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Sales and marketing|A Better Way to Link Sales and Marketing
Sales and marketing

A Better Way to Link Sales and Marketing

Companies are inhibited by siloed customer data. Digital customer hubs can help. by Prabhakant Sinha, Arun Shastri and Sally Lorimer

From the Magazine (November–December 2024)
Alex Hyner

Summary.   

Many companies have siloed customer data and an incomplete suite of capabilities, making it impossible for their customer-facing teams to access real-time, synchronized data—and to provide the personalized and seamless experience that business customers crave. Authors Prabhakant Sinha, Arun Shastri, and Sally Lorimer—principals at the global professional-services firm ZS and coauthors of The Harvard Business Review Sales Management Handbook: How to Lead High-Performing Sales Teams (Harvard Business Review Press, 2024), from which this article is adapted—describe how a digital customer hub (DCH) can help. It integrates customer data from various systems into a linked platform, enhancing a company’s digital engagement capabilities. The DCH uses analytics and AI to create actionable insights, helping customer-facing teams work smarter and in sync. This article explains how a DCH can “transform the way businesses manage and interact with customers.” It also examines the structural choices companies must make when creating one and highlights the potential costs and return on investment.
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Today’s savvy business customers have high expectations when they interact with companies. Whether they’re trying to learn about a product or service or are ready to buy it, and whether they’re using digital channels or interacting with inside and field salespeople, they want the experience to feel personalized and seamless. Unfortunately, many companies struggle to provide that. Siloed departments operate with disconnected data, fragmented knowledge, and an incomplete suite of digital capabilities. That makes it impossible for people across their organization—from marketing to sales to customer service—to access real-time, synchronized data and insights to support in-the-moment customer interactions.

Read more on Sales and marketing or related topics Data management, Technology and analytics, Information management and Customer service
A version of this article appeared in the November–December 2024 issue of Harvard Business Review.
Read more on Sales and marketing or related topics Data management, Technology and analytics, Information management and Customer service

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