emotionally resonant experiences that drive growth in ways that have never been done before. However, evolving technology shouldn’t just be about adding “the next big thing”. It should be thought of through an impact-driven lens that asks: 

• Does this solution specifically remove friction from the buyer’s journey?
• Does it empower the team to impactfully engage buyers at scale?
• Does it enable smarter decision-making with actionable insights?

If the answer is yes to any of the above, then it should be considered, but further grounded with a view of the big picture: how it aligns with the business strategy, integrates with core processes, fits with the people and buyers, and how it connects to the data strategy and the current systems in place.

Implementing effective change enablement for sustained adoption

Even the most sophisticated technology will fail if teams do not actually use it. This is why change enablement is critical when shifting how a process is done in a current system, or new technology is being added to what growth teams use to continue to evolve capabilities.

Effective change enablement requires understanding what success looks like, how the technology is currently being used, and what skills might need to be developed to create tailored training and documentation by role to close any gaps and ensure sustained success. In addition, it requires clear and transparent communication with the end users. The teams involved need to understand what the intended goal is for the rollout of the solution and how it will drive value for the organization. 

To ensure tech initiatives result in sustained adoption, follow this Change Enablement Checklist:

• Identify & Respond: Start by listening. What are the specific pain points your team faces? When end-users are involved early, it reduces the “fear of the unknown” and builds internal champions.
• Define & Design: Clearly define the new process before building the technical solution. Technology should automate a well-defined process, not just try to fix a broken one.
• Listen & Inform: Maintain a continuous feedback loop. Communication shouldn’t be a one-time email on launch day. It should be a steady stream of updates that explain the why behind the change.
• Prepare & Sustain: Provide tailored training that meets people where they are. Since most people only retain about 34% of what they were taught within 24 hours (Harvard Business Review), ongoing support, documentation, and “office hours” are recommended to reinforce the new way of working.

Learn more about how this change enablement checklist is applied with AI initiatives, with this on-demand MarDreamin’ session, Empowering Your People: Nailing Change Enablement for AI Rollouts. To get support with creating and executing an effective change enablement strategy, reach out to the Sercante team.

 

Approaching technology as a growth engine

The difference between technology that feels like an obstacle course and technology that acts as a growth engine is often not rooted in the technology itself, but rather the strategy and change enablement applied to ensure it is aligned with high-value business outcomes and successfully adopted for long-term success. It requires a commitment to ongoing evaluation and advancement through a roadmap that prioritizes impact. Applying this mindset will guide growth leaders to overcome the challenges of their complex tech stack and empower their people to do what they do best: build meaningful connections with their buyers that drive sustainable growth.

We’ve all been there: a high-energy workshop, sticky notes covering the walls, and a beautifully documented plan for how marketing, sales, and customer success will finally work in perfect alignment. But then Monday morning hits. Teams retreat to their respective silos, the slide deck gathers digital dust, and the seamless experience promised through stronger alignment remains a myth to your buyers and your teams. To move from just talking about alignment to action requires applying your strategy to the systems your growth teams use daily and approaching your technology with a playbook for sustaining lifecycle alignment.

To get the highlights on how to approach this, continue reading below. To get the full deep dive, watch Part V, Stay Synced: The Technical Playbook for Lifecycle Alignment, of the Built to Buy Series.

The Execution Gap: Trends of Modern B2B Growth Teams

Alignment is easy to talk about but notoriously difficult to operationalize. According to the 2025 Trilliad Sustainable Growth Study, 1 in 3 growth leaders admit their alignment strategy stops at the planning phase. They have the vision, but they lack the technical execution to make it a reality.

This execution gap is often the deciding factor between those who grow and those who struggle. The same study found that twice as many high-performing organizations act on their alignment strategy compared to struggling ones (48% vs. 23%). The winners aren’t just better at planning. They are bringing that alignment directly into the technology their growth teams use every single day, from the CRM and marketing automation to analytics, revenue intelligence platforms, and more.

The Challenges: Complex Tech Stacks. Siloed Data. Limited Resources.

However, there are a few major challenges that growth leaders are facing when it comes to applying their alignment strategy to their technology. For starters, a complex technology stack, where the average large enterprise has 600+ applications (WalkMe Inc.). Historically, organizations have been in the habit of: Have a problem? Buy a new piece of technology. Doing so creates tech sprawl and a tangled web of siloed data spread across disparate systems. Making it more difficult for marketing, sales, and customer success to collaborate across the customer lifecycle.

The other challenge is having the resources needed to effectively approach the technology, so that it aligns with the alignment strategy. Organizations may not have the in-house expertise or bandwidth that it takes for the right setup, and they may not have any documentation on how the system was historically configured to know where to start.

Overcoming these challenges does not happen by attempting to solve everything at once. Progress is made by establishing the end goal, setting the right vision, and then creating a prioritized, actionable roadmap for your teams, data, and technology to result in the desired outcome. Enabling you to action your alignment strategy with an approach that is grounded in business outcomes. This transition from high-level strategy to everyday reality begins with building a technical playbook that turns your theoretical journey into a functional system of alignment.

