Technology enables insights and alignment that drive growth

Leaders agree that technology and data are critical to business success, and to sales and marketing alignment; however, their roles are varied. Here are some areas where data and technology are front and centre:

• Virtual selling: “The work from anywhere is here to stay and virtual selling will become more common. Virtual events, marketplaces, new ideas on how to connect with customers — all of this will require alignment between sales and marketing.”
• Insights generation: “Data will become even more important in the future. The ability to get even smarter and anticipate future needs — this is where AI and machine learning will come in. We will need to stay relevant through personalized and actionable insights.”
• Measurement: “Metrics will be unique to every organization, but generally speaking, reexamining marketing’s contribution to business, revenue and share (especially in commercial marketing) is important. This includes encouraging the use of new measures such as the marketing engagement index or the marketing influencer index.

Leaders agreed unanimously that technology infrastructure needs to be integrated across functions to unlock full business potential. While many leaders we spoke to highlighted that their organizations had not fully achieved data and technology integration, all highlighted that it is a top priority on their organization’s roadmap.