11/2025

Your CRM and Marketing Teams Are Working Against Each Other (Here’s How to Fix It)

Marketing thinks that CRM slows them down. CRM thinks marketing messes up their data.

Both are right.

Whilst both teams are working tirelessly to meet goals, boost the right metrics, and contribute to growth, they’re also silently killing each other’s performance.

Conflicting systems are causing unseen chaos, which means your teams are siloed and everything is working against itself.

The good news is that it’s not personal, it’s structural, and it’s fixable.

Before you dig in, why don't you get access to RE:markable

RE:markable is the weekly email about emails. Dropping the latest email marketing news, updates, insights, free resources, upcoming masterclasses, webinars, and of course, a little inbox mischief.

Subscribe to RE:markable

Why misalignment between your CRM and marketing teams exists

These silos don’t spring out of thin air — misalignment between CRM and marketing teams is common because of the differences they have across how they operate, measure success, and even how they speak about it.

Different definitions of success

As marketers everywhere can attest, it’s not a working day unless you’re discussing engagement, leads, and campaign performance (metric-jargon included). These metrics for success are short-term and usually centred around campaigns.

CRM teams, by contrast, focus on sustainable growth in the long term, prioritising customer retention, data quality, and managing customer lifecycles.

What classes as a win to the CRM team is therefore unlikely to be on the horizon for the marketing team.

Different timeframes

Marketers are often all about speed, functioning in fast cycles where campaigns are launched and optimised quickly for swift results.

Comparatively, CRM teams want to build a long-lasting foundation and prioritise longevity, preferring to build over time rather than overnight.

The result? What one team sees as urgent and needing immediate attention is low on the priority list of the other, causing a major disconnect.

Different languages

Marketing = creative, leads, campaigns.

CRM = lifescycle stages, data enrichment, MQL logic.

A lack of shared definitions means that projects aren’t working in tandem, easily stagnate, and feedback is never shared effectively to inform future efforts.

Different ownership of the same systems

Marketing manages their campaigns in HubSpot, whilst CRM manages data structure… but who owns the overlap?

Misalignment isn’t occurring due to people not caring or some kind of neglect. It’s because they’re optimising for different outcomes.

How these silos show up in real life

The silos between CRM and marketing teams appear in ways you’re probably (unfortunately) very familiar with:

Marketing creates new forms or data properties without the input of the CRM team, resulting in data chaos (e.g., disconnected fields, inconsistent naming conventions, unsynced records between systems).
CRM teams update or redesign lifecycle stages without alerting marketing, meaning that automations break, and campaigns and conversion tracking become unreliable.
Marketing imports behemoth lists of cold leads for a one-off campaign, flooding the CRM system with low-quality data. CRM reputation tanks, and hard-won data quality standards drop.
CRM runs “cleanup” workflows that accidentally unenroll people from nurture emails, meaning potentially interested prospects are missing out on communication that could convert them.
CRM and marketing create different reports due to having metrics from separate sources and differing priorities. Leadership receives conflicting numbers, slowing down decision-making and reducing overall confidence.
Nobody knows who owns what part of the customer journey.

Remember: when systems and teams don’t talk, your customers feel it first.

The hidden costs of misalignment between CRM and marketing teams

Not having your CRM and marketing teams on the same page doesn’t just cause a few headaches or reduce efficiency by a small margin.

It has a very real and very quantifiable impact:

Deliverability damage: Sending to unqualified or cold data hurts the domain reputation, meaning you’re running the risk of ruining your email campaigns before they even have a chance to land in inboxes (if they get that far).
Lost revenue: MQLs never make it to sales, or sales ignore leads that aren’t properly nurtured.
Duplication: Teams rebuild what already exists because there’s zero communication or cohesion, and visibility is missing.
Broken automation: Journeys fail silently, leading to missed opportunities and widening gaps in processes and results.
Customer confusion: Inconsistent messaging between marketing, sales, and service means that customers are often subjected to disjointed communication and lacklustre customer service.

Having multiple blocked or dead-end pathways in your entire approach means that these issues aren’t just small disconnects. They compound over time and can damage your reputation, performance, and revenue.

How to fix it: Unifying CRM and marketing as one function

Let’s keep it concise so you know what you should be implementing and how to unify CRM and marketing:

Create a shared strategy

That’s right! You need to start by defining CRM as a core business function, not a tool where data goes to die.

Build one lifecycle model that both teams use, and set joint KPIs to match (pipeline impact, conversion rate, retention, engagement quality).

Share data ownership

You need to create a single data governance plan that acts as your bible for data ownership: what’s collected, where, and why.

Best practice is to align form fields, naming conventions, and contact properties, and map all data entry points (ads, events, sales imports, etc).

It doesn’t end there, though. People need to have defined and shared ownership, which means you also need to define who owns hygiene, validation, and enrichment.

Shared systems

It’s time to take a look at all the tools you have (HubSpot, Salesforce, etc.) and eliminate any duplication.

Then, build a shared dashboard that tells one story, ensuring that sales, marketing, and CRM use the same definitions (lead, MQL, deal, customer).

Shared rhythm

Stop clicking your fingers. What I mean by rhythm is to keep everyone on the same page.

Weekly cross-functional huddles, monthly strategy syncs, and quarterly reporting and system reviews are a necessity to avoid things becoming fragmented, even if you do achieve all of the above.

Communication is KEY.

Here’s where alignment gets you

We’re out of the tear-inducing stage of misalignment, and now that CRM and marketing finally click, you can expect:

Everyone using the same definitions and dashboards
Confidence about your data quality
Easy connection between your email campaigns to pipeline, and revenue
Emails actually landing because your domain health is stable
Marketing automation and CRM processes feel joined up, rather than overlapping

Alignment isn’t a fluffy concept, it’s a measurable achievement.

CRM and marketing don’t need to compete; they need to co-own the customer journey

When you build a CRM strategy that aligns with marketing goals, everything improves: reporting, deliverability, trust, and results.

More importantly, your teams feel more efficient, connected, and engaged due to more measurable and meaningful success.

If your CRM and marketing teams feel disconnected, I can fix that. I help businesses turn their CRM into a strategic, joined-up growth function that supports marketing, sales, and service — not fights it.

Get in touch here to find out more about how I can help.

Like this blog? You'll love RE:markable