The Technical Playbook for Sustaining Lifecycle Alignment

To move from “random acts of alignment” to a sustained engine requires bringing your customer lifecycle mapping into your technology. Part I of the Built to Buy Series, Walk Your Funnel Like a Customer, discusses how to approach mapping your customer lifecycle through the buyer’s point of view. Using this customer-centric mindset as a guide during alignment operationalization is critical. Because it keeps the question, “What will this experience feel like to our buyers?” at the forefront, ensuring that alignment processes are being designed for how the buyer will actually engage with the team, to create better buying engagements that build trust and create deeper relationships.

Making the buyer’s stages throughout the customer lifecycle visible in the technology is the starting point of what teams should be thinking about when establishing an operational system that supports sustained alignment, along with a few core automations, feedback loops, and realignment triggers.

Make the lifecycle visible in your technology.

Your lifecycle stages, handoffs, and definitions shouldn’t just live in a slide deck. They need to be represented as actual fields, statuses, and reports within your CRM and marketing automation systems. Not having the customer lifecycle stages represented can result in fumbled handoffs between marketing, sales, and customer success. Leading to mistrust, a lack of accountability among teams, a leaky funnel, and friction in the buyer experience. Therefore, how the stages are implemented is critical to think through when approaching your technology to support sustained alignment.

Consider core automations and AI functionality to streamline processes.

To create a system that is scalable for sustaining alignment, teams should think about which automation and AI functionality they can use to streamline processes. Four foundational automations to consider are:

• Lead Qualification: Scoring and grading to prioritize the right leads at the right time for sales.
• Routing: Automatically connecting qualified leads and accounts with the right owners.
• Status Updates: Moving records through the lifecycle based on triggers.
• Alerts: Notifying the team when a lead has sat for too long or needs immediate follow-up.

Applying these automations makes key transitions in the buyer’s journey smoother and fosters tighter collaboration between teams for seamless handoffs that build buyer relationships rather than erode trust.

Keep open lines of communication with feedback loops.

Sustaining alignment requires capturing the “Why.” Why was a lead disqualified? Why did an opportunity stall? By building “lost reason” or “disqualification” fields, you collect data-driven insights that allow marketing and sales to have objective conversations about shifting lead quality or handoff timing. Empowering teams to be proactive about when they might need to realign or refine a process.

Define potential red flags that would trigger realignment conversations.

Think of these as an early warning system. By building reports that surface “red flags”, such as conversion rates between stages dropping, deals sitting in a stage for too long, or overall pipeline velocity slowing, your system points to problems before they become a major challenge. 

Realignment triggers and feedback loops complement each other as methods for fostering meaningful, data-driven conversations between marketing, sales, and customer success that sustain alignment beyond initial execution.

Taking the Next Step: The System of Alignment Checklist

To apply this playbook to your own organization, download the System of Alignment Checklist. It guides marketing, sales, and customer success teams to think through how their alignment strategy is executed in their technology. Starting from having lifecycle stages present to established processes for handoffs and follow-up, through the data-driven mechanisms of feedback loops, realignment triggers, and shared reports that will support proactive conversations for sustaining alignment and stronger collaboration.

Answering the guiding questions in each area helps teams to identify what they might already have set up in their systems, what’s missing, and what might need revisiting for optimization. The end result provides a clear visualization of the gaps in your systems and a better understanding of the areas that would be the most impactful places to start when creating your roadmap to effectively implement your alignment strategy into your technology.

Executing sustained alignment: a growth differentiator

A major factor separating high-performing organizations from struggling ones is effectively executing the alignment strategy. Doing so requires moving past the planning phase and bringing it into the systems that growth teams use daily, from implementing lifecycle stages to establishing shared reports. Applying a technical playbook to create your system of alignment through an established vision and a phased roadmap is how you successfully take alignment from conversations in a meeting to sustained, successful execution that delivers a seamless buying experience.

As a buyer, we’ve all been there. You fill out a form, wait to hear from sales, and then maybe you receive a piece of content that isn’t relevant to you, or you find yourself repeating what you shared in the form later on a call. And what happens? You find yourself starting to feel less and less confident about the brand because your experience hasn’t been seamless. What we don’t think about as buyers is what the seller is probably experiencing in the CRM and how the data, or the lack thereof, is impacting their interactions with you. 

When the CRM is a roadblock rather than a revenue driver for sellers, it negatively impacts the buying experience in addition to sales performance. In today’s modern era, where buyer expectations are rising and marketing, sales, and customer success teams are under more pressure to drive growth with tighter budgets, it is critical that they prioritize optimizing core functions to deliver the best experience possible for buyers. An essential piece: optimizing the CRM seller experience.

To get the highlights on how to approach this, continue reading below. To get the full deep dive, watch Part III: A Better CRM for Sellers = A Better Experience for Buyers, of the Built to Buy series.

Why the Seller Experience Must Be a Growth Priority

For marketing, sales ops, and revenue teams, optimizing the seller experience isn’t just a nice-to-have operational fix. It is a critical growth lever.

