Step 1: Align If that’s not possible, have a well-established workflow in place for ensuring that records are kept up-to-date between systems whenever major changes are made. Use Lifecycle Visibility Collaborate on Record Design to Unify Customer- Contact and account records tell the story of a prospect’s experience with your business, but Facing Departments different departments have different needs when it comes to what data gets included. Around Revenue Make the development of CRM records a collaborative experience to accommodate everyone’s needs. Build in enough data to be actionable, but not so much that Growth marketing is a team sport. pages become noisy or hard to navigate. While marketers might be the ones with their hands Use Shared Dashboards on the levers, success requires that all customer- Data visualizations are an invaluable tool when facing departments have the information they need it comes to understanding high-level business to effectively manage the entire customer lifecycle performance, but they can easily perpetuate and positively impact top-line growth. The first step departmental silos when designed exclusively in achieving this kind of alignment is providing the for a single team’s goals. visibility necessary for productive collaboration. While implementation specifics will vary by Instead, build dashboards that demonstrate the solution, this sort of high-level visibility typically relationships between departmental initiatives. Set takes place in a CRM like Salesforce, Microsoft periodic review times where all departments can Dynamics, or HubSpot across shared reports, come together to analyze performance. dashboards, and records. The more visibility you By rallying marketing, sales, and customer success have into touch points and metrics, the more around shared stewardship of the customer lifecycle informed you’ll be to steer a prospect towards and resulting revenue, CMOs can move into valuable revenue-generating behaviors. leadership postures and help guide stakeholders Here are some best practices for pursuing towards measurable success. interdepartmental lifecycle visibility: Work From a Single CRM If possible, get all customer-facing departments working off a single CRM. This eliminates the overhead necessary to maintain syncs between databases, minimizes interdepartmental friction, and ensures cohesive handoffs. 4