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.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The silos between CRM and marketing teams appear in ways you’re probably (unfortunately) very familiar with:
Remember: when systems and teams don’t talk, your customers feel it first.
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:
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.
Let’s keep it concise so you know what you should be implementing and how to unify CRM and marketing:
Alignment isn’t a fluffy concept, it’s a measurable achievement.
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.
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.