• Impact on Sales Performance: Unfortunately, the majority of a seller’s day is not spent selling. Only about 28% of their time actually is. (Salesforce) The rest of their day is consumed by manual data entry, hunting for siloed information, and navigating non-optimized processes. When the CRM experience is clunky, difficult for sellers to find what they need, not aligned to their sales process, or not reinforcing their training best practices, it slows them down, continuing to hinder the time they do have to sell, acting as a roadblock to their performance.
• Impact on the Buying Experience: Buyers are not thinking: Am I in a marketing, sales, or customer success experience? They see one singular brand experience. When a CRM is friction-heavy, sellers can show up to calls sounding unprepared, while buyers find themselves forced to repeat information they already gave to marketing, making the brand seem not in tune with their specific needs. According to Gartner, 77% of B2B buyers reporting that their last purchase was very complex or difficult, it shows that these experiences are happening more often than growth teams probably realize. Any internal friction added erodes their trust.

To empower sellers to achieve higher performance and deliver the best buying experience possible for customers, optimizing the seller experience in the CRM is a must.

Through the Seller’s Eyes: How Marketing Can Help

The buyer’s experience is everyone’s responsibility, and marketers can play a pivotal role in helping to improve the seller experience. For marketers, when the CRM is aligned to core sales processes and optimized to how sellers actually work, it makes it easier to collaborate, streamlines the marketing to sales handoff, and ensures fewer leads fall through the cracks and more of the right leads form meaningful connections with your brand.

To fully understand what a seller’s experience is in the CRM, the strategy needs to be approached from the seller’s perspective and knowing what matters to them.

To a seller, more data does not always mean more value. When a lead hits their queue, they are looking for clarity on two simple questions: Who are you, and what should we be talking about?

Marketing can significantly improve the seller experience by shifting focus from data quantity to context quality. Instead of throwing more data over the wall, marketing should provide the connective tissue that tells the buyer’s story. This includes:

• Prioritization: Is this a “hot” hand-raiser or someone in an explorative phase?
• Relevant context: What specific content did they consume? Knowing if a prospect looked at a pricing sheet versus a top-of-funnel blog post changes the entire sales approach.
• Laser-focused data: Provide only the key data points needed to frame a strategic conversation rather than overwhelming the seller with noise.

Having a conversation with sales to understand what questions they are asking themselves when a lead comes through, how they prioritize follow-up, and how they are gathering resources and data to create a strategy that will guide future sales conversations can help the marketing team focus on the right data when passing over leads and collaborating with sales to improve the seller experience.

A Strategic Approach to a Better CRM Experience

To turn your CRM into a growth accelerator, teams should take the following strategic steps:

1. Map the processes: Outline every step of the sales process alongside the buying process to see how it currently aligns with your CRM setup to see where there is misalignment.
2. Spot the silos: Identify swivel-chair work: tasks that force sellers out of the CRM and into spreadsheets or disparate systems.
3. Identify opportunities for AI & automation: When thinking through the steps in the sales process, highlight the repetitive and mundane tasks that could be streamlined with AI and automation. This can free up time and brainpower for sellers, so they can focus more on the customer.
4. Approach with a customer-centric mindset: As the team considers what improvements could be made to the CRM for the seller’s experience, ask: What will the end experience feel like to the buyer? Keeping this in mind will guide CRM optimization initiatives to be designed not just for internal processes, but for the experience the buyer expects.  

Shifting the mindset to approach the CRM as a system that can be a revenue driver rather than a roadblock for sellers, and keeping the buyer’s experience at the forefront, is the beginning of optimizing the CRM. The next step is understanding the current state of the CRM seller experience.

The CRM Seller Experience Scorecard

Getting a baseline from your sales team on what their experience and sentiment are with the CRM allows teams to identify in which areas they may want to improve first. 

Ntuli introduced the CRM Seller Experience Scorecard to evaluate the CRM across five key criteria:

• Level of Adoption: Is the system easy to use, or do sellers dread logging in?
• Level of Data Visibility: Is the must-have data readily available at their fingertips?
• Level of Automation Use: Is automation being used to eliminate manual tasks?
• Amount of Manual Data Entry: How much manual data entry is being done?
• Data Reliability: Do sellers trust the data in the CRM?

Each area is rated on a scale of 1 – 10. Anything from 1 – 4 is the sign of a roadblock. Anything from 8 – 10 is considered optimized.

Download the CRM Seller Experience Scorecard to do this exercise with your team.

Any area that is identified as a roadblock shows teams where they might want to focus first. To ensure CRM optimizations are effective, Sercante’s Strategy Director, Jenna Packard, and Change Enablement Director, Debra Engels, recommend using a phased roadmap that considers the level of impact on the business, the level of effort to implement, and the effect it would have on the people involved. Tune into Part VI: Tech That Grows With You (Not Against You), of the Built to Buy series to hear their approach.

A CRM Seller Experience That Drives Growth

A CRM that works against your sellers is a CRM that causes friction for your buyers. When sales can easily get what they need in the CRM, spend less time and brainpower on mundane tasks, be supported with reinforced training, and access key insights to have meaningful conversations, they have a seller experience in the CRM that supports meaningful conversations, building real connections that drive lasting growth. Giving today’s buyers the experience they expect.